164 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



eyes met, and we read in each other's countenance 

 that embarrassment which the bravest and most light- 

 hearted are apt to feel when hemmed in by perils of 

 which they cannot conjecture the nature. 



" Fire off your gun," said I to Carleton. I started 

 as I spoke at the alteration in my own voice. The gun 

 went off, but the report was, as it were, stifled by the 

 compressed atmosphere. It did not even alarm some 

 water-fowl that were plashing and floundering in the 

 creek a few hundred paces from us. 



" Look at our horses ! " exclaimed Carleton. " They 

 are surely going mad." The animals were evidently 

 uneasy at something. They pricked up their ears, 

 turned half round, and gazed with startled eye be- 

 hind them ; then strained with their heads and necks 

 in the opposite direction to the vapour, snorting vio- 

 lently, and at last trying to break away from the 

 trees to which they were tied. A short time pre- 

 viously they had appeared much fatigued, but now 

 they were all fire and impatience. 



"It is impossible to remain here," said Carleton. 

 " But whither shall we go ? " 

 " Wherever our horses choose to take us." 

 We untied the animals and sprang upon them. 

 But scarcely were we in the saddle when they started 

 off at a pace as frantic as if a pack of wolves had been 

 at their heels ; and taking the direction of the creek, 

 which ran between the palmetto plantation and a 

 cypress wood, continued along its banks at the same 



