A shimmer rose from the ground as from the
outside of the boiler of a steam-engine, and the screech of the crickets
kept up one unending and deafening vibration.

"Do we outspan on this side or cross first?" said Gerard, as the cool
murmur of water became audible.

"We'll outspan on the other. The river's low enough to cross without
any trouble; but the drift isn't always a good one. The principle of
the road is always outspan on the other side of a drift--that is, the
opposite side from the one you arrive at. These rivers, you see, come
down with surprising swiftness, and then, of course, if you delay, you
may be stuck for a week or more. The exception, however, to this rule
is, if there's more water in the river than you quite like but yet not
enough to stop you. Then it is sometimes a good plan to outspan for a
little while to rest your oxen, because they'll need all their strength
for pulling through."

The current, though smooth and swift flowing, proved stronger than it
looked. In splashed the first waggon, amid the shouting and
whip-cracking. The leader could hardly keep his feet, and what with the
force of the current and the plunges of the fore oxen, he was having a
pretty bad time of it. But they emerged panting and dripping on the
other side. Gerard, however, who was on the second waggon, came near
meeting with a disaster that might have cost him his life.

The great vehicle was three parts through. The driver, wading and
splashing beside the span, was urging and encouraging it by the
regulation series of shrill and long-drawn yells. Gerard, who was
standing on the box, cracking the long whip, and also lending his voice
to swell the chorus, was suddenly seen to overbalance, sway, and topple
over into the water, disappearing immediately.

John Dawes, watching progress from the opposite bank, turned white as
death. Gerard had fallen _in front of the wheels_!

"Oh, good God! He's done for!" he gasped.

Meanwhile the driver, who had not seen the accident, was yelling his
loudest, with the result that the span was tugging its hardest. The
waggon was already emerging from the water, rolling up the steep slope
from the drift.

"He's done for," muttered Dawes, ashy pale. "He'll have been ground to
pulp under the water."

But no sooner had the words escaped him, than, lo, Gerard himself,
dripping from head to foot! He jumped down from behind the waggon with
a celerity that showed he had co