ir; three days--seventy-two hours, and not a minute less."

"What are you going to do with all that time?"

"I have elected myself senior boss and Dick junior boss, and we are
going to show you and Molly the Everglades. The _Irene_ will start
down Broad River at once. But Molly is to take the power-boat
through the cut-off to Rodgers River, and down that river to its
mouth, where she will find us. Oh, by the way, Dick will go with her
as engineer, but subject to her orders."

When the _Irene_ was opposite the cut-off, the power-boat, with
Molly and Dick on board, was set adrift and was soon twisting and
turning at half speed as it followed the channel of the crooked
creek. Swimming through the creek would have made a snake dizzy, and
the girl at the wheel had to keep it spinning. There were logs to
be dodged and sharp-ended stumps to be avoided. Trees lay nearly
across the stream, leaving barely the width of the boat to spare,
and others under which the boat had to be driven between flexible
branches, while the steerswoman crouched low down in the craft.
There were birds and beasts on the bank, fish and reptiles in the
water, but the girl could spare them scarcely a glance. Great
spiders hung in midair on nets that stretched from bank to bank, and
Molly's face was matted with webs that she could not avoid, while
her teeth were tightly clenched lest she scream when the hairy legs
of a spider with a spread of five inches traveled across her face.
Dick saw her trouble and came forward to where he could lean ahead
of her and take the brunt of the spider's work. Molly spared him a
grateful glance, but got in trouble for it the next instant. For
just then a quick turn of the craft happened to be necessary, and
although Dick helped to roll the wheel, it was too late, and because
of the inattention of a moment the motor-boat crashed into the bank.
The pilot and engineer were thrown violently against the wheel, but
nothing was injured excepting the temper of the girl, who said to
her companion:

"That was all your fault, Dick Williams, and I wish you would go
back to your engine. I will try to manage the wheel by myself."

After two miles of squirmy navigation the boat came out into the
broad, beautiful Rodgers River, down which they turned; and when
Dick pointed out where the tarpon had wrecked their canoe and
stunned him, and told of Ned's struggles to save his life, the
girl's voice trembled and there were tears in her