“Good thing, and I move that we keep paddling till we get to those woods you talked about, if it takes a week.  Tom votes with me.  Motion carried.”

About the middle of the forenoon they saw a clump of palmettos on a key, for which they headed at once, where they found ground which had been often camped upon.  Dick climbed a tree and could make out a forest near the horizon, in the west.  A few more hours’ work would see them out of the Glades, but they chose to rest for the remainder of the day.

“There goes your pet.  That’s the last of him,” said Ned, pointing to the lynx in the top of the tree, which Dick had climbed.

“He’ll come back all right.  If he doesn’t I’ll go up and fetch him by the scruff of his neck.”

[Illustration:  “THERE GOES YOUR PET.  THAT’S THE LAST OF HIM”]

Dick was right, for when the wild-cat saw the stores broken into for dinner he came down for his portion of meat and then curled up for a nap on his canvas in the canoe.  Tom tolerated Ned, but never permitted any familiarities from him, while Dick could handle him as he chose and the lynx only smiled, in his own fashion.

To reach the woods they were aiming for the boys left the Indian trail they were on and, after forcing their way through a strand of saw-grass, found themselves on a prairie, bounded on the west by a heavy growth of cypress, oak and other heavy timber, while the prairie itself was made beautiful by picturesque little groups of palmettos which were scattered through it.

CHAPTER XVIII

DICK’S WILDCAT AND OTHER WILD THINGS

The Everglades had been crossed and that great region of romance was no longer a mystery to our explorers, who found a dry, shaded site for their camp on the border of the swamp which they planned to explore and there fitted up for a long stay.  They stretched their canvas, tent fashion, and gathered grass and moss for their beds.  A round, deep pool of clear fresh water was just beside the camp, and after one rattlesnake and a few moccasins that claimed squatter’s title had been killed they felt that nothing was lacking.  In the evening the distant gobbling of a turkey told the hunters what would be the first duty of the next day.  When they started out on the hunt prepared to be gone for one or more days Dick was troubled for fear Tom might not understand his long absence and skip out.  He had a long talk with the lynx and told Ned that he thought Tom would be good.  Then he got out two days’ rations for the animal, which it ate up at once.  There was more dry land in this swamp than in those farther south to which they had become accustomed, and traveling was better, or rather, less bad.  Yet to persons with less experience than the young explorers it would have seemed to be as bad as it was possible for it to be.  For half a day the boys tramped and waded in the swamp without finding the game they were looking for.