hem a blind, side trail which they were
to take. When they turned to take their last look at him, the
Seminole was standing in his canoe, leaning on his long pole and
looking fixedly at them.

[Illustration: "THE SEMINOLE WAS STANDING IN HIS CANOE LOOKING
FIXEDLY AT US"]

For a few miles the trail was easy, but then became too dry for
paddles, and Dick pushed with an oar, while Ned used a pole which he
had brought along for use with a harpoon. As the trail grew dryer,
it became impossible to pole the canoe, and Ned took the painter
and, stepping into the nearly dry ditch in front of the canoe,
dragged the craft, while Billy got overboard and pushed from behind.
Sometimes Ned stopped to kick something out of his path, and at last
Dick called to him:

"What are you kicking, Ned?"

"Nothing but yellow-bellies and once in a while a brown moccasin. I
used to worry myself half sick over them, but after seeing Chris
Meyer wade through bunches of them in the Big Cypress without paying
any attention to them, I got ashamed of being afraid, and now I
don't mind moccasins much unless they are cotton-mouths."

"But they have all got fangs, are all poisonous, and all seem
anxious to bite," said Dick.

"But their bite isn't fatal. Tommy told me that he had been bitten
six times, and when I asked if the bites made him sick, he said:
'Lilly bit, one moon.' I asked him about rattlesnake bites, and he
said: 'Make sick _ojus_ (heap), think so big sleep come pretty
quick.' He told me that the moccasins bit him while he was pushing
his canoe and stepped on them."

"Neddy, Johnny used to talk just as you do, and Mr. Streeter said a
lot more, but it makes me sick to hear it. I can feel the little
squirmy beasts under my feet every step I take."

About noon the boys struck a creek, where their paddles came into
play, and very glad they both were. For a time grass troubled them,
and their progress was slow, but the stream gradually broadened and
deepened, while its banks became covered with trees and vines, and
the very sound of their paddles dipping into the clear water was a
joy to them. Again the brook widened, this time into a shallow bay,
but a narrow, deep channel remained, which soon led the boys into a
tidal river.

They were about to follow the current of the river when the head of
some strange animal was lifted above the surface of the water near
them, followed by a mass of water thrown high in the air by a big
tail, whic