Dick waded to the hummock and sat down on it, wondering what Johnny was laughing at.  The next minute he understood, for the hummock gave a heave and Dick rolled off into the water, while a scared alligator scurried away through the water and mud of the prairie.  The hummock was only a pile of loose grass such as alligators often collect and under which they live in the Everglades and the submerged prairies about them.  Soon the boys found dryer ground, and after a brisk tramp of half an hour were cheered by the sight of their camp.  There was no sign of life about it, to the great disappointment of Dick, who had been hoping that Ned had found it.  Before reaching their camp they had to cross a slough that was wide and deep.

“Reckon we’ve got ter swim,” said Johnny as he found a dry place on the bank for his pack and his rifle before wading into the stream.  But the bottom was of coral and hard, the water reached only to his arm-pits, and the boys crossed without trouble, carrying their packs on their heads.  Dick decided to wait for Ned at the camp, and Johnny collected wood and proceeded to smoke their venison.  For two days they stayed by the camp, watching the trail and keeping the buzzards away from the venison by day and listening to the cries of the wild creatures in the woods near-by at night, when Dick’s patience gave out.

“Johnny,” said he on the morning of the third day, “we’ve got to find Ned Barstow.  Do you s’pose if he knew that I was within fifty miles of him he’d loaf in camp for a week expecting me to run over him?  Not much he wouldn’t.  He’d be sky-hootin’ from daylight till dark over the whole country till he lit on me.  Mr. Streeter said Charley Tommy couldn’t get past Tiger Tail’s camp under four days.  Now, what’s the matter with our meeting him there?  Can’t you follow the trail of those squaws bade to Tiger’s camp?”

“I kin try.  Mebbe ’tain’t so easy’s you think, though.”

“What risk do we run in trying it?”

“Nothin’, ’cept we may miss your man.  We’re all right ’nd could live anywhere in this country for a year on what we’ve got and could pick up.”

“Then let’s hike out.  I can’t keep still any longer.”

The boys followed the trail by which the squaws had come without difficulty for a few miles.  Then came a stretch of open water, where their eyes failed to catch the faint traces of the passing canoes among the few scattering blades of grass that appeared on the surface.  Several times they picked up the trail after they had lost it, but at last they missed it for miles.  They decided not to go back, and kept on, hoping to find it again.  They kept in the light grass as much as they could, but in avoiding the strands of the heavy saw-grass of the Glades they were forced farther and farther to the east, until night found them in the open Everglades with no hope of a place to camp.