e ran to the water, snuffed at it, lapped a little, and
threw up his head again, barking and splashing in it a little as he ran
in breast-high and came back, as if intimating that he was ready at any
moment for a swim.

The doctor looked up now, and a change seemed to have come over him, for
he rose from where he had been seated and took my hand.

"Quite right, my lad," he said; "one must never say despair. There's a
ledge there higher up where we will place the ammunition. Let's keep
that dry if we can. It may not be touched by the water; even if we have
to swim for our lives the guns won't hurt--that is, if they are not
washed away."

It was as if he had prepared himself for the worst, and was now going to
make strenuous efforts to save himself and his friends, after we had
taken such precautions as we could about our stores.

Jimmy grinned and helped readily to place the various articles likely to
be damaged by water as high as we could on ledges and blocks of stone,
though as I did all this it was with the feeling that we were never
likely to see the things again.

Still it was like doing one's duty, and I felt that then, of all times,
was the hour for that.

So we worked on, with many a furtive glance at the water, which kept on
encroaching till it began to lap the feet of our black companions.

But they did not stir; they remained with their positions unaltered, and
still the water advanced, till the highest point of the ledge was
covered, and Gyp began whining and paddling about, asking us, as it
were, with his intelligent eyes, whether we did not mean to start.

"Hi! Gyp, Gyp!" shouted Jimmy just then; "up along, boy; up along!" and
he patted the top of one of the stones that we had used for a
breastwork.

The dog leaped up directly, placing himself three feet above the flood,
and stood barking loudly.

"Yes, we can stand up there for a while," said the doctor, "and that
will prolong the struggle a bit. Here, come up higher!" he cried,
making signs to our black companions, who after a time came unwillingly
from their lower position, splashing mournfully through the water, but
evidently unwilling even then to disobey their white leader.

They grouped themselves with us close up to the breastwork, where we
stood with the water rising still higher, and then all at once I felt
that we must swim, for a fresh wave, the result probably of some portion
of the flood that had been dammed up higher on the