yards two quick
shots rang out. It was "li'l crack-crack" speaking, I felt sure of it.

Shots answered rapidly in threes and fours. The automatic spoke again,
this time farther to the north, drawing more shots from the angry
pursuers; but I knew that among trees so thick and in darkness so
impenetrable Smilax and Echochee ran little chance of being hit. At the
prairie, made vaguely lighter by a hazy, half grown moon, we crouched in
the grass and waited.

You have never, I suppose, been afraid to breathe, flattened against a
wall, or huddled in a shadowy place, listening to the growls and grunts
and sniffs of the man-beast hunting you? No, of course not.

Men were now tearing through the forest like a herd of stampeded horses,
shooting, yelling, cursing, while at brief intervals the automatic told
them which way to go. Farther and farther the chase went, all the time
following the coast and leading away from us till, after twenty minutes,
the yells were hardly discernible and the shots sounded like faint
little pops of a nursery gun. But they were as rapid as ever, telling us
that the pursuit had in no way diminished. Smilax, undoubtedly master of
the situation, would lead them on and on; either close by Big Cove so
those aboard the _Whim_--had she made harbor--could take a hand, or
finally lose them somewhere in the treacherous Everglades. Then he would
came back for us. I felt no great uncertainty for Smilax and Echochee.

I now straightened up--taking care that she should not see my face--and
listened to satisfy myself that no one had stayed behind to be roaming
in the forest near us, then whispered:

"Come!"

In silence, she following, we crossed the two mile space, and I drew a
deep breath of thankfulness when we at last stepped beneath the black
trees of my "island."

I knew that she had taken me for a Seminole--at least, the probability
seemed to be strong in that direction. The darkness again was too
intense for her to see my features, and, since I had been fairly
successful in speaking the choppy English of the Indian, I determined to
continue the deception until morning. For she had become somewhat
accustomed to the "trusted friend" by now, whereas re-introductions at
this hour would be exceedingly awkward, if not quite disastrous to her
peace of mind. So, without a halt, I walked on through the trees until
we came to her tent. At the door of this I put down her bag, then
stepped back and for a second