CHAPTER XIV.
SAM CLEARS UP THE MYSTERY.
Tommy was the spokesman.
"Now then, Sam," he said, holding out his trowsers toward the fire to dry them, "tell us all about it." "I can't," replied Sam.
"Why not ?" "Because I don't know all about it myself." "Well, what do you mean by building this shed ?" "Don't call it a shed, Tom," said Billy Bowlegs, "it's a mansion, and these are our broad acres all around here." "Yes, and the alligators down in the swamp there are our cattle," said Sam.
"And here's our fowls," said Billy, slapping at the mosquitoes, "game ones they are too, ain't they ?" "Stop your nonsense," said Sid Russell, "I want to hear Sam's explanation.

Tell us, Sam, what did you build the shanty for ?" "To live in while it rains, to be sure." "Yes, but how long are we going to stay here ?" "I don't know." "Well then, why are we to stop here at all ?" asked Tom, "and what have you been thinking about all the afternoon?
You didn't open your head after it began raining, until we got here; you were working out something, and this halt means that you've worked it out.

What is it?
That's what we want to know." "You're partly right," said Sam, laughing, "but you're partly wrong.

I have been thinking how to get out of this pocket we're caught in, and I've partly worked it out, but not entirely.

That is to say, I must wait till morning before I can say precisely what I shall have to do.
Let me show you where we are;" and with that Sam took out his map and spread it on the ground before him, while the boys clustered around.
"Here we are," pointing to a spot on the map, "near the Nepalgah river, at the upper end of the peninsula it makes with the Patsaliga and the Connecuh rivers.