He knew that those were among the things she would tell him when that promised hour came, the hour when he would tell her they were safe.
There began to possess him now a growing eagerness for this hour, when they should leave the river and take to the forests.

He explained to Marette why they could not float on indefinitely.

The river was the one great artery through which ran the blood of all traffic to the far North.

It was patrolled.

Sooner or later they would be discovered.