the gun ready. It's all loaded. No telling what might happen. A bobcat
might take a notion to come aboard, or an alligator might nose us out.
We'll have to be on the watch."

Little or nothing could be told about the surrounding country in the
darkness, even illuminated as it was by the moon. The river stretched
away in either direction, and both banks were heavily wooded.

"Br-r-r! but it's creepy here!" sighed Ruth, as the two young men got
into the boat again.

"Is that a light--a lantern--off there?" asked Alice, suddenly, as she
sat up and pointed.

For a moment they all hoped that it was, and they raised their voices in
shouts:

"Here we are!"

"Look for our lantern!"

Then as the other light moved about erratically Russ said:

"It's only _ignis-fatuus_--will-o'-the-wisp. It's a sort of
phosphorescent glow that appears at night over swamps. I've seen it in
rotting stumps on hot nights."

"Too bad to disappoint you," said Mrs. Maguire. "Now, girls, get
comfortable, and we'll be all right in the morning. Try to sleep."