eyes as she
listened and asked questions. The tide was low when they arrived at
the mouth of the river, and Molly ran the boat on one of the oyster
bars that form a network across the entrance to Broad and Rodgers
rivers. Almost the instant the boat touched, Dick was overboard
heaving on the bow, and soon had the craft afloat. Then turning to
Molly, he said, while mischief sparkled in his eyes:

"I am sorry I ran you on that bar, Miss Barstow."

"You shouldn't bear malice, Dick," replied the girl.

CHAPTER XXIV

TO THE GLADES IN THE "IRENE"

They found the _Irene_ waiting for them near the mouth of the river,
with Ned impatient to be off to catch the inflowing-tide from the
mouth of Harney's River, which was about two miles down the coast.

It was still daylight when they crossed the bar and passed the
little key inside the mouth of the river, but they sailed up the
stream by the light of the stars, which gave mystic beauty to the
smooth water and the shadowy outlines of the tropical forest that
bordered the banks of the river. Captain Hull anchored the _Irene_
for the night in Tussock Bay, at the head of the lower division of
Harney's River, because, as he said, he needed all the daylight he
could get when he tackled the crooked courses between Tussock Bay
and the Everglades.

When the anchor was hoisted in the morning, Dick was at the wheel,
which he held on to when the captain came up to relieve him. The
captain stood by as the boy steered across the bay, and wondered at
the chance that kept him for miles on exactly the right course. As
the boat was passing Tussock Key, Dick headed up to the northeast.

"Too far north," said the captain. "Course is east-southeast."

"No talking to the man at the wheel," said Dick, and Captain Hull
laughed and waited for the trouble that was coming. But no trouble
came, and the _Irene_ twisted in and out, always in plenty of water,
for a mile and a half of crooked creek, until it floated in a wider
stream, the banks of which were covered with long prairie grass,
when Dick handed over the wheel to the captain, saying:

"Guess you know the rest of the way, don't you, Captain? If you get
in any trouble call on me."

"That was one on me," said Captain Hull as he took the wheel. "I
never came that way before. Wonder who taught you piloting? Mighty
few pilots can find their way up this river."

"I came that way," said Dick nonchalantly, "because the water is
deeper a