a small one, became almost tame. They swam with
it to a shoal place where, standing in water a little more than
waist deep, they petted and soothed their prize until it seemed
quite friendly. Suddenly, Dick exclaimed:

"What's become of the canoe? I capsized it when I went overboard and
haven't thought of it since."

"I'd forgotten it, too. It must have floated with the tide a good
ways down the river by this time. I'll swim down stream and hunt it
up, if you will stay here and take care of the manatee, unless you
think we had better turn it loose and both go for the canoe. We will
be in a bad fix if we lose it. If you can take care of the manatee I
can find the canoe." And Ned swam away down the river.

Helped by the current he had swum a mile when the stream spread out
into a bay that was a mile long and nearly as wide, which was filled
with eel-grass and covered with moss. He soon found one of the
paddles, but in getting it became entangled in the long grass, until
he was in great danger of drowning. By lying lengthways on the
paddle, keeping his legs extended and swimming with long over-hand
strokes, he got out of the tangle. He had been pretty well
frightened, and swimming to the shore, climbed up on some mangrove
roots. After looking for a long time, Ned made out the bow of the
submerged little canoe sticking out from a bunch of moss in the
eel-grass. It was about an eighth of a mile away and he started for
it, swimming along the edge of the field of grass, but sheering away
constantly, as the treacherous current seemed striving to sweep him
within the clinging clutch of the swaying blades of the rope-like
grass.

When Ned got opposite the canoe he found that it was forty feet
within the field of grass. He dreaded to put himself again within
that deadly grasp, but the thought of Dick waiting for him, alone
with that strange beast, nerved him to make the plunge. Again he lay
on the paddle, keeping his feet quiet and making his way slowly with
his hands toward the canoe. At last he reached the craft, but could
do nothing with it. He could not pull it and it refused to be
pushed. He could touch the bottom with his feet, but it was of soft
mud and the thick grass tangled him worse than ever. He got into the
canoe and lay on his back under the thwarts, with only part of his
head out of water. By rocking the canoe, with a short, jerky motion,
he got rid of some of the water and finished the bailing with his
hat.