Pete ceased swimming, to allow his companion to come abreast.
"Oh, Master Nic!" he cried, "you zhouldn"t ha" done that;" and he glanced wildly about him as if expecting to see the rugged head of an alligator rise close by. "Go back, lad; go back. It"s on"y one man"s work."
"Go back? No," said Nic firmly. "We must fight it out, shoulders together, Pete. Come on."
Pete gave vent to something like a sob, and his face grew wrinkled; but the next moment he forced a smile.
"Well, you"re master," he said cheerily; "zo now for it, zir. You zwim lighter than I do, but I"ll race you down to the boat. Virst to lay a hand on gunwale wins."
"Come on," said Nic, fighting hard to master the horrible feeling that at any moment they might be attacked from beneath by one or other of the fierce creatures which inhabited the stream--Nic"s dread being mostly respecting the shark-like gar-fish, which he knew must be abundant.
Pete shared his dread, but they both kept their thoughts to themselves as they swam on with strong, steady strokes, their light clothing of shirt and short drawers impeding them but slightly. Life from childhood on the seash.o.r.e had conduced to making them expert swimmers; the swift stream helped them famously; and, keeping well away towards the middle to avoid the eddies near the sh.o.r.e, they went on steadily after the boat.
But this, in its light state, was being swept rapidly on, and had so good a start that for some time the swimmers did not seem to gain upon it in the least, and at last, as the distance still remained about the same, a feeling of despair began to attack them.
Pete saw the change in his fellow-swimmer"s countenance.
"Take it easy, Master Nic. Long ztroke and zlow. We could keep this up all day. On"y got to zwim steady: river does all the work."
"We must swim faster, Pete, or we shall never reach the boat," cried Nic.
"Nay, lad; if we zwim hard we shall get tired out, and lose ground then.
Easy as you can. She may get closer in and be caught by zome of the branches."
Nic said no more, but swam on, keeping his straining eyes fixed upon the ever-distant boat, till at last hope began to rise again, for the craft did happen to be taken by the eddy formed by a stream which joined the river, and directly after they saw it being driven towards one of the huge trees which dipped its pendent boughs far out in the water.
The feeling of excitement made Nic"s breath come thick and fast as he saw the boat brush against the leaf.a.ge, pause for a few moments, and the young man was ready to utter a cry of joy, but it died out in a low groan, for the boat continued its progress, the twigs swept over it, and the power of the stream mastered. But it was caught again, and they saw it heel over a little, free itself, and then, swaying a little, it seemed to bound on faster than ever.
"Never mind, lad," said Pete coolly; "it"ll catch again soon."
Pete was right; the boat was nearer to the wall of verdure, and it once more seemed to be entangled in some boughs which dipped below the surface and hung there, while the swimmers reduced the distance between them and the boat forty or fifty yards. Then, with a swift gliding motion, it was off again.
"That"s twice," cried Pete. "Third time does it. Zay, Master Nic, aren"t the water nice and cold?"
The look which Nic gave the speaker in his despair checked Pete"s efforts to make the best of things.
"A beast!" he muttered to himself. "I should like to drive my hoof through her planks. Heavy boat? Why, she dances over the water like a cork."
At that moment Nic could not suppress a sharp cry, and he made a spasmodic dash through the water.
"Eh, my lad, what is it?" cried Pete, who was startled.
"One of the great fishes or reptiles made a dash at me and struck me on the leg," gasped Nic.
"Nay, nay, don"t zay that, lad. You kicked again a floating log.
There"s hunderds allus going down to the zea."
Nic shook his head, and Pete felt that he was right, for the next minute he was swimming on with his keen-edged knife held in his teeth, ready for the emergency which he felt might come; but they suffered no further alarm. Disappointment followed disappointment, and weariness steadily set in; but they swam steadily on, till Nic"s strength began to fail.
He would not speak, though, till, feeling that he had done all that was possible, he turned his despairing eyes to Pete.
Before he could speak the latter cried:
"I knowed it, Master Nic, and expected it ever so long past. Now, you just turn insh.o.r.e along with me; then you shall lie down and rest while I go on and ketch the boat. But how I"m to pull her back again" this zwiff stream, back to you, my lad, is more"n I know."
Nic made no reply, but, breathing hard, he swam with Pete to an open spot at the side, and had just strength to draw himself out by a hanging branch, and then drop down exhausted, with the water streaming from him.
