ongside us, and with the aid of Iguma also
scrambled in.

"Never mind me," cried out Tom, who was standing on the half sunken
canoe, "I'll get into the other. Steer over this way, mates," he
shouted out to the men in the other canoe.

We had no time to render him assistance, and had to exert our skill to
prevent our canoe running against some more rocks which appeared ahead.

In less time than it has taken to describe the occurrence we were again
in tranquil water, when looking round we were thankful to see Tom and
Kendo's henchman safely seated in Caspar's canoe. The wrecked canoe was
in the meantime dashed to pieces, so as to be rendered perfectly
useless. We were somewhat crowded, but that could not be helped, and we
hoped that we should not meet with more rapids in our course; although
we might manage to swim on shore, should any accident occur, we should
probably lose our rifles and knapsacks, and at all events damage our
ammunition. We waited until Tom's canoe came up with us. I now
recognised the stranger who had got on board just as they were shoving
off as Herman Jansen, the murderer of Captain Roderick. His countenance
wore the same gloomy expression as before. By his manner, however, he
appeared not to be conscious that we were witnesses of the fearful deed
he had committed, and under the circumstances we were placed, Harry and
Charley agreed with me that it would not be wise in any way to allude to
it. He had brought a rifle with him, how procured we could not tell.
That would, of course, be of assistance should we be again attacked.
From what we could learn from Kendo, we had too much reason to fear that
we should meet with numerous enemies on our way down the river, who
would only be restrained from attacking us by seeing our means of
defence.

He advised that we should keep our weapons ready for instant use.

Another night was approaching. It was absolutely necessary that we
should seek some place of shelter where we could rest for a few hours,
as it would otherwise be impossible to paddle on during another day. We
had fortunately a sufficient supply of cooked food, so that we had no
need to go on shore and light a fire. Seeing a wooded point on the
south bank of the river, where the trees overhung the water, we agreed
to paddle in and secure the canoes. After supper it was arranged that
some of us should lie down while the rest sat up and kept watch, so that
we might be ready to defend o