They had now time to look about them. The gorge was left far astern, and the desert stretched for miles ahead and on either hand. The banks were now covered with coarse vegetation. Astern rose the mountains through which they had so wonderfully passed, and, looking at that formidable barrier, Reeves realized that they were far beyond the reach of their ferocious pursuers. The current, too, though swift, no longer surged madly between jagged rocks, but flowed silently, showing that the river had increased in depth. "Now, what's to be done?" exclaimed Hugh, who had managed to get rid of most of the undesirable liquid ballast. "The water is still coming in." "We don't want to be baling continuously for the next three weeks," observed Reeves. "We must risk it, and run the boat ashore." "And trudge it?" asked Gerald dolefully. "Oh no!" replied the correspondent. "It's not quite so bad as that, I hope. Unless I'm very much mistaken, those small bushes growing on the banks have their roots set in clay and not in sand. Clay is an excellent leak-stopper. I don't think we need fear a surprise visit from our late hostile friends, the Arabs; but we must take due precautions. While Gerald and I are plugging the hole, you, Hugh, had better go ashore and mount guard." So saying, Reeves headed the boat towards the left bank, or the opposite one to that on which the Arabs had appeared. As the craft drew away from the middle of the stream the current became much less rapid, and by the time her bow grounded there was hardly any motion in the water at all. If anything, there was a slight eddy upstream. As the correspondent had suggested, the soil on the banks was composed of clay, of a dark slate colour. While Hugh patrolled the bank, his comrades dug up lumps of the viscous earth with their knives and dumped them down on the hole. The actual aperture was less than two inches in diameter, but the planking had been fractured for nearly a foot on all sides of it. A few lumps were sufficient to check the inflow completely, but Reeves insisted on placing more clay over the weak spot, till a layer nearly a foot thick lay evenly over the damaged part. "That's a good job done," said the correspondent. "A few hours' sun will bake the stuff as hard as a brick. It will serve as a hearth to light our fire upon." "Then we don't require the stone," said Gerald, looking at the slab that did duty for cooking purposes. "Don't we, by Jove!" exclaimed Reeves. "I think we do. Do you know how we were nearly smashed up?" "By running on a rock, I suppose." "Exactly! But why could I not avoid it, as I did the others? I'll tell you. The continual scraping over the rocky bed of the river chafed through the rope holding our anchor. We've still got most of the rope; this stone must be our new anchor."