have. I suppose it's Ned Barstow you're looking for?"

"Who in the world could have told you? I haven't spoken his name
since I left home."

"Nobody told me, but last week Chris Meyer, the surveyor, was here
and, as we are old friends, we talked half the night. He told me of
his work for Mr. Barstow, the big lumber man, and said that Ned
Barstow, his son, had been out in the swamp with him as surveyor's
assistant for 'most a month, Chris told me that when he left, Ned
was arranging to go on a hunting trip with Billy Tommy, a Seminole
Indian. He thought the plan was to hunt slowly through the swamp to
Tommy's canoe, which he had left somewhere between Boat Landing and
Charley Tiger's. Ned expected then to work down through the
Everglades to Cape Sable if possible."

"Is there any chance of my finding him in that great wilderness, Mr.
Streeter? It looks so much bigger than it did from up north. How is
it possible to keep from getting lost?"

"Don't have to. Soon as you begin to worry because you don't know
where you are, trouble begins. More than one man in this country has
gone crazy and killed himself because he thought he was lost. Why,
you can't be really lost. If you're worried just start for the North
Star. You'll hit somebody before you strike the North Pole. But it's
a heap easier to keep from worrying if you've got company. Lordy,
the picnic you and Johnny are going to have! I wish I was as young
as you and going with you. Your best way to find Ned will not be to
follow his trail, but to head him off somewhere in the Glades.
That's easier than you think. I could pretty nearly figure out to a
mile where he is this minute. You see, he's with Billy Tommy, and I
know that Injun. Couldn't make him hurry if he tried, and he won't
try. He'll be so busy shootin' things and skinnin' 'em and fussin'
'round camp that they'll get ahead mighty slow. Shouldn't wonder if
it took 'em a week from the time they started to get to where Tommy
left his canoe. Then they will put out in the Glades and head
straight for Charley Tiger's camp."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know Tommy and because it's the only Injun camp 'round
there where he'd be sure to find _whyome_--that's whisky, or rum, or
anything that'll make drunk come."

"But suppose Ned wouldn't go that way?"

"Oh, Tommy'd fix that. He'd point to the west and say, 'Big Swamp,
canoe no can take!' Then he'd wave his hand to the east, 'No trail,
_oko suchescha_ (