"Oughtn't we to be at the steamer by this time?" asked Mrs. Maguire, when
they could hardly see.

"Well, maybe we had," agreed Paul.

The light was set aglow, and then the young men shouted and called:

"_Magnolia_ ahoy!"

Echoes were their only answer, save the bellow or grunt of some distant
alligator, or the screech of some disturbed wild fowl.

"This is queer," observed Russ. "I'm sure we have rowed back far enough
to be at the place where we left the steamer. I wonder--"

But he did not finish.

"What do you wonder?" asked Alice, searchingly.

"Oh--nothing," Russ hesitated.

"Yes, it is something!" she insisted.

"Well, then, I was wondering if we possibly could have come down some
wrong creek. There were a number of turns, you know."

"Do--do you mean, we are--lost?" faltered Ruth.

"Well, I'm afraid I do."