to avoid sinking in the mud, they had to make a wide detour.
"Listen!" cried Sam, presently, and held up his hand.
"What did you hear?" asked Harold Bird.
"I heard something as if somebody was walking through the brush yonder!"
"Maybe it was the men we are after!" cried Dick. "Come on!"
They continued to move forward until some fallen trees all but barred their further progress. Then they came to a small rise of ground—a veritable island in this swamp,—and reaching the highest point, gazed around them.
"What is that?" asked Sam, pointing with his hand to a round, black object showing above some bushes at a distance.
"Why, that looks like the smokestack of the houseboat!" cried Tom. He meant the stack to the chimney, for several rooms of the houseboat were furnished with stoves, to be used when the weather was chilly.
"We'll soon make certain," said Dick. "Forward, everybody!"
"Be careful!" cautioned Harold Bird. "Remember, you have desperate characters with whom to deal."
"Isn't everybody armed?" asked Sam. "I brought my pistol."
