hich they had been passing, begin to glide the other
way.

"Pull, my lads, pull!" he cried, and the men tugged again for a few
minutes, and managed to keep abreast of the trees, but their strokes
again grew more feeble, and, in spite of spurt after spurt, it was
evident enough that the tide was too strong for men suffering from
injuries, and famishing with hunger, nothing having passed their lips
save water for many hours.

"Here," cried Tom Fillot, "you don't half pull. Let me come. We'll
soon get outside, where the current won't be so strong."

"It's o' no use, mate," said Dick Bannock. "She's too much for us. You
can't do no good. After getting well, and a lot o' beef and biscuit, we
might do it, but there's no pulling agin that 'ere."

"You don't half try," said Tom Fillot, sitting down and getting an oar
over the side to add his strength, when all pulled again, working hard
for quite half an hour, when Mark called to them to stop.

"Waste of strength, my lads," he said; "we've been drifting all the
time."

"Yes, sir," said Tom Fillot. "I knowed it and was only waiting for you
to speak. Most too dark to see, but I'm 'bout sure."

"We must let her go up with the tide, Tom, or else moor her again by the
trees."

"Well, we should be brought back again, sir; but I think it would be
best to make fast."

"Steadily, my lads," said Mark; "let's pull in shore with the tide till
I see a good place."

"Or, feel it, sir," whispered Tom Fillot.

"Yes, or feel it, Tom," said Mark. "How dark it's getting. Easy--easy
there; just dip so as to get nearer the shore. The current's so swift
we may be capsized."

"Easy it is, sir," said Tom, and they rowed gently on with the current,
getting nearer and nearer the shore with its heavy fringe of verdure,
Mark watching eagerly in the gathering blackness for a big tree with
overhanging boughs, but all in vain.

It was so dark now that they seemed to be gliding along right in the
shadow, while more out towards the middle of what was evidently a broad
river--the stream widening above the mouth--it was comparatively light,
sufficiently so for them to see any object afloat.

"Can't you make anything we can hook on to, sir?" said Tom Fillot.

"No, my lad, not yet. But I shall directly. You be ready."

"Ready it is, sir. If I see a chance, shall I ketch hold?"

"_Hist_!"

"What's the matter, sir?"

"Talk lower. What's that? It may be enemies."

"Phew!" whi