intended as
warnings of his end. He no longer struggled like a brave man wrestling
with death, but seemed to grow more calm as the slime and mud closed
around him, and his body settled.

"How can I save you?" I asked; "I cannot think that we are to part so
suddenly; I would give all my wealth for a rope six feet long."

"If you had one of the horses' bridles here," suggested Mr. Brown, but
before I could start to get one, he continued, "don't leave me, for I
should be smothered before you could get back; see, the water is up even
with my chin."

I had noticed the same thing before he alluded to it, and I dreaded to
remain and hear his last struggles for breath.

"I have a mother somewhere on the coast of England; the last that I
heard of her she was at Falmouth. Will you write and collect what money
I have saved, and send it to her? I know that you will, and a dying man
thanks you."

While the poor fellow was speaking, a thought entered my head that he
might yet be saved, but there was no time to lose if I intended to put
into operation my plan for his relief. I hastily tore off my belt which
I wore around my waist, and which contained my revolver and knife, and
then stripped off my trousers, (the ladies will please not to
blush--there was no habitation within three miles of us,) made of stout
woollen cloth, which I had bought in Melbourne for the purpose of riding
through the brush on horseback.

In an instant my friend appeared to comprehend my plan; he raised his
right hand from the mud and reached towards me as far as possible, and
then, with a struggle to keep his head above the water,
murmured--"Quick, for God's sake, quick!"

"Keep up your courage," I shouted, throwing one leg of the garment
towards him, while I retained the other.

To my great joy I saw that he grasped it in his right hand, and exerted
all his strength to extricate himself from his perilous condition. Had I
not have been prepared for his struggles, and braced my feet firmly, I
should have been dragged into the bog.

"Gently!" I cried, fearful that my friend, in his exertions, would rend
the cloth.

My words were thrown away, however, for when did a man, struggling for
life, ever listen to reason? For a few seconds the suction was so great
that I could only prevent him from sinking lower, and keep his head
above the mud, until at length I recommended him to endeavor to work his
legs loose, so that he could rest upon his stomach, as t