olden heron."

"Nonsense! There is no golden heron."

"You think so?"

"I know it. The golden heron is a myth. White hunters have searched the
remote fastnesses of the Florida swamps for a golden heron, but no such
bird have they ever found. The Indians are the only ones to see golden
herons."

"If the Indians can see them, white men may find them. I shall not be
satisfied till I have shot one."

"Then you'll never be satisfied."

"Oh, I don't know about that, professor. I am something of an Indian
myself. You know the Seminoles are honest and peaceable, and----"

"All Indians are liars. I would not take the word of a Seminole under
any condition. Come, Frank, don't be foolish; let's turn round and go
back. We may get bewildered on these winding waterways which twist here
and there through swamps of cypress and rushes. We were foolish to come
without a guide, but----"

"We could not obtain one until to-morrow, and I wished to come to-day."

"You may be sorry you did not wait."

"Now, you are getting scared, professor," laughed Frank, lifting his
paddle from the water and laying it across the bow of the canoe. "I'll
tell you what we'll do."

"All right."

"We'll leave it to Barney, who has not had a word to say on the matter.
If he says go back, we'll go back."

Professor Scotch hesitated, scratched his fingers into his fiery beard,
and then said:

"Well, I'll have to do as you boys say, anyway, so we'll leave it to
Barney."

"All right," laughed Frank, once more. "What do you say, Barney, my
boy?"

Barney Mulloy was in the stern of the canoe that had been creeping along
one of the sluggish water courses that led through the cypress swamp and
into the heart of the Everglades.

"Well, gintlemin," he said, "Oi've been so busy thrying to kape thrack
av th' twists an' turruns we have been makin' thot Oi didn't moind mutch
pwhat ye wur soaying. It wur something about turning back. Plaze repate
it again."

So the matter was laid before him, and, when he had heard what Frank and
the professor had to say, he declared:

"Fer mesilf it's nivver a bit do Oi care where we go ur pwhat we do,
but, as long as we hiv come so fur, an' Frankie wants to go furder, Oi'd
soay go on till he is sick av it an' reddy to turn back."

"There, professor!" cried Frank; "that settles it!"

"As I knew it would be settled," growled Professor Scotch, sulkily. "You
boys combine against me every time. Well, I suppose I'll have