answered the boy. "I can sit up now if you will help me."

Mark helped him into a sitting position, with his back against the tree
to which he had clung when the alligator tried to drag him into the
water. Then he said,

"Now wait here a minute while I bring round the canoe. I'll get you
into it, and take you home, for your foot must be properly attended to
as soon as possible."

Hurrying back to where he had left the canoe, Mark brought it around
the point, very close to where the boy was sitting, and pulled one end
of it up on the bank. Then going to the boy, he said,

"If you can stand up, and will put both arms around my neck, I'll carry
you to the canoe; it's only a few steps."

Although he almost cried out with the pain caused by the effort, the
boy succeeded in doing as Mark directed, and in a few minutes more was
seated in the bottom of the canoe, with his wounded foot resting on
Mark's folded jacket.

Carefully shoving off, and stepping gently into the other end of the
canoe, Mark began to paddle swiftly up the river. The boy sat with
closed eyes, and though Mark wanted to ask him how it had all happened,
he waited patiently, fearing that his companion was too weak to talk.
He noticed that the boy was barefooted and bareheaded, that his clothes
were very old and ragged, and that he had a bag and a powder-horn slung
over his shoulders. He also noticed that his hair was long and matted,
and that his face, in spite of its present paleness, was tanned, as
though by long exposure to the weather. It had a strangely familiar
look to him, and it seemed as though he must have seen that boy
somewhere before, but where he could not think.

Just before they reached the "Go Bang" landing-place the boy opened his
eyes, and Mark, no longer able to restrain his curiosity, asked,

"How did the alligator happen to catch you?"

"I was asleep," answered the boy, "and woke up just in time to catch
hold of that tree as he grabbed my foot and began pulling me to the
water. He would have had me in another minute, for I was letting go
when you came;" and the boy shuddered at the remembrance.

"Well," said Mark, a little boastfully, "he won't catch anybody else.
He's as dead as a door-nail now. Here we are."

Jan and Captain Johnson were at the landing, and they listened with
astonishment to Mark's hurried explanation of what had happened. The
captain said they would carry the boy to the house, while Mark ran on
and told hi