Sid's announcement put new energy into them, however, and they plied their paddles vigorously for ten minutes, when, with a sudden swing around a last curve of the creek, Sam brought his boat fairly out into the river, and turned her head down stream.

The river was full to its banks, and in places it had already overflowed.

The current was so strong that the mouth of the creek, out of which they had come, was out of sight in a very few minutes.

Work with the paddles was suspended, Sam only dipping his into the water occasionally for the purpose of keeping the boat straight in mid-channel.

The river was full of drift-wood, some of it consisting of large logs and uprooted trees, and night was already falling.