g from his father, and having been
carefully instructed, was a capital shot.

The day was unusually warm and bright for that season of the year, and
as they floated quietly down-stream they surprised a number of
alligators lying on the banks sunning themselves. As they were the
first of these great reptiles that either Mr. Elmer or Mark had ever
seen, they watched them with curiosity not unmixed with fear lest they
should attack and upset the light canoe. They afterwards learned that
their fears were groundless, and that cases of this kind are almost
unknown.

They reached St. Mark's in time for Mr. Elmer to catch the train, and
after he had gone Mark got the mail, of which quite a quantity had
collected here for them, there being no post-office in Wakulla, and
started for home.

On the way up the river the boy was strangely oppressed by the solitude
and almost unbroken silence about him, and was very glad when he found
himself within a mile of home.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a cry so terrible and agonized that
he was for a moment nearly petrified with fright. He quickly recovered
his presence of mind, and the first cry being followed by screams for
help and a crashing of the bushes on a small wooded point that jutted
into the river just ahead of him, he hastily ran the canoe up to the
bank, seized his rifle, and sprang ashore.

CHAPTER IX.

MARK DISCOVERS THE GHOST AND FINDS HIM IN A TRYING POSITION.

Mark dashed through the bushes for a hundred yards, heedless of the
clinging thorns of the rattan vine that tore his clothes, and scratched
his face and hands until they bled, before reaching the scene of what
sounded like a terrible struggle. The screams for help told him that at
least one of the contestants was a human being in sore distress, and in
thus rushing to his assistance Mark did not give a moment's thought to
his own safety. As he burst from the bushes he found himself in a
little open glade on the opposite side of the point from that on which
he had landed. Here he came upon a struggle for life such as rarely
takes place even in the wilder regions of the South, and such as but
few persons have ever witnessed.

On the farther side of the glade, clinging with the strength of despair
to the trunk of a young magnolia-tree, lay a boy of about Mark's own
age. His arms were nearly torn from their sockets by some terrible
strain, and his eyes seemed starting from his head with horror. As h