or his son, and it was
reasonable to suppose that he would remain somewhere in the vicinity
of the island; so Dan followed the course of the bayou, taking care
to keep so far away from it that he would not be discovered by any
one who might chance to be passing in a boat, and when he had
approached close enough to the island to hear the voices of the young
hunters and the sound of their axes, he tied the pointer to a tree,
deposited his bundles on the ground near by, and with his rifle for
a companion crept through the bushes to see what they were doing.

There was no one in sight when he first reached the bank of the
bayou, but in a few minutes Bert and David came out of the cane with
a rope in their hands. There were several logs scattered about the
beach, and David made the rope fast to one of them and he and Bert
dragged it into the cane. While Dan was wondering what they were
going to do with the log a twig snapped near him, and he turned
quickly to find his father almost within reach of him.

"Halloo, pap!" said Dan, jumping to his feet and backing into the
bushes.

"Whar's the tobacker?" demanded Godfrey, in a subdued tone of voice.

"I've got it. You ain't mad, be you, pap?"

"I ain't so scandalous mad now, but if I could have got my fingers
into your collar about the time I was a shiverin' in my wet clothes,
I'd a played 'Far'well to the Star Spangled Banner' on your back with
a good hickory, I bet you!"

"'Kase if you be mad 'tain't my fault," continued Dan. "I tried my
level best to steal the canoe, but couldn't do it. It was locked up
tighter'n a brick. I tried to get ten dollars fur you too, pap, but I
couldn't do that nuther; so I brung Don Gordon's pinter along. Swum
the bayou, I reckon, didn't you?"

"I didn't walk acrosst, did I? In course I swum it."

"Your clothes ain't wet!"

"No, 'kase I went back in the woods an' built a fire an' dried 'em.
Le's go back thar now, so't we kin talk. We don't want them fellers
to hear us."

"What be they doin' over thar, anyhow?" asked Dan.

"They're buildin' a bar trap, looks like. They'll be sartin to ketch
one too, 'kase thar's a bar comes thar a'most every night. If I had a
boat they wouldn't get much good of him arter they do ketch him."

Dan handed his rifle to his father and went back after the pointer
and his bundles; and when he came up again Godfrey led the way toward
his temporary camp. He was gloomy and sullen, and there was an
expression o