"
"I know I ain't beautiful," said Long Jim thoughtfully, "an' I don't know
ez I want to be, but ef any woman wuz to marry me she'd most likely
believe whatever I told her, bein' ez I hev a truthful countenance, but
ez fur you, Sol, anybody kin tell by lookin' at you that ef you wuz to
ketch in this river a little cat-fish six inches long you'd tell them that
didn't know that it wuz a whale."
"Seems to me," said Tom Ross, "that I wuz waked up kinder suddint a few
hours ago. I wuz in the middle uv a most bee-yu-ti-ful nap, and I know
right whar I stopped it. I'm goin' back an' pick up that nap at the exact
place whar I left off."
Without another word he pulled his blanket over him and stretched himself
on a seat. In a minute or two he was sound asleep. Tom Ross was a veteran
campaigner. He not only knew what to do, but he could and would do it.
"Paul, you and Jim follow him," said Henry, "I'll keep what's left of the
watch with Sol."
Jim was treading the easy path of slumber in five minutes, but it took
Paul at least ten to pass through the gates. Henry and Sol sat in the
boat, silent but watchful.
"We're between two fires," whispered Henry at last. "I don't think that
war party will give up just yet, and maybe we'd better stick here in the
woods for a while, on the chance that they think we belong to the Spanish
force and have rejoined it.
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