w, made ready to cut it in twain, when, possessed of an
idea that he must not make a miscalculation, laid down his saw, and went
to work to measure it for the fourth time!

Paul was not quite so bad as all that, but he did like to make sure he
was right before taking a step that could not be recovered, once it was
gone.

"There's one thing sure," Seth could not help remarking, after he had
watched Paul for some time, and noted how confident the other seemed
with every forward step that was taken.

"What might that be, Seth?" demanded Babe Adams, when the other paused.

"If that feller I talked with, the one that hunts muskrats around here
in the season, had been just half as smart as Paul, he never would a
lost hisself in the swamps, and come near starving to death."

"So say we all of us!" added Jotham.

"That's as neat a compliment as I ever had paid me, boys; though I
hardly think I deserve it, yet. Wait and see if we get lost, or not. The
proof of the pudding's in the eating of it, you know. Talk is cheap and
butters no parsnips, they say. I like to _do_ things. But honestly
speaking, I believe we're getting through this place pretty smartly."

"But she keeps agettin' darker right along, Paul?" complained Noodles,
taking advantage of a brief halt to pick up a stick and start to wiping
the dark ooze from the bottom of his trousers.

"That only means we're pushing steadily in toward the center; and I'm
beginning to lose my fear about getting there. Perhaps, after all, it
may be an easy thing to put our feet where those of no other white man
has ever trod."

Paul spoke with an assurance that carried the rest along with him. That
had ever been one of his strongest points at school in the leadership of
the class athletic and outdoor sports team.

It was getting more and more difficult for several of the scouts to
follow their leader. The narrow ledge had been bad enough, but when it
came to passing along slippery logs, with the water all around, and a
bath sure to follow the slightest mishap, Eben's nerve gave way.

"If it's going to keep up like this, Paul, you'll have to drop me out,
because I just can't do it, and that's a fact!" he wailed, as he clung
with both hands and knees to an unusually slippery place, having lost
his stick in making a miscalculation when trying to brace himself.

One of the other fellows recovered the staff, and then Eben was assisted
across. Paul had been expecting something like