Page:Adrift in the Pacific, Sampson Low, 1889.djvu/114

 camp here. We can start at dawn to-morrow and explore both banks of the river." "Shall we go ashore?" asked Jack.

"Oh, yes." said Briant, "and camp under the trees."

The boys took the boat into a little creek and scrambled out on to the bank. They moored the yawl to a stump, and took out of her the arms and provisions. A good fire of dry wood was lighted at the foot of a large green oak, and they had a meal of biscuit and cold meat, and were not at all sorry to get to sleep.

"Come, wake up; let us be moving," said Briant, who was the first to awake at six o'clock next morning. And in a few minutes all three were back in the boat and out in the stream.

The current was rather strong — the tide had turned about half an hour before — and the oars were not needed. Briant and Jack were in the bow of the yawl, while Moko, with one of the oars out astern, kept the boat in mid-stream.

"It is likely," said Moko, "that we shall get down to the sea in one tide if East River is only six miles long, as the current is much stronger than in Zealand River."

"Let us hope so," said Briant. "When we come back we may have to take two or three tides."

"That may be," said Moko, "and if you like we can start with the next tide."

"Yes," said Briant, "as soon as we have seen that there is no land to the eastward."

The yawl drifted along at a rate, Moko estimated, of about a mile an hour. According to the compass East River ran in an almost straight course to the east-north-east. It was more shut in than Zealand River, and it was not so wide, being only about thirty feet across. Briant's only fear was that there might be some rapids or whirlpools in its course, but there would be time enough to prepare for any obstacle.

The boys were in a forest, in which the vegetation was very thick, the trees being similar to those in Trap