"What can that mean?" asked Jack, as his companion slackened his pace.

"_It means that they are through_!" replied the doctor, whose face was
of deathly paleness. "My God! what have we escaped!"

"We shall soon know," replied Jack, catching the awful significance of
the words; and then he added to himself:

"We may have escaped it, but for how long?"

A few rods further and they were at the side of the stream, and the
boat loomed to view through the thick undergrowth and vegetation.




CHAPTER XV.

GONE!

Neither Jack Everson nor Dr. Marlowe forgot his own personal danger in
hurrying to the help of their imperilled friends. If the two were too
late to be of any assistance they were imminently likely to precipitate
themselves into the same whirlpool of woe and death. They had slowed
their gait to a walk as they neared the spot, and when they caught the
dim outlines of the boat the two stood still.

So far as they could see there was no change in its surroundings. It
was still moored against the bank, so close that any one could step