For the noon-day meal there was plenty of provisions left from breakfast, and while the canoe was being borne along by the current at the rate of three or four miles per hour, the little party regaled themselves with meat or fruit as fancy dictated.
When the sun was within an hour of sinking behind the trees the word to halt was given, and that they had covered a long distance since morning could be told from the alligators and the turtles which were so numerous as to often render navigation dangerous.
"You will indulge in no more baths this side of Progresso," Cummings said, as the boys leaped ashore just as the long snout of an alligator appeared at the very edge of the water, its owner waiting in the hope that by falling overboard some of the boatmen would provide him with a supper. "The presence of these fellows shows that we are nearing the coast, and if they will give us half a chance you shall know the taste of fresh water turtle, which is much finer than that of their cousins from the sea."
It would have been a very agile alligator who could have stopped Poyor in his search for a toothsome morsel, and in a short time two, known as hicoteas, were roasting in the midst of a roaring fire.
"While a fellow is traveling in this manner he can't complain of the bill of fare," Jake said, in a tone of most perfect content, as he helped himself to another portion of the turtle. "With a different kind of food at each meal, and all of the primest quality, we ought to grow fat."
"More especially since you are not obliged to exert yourself in the slightest," Teddy added with a laugh.
"There's a good deal in that also, though I never refuse to do my share of the work."
"Except when you feel very tired."
"Well a man must take care of himself, and there are times when it becomes absolutely necessary to rest. Say, if we had some of those silver images here it wouldn't be a very hard job to carry them, eh?"
"Now don't get back to that subject," Neal said impatiently. "If you are so eager to have two or three stop here with Cummings, and make one of the party when he tries the venture again."