178 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



bread to answer for our dinner, we embarked and started once 

 again for " Far Away." 



Mike had given directions at starting as to the course we were 

 to take, and himself led the way. This was not the same route we 

 had taken in coming, but deflected much to the southward. Soon 

 the islands on which we had passed so many pleasant days were 

 blue in the distance, and I envied the pelicans that were sitting on 

 the sandy point, careless denizens of a happy land, to whom time 

 brought no necessity for change, and who only migrated at their 

 pleasure, a headland of water-oaks presently shut out our isola-bella, 

 and the boats wound in among a group of islands that hid us from 

 any view but those of the shores that immediately surrounded us. 

 Mike's canoe, that led the way, paused for a moment, and as we 

 rode abreast he spoke to Jackson, who was with his daughter and 

 the Doctor, and asked them to row on slowly with the other boats 

 through the channel that opened ahead, and await his coming in the 

 first broad piece of water they came to. The boats all passed on, 

 but Mike, who was paddling alone with Scipio, turned back and ran 

 ashore on the low island we had just passed and that had shut out 

 our view of Bonda Key. Landing on the beach, he bade Scipio wait, 

 while he crossed over the narrow point of the island, and standing 

 among the heavy moss that reached down from the trees, narrowly 

 scanned the open water we had crossed. Bonda Key exposed its 

 full length of blue ; beyond were other lesser sandy keys blinking 

 in the sunshine; nearer, the low tangled islands upreared their 

 winter verdure, save when the magnolias or pines interspersed their 

 green domes, or the gaudy creepers blotched them with scarlet. 

 Long flocks of ducks crept along the horizon, or swam in nearer 

 clumps ; but it was for none of these the hunter was watching. At 

 length from behind an island, that had momentarily hid the view, 

 a canoe, impelled by a single paddler, glided over the water, appa- 

 rently making for the place where the hunter stood. Mike re- 

 turned to his canoe, and paddled to the point of the island where 

 an old tree, undermined by the water, had fallen over with its load 

 of vines and moss, and then pulled his boat under its shelter until 

 it was completely invisible from any spot but the water in front. 

 The canoe that was approaching from beyond soon reached the end 



