"Why, I didn't see anybody stopping him!" ejaculated Larry.
Tony made a movement toward his mouth, and then observed:
"Gabe he not say much now for five years. Used tuh curse more'n three men. Then a tree he was cutting down fell wrong way. Gabe he caught underneath. Bite tongue off and near die when McGee find him. So he makes talk with hands since that time."
"Oh! what d'ye think of that, now?" cried the wondering Larry. "Pretty tough on that long-legged Gabe, for a fact. No wonder then, he didn't call out to you, and ask all those questions I could see on his face."
"Tony, do you suppose now that Gabe came up the swift river in his dugout, which I noticed floating on the water near where he stood on that rise?" asked Phil, with a reason for the query.
The swamp boy looked uneasily at him, but answered at once.
"No, current too strong. We come this far through swamp. I paddle so when I take little sister up-river. That place whar Gabe stand hide entrance to swamp."
"And how long do you suppose it would take Gabe, if he started right away, to get back to the settlement?" Phil continued.
"After sundown, an' afore dark," the other answered. "River turn many times, but through swamp it is easy to go straight away."
"Then unless we started up, and ran for it, Gabe could get there sooner than our motor boat; is that a fact, Tony?"