d and padlocked the boat. It would not have
mattered much to the boys in ordinary circumstances, for they would have
stripped and swum across, and back again when they were tired of the
other side, for every one of them could swim like an otter; but that day
they were trappers, with arms, and food, and a tent, and powder which
must be kept dry, to say nothing of the kettle. There was a brief
consultation, and Bauldie regretted that he did not shoot the farmer
dead on the spot, and as many of his people as they could. Speug, who
had been prowling around--though cautiously, mind you, and ever watching
for a sign of the Seminoles--gave a low, mysterious whistle, which was
one of the signs among the trappers; and when the others joined him he
pointed and whispered, "A Seminole canoe." It was an ancient boat which
the farmer's father had used, and which had lain for years upon the
bank, unused. Its seats were gone, its planks were leaking, it had two
holes at least in it, and there were no oars. It was a thing which, in
the farmer's hand, would have sunk six yards from the shore, but it had
the semblance of a boat, and it was enough for the hardy trappers. Very
carefully did they work it to the bank, lest it should slip a whole
plank on the road, and very gently did they drop it in, lest the
Seminoles should hear. "Piggie" stuffed one hole with his bonnet, and
Bauldie the second with his; Jock spread his jacket over an oozy part.
They shipped all their stores, and one of them got in to bale, and the
others, stripping off their clothes and adding them to the cargo of the
boat, pushed out the boat before them, swimming by its side. It was a
mere question of time whether the boat would go down in mid-channel; but
so splendidly did "Piggie" bale, ready at any moment to swim for his
life, and so powerfully did the others push, swimming with their feet
and one hand, and with the other hand guiding the boat, that they
brought it over safely to the other side; and the fact that half their
clothes were wet through mattered little to men who had often hidden
from the Indians in the water, with nothing but their eyes and nose out;
and, at any rate, the food was safe. The matches and the percussion caps
also were dry, for "Piggie" had taken care of that, and, in the worst
emergency, they would have been carried on the top of his head if he
also had been obliged to swim. They brought the boat into a little
creek, and, communicating by sign