MIKE AND TIGEE TAIL PLAY CHESS. 411 



A stranger would have wondered what the simple 

 man could have found in the mangled corpse to call 

 forth so fervent an ejaculation of praise and of joy. 



Then carrying back the body and placing it just where 

 he found it, he glided back to the bushes and was soon 

 hid in his canoe under the mangrove roots that laced 

 and interlaced the crumbling banks. 



It was growing toward morning when the hunter 

 heard the Indians returning. He saw the boats glide 

 past without noise, seeking their former landing. From 

 where he lay hid he could have reached out and touched 

 them with his paddle. He counted the Indians as they 

 passed — there were but five. 



" "Where's that t'other one ?" questioned he in a whis- 

 per. No one answered his question, and when the boats 

 were out of sight Mike shot out into the open water, 

 and the strong long pushes of his paddle soon swept 

 his canoe around opposite the island he had lain on 

 during the day. The light from the lantern guided him 

 so that he lost no time, and when the little islet could be 

 discerned he halted, backed out a little, and softly let 

 down a stone anchor attached to a string to keep his 

 canoe from drifting from its place. Then throwing off 

 his hunting shirt and moccasins, and armed only with 

 his knife, he cautiously let himself down into the water 

 and floated toward the island. As he reached it he 

 quietly drew himself up out of the water and wormed 

 his way under the palmetto leaves toward the shore- 

 ward end of the island. In a moment more there was a 



