was very rough, and it took them almost an hour to reach the
trees. Everything has an end, however, and in due time they found
themselves at the edge of the fringe of trees that stood out a little way
from the main forest. These were soon passed, and the comrades entered
the green gloom of the big tropic trees. Their trunks shot up thirty or
forty feet before the branches sprang out, and were thinly encircled by
clinging vines and plants.

The leaves in many places met overhead, and caused a perpetual twilight
in the forest aisles. As the boys penetrated deeper and deeper toward
the heart of the woods the underbrush and vines grew continually thicker,
and in many places they found their progress stopped by some tangled
growth and were forced to cut it away before they could proceed. It grew
hotter and hotter, too, with a damp, clammy heat that at last became
almost unbearable.

"Great Scott!" burst out Dick, at last, while they were cutting through a
particularly tough growth of vines and creepers. "I think this is about
the hardest work I ever did in my life. What you need to make a path in
this blooming jungle is a carload of dynamite--not merely a few little
toad-stickers like these we're using."

"Well, as we haven't the dynamite handy, I suppose we'll have to make the
best of the 'toadstickers,'" laughed Bert, amused by his companion's
rueful countenance. "You didn't expect to find a macadamized road
running through this little strip of woodland, did you?"

"No, but I didn't expect to find vines made of cast iron, either,"
replied Dick.

"Never mind, old scout," said Bert, "this can't last long. We're certain
to hit on a game trail sooner or later, and then we'll be in clover. And
the harder we work now, the sooner we'll find it."

"Oh, well, here goes," responded Dick, and fell to with renewed vigor.

Before very long it turned out as Bert had predicted. After cutting
through a particularly dense thicket, they had not gone far when they
stumbled on a narrow but clearly defined trail that ran in a
southeasterly direction.

"Eureka!" exclaimed Tom, as this welcome sight met their eyes, "it will
be plain sailing from now on, and we ought to be able to get somewhere."

"We don't know where we're going, but we're on the way," sang Bert.
"Forward, march, fellows. Christopher Columbus had nothing on us as
discoverers."

"Righto," agreed his companions, and they set forth along the narrow path
at