"I say," he says, looking up, "just see if them lashings is all right; for, if I was to go down here, it's my idee as I shouldn't come up again for the crockydiles, and I don't kear about giving up the number of my mess jest yet; so look out." "Well, lay hold of this pot," says I, reaching down to him as far as I could. "Wait a minute," he says, when he began to groan himself up, and next moment he would have reached what I was holding to him, when I heard something give, a sort of crack; then there was a shriek and a loud splash, and I saw the poor fellow's horror-stricken face for an instant as he disappeared beneath the water. "Man overboard!" I shouted, dropping the paint, and running to the rope which held the dinghy; when sliding down I was in her in a moment, and shoving along towards where the poor chap went down. First I looked one way, then another, and kept paddling about expecting that I should see his head come up, while now at the sides half the crew were looking over, for they had forgotten all about feeling tired or lazy in their anxiety to be of use. "There, look out," cried Bob Davis; "he'll come up there where that eddy is, and then I watched there and leaned over the sides ready to catch hold of the poor chap when he came up." "Let her float down with the stream," shouted the captain, excitedly; "he must come to the top directly," and so I let her float down; kneeling there as I did, ready to snatch at anything which appeared. The river was running down muddy and strong, so that you could see nothing but the swirling about of the current, as it came rushing round by the ships and boats moored there, and I began to think that the poor fellow would soon be sucked under one of the big hulls, when it seemed to me that there was more swirling and rushing about of the water than usual, for my little boat began to rock a little and some bubbles of air came rising up and floating atop of the water. Here he is now, I thinks, getting hold of the boat-hook, and holding it just a little in the water, when all at once I turned quite sick and queer, for there was a great patchy stream of blood came up, and floated on the surface, slowly spreading out, and floating down the stream, when in a sort of mad fit I made a thrust down as far as I could reach with the hook to bring something up, and sure enough I caught against something, but the next moment there was a snatch and a jerk, and I had to let go of the hook, to save being pulled overboard, when I clung shuddering to the thwarts, and saw the long shaft disappear under water.