a right English hurrah! which sent the birds fluttering
from their roosts, and was answered by the yell of a hundred monkeys,
and the distant roar of the jaguar.

About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung over
the stream. The river was not there more than fifteen yards broad; deep
near the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's canoe led the
way, within ten feet of the stone.

As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and
plunged heavily into the water close to the boat. All started. A jaguar?
No; he would not have missed so short a spring. What then? A human
being? A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong
strokes, the swimmer had clutched the gunwale. It was Ayacanora!

"Go back!" shouted Amyas. "Go back girl!"

She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the forest.

"I will die, then!" and she threw up her arms. Another moment, and she
had sunk.

To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that? Her hands alone
were above the surface. Amyas caught convulsively at her in the
darkness, and seized her wrist.

A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage of
lions. There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the stream; and
"Caiman![205-14] caiman!" shouted twenty voices.

Now, or never, for the strong arm! "To larboard, men, or over we go!"
cried Amyas, and with one huge heave, he lifted the slender body upon
the gunwhale. Her lower limbs were still in the water, when, within
arm's length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle. The lower jaw lay
flat, the upper reached as high as Amyas's head. He could see the long
fangs gleam white in the moonshine; he could see for one moment, full
down the monstrous depths of that great gape, which would have crushed a
buffalo. Three inches, and no more, from that soft side, the snout
surged up--

There was the gleam of an ax from above, a sharp ringing blow, and the
jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank. He had
missed her! Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed beneath her
body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as the striker,
over-balanced, fell headlong overboard upon the monster's back.

"Who is it?"

"Yeo!" shouted a dozen.

Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the moonlight
shone on a great swirling eddy, while all held their breaths, and
Ayacanora cowered down into the bottom of the cano