s's right arm moving the oar; at times a low
growl from Dingo, whose jaws Jack held together with his little hands;
outside, the murmur of the water which broke against the piles, then
above, the cries of the ferocious cannibals.

The natives, meanwhile, rapidly drew up their ropes. If they were
raised in time the boat would pass, otherwise it would be caught, and
all would be over with those who drifted in it! As for slackening or
stopping its progress, Dick Sand could do neither, for the current,
stronger under this narrow construction, carried it forward more
rapidly.

In half a minute the boat was caught between the piles. By an
unheard-of piece of fortune, the last effort made by the natives had
raised the ropes.

But in passing, as Dick Sand had feared, the boat was deprived of a
part of the grasses which now floated at its right.

One of the natives uttered a cry. Had he had time to recognize what
the roof covered, and was he going to alarm his comrades? It was more
than probable.

Dick Sand and his friends were already out of reach, and in a few
moments, under the impetus of this current, now changed into a kind of
rapid, they had lost sight of the lacustrine village.

"To the left bank!" Dick Sand ordered, as being more prudent. "The
stream is again navigable."

"To the left bank!" replied Hercules, giving the oar a vigorous
stroke.

Dick Sand stood beside him and looked at the surface of the water,
which the moon lit up. He saw nothing suspicious. Not a boat had
started in pursuit. Perhaps these savages had none; and at daybreak
not a native appeared, either on the bank or on the water. After that,
increasing their precautions, the boat kept close to the left bank.

During the four following days, from the 11th to the 14th of July,
Mrs. Weldon and her companions remarked that this portion of the
territory had decidedly changed. It was no longer a deserted country;
it was also a desert, and they might have compared it to that Kalahari
explored by Livingstone on his first voyage.

The arid soil recalled nothing of the fertile fields of the upper
country.

And always this interminable stream, to which might be given the name
of river, as it seemed that it could only end at the Atlantic Ocean.

The question of food, in this desert country, became a problem.
Nothing remained of their former stock. Fishing gave little; hunting
was no longer of any use. Elks, antelopes, pokous, and other animals,
cou