"I don't know, I tell you, captain," cried Lynton. "All I know is that as soon as I woke up I went half-mad, and ran down to the river, to find you'd sailed without me; and then I got that black fellow to paddle me down after you in his canoe." "And a deal of good that would have been if I hadn't anchored," growled the captain. "There, sir, get to your duties, and let's have no more of it." "But I want to clear my character, captain, before the crew and these two gentlemen." "You hold your tongue, my lad, or you'll be making worse of it." "But there's some mystery about it," said the mate warmly. "Yes, I can see you nodding and winking, Dellow, and making signs to the men. Here you, Tom Jinks, you said I came on board last night?" "Yes, me and my mate here rowed you aboard; didn't we, mate?" "Ay, ay, lad," was the reply, and their questioner banged his right fist down into his left palm as if to get rid of some of his rage. "There," he cried, "have it your own way, all of you; but you don't catch me going ashore to dine with a gentleman again." "No," said the captain sharply, "I shan't. Now then, look alive there." The anchor was soon after swinging from the bows, the sails filled, and the brig began to glide down with the stream, and by the time the cabin breakfast was at an end the banks of the muddy river were growing distant, and various signs pointed to the fact that they were approaching the open sea. That evening, with a gentle breeze from the north sending them swiftly along, the low coast-line looked dim and distant across the muddy waters, the mighty rivers discolouring the sea far away from land, and, glass in hand, Brace was seated in a deck chair trying to make out some salient point of the South American coast. Then all at once something dark eclipsed the picture formed by the glass, and Brace Leigh lowered it suddenly from his eye to try and make out what it was. He found that it was the second mate's head. CHAPTER EIGHT. SOMETHING STARTLING. "Evening, sir," said Lynton. "Growing too dark to see much with a glass, isn't it?" "Yes; I was just going to shut it up and put it in the case," replied Brace. "I say, don't you go and sham dead to upset us all again." "There you go!" cried the mate angrily. "I did think it was going to drop now. Nobody seems to believe my word." "Don't say nobody, for I will," said Brace quietly. "I was only joking you a bit. But tell me: that coast-line I could see before it grew so dark was all forest, I suppose?" "A lot of it," replied the mate, with a sigh or relief; "great thick dense forest with dwarfish trees growing out of the mud, and if you could see now, you'd find all the leaves sparkling with fireflies up the creeks and streams." "Then the sooner we reach our river and begin to sail up, the better I shall like it. How soon it grows dark out here!" "It does in these latitudes," replied the mate.