“Now you girls will have to tell us which way to steer,” suggested Ned, when they had been puffing along for some distance. “How far did that alligator tow you?”
“It seemed like fifty miles,” replied Rose with a laugh.
“It was about an hour,” said Olivia, with more regard for correct details.
“Then we ought to be there soon,” declared Jerry. “That alligator wasn’t going very fast.”
“There’s the place!” suddenly exclaimed Nellie. “I remember it by the three dead trees on a little point of land,” and she indicated where she meant.
Jerry headed the _Dartaway_ in that direction. He scanned the shore, which they were approaching, for a sight of an outlet from Butterfly Lake. As he drew nearer he could see nothing that looked like a passage.
“Are you sure this is the place?” he asked the girls.
“Positive,” they all assured him, as they had all taken note of the three dead trees.
“It’s strange, but I can’t see any way out of the lake at this point,” spoke Jerry, standing up and gazing ahead.
“I know it’s the place!” insisted Nellie. “There, girls, see my handkerchief that I dropped as I was baiting my hook!”
She pointed to the piece of linen on the bank. There was no mistaking this bit of evidence. Jerry ran the boat ashore and got out. The girls followed him and Nellie recovered her handkerchief.
“This is the place we came through,” she said. “The houseboat was moored right here.”
“But now it’s gone and the passage is closed up!” exclaimed Jerry. “Something very strange has happened.”
For a moment following Jerry’s announcement the girls did not know what to say. The news startled them.
“Do you mean to tell us that the passage by which we entered here from Lake Okeechobee is closed?” asked Nellie.
“Where is it?” asked Ned. “You left it here and now it has disappeared!”
“Poor father!” exclaimed Olivia. “What can have happened to him?” and she looked at the startled countenances of her sisters.
The girls were very much frightened, not only at the disappearance of their houseboat but because of the strange happening that had closed the passage, and they were alarmed on account of their father.
“What shall we do?” asked Rose. “Perhaps those wicked colored men or some Seminole Indians have captured father.”