before them flashed into the minds of the little
party.

"Let go, Forbes," said Guy in a firm voice.

Melton sprang nimbly on board and grasped a paddle. The raft quivered a
moment and then shot, swift as an arrow, toward the turbulent stretch of
water beyond.

Then came a tremendous lurch, a riotous dash of spray that took away
their breath, and with a dizzy speed that was simply indescribable the
trembling craft was whirled down the torrent.

The first sensation was one of uncontrollable fear, and they hung with
all their might to the logs, expecting every instant to be tossed into
the water. Round and round spun the raft in dizzy revolutions, until
their heads were dizzy and aching. Then the harsh roar subsided, and in
a little while the raft became quiet and rested on the surface of the
water with hardly a quiver.

And now they ventured to sit up. They appeared to be moving with the
velocity of a railroad train.

On both sides, a few yards from the raft, smooth walls of rock were
visible. Overhead was empty space.

"If this could continue," said Guy, "we should reach the end of the
river in a few days."

"It won't last," said Forbes gloomily. "We'll soon run across some bad
water."

His fears were shared by the rest, but as time passed on and they
continued to speed smoothly between the rocky walls, they began to feel
less apprehensive of danger.

"Bildad seems to be feeling quite chipper," said Guy. "Suppose you ask
him how he tricked that serpent, Canaris."

"Well, I'll try him," was the reply.

The conversation commenced, and the harsh jabber which they carried on
was very interesting to the rest of the party.

"Bless me; you'd think the Greek was talking in his own tongue,"
remarked Sir Arthur. "Reminds me of our old Greek professor at Balliol
College, Oxford. He loved the language of the Athenians so much that he
hated to use the English tongue at all. Worst of it was he expected all
of us to be as fluent as himself. Made us all talk Greek in the
class-room. I'll never forget how we got even with him. Lord Somebody or
other--I can't recall the name now, but it was some celebrated
man--visited the college. I don't suppose he knew Greek from Hottentot,
but we made the professor believe it was a famous Greek scholar who was
coming, one who had been making excavations on the site of old Troy
during the past four years, and who, strangely enough, was then in
England and expected on a visit to Oxfo