to their camp, Ned said:

"Dick, do you know how to jerk venison?"

"I've seen Johnny smoke it. Is that the same thing?"

"Sure! So while you're skinning the buck I'll lam into that black
mangrove log and build a fire under the little scaffold of small
poles there, which you hadn't seen, but which was built to cure
venison. Say, Dick, don't you want to hire out as a scout?"

Dick grinned, but made no other reply, and they began the work of
jerking the venison. They cut it in thin strips and hung it over the
fire of the black mangrove, which is one of the smokiest woods on
earth. All day long they fed the fire and watched the venison, while
scores of buzzards sat around on the trees and overlooked the work.
Far into the night the boys lay beside the fire, watched its curling
smoke, and talked of that camp in the snow in the North of the long
ago.

CHAPTER IX

THE CAPTURE OF THE MANATEE

The manatee hunt began as soon as the venison had been cured. The
boys explored the waters about their camp, making each day a longer
trip and taking careful note of all the waters they explored. They
usually hunted through the forenoon, and after dinner Ned mapped out
the course they had taken while Dick took a walk with the shot-gun
and picked up an Indian hen, or limp-kin, or a brace of ducks for
supper. Within a week Ned had made a good working chart of the
country about them, both land and water, and the boys had come to
know their surroundings as if they had been born among them. Nearly
every day they found and chased a manatee. Sometimes they found
three or four in a day, but the creatures always swam faster than
their pursuers and were still frisky when the boys were worn to
frazzles.

One morning a big manatee which they were chasing happened to come
up beside the canoe to breathe, when Ned splashed it with his paddle
and drove it under water before it could catch its breath. The
sea-cow had to come up again in a few seconds and was once more
driven below the surface by Ned. Almost instantly the creature
lifted its head so far above the surface that Ned dropped his paddle
and seized the soft nose of the manatee with both hands.

"Look out!" yelled Dick, but he was the one to have looked out. For,
as the sea-cow threw down its head and tail, Ned was dragged out of
the canoe onto his upward-arching back. Then the animal's back was
curved downward and the flat tail thrown violently upward into the
air. As the s