. With one bound he regained the
island, which began to move slowly down the river. An enormous root,
some depth in the water, had given way to the vigorous strength of the
colossus, and the islet was set free.

"God be praised!" cried he, "the last obstacle is vanquished and we are
afloat." As he spoke the island could be perceived advancing down
stream, slowly it is true, but surely.

"Now," continued he, "our life rests in the hands of God. If the island
floats down the middle of the stream we shall soon, thanks to the fog,
be out of sight or reach of the Indians. Oh! my God," added he,
fervently, "a few hours more of darkness and your creatures will be
saved."

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

THE FLOATING ISLET.

The three men kept silence as they followed with anxious eyes the
movement of the floating island. Day would soon break, but the
freshness of the night, which always increases an hour or two before
sunrise, had condensed more and more the vapours which rose from the
water. The fires on the bank appeared only like stars, which grow pale
in the heavens at the approach of dawn. From this source, therefore,
they had little to fear; but another danger menaced the three hunters.
The island followed the stream, but turned round as it went, and they
feared that in this continual rotation it might deviate from the centre
of the liver and strike on one of the banks on which the Indians were
encamped.

Like the sailor who, with a heart full of anguish, follows the movements
of his ship, almost disabled by the storm, and contemplates with terror
the breakers into which he is perhaps destined to be driven, thus the
three hunters--a prey to the most cruel anxiety--regarded in silence the
uncertain progress of their island. When sometimes the border of osiers
and reeds which surrounded the island trembled in the breeze which
proceeded from one of the banks, it seemed then to be driven towards the
opposite side. Sometimes it went straight along with the current, but
in any event, the efforts of those who were on it could do nothing to
direct it. Luckily the fog was so thick that the very trees which
bordered the river were invisible.

"Courage," muttered Pepe; "as long as we cannot see the trees it is a
sign that we are going on rightly. Ah! if God but favour us, many a
howl will resound along these banks, now so peaceful, when at daybreak
the Indians find neither the island nor those it sheltered."

"Yes,"