over them, while the "Hoo! hoo hoo! hoo hoo!" of talkative owls as
they conversed lasted throughout the night.

Ned was so anxious for another chance at a manatee that the boys
decided to camp where they were and hunt the creature regularly.

"We'll leave all our stores in camp," said Ned, "because we might
get capsized."

"Oh, yes! We _might_ get capsized! Is there a chance on earth that
we might _not_ get capsized? We'll leave everything in camp
excepting the paddles and that lasso of yours which did you so much
good yesterday."

"You like to talk, Dick, but you know you wouldn't miss that manatee
hunt for a farm. We will have to put it off a day or two, though,
until we kill a deer and jerk the venison. We've just eaten the last
scrap of meat in camp. There's a trail running back into the bushes
that must lead to a meadow where we can walk and probably find
deer."

"All right. You'll take your rifle and I'll tag on with the
shotgun, just to see that you keep out of mischief."

The trail which the boys followed did lead to a meadow where there
were plenty of deer tracks, but no deer. They waded and tramped
through the meadow to its farther side, where they entered a wooded
swamp. Here they started up a deer, at which Ned took two snap-shots
as the creature ran away. They traveled in the swamp for an hour,
when they came to another meadow, on the farther side of which two
deer were feeding. The wind must have carried a hostile scent to the
quarry, for they slipped quietly into the swamp, and when the boys
entered it were not to be seen. Again the young hunters sought their
game through the swamp. They worked their way through thickets,
among tangles of roots and vines, and wallowed through
moccasin-infested pools of water and mud. In the excitement of the
chase the boys took no note of time or of the direction in which
they were traveling. It was late in the day when, with clothing
muddied and torn, the boys, exhausted and discouraged, sat on a log
in a swamp and decided to give up the hunt and go back to camp. They
turned back and Ned led the way while Dick followed until they
brought up against an impassable mangrove swamp. Ned looked to the
right and the left, and then turning to Billy asked if he knew where
camp was.

"No," said Dick.

"Then we're lost."

"Of course. You're always lost in a swamp. Mr. Streeter says so. He
says you may lose your boat or your camp, but with a rifle, matches
and a litt