not reach it for
a long time, as the farther they were from the edge of the swamp the
safer they could rest.

No island of firm earth appeared, and the traveling grew more difficult.
Often they helped themselves along with vines that drooped from scrubby
trees, swinging their bodies over places that would not bear their
weight, but always, whether slow or fast, they made progress,
penetrating farther and farther into the huge blind maze.

The sun was low when they stopped for a long rest, hoping they would
reach refuge very soon.

"I don't think the warriors kin ever find us in here," said Long Jim,
"but what's troublin' me is whether we'll ever be able to git out
ag'in."

"Mebbe you wouldn't be so anxious to show yourse'f, Jim Hart, on solid
ground ef you could only see yourse'f ez I see you," said Shif'less Sol.
"You're a sight, plastered over with black mud, an' scratched with
briers an' bushes. Lookin' at you, an' sizin' you up, I reckon that
jest now you're 'bout the ugliest man in this hull round world."

"Ef I ain't, you are," said Long Jim, grinning. "Fact is, thar ain't a
beauty among us. I don't mind mud so much, but I don't like it when it's
black an' slimy. How fur do you reckon this flooded country goes,
Henry?"

"Twenty miles, maybe, Jim, but the farther the better for us. Here's an
old fallen log which I think will hold our weight. Suppose we stop here
and rest a little."

They were glad enough to do so. When they sat down they heard the
mournful sigh of a light wind through the black and marshy jungle, and
the splash now and then of a muskrat in the water. Their refuge seemed
dim and inexpressibly remote, as if it belonged to the wet and ferny
world of dim antiquity. But every one of the five felt that they were
safe, at least for the present, from pursuit.

"We might plough a trail a yard deep," said Shif'less Sol, "but the mud
would close over it ag'in in five minutes, an' Red Eagle with five
hundred o' the best trailers in the hull Shawnee nation couldn't foller
us."

"It's strange and grim," said Paul, "but, when you look at it a long
time there's a certain kind of forbidding beauty about it, and you're
bound to admit that it's a friendly swamp, since it's hiding us from
ruthless pursuers."

"Perhaps that's why you find the beauty in it," said Henry. "Come on,
though. The Shawnees are not likely to reach us here, but we must find
some snug place in which we can camp."

"After all," sa