find out something. He will suppose that we have
gone to the north. He will never suspect that we have come this way.
Here we are," said Dan, suddenly rising in the boat, as she came to a
narrow opening on the southerly bank of the river.

Running the boat up to the bank of the bayou, he ordered Cyd to make her
fast to a tree on the shore.

"What's gwine to be done now, Dan?" asked Cyd, when he had obeyed the
order.

"We shall follow the big river no farther. Now, I want to make Master
Raybone think we have gone up that way, which leads to the Mississippi.
I left some papers in my room, which will convince him that I intended
to go that way. Now, Lily, we must leave you for a little while," added
Dan, as he drew the bateau alongside. "We will not be gone more than an
hour."

Dan and Cyd got into the bateau, and towed the other boats about two
miles up the river, where they secured them in such a position that they
seemed to be abandoned. When the search for them was made, these boats
would be found two miles from the course the fugitives had actually
taken. They then pulled back to the Isabel, and got under way again.

Their course was now changed, and the boat passed down the narrow
cut-off, which soon widened into a broad stream. The wind, which had
been quite fresh when they started, had now subsided to a gentle breeze;
but as the country was more open than on the Big River, as it was
called, they still moved along at the rate of three or four miles an
hour.

At five o'clock in the morning--Dan had a silver watch which had been
presented to him by Master Archy--they reached the entrance of Lake
Chicot. It was about daylight, and as there was a plantation on the
western bank, it was not deemed prudent to proceed any farther, for if
the boat was seen, it would at once be recognized as that of Colonel
Raybone.

The westerly side of the lake was low, swampy ground, covered with a
thick growth of trees and an undergrowth of cane. The skipper of the
Isabel ran along this shore till he found a stream flowing into the
lake. Hauling up the centre board, he ran his craft into this creek. As
the sails would not draw, being sheltered by the trees and cane, the two
boys worked the boat up the stream with their oars till she was
completely concealed from the opposite shore, or from the lake, if any
boat should happen to pass during the day.

Here the careful skipper intended to lie until the friendly shades of
another