he reed beds, close in shore. Two or three good shots
sufficed to provide enough for the whole party, and the men were in high
glee, laughing and chatting as they picked the birds, which Dinny
roasted before a good fire.

At night they halted and drew up the canoes, proceeding afterwards to
make a couple of large tents of reeds, which they cleverly cut, tied in
bundles, and secured together--no mean shelter in a journey through the
wilds; but Dinny found terrible fault with the arrangements, and had to
be severely snubbed to bring him to a more patient state.

They started in good time the next morning, so as to be early at the
ground where the king promised game; but here the character of the
country had altered, and in place of the swift, smoothly-flowing river,
they had entered upon a part where it was broken up with rapids, long
ranges of rocks stretching across the river like weirs and keeping the
waters back, but making a series of rapids, down which the river rushed
at a furious rate.

"Shure, sor, my mother's name is--"

"Hold your tongue, you foolish fellow," cried Mr Rogers, as Dinny half
rose in dismay, and asked if the boats were going up there.

"Shure, sor, I only wanted ye to know my pore mother's direction, so as
ye could sind her word I was dhrowned in the big river out in Afrikky."

"Will they be able to take us up there, king?" said Mr Rogers. "Hadn't
we better land, and let them drag the canoes round?"

The king laughed, and clapped his hands for the men to bend to their
task, when they made the paddles flash in and out of the water, but it
was soon evident that they would not surmount the rapids.

The boat Mr Rogers was in got half-way up, and then was carried back at
a tremendous speed, being swept round by an eddy beneath some trees, to
one of the branches of which Mr Rogers held on, and so steadied the
canoe, while a stalwart black thrust down his paddle from the bows, and
kept the great vessel steady.

Just then Dinny, who followed his master's actions as nearly as he
could, laid hold of a goodly branch from the stern; but instead of
taking the boat with him he thrust it away, and the next moment he was
hanging from his branch, shouting "Masther!" and "Masther, dear!" with
all his might.

"Faix and I knowed it would come to it," he yelled, as the branch swayed
up and down, and his legs went lower and lower in the water. "There's a
great crocodivil coming. Masther, darlin', bring b