k, delightedly. "This is really a
very interesting and amusing adventure."

"It may be for you," groaned the professor; "but you forget that it is
said to be possible for persons to lose themselves in the Everglades and
never find their way out."

"On the contrary, I remember it quite well. In fact, it is said that,
without a guide, the chances of finding a way out of the Everglades is
small, indeed."

"Well, what do you feel so exuberant about?"

"Why, the possibility that we'll all perish in the Everglades adds zest
to this adventure--makes it really interesting."

"Frank, you're a puzzle to me. You are cautious about running into
danger of any sort, but, once in it, you seem to take a strange and
unaccountable delight in the peril. The greater the danger, the happier
you seem to feel."

"Thot's roight," nodded Barney.

"When I am not in danger, my good judgment tells me to take no chances;
but when I get into it fairly, I know the only thing to be done is to
make the best of it. I delight in adventure--I was born for it!"

A dismal sound came from the professor's throat.

"When your uncle died," said Scotch, "I thought him my friend. Although
we had quarreled, I fancied the hatchet was buried. He made me your
guardian, and I still believed he had died with nothing but friendly
feelings toward me. But he knew you, and now I believe it was an act of
malice toward me when he made me your guardian. And, to add to my
sufferings, he decreed that I should travel with you. Asher Dow
Merriwell deliberately plotted against my life! He knew the sort of a
career you would lead me, and he died chuckling in contemplation of the
misery and suffering you would inflict upon me! That man was a
monster--an inhuman wretch!"

"Look there!" cried Barney, pointing toward the small, timbered island.

"What is it?"

"May Ould Nick floy away wid me av it ain't a house!"

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE HUT ON THE ISLAND.

"A house?"

"A cabin!"

"A hut amid the trays."

In a little clearing on some rising ground amid the trees they could see
the hut.

"Is it possible any one lives here?" exclaimed the professor.

"It looks as if some one stops here at times, at least," said Frank.

"Av this ain't a clear case av luck, Oi dunno mesilf!"

"We'll get the man who lives there to guide us out of the Everglades!"
shouted the professor, in a relieved tone.

Then Frank cast a gloom over their spirits by saying:

"This may