place whar we kin get out up thar.
Whar the hell are them hosses?"
We succeeded in locating the animals by feeling and I waited on the
edge of the bank, the two reins wrapped about my arm, until I heard the
others go splashing down into the water. Then I also groped my own way
cautiously forward, the two horses trailing behind me, down the sharply
shelving bank into the stream. Tim chose his course near to the
opposite shore, and I followed his lead closely, guided largely by the
splashing of Elsie's animal through the shallow water. Our movement
was a very slow and cautious one, Kennedy halting frequently to assure
himself that the passage ahead was safe. Fortunately the bottom was
firm and the current not particularly strong, our greatest obstacle
being the low-hanging branches which swept against us. Much of my time
was expended in holding these back from contact with Eloise's face, our
horses sedately plodding along behind their leaders.
I think we must have waded thus to exceed a mile when we came to a fork
in the stream and plumped into a tangle of uprooted trees, which ended
our further progress. Between the two branches, after a little search,
we discovered a gravelly beach, on which the horses' hoofs would leave
few permanent marks. Beyond this gravel we plunged into an open wood
through whose intricacies we were compelled to grope blindly, Tim and I
both afoot, and constantly calling to each other, so as not to become
separated. I had lost all sense of direction, when this forest finally
ended, and we again emerged upon open prairie, with a myriad of stars
shining overhead.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE ISLAND IN THE SWAMP
The relief of thus being able to perceive each other and gain some view
of our immediate surroundings, after that struggle through darkness,
cannot be expressed in words. My first thought was for the girl, whose
horse I had been leading, but her eyes were no longer open and staring
vacantly forward; they were now tightly closed, and, to all appearances,
she slept soundly in the saddle. In the first shock of so discovering
her, I touched her flesh to assure myself that she was not dead, but the
blood was flowing warm and life-like through her veins. She breathed so
naturally I felt this slumber must be a symptom of recovery.
We were upon a rather narrow tongue of land, the two diverging forks of
the stream closing us in. So, after a short conversation, we continued
to ride
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