ent he and Jack had.

Although the moving sloop was not over a mile or so from the shore line,
it was next to impossible for Perk to catch a fleeting glimpse of land,
so as to get his bearings.

"Huh!" he told himself at one time after he had received instructions to
draw a bit further toward the open gulf, as he was approaching some
point of land jutting into the water, and thus making a shoal possibly
covered with coon-oysters, on which he was apt to pull up hurriedly with
disastrous results, "this here is like flyin' blind at a five
thousand-foot ceilin',--Jack, he c'n see the land by usin' the night
glasses, so it's a good thing I c'n get tips from him right along. Gee!
this sure is gettin' some monotonous, keepin' this old motor hummin'
when it's on the blink so bad. Must be a wheen past midnight, I'd say,
an' we ought to be clost to them Ten Thousand Islands by now."

He had been keeping close watch on the stars and although making no
claims to being a first-class woodsman, Perk could tell the time of
night by the heavenly bodies setting one after another, which would
account for his late confident assertion that morning could not be so
very far distant.

Once only during all this time did Perk happen to see a far distant
light out at sea. It interested him more or less and naturally caused
him to speculate as to whether it might have any connection with the
great game in which he and Jack were now engaged. Everything he had ever
heard or read connected with the Mexican Gulf seemed to pass in review
through his active mind--there was a halo of romance hovering about that
historical sheet of salt water and while Perk was not much given to
flights of fancy, he found himself picturing some of the thrilling
scenes he had recently read about, after learning that the next locality
in which he and Jack would play their adventurous part was along the
Florida Gulf Coast.

Then he suddenly found himself listening intently, for above the
pounding of the old motor, with an occasional "miss" to break the
monotony, he fancied he had caught the signal Jack was to give him when
the time arrived for making a turn toward the coast.

"Bully boy, Jack!" Perk cried out when he found that he had not been
deceived. "I'll be right pleased to drop this tiresome job an' think
myself some lucky to miss havin' the tub run on a reef, or the bally
motor kickin' off an' quittin' cold. Yes, an' there's what looks like a
bunch o' cabbage p