It was Alice who replied, saying, “Let it go.”

He released the rope, seeing for the first time that it had burned the skin away around his hand and wrist, and the raft moved smoothly on but at a manageable speed this time, and within seconds, George and Alice had brought them alongside the small beach.

George jumped out, then Sandeep, then the dog. The rest of them climbed ashore and pulled the raft up behind them. Everyone was out of breath. Only the dog dashed around, scouting with enthusiasm around this new terrain, his silence reassuring everyone that—finally—there was nothing here to fear.

CHAPTER 47

The beach was only just big enough to hold the raft, the bank rising up around them and back into dense vegetation. There was a thin strip continuing along the riverbank, like a perilous footpath, maybe another twenty paces to the narrow point Shen had seen.

Once the boat was secure, Shen set off along it and the others followed, and soon they all climbed up the bank onto the point, filling it, the bruising rapids to their left, and a much wider river in front of them. The far bank was still a mass of vegetation, and there was no question they were still in the middle of the jungle landscape they’d seen from the bluff, but this river was big and wide enough that it filled them with a quiet hope that they were getting somewhere.

No one spoke at first, but then Shen said, “We should get back to warn the others if we can.” Everyone nodded and started back to the small beach and the raft, but Shen turned to George and Alice. “Really good job there.”

“Thanks,” said George.

“Yeah, thanks,” said Alice.

Shen turned to Tom and smiled, shaking his head before saying, “I completely forgot about the anchor.”

“Let’s just hope we don’t need it again.”

Shen nodded, glancing out at the wide sweep of river that lay ahead of them, and they both followed the others along the water’s edge.

Once back on the beach, they all waited and watched. The roaring noise of the rapids removed any hope of hearing the others coming, so they studied the water on either side of the prominent boulder that obscured the middle of the river from view.

Tom had imagined the other raft could only be ten or fifteen minutes behind them, and they’d taken nearly ten minutes exploring the point, so he expected them to appear any second. When they didn’t, he looked at his watch, then five minutes later, then another five.

Barney said, “They should be here by now.”

Kate said, “What about the caiman?”

“We would have heard something,” said Shen, with no confidence.

“I think so too,” said George.