, "for it would be like calling the
attention of the enemy. The Yankee and his people are sure to be on the
lookout to pounce upon one, and though if they took me prisoner--they
wouldn't dare to do anything else--my being taken would not so much
matter if May or Titely got down to the boat and reached the _Seafowl_.
How do I know that they would get there? Oh, was ever poor wretch in
such a hole before!"

"Here, I must do something," he cried, at last, rousing himself to take
some action. "The river must wind about, and if I keep on I shall be
sure to come across it at last."

He started off in what he hoped was the right direction, and forced his
way through the tangled growth, to find that after a short time the
earth began to grow firmer beneath his feet; and then he stopped short.

"Must be wrong," he thought, "for the river banks were swampy."

Striking out in a fresh direction, he was not long before he found that
the ground began to yield again, and his spirits rose as he found that
he was plunging into a swampy part once more, while his heart literally
leaped as all at once right in front there was a rush as of one of the
great alligators being startled from its lair.

The lad stopped short, but only for a few moments, before mastering the
sensation of dread, and plunging on as nearly as he could make out in
the direction the great lizard had taken.

"It's afraid of me," he muttered, as he drew his dirk, "and if it turns
at bay on finding itself followed, I ought to be able to do something
with this, though it is such a stupid ornament of a thing. I'm not
afraid, and I won't be afraid, but I wish my heart didn't beat so fast,
and that choking sensation wouldn't keep on rising in my throat."

But though the lad behaved as bravely as was possible to any man, by
pressing on and determinedly following in the track of the alligator,
his heart kept on with its heavy pulsation and the perspiration streamed
down his face in the stiflingly hot swamp.

He had the satisfaction, though, of making out that the reptile was
scuffling on before him, and now he grew more accustomed to the fact he
was able to make out the creature's trail and just dimly see the
movement ahead of the thick cane growth as it rapidly writhed itself
along.

"It's getting softer," thought Murray, "so I must be getting towards the
river. Won't turn upon me and attack, will it, when it gets in its own
element?"

That was a startling tho