its boughs thrashing the
water as the trunk rolled over and over in the surge. It was coming
straight at him, borne along more swiftly than he--and his burden. One
thrash of those flail-like boughs and then--his efforts would be at an
end.

Desperate, but still cool, he tried swimming laterally instead of with
the stream, and found that he could. Down came the swirling boughs,
like the sails of a windmill, where he had been but a moment before, and
this grisly peril passed on. No sooner had it done so than the
striver's foot touched something--something firm.

Something firm! Yes, it was firm. Among the whirl and lash of the
willow boughs, for by his diagonal course of swimming he had reached the
side here, where the swirl of the current, though powerful, was
comparatively smooth, and he had touched firm ground. Warren dared to
hope, with indescribable relief, that he was standing on the brink of
one of those deep, lateral dongas which ran up from the river-bed, one
similar to that which the Kafir had fallen into with the snake coiled
round his leg. He grasped the supple and whip-like boughs, still
carefully feeling out with the other foot lest he should flounder into
deep water again, and gave himself over to a breathe.

Charlie now began to show signs of returning consciousness, then opened
his eyes.

"Where are we? _Magtig_! Mr Warren, I thought I was drowned."

"Well, you're not, nor I either. So wake up, old chap, and hold on to
these twigs so as to give me a bit of a rest; for I can tell you that
sort of swim is no exercise for a young beginner."

The splashing, roaring flood whirled on, throwing up clouds of spume
where here and there great waves hurled themselves on to some
obstruction. Once the ghastly white head of a drowned calf rose up out
of the water just by them, a spectral stare in the lustreless eyes. The
lowering afternoon was darkening.

"I believe we could make for _terra-firma_--that means solid ground--if
we went to work carefully," said Warren. "What do you think, Charlie?
Shall we try? The swirl up here is fairly light, and you must think you
are only swimming in the kloof dam."

The boy looked out upon the roaring rush of waters and shuddered. Not
among this would their venture lead them, but among much smoother water,
to safety. Still, he was unnerved after his experience of that awful
force, his choking, suffocating, helpless, all but drowning condition.
But he was p