Dick suddenly sank in to above his knees, and only succeeded in
extricating himself with the utmost difficulty, assisted though he was
by Earle and some half a dozen Indians, who formed themselves into a
human chain and dragged him out by main force.

The entire expanse of swamp appeared to be level, with the exception of
a few very trifling elevations here and there, and seemed to consist of
boggy soil covered with a rank growth of coarse grass, reeds, and
stunted bush, sparsely dotted here and there with a few gnarled and
unwholesome-looking trees, the whole intersected by a labyrinth of
canals filled with stagnant water, which wound hither and thither in a
most purposeless and bewildering fashion. That insect life abounded
there was manifest at the most cursory glance, for great clouds of
midges or flies could be seen hovering in the air in every direction,
while Earle's surmise as to the presence of alligators was abundantly
confirmed by the frequent roaring of the creatures. The forest seemed
to grow close up to the margin of the swamp everywhere, a mere narrow
strip of open ground some twenty to thirty yards wide, dividing the two.

A fairly satisfactory site for the camp having at length been found,
Earle and Dick, armed with rifle and automatic, and each accompanied by
an Indian carrying a machete, set off in opposite directions to explore
the margin of the swamp, in the hope of discovering a spot from which a
promising start to cross might be made; while King Cole, quite unable to
decide which of his masters he would accompany, finally laid down with
his head between his paws and whined pitifully, refusing to be comforted
by anybody.

Warned by his recent mishap, Dick was careful to give the treacherous
margin of the swamp a wide berth. The route he was pursuing led about
due south; and for nearly an hour he pursued his way at a good brisk
pace, uneventfully and without finding anything like that of which he
was in search. Eventually, however, he arrived at a point where the
edge of the forest abruptly receded toward the east, leaving a wide
expanse of bare soil, beyond which, at a distance of a short quarter of
a mile, the swamp again appeared, stretching away limitlessly toward the
south and east. Apparently, the only thing to do was to follow the
northerly margin of solid ground, which seemed to trend away in a
westerly direction, the direction namely in which Earle wished to
travel, and this Dick acc