ed top and many branches which made it easy to climb.
Ned was soon in the top of the tree making a mental map of the
country round about.

"It is all right now," said he as he climbed down. "I can see the
open Everglades within four or five miles, and there is something
that looks like a slough that is only half as far away. We'll leave
the creek in the morning and cut our path this way, instead of
around those trees. It won't be as much work, either. We can do
some of that work to-night and camp right here. Then in the morning,
at daylight, we will start out with the canoe on our shoulders and
tramp till we find water to float it."

"But how about water to drink? I need it worse than the canoe."

"Where there's water for the canoe, there will be water for you.
It's Everglade water from now on."

"I wish it would begin this minute. There's a little mud-hole that
looks pretty wet. Do you think that might be fresh?"

"Only way to find out is to try it." A minute later Dick called out.

"Come here, Ned, it's muddy, but it's fresh. Oh, isn't it good!"

As Ned approached the pool Dick, who was lying on the prairie beside
it, lifted his face from the water of which he had been drinking,
and was turning to speak to his companion when the head of a great
alligator, with wide open jaws, was thrust violently out of the
pool, just touching the boy's face. Dick fell back on the prairie
and scrambled away from the pool. It was a minute before he spoke
and then he said to Ned:

"Let's get back to work. I don't want another drink for a month. It
makes me sick to think of it."

The slough was farther away than Ned thought and the road to it lay
through a marsh. Often they sank to the waist and wallowed for
rods, carrying the canoe which seemed to weigh a ton, or dragging it
beside them. Moccasins were plentiful, but the boys were too tired
to be worried by them. They had to make two more trips to carry
their cargo, and on the last one, as Dick was staggering under a
load of smoked meat and a heavy, salted skin, he was heard to say:

"I wonder why I killed that bear. I will never kill another one."

There was dry ground beside the slough, under some willow trees, and
the explorers were glad to rest there for the night. A duck flew
down by the willows as if seeking to camp with them and he
succeeded, for they had him for supper.

CHAPTER XVII

AMONG THE SEMINOLES

The young explorers had found an uncharted route