emained where they had put her.

As they strode rapidly across the little meadow they noticed that the
tall grass all round the clump in which they hoped to find their canoe
was much beaten down, as though a number of people had been walking
round it, and they also observed several well-defined trails leading
away from the clump toward the forest, all of which sent their hopes
down to zero, for the signs all pointed to the fact that someone--or
something--had made frequent visits to that clump of bush--some of them
quite recently; and if those visits had no reference to the hidden
canoe, they could not very well guess what their purpose could be. But
one thing was evident: that clump of bush must be approached with
caution; and accordingly they loosened their hangers in their sheaths,
strung their bows, fitted an arrow to the string, and then stole
cautiously forward, their figures strongly outlined in the vivid light
of the incessantly flashing lightning.

Reaching the spot where a slight thinning of the undergrowth had first
suggested to them the idea of hiding the canoe there, Dick suddenly
thrust Phil aside and, cautiously parting the bushes, proceeded to
insinuate himself into the opening thus made, Phil following him close
up, with his drawn hanger in his hand, raised ready to strike a blow if
necessary, although, hemmed closely in on every side, as they were, by
the tough, elastic stems and boughs of the undergrowth, it was almost as
difficult to strike a blow with a sword as it was to effectively draw a
bow. Working his way quietly but rapidly forward in the effective
manner which he had acquired by several months' practice in the
penetration of such growth, Dick at last stretched out his hand and
touched what he at once knew was the hull of the canoe.

"All right, Phil," he exclaimed, delightedly, "here she is. Now, if you
will stay where you are, and widen the opening a little, so that she
will pass out easily, I will go to the other end, and help you to lift
her out."

Accordingly, he proceeded to work his way along the length of the canoe,
forcing the boughs aside to make a passage for himself, until he had
reached to about mid-length of the canoe, when, the darkness in there
being almost impenetrable in spite of the continuously flashing
lightning, he reached his hand over to ascertain whether the sail and
paddles were still in the craft as they had been left. As he did so he
became conscious of a s