The crew was sound asleep.

Not even the sentinel was able to keep his eyes open." They got off without damage at the rise of the tide, but the next day misfortune awaited the schooner.

The helmsman neglecting his duty for a moment as they were working up the stream, the vessel lost headway, and the fierce current immediately swept her, stern foremost, into the bank and broke the rudder.

After much labour the Bruja was finally again placed in the stream, where they waited for slack water, expecting then to ship the rudder.

"But in the Rio Colorado," he declares with italics, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SLACK WATER.