gth, the boat sailed on, and until she
had suddenly to haul up at a square bend in the river, she equalled the
chase in speed. But then, tacking close inshore to get a long board for
the next bend, she suddenly grounded, silently, easily, with an absence
of shock or grating that told only too plainly of sticky, fast-holding
mud.

"Confound such a ditch!" swore Barry irritably. "Why in thunder didn't
that fat swab of a Houten tell me what the river was like! Overboard,
every man," he ordered, with swift decision. "Over, and lighten her.
Shove her into midstream, and we'll row it out."

"Alligators!" Little whispered, much as he might have said "Skittles."

"Damn the alligators!" retorted Barry, and set the example by leaping
into the turbid river.

Little struck the water almost with the same splash, and the boat's crew
started to clamber over the sides, shamed into obedience. Barry stayed
where he had jumped, and the position of his head could only be
determined by the volley of disgusted anathema that pealed from his
lips.

"Don't jump deep, men!" he cried. "You'll stick up to the neck in this
filth! Fall flat on the water and swim with the boat."

"Sure, like me," chimed in Little, seizing the gunwale and striking out
with strong leg strokes. The seamen joined their efforts, and with
twelve expert swimmers thrusting the boat forward, the skipper was
dragged out of the tenacious mud with a loud sucking sound.

"Pull, confound you!" Barry panted, all but torn in two. "Another like
that--Oh, blazes! There's my other shoe gone!"

Before the great splash which followed his release had died out, from
the near bank came the "plop plop!" of heavy bodies dropping into the
water. Little swam around the seamen and surged up alongside the
skipper, whispering into his ear so that none other could hear:
"'Gators, skipper!"

"Kick out harder!" breathed back Barry, and thrashed the water violently
to drown the noises from shorewards that told of a great number of those
inquisitive reptiles cruising to investigate the commotion in their
river. It was impossible to keep the men long in ignorance of their
danger, for as the boat crept into deeper water, their swimming made
less noise, and the approaching saurians' progress was easier marked.

"All aboard!" cried Barry at last, feeling, but never hinting that he
felt, a hard, nuzzling snout brush by his leg. "Hurry, men, the breeze
is shifting."

The breeze was not shifting