“That just goes to show what a fine memory I have,” retorted Fred. “Whenever you can’t remember an old proverb, you try to make out that there never was such a one. Your memory is nothing but a hole with no bottom in it.”
“All right, pick on my memory all you want to,” grinned Bobby, “but remember ‘it’s a long worm that has no turning.’”
“You fellows had better cut out all those fake proverbs and get down to business,” warned Lee. “We’re just as far as ever from getting out of this swamp, and we don’t even know where we’re going to get our next meal. Why don’t you exercise your minds on this problem: when do we eat, and if so, how?”
“You certainly start off with a terribly hard one,” said Fred. “Can’t you think of anything easier than that, Lee?”
“I’m getting so hungry that I can’t think of anything else. It’s hours since the last of those alligator eggs disappeared,” complained Lee.
“Then you shouldn’t have thrown the cougar into the quicksand,” retorted Fred, “he might have made tough eating, but it would have been a lot better than nothing.”
“I thought of that,” admitted Lee. “But I was more anxious to keep him from eating me. Besides,” he added, “you and Bobby never thought of anything but getting rid of him at that time either.”
“No use crying over spilt milk,” said Bobby, philosophically. “We’ll have to move and trust to luck for something to eat.”
As neither of the others had anything better to suggest, they plodded back to the path they had been following when they were so rudely interrupted by the cougar. The haze had lightened considerably, and the sun shone through with the appearance of a big red ball, enabling the boys to pick their way for a short time, but then the haze settled down thicker than ever, and they found themselves entirely at a loss. Their only consolation was that the ground appeared to be getting steadily higher and firmer, and they felt that they had left the worst of the bog behind them. But the faint path they had been following grew less and less distinct, and before they fairly realized it they were hopelessly lost. For a time they stumbled on through a maze of vines and creepers that grew steadily thicker, until at last they became practically impassable. Then the boys were forced to call a halt, and they gazed at each other questioningly.