y stuck to
their canoes, would presently gain one bank or other of the river.
Malchus, too, had started rather low down, and he was therefore soon out
of the flotilla.

The boat was nearly in midstream when the accident happened.

"The first thing to do," Malchus said when he saw that there was no
chance of their being picked up, "is to rid myself of my armour. I can
do nothing with it on, and if the tree turns over I shall go down like
a stone. First of all, Nessus, do you unloose your sword belt. I will
do the same. If we fasten them together they are long enough to go round
the canoe, and if we take off our helmets and pass the belts through the
chin chains they will, with our swords, hang safely."

This was with some difficulty accomplished.

"Now," Malchus continued, "let us make our way to the stern of the
canoe. I will place my hand on the tree there, and do you unfasten the
shoulder and waist straps of my breast and backpieces. I cannot do it
myself."

This was also accomplished, and the two pieces of armour laid on the
tree. They were now free to look round. The rapid stream had already
taken them half a mile below the point where the army were crossing, and
they were now entering a spot where the river was broken up by islands,
and raced along its pent up channel with greater velocity than before,
its surface broken with short angry waves, which rendered it difficult
for them to retain their hold of the tree.

For a time they strove by swimming to give the canoe an impetus towards
one bank or the other; but their efforts were vain. Sometimes they
thought they were about to succeed, and then an eddy would take the boat
and carry it into the middle of the stream again.

"It is useless, Nessus," Malchus said at last. "We are only wearing
ourselves out, and our efforts are of no avail whatever. We must be
content to drift down the river until our good luck throws us into some
eddy which may carry us near one bank or the other."

It was a long time, indeed, before that stroke of fortune befell them,
and they were many miles down the river before the current took them
near the eastern bank at a point where a sharp curve of the river threw
the force of the current over in that direction; but although they were
carried to within a few yards of the shore, so numbed and exhausted
were they by their long immersion in the cold water that it was with
the greatest difficulty that they could give the canoe a suffici