Meanwhile the tide went out and out, and we sank lower and lower in kut-i-kut till we were in a slimy ditch with four feet of bank on each side.  The turns and twists grew narrower, and the difficulty of steering our long baroto around these grew greater.  The men got but and waded, pushing the baroto lightly over the soft ooze.  But finally this failed.  It was eight o’clock, the sun climbing higher and burning fiercer, when we stuck ignominiously in the mud of kut-i-kut.

After a short consultation the lieutenant sighed, cast a glance at the mud and his clean leather puttees, then went overboard, taking a man with him.  They disappeared in the nipa swamps, but came back in half an hour with three carabaos, their owners, and an army of volunteers.

Our motive power, being hitched tandem, now extended round a couple of bends, and there ensued the wildest confusion in an endeavor to get them all started at the same time.  Apparently it couldn’t be done, and we wasted a half-hour, in which every native in the swamp seemed to be giving orders, and the overwhelming desire of the carabaos was to swarm up the bank and get out, without regard to the effect on the baroto.  The lieutenant had come aboard and was sitting on the high prow dangling his muddy leggins ahead.  To him Mr. L——­ in disgust suggested that the taos were making little real effort and that he “stir ’em up,” Soothe lieutenant drew his revolver and at a season of discord aimed it carefully in the high distance and fired.

The effect on the humans was just what he desired, but he did not allow for the nervousness of the carabaos on hearing a revolver shot in a locality where it is distinctly not native.  The unanimity thait had so long been sought swept like an epidemic into our lumbering steeds, and our baroto started ahead with a firmness of purpose that sent the author of this book flying into the mud, and bumped us all up most gloriously as we lunged round the corner.  The good work once begun was not allowed to fall slack, however.  The lieutenant caught up and climbed aboard, and we swept through the three miles of kut-i-kut in a wild cavalcade, rolling like a ship in a storm.  At its end we struck upon water, and parted from our long-horned ayudantes.

A short row up a narrowing stream brought us to the place of disembarkation, an open grassy field which swept down from a cleft between the mountains.  We walked across this till we came to a brook purling out of cool green shadows, and after following it in a rather stiff climb for about forty-five minutes, came to the scene of investigation.

There, the week before, the men had built a dam, and had thrown a rough framework and shelter across the bed of the stream.  This they now covered with freshly cut boughs and leaves, and Mrs. L——­ and I were only too glad to spread our pillows and lie down for a few minutes in the cool shade with the water bubbling and murmuring underneath.  I was pretty well done with the heat and the unaccustomed exercise, but was soon rested and helped to make the coffee.  That was a good meal, spiced with waiting, and immediately after we went at the business at hand.