But there was another appetite now annoying them far worse than either hunger or longing for sleep.

It was the desire to drink.

The rough and varied exercise which they had been compelled to take since starting in the morning--climbing trees, and skulking through pathless jungles--combined with the varied emotions which their repeated perils had called up--all had a tendency to produce thirst; and thirst they now felt in an extreme degree.

It was not lessened by the sight of the water shining beneath them.

On the contrary, this only increased the craving to an extent that was almost unendurable.
For a considerable time they bore the pain, without any hope of being able to get relieved of it; and with the lake glistening before their eyes under the clear sunlight, and the current gently gliding through the straits underneath, they could realise, in something more than fancy, what must have been the terrible sufferings of poor Tantalus.
After submitting to this infliction for a considerable length of time, an exclamation escaping from Caspar drew upon him the attention of the others.
"Dunder und blitzen!" cried he; "what have we been thinking about all this time?
The three of us sitting here choking with thirst, and a river of water within our reach!" "Within our reach?
I wish it were, Caspar," rejoined Karl, in rather a desponding tone.
"Certainly it is within our reach.