which she had first greeted him:

"What have you done with my brother Jimmy?"

Mart Highton sprang to his feet, pale with anger, and, with one great
stride, came to where Lottie was sitting.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

[_This Story began in No. 45._]

EPHRAIM CLARK'S
FIRST AND ONLY VOYAGE.

By E. Shippen, M.D.

CHAPTER XVII.

EPH SEES GREAT PEOPLE.

At midday the big "dug-out," called La Belle Acadienne, paddled up to
the landing, under the charge of an old creole, who was to take Eph
Clark to New Orleans and then to lodgings at a French house, when Eph
was to seek an interview with the governor and carry out the
instructions he had received.

The Belle Acadienne had an awning over her after part, where the
passengers would be protected from the night-damp; and there were lots
of things to eat, with a cooking place forward, presided over by a
grizzled old negro, who produced some very nice dishes from his few pots
and pans.

The "padron," or head of the boat, and six paddlers, made up, with Eph
and Eric and the old Creole, ten in all.

As soon as the passengers were on board, the canoe went away, almost
north, up the bay.

By nightfall they had entered a deep but narrow bayou, and then there
was a fresh surprise for Eph and Eric.

In the bow of the canoe, hanging well over the water, was an iron crane,
which supported a grating, on which was kept burning, after dark, chunks
of fat pine, which lit up everything around with a rich, yellow light.

As they got farther into the bayou, the banks seemed to disappear, and
they were, as it appeared to Eph--who had never been in such a
country--navigating between rows of huge trees, gray with moss, which
hung from the branches in long festoons, like giant cobwebs.

The fire-light, glowing on the surroundings, showed the most surprising
things to the boys, although the crew seemed to think nothing of them.
Out of the darkness, among the trees and bushes, would peer two bright
marks, which the men said was a deer.

Then would come a great plash in the still water of the bayou, and the
pine knots showed a huge alligator, sulkily sinking, and apparently
uncertain whether to make fight or not, at this invasion of his
territory.

Great gar-fish shot away from the canoe as she went on, and big owls
hooted at being disturbed, sometimes flapping almost into the burning
knots. Herons,