"No, no; don"t leave me, Pete," he cried hoa.r.s.ely.
"Must, my lad, must;" cried the man, preparing to turn and swim away.
"You stop there, and I can zee you when I come back."
"It is impossible to overtake it. We must try and get down through the trees. You can"t do it, I tell you."
"Must, and will, my lad," cried Pete. "Never zay die."
Nic sank back and watched the brave fellow as he swam away more vigorously than ever. At every stroke Pete"s shoulders rose well above the surface, and, to all appearance, he was as fresh as when he started.
But there was the boat gliding down the stream, far enough away now, and beginning to look small between the towering trees rising on either side of the straight reach along which Nic gazed; and the watcher"s agony grew intense.
"He"ll swim till he gives up and sinks," said Nic to himself; "or else one of those horrid reptiles will drag him down."
He drew breath a little more hopefully, though, as he saw a bright flash of light glance from where Pete was swimming, for it told that the keen knife was held ready in the strong man"s teeth; and he knew that the arm was vigorous that would deliver thrust after thrust at any enemy which attempted to drag him down.
With the cessation of his exertion, Nic"s breath began to come more easily, and he sat up to watch the head of the swimmer getting rapidly farther away, feeling that he had been a hindrance to the brave fellow, who had been studying his companion"s powers all the time. But how much farther off the boat seemed still!--far enough to make Nic"s heart sink lower and lower, and the loneliness of his situation to grow so terrible that it seemed more than he could bear.
For a full half-hour he sat watching the dazzling water, from which the sun flashed, while he was in the shade. Pete had not reached the boat, but he seemed now to be getting very near, though Nic knew how deceptive the distance was, and gazed on, with a pain coming behind his eyes, till all at once his heart leaped with joy, as now he could just make out that the boat was very near the sh.o.r.e, apparently touching some drooping boughs. Then his heart sank again, for he told himself that it was only fancy; and he shivered again as he felt how utterly exhausted Pete must be. Every moment he felt sure that he would see that little, dark speck disappear, but still it was there; and at last the watcher"s heart began to throb, for the boat must have caught against those boughs. It was not moving.
The watcher would not believe this for a long time, but at last he uttered a cry of joy, followed by a groan; for, though the boat was there, the dark speck which represented Pete"s head had disappeared; and, to make the watcher"s despair more profound, the boat began to move once more, unmistakably gliding from beside the trees. All was over now, for Nic felt that to struggle longer was hopeless: there was nothing more to be done but lie down and die.
He held his hands over his brows, straining his failing, aching eyes to keep the boat in sight as long as he could; and then a strange choking sensation came into his throat, and he rose to his knees, for there was a flash of light from the water close to the boat, and another, and another. There was a strange, indistinct something, too, above the tiny line made by the gunwale, and it could only mean one thing: Pete had overtaken it, climbed in, and the flashes of light came from the disturbed surface of the river.
Pete must be trying to row her back to take him up.
The intense sensation of relief at knowing that the brave fellow was alive and safe seemed more than Nic could bear. He was already upon his knees. His face was bowed down upon his hands, and for a few minutes he did not stir.
At last, with a wave of strength and confidence seeming to run through every fibre of his body, Nic rose up, feeling fully rested; and, as he shaded his eyes once more to gaze down the river at the boat, the cloud of despair had floated away, and the long reach of glistening water looked like the way back to the bright world of hope and love--the way to home; while the thought of lying down there to die was but the filmy vapour of some fevered dream.
Pete was coming back to him: there could be no mistake about that, for Nic could see more clearly now, and there were moments when he could distinctly see the flashing of the water when the oars were dipped.
"Oh!" cried Nic, with his excitement rising now to the highest pitch, "and there was a time when I looked upon that brave, true-hearted fellow with contempt and disgust. How he is slaving there to send the great, heavy boat along!"
Nic watched till his eyes ached; and once more his heart began to sink, for the truth was rapidly being forced upon him that, in spite of Pete"s efforts, the boat remained nearly motionless--the poor fellow was exhausting himself in his efforts to achieve the impossible.
What to do?
Nic was not long in making up his mind. He knew that Pete would try till he dropped back in the boat, and it would have been all in vain.
The pair of them could hardly have rowed that heavy boat up-stream, and they were as yet far above the reach of the tide, or Pete might have waited and then come up. There was only one thing to do--go down to him.