"Wouldn't you like to go off in my autogiro today?" she inquired, without turning around.
Her companion laughed bitterly.
"Not a chance!" she replied. "Didn't you see Beefy take that big can to the boat with him? That was gas."
"Oh!" exclaimed Linda, her hopes dashed to the ground. "You mean they don't trust you?"
"They don't trust anybody!" announced the other girl, emphatically. "It don't pay—in a game like theirs."
"Would you have gone with me?" inquired Linda. "If they hadn't taken it?"
"I don't know. My ankle's better. But I'm sick and tired of Slats, though I guess I'd miss the cash and the excitement. And I guess I'd be too scared he'd get me in the end if I double-crossed him."
Linda was silent. Now that this hope was frustrated, she must think of something else. Surely this was her chance of escape—with the men away, and her only companion a cripple.
But the swamp—the dreadful swamp was all about her. How far into the depth of the Okefenokee she was, she did not know. It was all a vast unexplored wilderness to her.