t in the
middle of the back.

"Dah!" he exclaimed; and seizing his capture, he led the way into the
forest, where, risking discovery, we soon had a fire of dead sticks and
pine-needles blazing merrily over the shell of our terrapin, off which
we made at last, if not a good meal, a sufficiently satisfying one to
give us spirit for trying to get back home.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

"Now, Pomp," I said, after we had each lain down and had a good hearty
drink of clear water, "the way to get home is to make a raft and float
down the river."

"Don't want raft--want um boat," he said.

"Do you know what a raft is?" I said.

"No, Mass' George."

I explained to him, and he shook his head.

"'Gator come and pick Pomp and Mass' George off."

"We must make it so big that they could not."

"How make big raft?--no chopper to cut down tree."

"We must cut down and tie together bundles of canes," I said, after a
long pause, well occupied by thinking. "They will bear us if we lie
down upon them. We have a knife; let's try."

It was no easy task to get the knife free, for the threads by which it
was bound into the split end of the cane had swollen; but it was clear
at last, and selecting a suitable spot where the shore was quite a cane
brake, we toiled away cutting and tying together bundle after bundle of
canes, till we had six which roughly resembled as many big trusses of
straw. These we secured to four of the stoutest canes we could find,
passing them through the bands crosswise, and after a good deal of
difficulty, and at the risk of undoing our work, we managed to thrust it
off the bank into the river, where, to my great delight, upon trying it,
the buoyancy far exceeded my expectations. In fact, though we could not
have stood upon it, lying down it supported us well, and without any
hesitation, after cutting a couple of light poles for steering or
directing, we thrust off from the side, and began gliding down the
stream.

From that moment it seemed as if our troubles were over, for we had
little difficulty in keeping well out from the overhanging boughs, while
a thrust or two with our poles enabled us to avoid fallen trees and
patches of growth rising from the river shallows.

I soon felt convinced that if the bands we had made would hold out, we
should have no difficulty in floating down, for I could recall no rapids
or falls likely to give us trouble. Certainly we had seen nor heard
neither. Our risks