off slowly down stream with its living freight. The incoherent remnant
was left in the eddy, where the snorting monsters struggled and
threshed about amongst it, now climbing half-way out upon some great
trunk, which forthwith reared on end and slid them off, now vanishing
for a moment beneath the beaten stew of leaves and vines.

A couple of the horned giants, being close to the bank, now seemed to
recover their wits sufficiently to turn and clamber ashore. But the
others were mad with terror. And in a moment more the fascinated
watchers on the raft perceived the cause of this madness. All round
the scene of the turmoil the water seethed with lashing tails and
snapping jaws; and then one of the monsters, which had struggled out
into clear water, was dragged down in a boiling vortex of jaws and
bloody foam. A few moments more and the whole eddy became a bubbling
hell of slaughter, and great broad washes of crimson streamed out upon
the current. The monsters, for all their giant strength, and the
pile-driving blows of their huge hoofs, were as helpless as rabbits
against their swarming and ravenous assailants; and the battle--which
indeed was no battle at all--soon was over. The eddy had become but a
writhing nest of crocodiles.

"It was hardly worth while wasting arrows, you see?" said Grom,
standing erect on the raft and watching the scene with brooding
interest.

"Do you suppose those swimming beasts with the great jaws can get at
us here?" demanded A-ya with a shudder.

"While this thing that carries us holds together, I think we can fight
them off," replied Grom. And straightway he set himself to examine how
securely the trees were interknit. The trunks had been piled by flood
one upon another, and the structure seemed substantial; but to further
strengthen it he set all to work interweaving the free branches and
such creepers as the mass contained, with the skill that came of much
practice in the weaving of tree-top nests.

When all was done that could be done, the voyagers took time to look
about them. They had by now been swept far out into the river, and the
shores on either side seemed low and remote. A-ya felt oppressed, the
face of the waters seeming to her so vast, inscrutable and menacing.
She stole close up to Grom and edged herself under his massive arm for
reassurance. The little scout sat like a monkey between two branches,
and scratched his hairy arms, and, with an expression of pleased
interest