d back along the beach and regain my boat.
Down there I might dismiss my fears. The upper portion of the beach,
if I mistook not, remained uncovered at the top of any ordinary
tides, and it wanted yet a good two hours to high-water, so that I
had not the smallest doubt of being able to reach the creek-head, no
matter at what point of the foreshore I might descend. From the bank
where I stood I had the whole ridge in view above the dense foliage,
and could select the most promising point to make for; but this would
sink out of sight as I approached the first belt of trees, and beyond
them I must find my way by guesswork.

I now observed a sharp notch breaking the line of the ridge, about a
mile to the westward, and walked some few hundred yards forward on
the chance that it might widen as I drew more nearly abreast of it,
and open into a passage between the hills. Widen it did, but very
gradually--the stream curving away from it all the while; and by and
by I halted again, in two minds whether to break straight across for
it or continue this slow process of making sure.

I had now reached a point where the tall cliff on the opposite shore
either ended abruptly or took a sharp turn back from the stream.
I could not determine which, and walked forward yet another two
hundred yards to satisfy myself. This brought me in view of a grove
of palmettos, clustering under the very lee of the rock--or so it
appeared at first, but a second look told me that here the stream
again divided, and that the new confluent swept by the base of the
rock, between it and the palmettos, three or four of which (their
roots, maybe, sapped by bygone floods) leaned sideways and almost hid
the junction.

I was turning away, resolved now to steer straight for the notch in
the hills, when for the second time a gleam of something white
arrested me, and I stood still, my heart in my mouth. The white
object, whatever it was, stood within the circle of the palmetto
stems, yet not very deep within it--a dozen yards at farthest from
the stream's edge. I stared at it, and the longer I stared the more
I was puzzled, until I plunged into the water and waded across for a
closer look.

Gaining the bank, I saw, first, that the white object was but one of
many, disposed behind it in two rows as regular as the tree-stems
allowed; next, that these objects were wooden boards, pained white.
And with that, as I stepped towards the foremost, my foot slipped an