"Where there's water for the canoe, there will be water for you. It's Everglade water from now on."
"I wish it would begin this minute. There's a little mud-hole that looks pretty wet. Do you think that might be fresh?"
"Only way to find out is to try it." A minute later Dick called out.
"Come here, Ned, it's muddy, but it's fresh. Oh, isn't it good!"
As Ned approached the pool Dick, who was lying on the prairie beside it, lifted his face from the water of which he had been drinking, and was turning to speak to his companion when the head of a great alligator, with wide open jaws, was thrust violently out of the pool, just touching the boy's face. Dick fell back on the prairie and scrambled away from the pool. It was a minute before he spoke and then he said to Ned:
"Let's get back to work. I don't want another drink for a month. It makes me sick to think of it."
The slough was farther away than Ned thought and the road to it lay through a marsh. Often they sank to the waist and wallowed for rods, carrying the canoe which seemed to weigh a ton, or dragging it beside them. Moccasins were plentiful, but the boys were too tired to be worried by them. They had to make two more trips to carry their cargo, and on the last one, as Dick was staggering under a load of smoked meat and a heavy, salted skin, he was heard to say:
"I wonder why I killed that bear. I will never kill another one."
There was dry ground beside the slough, under some willow trees, and the explorers were glad to rest there for the night. A duck flew down by the willows as if seeking to camp with them and he succeeded, for they had him for supper.