t sank
a little, for it seemed to him that his fellow-plotter had shrunk from
the risks they would have to encounter--risks which might mean being
shot at, worried by the dogs, dragged down by the alligators to a
horrible death, perhaps fever and starvation in the swamp, or being
drowned at sea, if they reached the river's mouth, and were swept away
by one of the fierce currents along the shore.

It meant waiting two hours at least before they could begin their
attempt; but still Nic wanted to get rid of the oppression which
troubled him, and to feel that they really were going to make their
escape; but the murmuring of their companions' voices went on, and still
Pete made no sign.

At last Nic could contain himself no longer. He was all eagerness now;
and, if they were not going to make the attempt, he wanted to know the
worst. He spoke in a whisper:

"Pete, Pete!"

"Phew! how hot--how hot!" muttered the man.

"Pete!" whispered Nic again.

"I wish you wouldn't keep on talking," said Pete loudly. "You know how
it set them grumbling last night."

Nic drew a deep breath through his teeth, as he lay there in the hot,
oppressive darkness. They were not going, then. It was the way with a
man of Pete's class to pick a quarrel upon some other subject when he
wanted to find an excuse and back out of an arrangement.

"Ay, you had a narrow escape on it," said one of the men surlily. "Old
Humpy was pretty nigh going to the gaffer to-day."

"It's all over," thought Nic, as a feeling of bitterness ran through
him. Only four-and-twenty hours earlier he had been ready to give up
and accept his position. Then Pete had touched the right chord in his
nature, and roused him up to a readiness to run any risk, and make a
brave dash for liberty; while now the man seemed to have shrunk back
into his shell, and to be completely giving up just when the call was
about to be made upon his energies.

At another time Nic might have argued differently; but, strung up as he
had been, his companion's surly indifference was crushing, and it seemed
that the wild, exciting adventures of the night were to give place to a
cowardly, sordid sleep.

"If anything big is to be done, one must depend upon one's-self,"
thought Nic at last; and, angry with the whole world, bitter at his own
helplessness, as he felt how mad it would be to attempt the venture
alone, he turned over in his bunk, throwing out one hand in the
movement, and it came