There was no answer!
With one accord, never pausing to think of personal danger, knowing that Nicky was not the sort to play a joke, that if he failed to answer their hail he must be in peril, they slipped into the water and used their utmost effort to reach the bend.
Hardly had they left the tiny beach when a Seminole Indian, with an almost expressionless face, emerged from a clump of heavy bushes through which he had been calmly, stolidly observing them for a half hour.
That was why, when Mr. Neale arrived ten minutes later, no clothes hung in the sun to furnish a clue to the presence of the boys.
As the two chums reached the bend and could see around it they suspended their strokes and stared!
Nicky was not in danger at all!
But he was evidently too stupefied by what he was regarding to have heard their call; or, perhaps the dense growth had dulled the sound. At any rate, they paddled hastily forward until they could climb out beside their comrade.
“Why didn’t you answer?” demanded Cliff, his anxiety shifting to a natural anger at the fright Nicky had given them.
“Oh! Golly! I guess I was too surprised to hear you!”
Nicky lifted an arm and waved it at the scene before them.