voyage down the creek began. This stream was very crooked, and many
fallen trees interrupted its course, so that it was very difficult to
navigate it with so long a boat. In addition to this, the river had
risen much faster than the creek, and the back water had entirely
destroyed the creek's current, so that the boat must be pushed and
paddled every inch of the way.

Nearly the entire day was consumed in getting to the river, five
miles away from the starting place, and as the afternoon waned the
boys grew tired, while Jake Elliott began to manifest his old
disposition to criticise Sam's plans.

"May be we'll make five mile a day, an' may be we wont," he said.
"We'll git to Pensacola in six or eight weeks, I s'pose, if we don't
starve by the way, an' _if_ this water runs that way."

"Very well," said Sam, "the longer we are on the route the better it
will please you, Jake."

"Why?"

"Because you don't want to get there at all. But we'll be there sooner
than you think?"

"How long do you reckon it will take us, Sam?" asked Billy.

"I don't know, because I don't know how long we'll be getting out of
this creek."

"Well, I mean after we get into the river."

"About a day and a half," replied Sam, "possibly less."

"You don't mean it?"

"Don't I? What do I mean, then?"

"How far is it?"

"Less than a hundred miles."

"Well, we can't go a hundred miles in a day and a half."

"Can't we? I think we can. We'll run day and night, you know, and the
current, at this stage of the water, can't be much less than five
miles an hour. Four miles an hour will take us ninety-six miles in
twenty-four hours."

"Hurrah for Captain Sam!" shouted Sid Russell, "Yonder's the river,
an' she's a runnin' like a mill tail, too."

Sid was standing up, and his great length lifted his head high enough
to permit him to see the rapidly running stream long before any one
else did. The rest strained their eyes, or rather their necks trying
to catch a glimpse of the stream, but the undergrowth of the swamp lay
between them and the sight. Sid's announcement put new energy into
them, however, and they plied their paddles vigorously for ten
minutes, when, with a sudden swing around a last curve of the creek,
Sam brought his boat fairly out into the river, and turned her head
down stream. The river was full to its banks, and in places it had
already overflowed. The current was so strong that the mouth of the
creek, out of which they h