"Did you hear it too ?" "Alligator," answered Dain shortly, with a careless glance towards the creek.

"The darker the night," he continued, "the shorter will be our road, for then we could keep in the current of the main stream, but if it is light--even no more than now--we must follow the small channels of sleeping water, with nothing to help our paddles." "Dain," interposed Nina, earnestly, "it was no alligator.

I heard the bushes rustling near the landing-place." "Yes," said Dain, after listening awhile.

"It cannot be Babalatchi, who would come in a big war canoe, and openly.

Those that are coming, whoever they are, do not wish to make much noise.