Although Reeves slept like a top, the lads kept awake the greater part of the night, expecting momentarily to see the snout of a crocodile appear above the gunwale, and wondering vaguely what would happen if, with their craft stuck indefinitely upon the sandbank, they attempted to wade over the wide shallows betwixt them and the distant shore. CHAPTER XX Running the Last Gauntlet AT daybreak Hugh sat up. Gerald had fallen into a broken slumber, while the correspondent was still sleeping soundly. The lad was puzzled. When the boat stuck, her bows were pointing towards the setting sun; now they.-were inclined towards the east. He made his way for'ard. The craft rocked easily under his weight. A glance at the cable revealed the fact that the boat had floated, and was riding to the full scope of the anchor rope. "We're afloat!" he shouted. Reeves was instantly awake, but Gerald muttered something about crocodiles. "They have cleared off," exclaimed Hugh joyfully, "and we can clear off as soon as we like." "How about breakfast?" asked Gerald drowsily. "Breakfast had better wait till we get into deeper water," replied Reeves. "Heave up the anchor, Rags; I'll pole her along." Very slowly the boat glided through the shallow water, the correspondent sounding with the oar. For quite a hundred yards the depth was uniform, then, with a suddenness that almost caused Reeves to lose his balance, the oar clipped into deeper water. "Let go the anchor again!" he shouted. "There are at least twelve feet here. We must have struck the channel." After breakfast the voyage was resumed; but although the halyards had been repaired and freshly rove, and the wind was fair, Reeves would not hoist the sail for fear of running hard aground again. An hour's steady pull brought them to the lower end of the lake, whence the river, now nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth, flowed swiftly in a south-westerly direction. During the next three days the course lay betwixt sandbanks, with the apparently interminable desert stretching for miles on either hand. Two more cataracts were encountered. The first was shot with little difficulty, but the second, when viewed from upstream, presented a line of broken water extending from bank to bank, with rocks studded thickly across the bed. So formidable was the aspect that Reeves ran the boat ashore, and, having secured her, the three travellers walked downstream to take stock of the-latest difficulty. Here they found that, although powerful, the rapid kept an almost clear course close to the bank. "Can we shoot it?" asked Gerald. "I shouldn't care to try it," replied Reeves. "This little channel is not wide enough to allow any margin for sheering about. We must veer the boat through it."