a narrow canal of clear
water at first, in which fish began to leap as if they had been
disturbed; but before the boat had gone very far the leaves gradually
closed in, and no sign of its passage was left.

"I don't see where we are to land," said Brazier, as he stood in front
of the canvas cabin scanning the shore.

"No; there is no place," said Rob, as they glided out of the lily field
into clear water, the great wall of trees tangled together with creepers
being now about two hundred yards away.

"Go and ask. No; leave him alone," said Brazier, altering his mind.
"He'll take us into a suitable place, I daresay."

Just then Shaddy, from where he was steering, shouted to the men, who
lowered the sail at once; but the boat still glided on straight for the
shore.

"Why, he's going to run her head right into the bank," cried Rob, though
the said bank was rendered invisible by the curtain of pendent boughs
and vines which hung right down to the water.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed Brazier, as he gazed at clusters of snowy
blossoms draping one of the trees. "We must have some of those, Rob."

"I say," cried Joe, "what makes the boat keep on going?"

"Impetus given by the sail," replied Brazier. "But it couldn't have
kept on all this time," cried the lad, "and we're going faster."

"We do seem to be," said Brazier; "but it is only that we are in an
eddy. There always is one close in by the banks of a swift stream."

"But that goes upward while the stream goes down," cried Joe. "This is
going straight in toward the trees."

"Better sit down, every one," shouted Shaddy. "Lower that spar, my
lads," he added, in the _patois_ the men used.

Down went the mast in a sloping position, so that it rested against the
canvas cabin. But Rob hardly noticed this in the excitement of their
position. For there was no doubt about it: some invisible force had
apparently seized the boat, and was carrying it swiftly forward to dash
it upon the shore.

But that was not Brazier's view of the question. "The river is flooded
here and overrunning the bank," he cried. "Hi! Naylor! Do you see
where you're going?"

"Right, sir. Sit down."

But Brazier, who had risen, did not sit down, for he was quite startled,
expecting that the next moment the boat would be capsized, and that they
would all be left to the mercy of the reptiles and fish which haunted
the rapid waters.

"Hi!" he shouted again. "Naylor, are you mad?"

"N