r mouths zo wide."

"Look, Pete!" whispered Nic. "Wasn't that something moving on the right
bank?"

"Yes; I zee it, Master Nic. Dunno what it was, but it waren't a man on
the watch. Zay; they aren't got another boat anywhere, have they?"

"Oh no; I feel sure they have not," said Nic sharply.

"Then we're all right. This water's running zwift, and we're making the
boat move pretty fast. They can't zwim half as fast as we're going, and
they've no horses, and the dogs can't smell on the river, even if they
made a raft of the trees they've got cut down yonder."

"It would take them a day, Pete."

"Ay, it would, Master Nic; and going on as we're going, we shall be a
long way on at the end of a day."

"Yes; we shall be some distance towards the mouth. I begin to think,
Pete, that we shall really manage to escape."

"Yes, we've done it this time, Master Nic; and we only want a veal-pie,
a cold zalmon, a couple o' loaves, and a stone bottle o' zyder, to be
'bout as happy as any one could be."

"But do you think we can reach the mouth of the river without being
stopped?"

"Don't zee who's to stop uz, zir," said Pete coolly. "What we've got to
do is to row a steady stroke till we come to a place where we can get
zome'at to eat; and then we'll row right out to zea, and get ourselves
picked up by the first ship we can board. But we zeem to want that
there veal-pie, cold zalmon, two loaves, and the stone bottle."

"Yes, we want provisions, Pete. Are you keeping a good, sharp lookout?"

"I just am, Master Nic. I'm afraid it's taking zome of the bark off
when I look among the trees. But we needn't; nobody can't overtake uz
unless we tie the boat up to a tree on the bank and lie down to go to
zleep."

"And that we shall not even think of doing, Pete."

"That's zo, Master Nic. But by-and-by, when the zun gets hot and you're
a bit tired, we'll get ashore zomewhere to break off a few good leafy
boughs and make a bit of a shelter in the stern of the boat, zo as you
can lie down and have a zleep."

"Or you, Pete."

"When it's my turn, Master Nic. We'll take watch and watch, as the
zailors call it, zo as to keep the boat going till we get aboard a ship.
I zay, how far do you make it to the landing-place where we come aboard
the boat?"

"I can't say, Pete," replied Nic. "I was in such a confused state that
I have lost all count."

"And I aren't much better, zir. You zee, we landed and slept on the
road,