The noises were no longer sharp screams or hoarse coughs, but a kind of jabbering jargon, as if the apes were engaged in a family confabulation.
The swimmers at length arrived so near, that they no longer felt any fear about finding the way to the place where the reunion of the _quadrumana_ was being held; and which could not be more than a hundred yards distant.
Silently gliding through the water, the eyes of both peered intently forward, in an endeavour to pierce the obscurity, and, if possible, discover some low limb of a tree, or projecting buttress, on which they might find a foothold.

They had good hope of success, for they had seen many such since starting from the shore.

Had rest been necessary, they might have obtained it more than once by grasping a branch above, or clinging to one of the great trunks, whose gnarled and knotted sides would have afforded sufficient support.
But they were both strong swimmers, and needed no rest.

There was none for the bereaved father--could be none--till he should reach the termination of their strange enterprise, and know what was to be its result.
As they swam onward, now proceeding with increased caution, their eyes scanning the dark surface before them, both all of a sudden and simultaneously came to a stop.

It was just as if something underneath the water had laid hold of them by the legs, checking them at the same instant of time.
And something _had_ impeded their farther progress, but not from behind.
In front was the obstruction, which proved to be a bank of earth, that, though under the water, rose within a few inches of its surface.