organ and some of the others began to sing songs of home, but these
the captain stopped because of the depression they induced in some of
the men.

At length, after more than a fortnight of drifting with the current,
the first parting of the ways at the beginning of the delta was
reached. To the Indians this was the threshold of home; to the
Englishmen it was but a poor halting-place, from which they must set
out to face fresh perils, and maybe meet newer disappointments. The
bewildering maze of channels was once more threaded, this time with the
varying strengths of the current to indicate the better routes. The
dense, overhanging vegetation sheltered the voyagers by day and stifled
them by night. Rests at friendly villages were eagerly welcomed, and
no bad news awaited the weary band. A few Spanish boats had been seen
in some of the channels, but they had asked no questions concerning the
Englishmen, and the natives had given no information, fearing that
their masters--for so the Dons accounted themselves--would punish them
for having assisted their enemies.

It was in the heat of sultry afternoon, the air stirless, the water in
the channel warm and rank-smelling. The boats were drifting lazily
under the banks, the native steersmen half sleeping at their posts, the
white men stretched out, listless, sun-wearied, inert. A canoe shot
out across the path of the boats, disappeared along another waterway,
stopped, and a Spaniard got out and plunged into the trees on the low
island. He watched the flotilla go by. He noticed the attitude of the
men.

"St. James!" he cried, "I could do it with a score of resolute
soldiers! What a chance! And I must miss it!"

The Englishmen drifted on; the Spaniard followed at a safe distance.
He wanted a solution to an important question: Where was the English
ship? He had hunted for it, and so had others--for the _Golden Boar_
had been tracked from Trinidad into the delta--but no man had sighted
her, and knew not how far she had gone up-stream. It was not suspected
that she had remained so near the sea as proved to be the case. The
native chief had guarded his secret well.

That night, about an hour after sunset, and with the light of the
growing moon to guide them, the adventurers tied up their boats in the
pool where the _Golden Boar_ still lay. What a thrill went through
each heart as the outline of their ocean home appeared dimly through
the veil of white mist! Tea