boys, you see. My pockets won't stretch
far enough."

"Oh! keep it going, if it pleases you, boys," the good natured Nick
observed; "it don't hurt me any more'n water falling on a duck's back.
Josh as much as admits that he's just consumed by envy because he can't
enjoy his food like I do. But I'm used to being knocked around like a
football. George here has rolled all over me forty times, I guess,
since we've been shipmates. I'm beginning to get calloused around my
elbows and knees. By the time this cruise is finished I'll be ready to
hire out in a side show as the only and original human punching bag."

The stay in Charleston was covered in two days, during which they
managed to get around pretty well, and see all that was worth while.
Besides, they had laid in all necessary stores, and the gas supply was
looked after.

On the third morning the Motor Boat Club set out along the wide Stone
River, which soon narrowed, as all these southern rivers have a habit
of doing, a short distance from its mouth. Then, by degrees, they
passed through a tortuous channel, that, being safely navigated, took
them in turn to another river, called the Wadmelaw.

Passing the lower stretches of the swift running Edisto River, they
managed to make the northern shore of St. Helena Sound by the middle of
the afternoon; and an hour later determined to camp there in the open,
rather than enter the tortuous watercourses leading to Beaufort.

An early start on the following day gave them a chance to pass Beaufort
before ten o'clock, and then head for distant Savannah.

The course was intricate; but Jack studied his chart closely; and
besides, they discovered that the channel was located by means of
targets which doubtless had been placed there by the steamboat company,
so that with any exercise of care they had little excuse for going
astray.

And as the last of Calibogue Sound was left behind they managed to
reach the wide Savannah River, just as the sun was sinking in the west.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THANKS TO THE PILOT--CONCLUSION.

When the adventurous six left Savannah in their wake, and struck in for
the stream below the city which would take them to Wassaw Sound, they
knew that they had really started on what was destined to be the last
leg of the trip to Florida.

By noon they had managed to make Ossaban Sound, and still kept on,
hoping to cross the wide reach that formed St. Catherine's Sound that
same day. But it wa