want to mention the fact that I'm
satisfied, if the rest of you are. I've secured all the swamp scenes I
care for," retorted Will.

"I say move on. We can find a better place than this to sleep to-night.
Why, the skeeters nearly carried me away last night," declared Jerry.

"And I'm beginning to be anxious, myself, for a glimpse of that wonderful
gulf, not to say a taste of those delicious oysters," put in Bluff.

"That settles it, then. Let's get the things aboard, and drop downstream
a few miles, anyway."

Frank suited his action to his words by picking up some of the cooking
utensils and starting to clean them. This task was soon accomplished,
and by degrees all their property that had been taken ashore was stowed
away on the boat.

Then finally, Jerry, whose business it seemed to be to mind the hawsers,
unfastened the rope that held the bow of the boat, still pointing with
the current, just as they had stopped.

"Tell me when!" he called out as he stood by to repeat this maneuver with
the second hawser at the stern.

The motor began to chug away cheerily.

"There's life about that sound, all right," laughed Will, who had been
impressed with the dreadful monotony and stillness of the swamp.

"Let her loose!" called Frank, at the wheel.

So they once more started toward the open sea. There were still quite a
few miles to be traversed, however, before they could set eyes on that
same open water. The river was as "crooked as a New York alderman's
record," as Jerry declared, and so it was that in order to advance five
miles in a straight line they were compelled to navigate three times that
distance on the water.

When the afternoon had waned they found a good place for a halt.

Again they cooked a royal supper. When four healthy boys are off on a
lark of this sort the subject of eating is always one of their chief
concerns, which must account for the space which it occupies in records
of cruising and camping trips.

Will did not go ashore that evening. Indeed, somehow, none of them cared
to stay alone, though Jerry did build up quite a roaring fire, just
because he was fond of seeing the flames leap up in frolic.

As before, they divided the night into four watches, and this time Will
chose to take the one that would bring him on deck from about midnight to
two.

When it came his turn he sat there holding his camera faithfully, and
hoping for something to happen; but it did not come, and he was finall