still the current carried them forward. They breakfasted in the boat,
first stripping to the waist and sluicing their heads, necks, arms and
chests with water. Breakfast was scarcely over when the boat shot out
of the Nepalgah into the Connecuh river, whereat the boys gave a
cheer. About noon they entered the Escambia river, and their speed
slackened. Here they had met the influence of the tide which checked
the force of the current, and their progress grew steadily slower,
until Sam directed the use of the paddles. They had long since left
the drift wood behind, lodged along the banks, and they had now a
broader and straighter stream than before, although it was still not
very broad nor very straight. Two boys paddled at a time, one upon
each side, while a third steered, and by relieving each other
occasionally they maintained a very good rate of speed.

The moon was well up into the sky again when the river spread out into
Escambia bay, and the boat was moored with a grape vine, in a little
cove on one of the small islands in the upper end of the bay, about
fifteen miles above Pensacola. The boys leaped upon land again gladly.
Their voyage had been made successfully, and they were at last in the
neighborhood of the danger they had set out to encounter, and the duty
they had undertaken to do.




CHAPTER XVII.

THLUCCO.