"
"Maybe it's blocked up above."
"Of course, it might be, but it seems like a chance worth taking. We
are sure to be caught if we hang to this trail."
"I reckon thet's so. Ye let me go ahead with the nigger gurl, an' then
follow after us, leadin' Miss Beaucaire's boss. By jeminy crickets,
'tain't deep 'nough fer ter drown us enyway, an' I ain't much afeerd o'
the dark. Thar's likely ter be sum place whar we kin get out up thar.
Whar the hell are them hosses?"
We succeeded in locating the animals by feeling and I waited on the
edge of the bank, the two reins wrapped about my arm, until I heard the
others go splashing down into the water. Then I also groped my own way
cautiously forward, the two horses trailing behind me, down the sharply
shelving bank into the stream. Tim chose his course near to the
opposite shore, and I followed his lead closely, guided largely by the
splashing of Elsie's animal through the shallow water. Our movement
was a very slow and cautious one, Kennedy halting frequently to assure
himself that the passage ahead was safe. Fortunately the bottom was
firm and the current not particularly strong, our greatest obstacle
being the low-hanging branches which swept against us. Much of my time
was expended in holding these back from contact with Eloise's face, our
horses sedately plodding along behind their leaders.
I think we must have waded thus to exceed a mile when we came to a fork
in the stream and plumped into a tangle of uprooted trees, which ended
our further progress.
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