ide, passing
without difficulty two or three of the narrower channels. But their
progress through the tangled underwood, which in some places had to be
cut with the axe before it would yield a passage, was necessarily slow,
and it was past noon before they came to the edge of the last and
broadest of the tributary channels--a stream too wide and deep to be
forded, even if there had not been fear that the overhanging banks
contained holes in which crocodiles might lurk. "We must fell a tree,"
said the missionary. "We shan't get across in any other way. One of
the longest of these pines will answer our purpose, if it is dropped in
the right place; but we must go to work without delay, for I fear before
nightfall there will be rain. It seldom gives long notice of its coming
in this country, and when it does fall, it falls in a perfect deluge.
It is lucky we have the axe, or we must have gone back to the other bank
again. Hand it to me, Ernest. I think I can contrive to drop this fir
exactly into the fork of that large projecting yellow-wood there."

He took the axe as he spoke, and went to work with a will, the others
relieving him at intervals, and labouring under his directions. But the
edge of the instrument had unfortunately become blunt from use, and made
its way but slowly into the tough wood. It was nearly three hours
before the task was accomplished, and the long trunk dropped skilfully
into the hollow of the tree opposite.

"Now then, we must not lose a minute," said De Walden. "We are
fortunate that the rain has held off so long, but it must come soon."
He mounted the trunk as he spoke and crawled along it, observing the
same precautions as before. They had just reached the further end, when
suddenly there came--from a considerable distance it seemed--a dull
hollow roar, accompanied by a rush of chilling wind.

"Quick, quick," he cried; "the flood is close at hand. If it catches us
here, we are lost. Climb the tree. It is our only hope." He sprang on
the nearest branch as he spoke, and mounted up from bough to bough,
until he had reached an elevation of twenty or thirty feet above the
surface of the stream. The others followed his example, as well as they
were able, catching at the limbs of the great yellow-wood tree which
chanced to be nearest to them, and scrambling from point to point with
the agility which deadly peril inspires. Nick, who was the hindmost of
the party, had not mounted more