sides. How soon do you
think we can get off?"

"You ought to start to-morrow. You can get ready in an hour. Know
anything about canoeing?"

"Not much, but I've rowed some in a shell."

"That'll help you a little, but it leaves you something to learn.
The man whose canoe you have bought was cruising down here with his
family and he told me that every time one of 'em stepped in that
canoe he went overboard. He said he had to choose between the canoe
and his family and had concluded to let the canoe go. One of my boys
owns a little Indian canoe in which Johnny and he have poled around
a good deal, so I reckon Johnny can keep inside of your canoe, but
you'd better spend the forenoon to-morrow practicing in it with a
paddle, then you can get off right after dinner and your clothes
will be dry before you make camp at night."

"Does Johnny know the course we ought to take from here?"

"Not far, but I can help you some and you'll find out the rest for
yourselves. You'll have to. Then Johnny savvies Injun talk pretty
well and you're sure to run across them or their camps. And he'll
likely know them, and if Ned's anywhere in their country or has been
there they'll sure know it. You will leave this bay by way of
Turner's River, which will take you into the most tangled up part of
the Ten Thousand Islands. You will go through rivers and bays,
around keys, along twisting channels and up narrow, crooked creeks.
You'll be lost from the start, but you don't want to think of that.
Just make your course average southeast for the first fifty miles,
which you ought to cover in three days. Then hunt for some creek
coming from the east. It will be a little one, you will have to drag
your canoe, perhaps for miles, under branches that close over the
creek and you may have to carry your canoe and pack your dunnage
over prairie land. In a day you ought to strike the Everglades. Then
turn to the north and look for Indian trails, which you want to
follow whenever they lead anywhere near where you are trying to go.
They will help you to dodge the worst of the saw-grass which is
likely to be your greatest trouble.

"Keep along the border line between the Everglades and the cypress
country and you will probably hit Osceola's camp. He's about the
whitest Seminole in the State and he'll help you all he can.
Remember, when in an Indian camp, that their brand of politeness is
different from a white man's, though it may be just as sincere. If
you