XXIII.
A wild Undertaking.—A Race for Life.—The lost Boot.—The Quicksands.—The Isle of Safety.—The Mud Gulch.—Crossing the Abyss of Mud.—Bruce’s Doldrum.—Two forlorn Figures.—Rapturous Welcome.—Speech by the Grand Panjandrum.
THERE they were on the mud flat. It was a situation in which the B. O. W. C. had been before, but experience had not made it any the more pleasant to them.
“We’ve done it before,” said Bruce, “and why shouldn’t we do it again?”
“So I say,” remarked Arthur. “It’s a great deal farther,” said Phil, “but in my opinion it isn’t half so bad as the other one.”
“Of course it isn’t,” said Tom. “The tide is leaving us rapidly, and we’ll be able to jump out upon the mud, and not up to our necks in water, as we did the last time.”
“And so we needn’t prepare to fight with shovel-mouth sharks,” said Phil.
“The fact is,” said Bart, “it’s going to be a difficult job, and harder than the last one, perhaps. We’ve got a couple of miles to go, instead of so many hundred yards. We must face that fact before leaving.”
“We know that very well,” said Phil.
“You see there is Grand Pré just in front of us.”