"This is the ford," cried Me Dain. "Why was it given up?" asked Jack. "Because it was too dangerous, sahib," replied the Burman. "Many men, many women have been seized by alligators at this ford. So the villagers made a bridge at the narrow place higher up." "Well, we shall have to face it," said Jack. "How deep is it in the middle?" "To the waist when the water is low," replied Me Dain. "H'm, that's awkward," remarked Jim Dent, "for the water certainly isn't low to-day. There's been rain among the hills. You can tell by the colour. It may mean swimming in the middle." "I'll try it first," cried Jack, "and I'll sing out to you how I find it. Here goes!" He was about to spring into the river, when Jim Dent called to him to stop. "No, no," said Jim. "That won't do, Jack. We might lose you that way, and we should prefer a good deal to lose a pony." "Sure thing," said Buck, as Jim looked at him. "Now," went on Dent, "here's our best plan. We'll go in in a bunch with a pony each side of the party. Then, if some of these ugly brutes come up to see who's crossing their river, they're more likely to grab a pony, and if we lose them, why we must." "It will be a frightful loss," said Jack. "It lies between that and being scuppered ourselves," said Dent. "Yes, yes, Jim, of course," cried Jack. "Your plan is the best." It was carried out at once. The four men went into the ford in a bunch, with a pony up stream and a pony down stream. Jack was leading the up-stream pony, Buck the down-stream animal, while Jim and the Burman were between them. The crossing was a broad one, near upon a hundred yards, for the river had spread out on a sandy flat, and they were thirty or forty yards into the stream before they were more than thigh-deep. Then the water suddenly deepened a full twelve inches, and they were up to their waists. The stream, even on the flat here, was fairly swift, and they could only wade forward slowly. "Slow job this," remarked Buck. "Water's tougher stuff than you think to get through. I feel as if I was wading through treacle." "Yes, doesn't it clog your movements," agreed Jack, "but I should think we're a good half-way over." "Deep part got to come yet, sahib," said Me Dain. "We have come through easy part of ford." Just at this moment Jim's voice broke in; his tones were low and fiercely earnest. "Push ahead, boys," he said. "Do your best. Strike it faster, everybody." "What is it, Jim?" The question broke from Jack's lips, but a glance up stream answered it before Jim could speak in reply. A hundred yards above the ford a small sand-bank rose above the water. On this bank lay, to all appearance, three logs washed thither by the current. But now, oh horror, Jack saw these logs move and raise themselves. They were huge alligators sunning themselves and waiting for prey. It was clear that the vast saurians had noted the movement on the surface of the river. One by one they slid down the sand and vanished into the stream.