When all were landed, the search began for the hiding-place Sam had described.

It proved to be more than a mile higher up the river, and when they found it, the day was breaking.

The trees were not hollow, as Sam had supposed.

The river bank in that place is in three terraces, and the two great trees stood almost alone on the second one of these.

The sandy soil had been gradually washed out from under the great trunks, so that the trees proper began about fifteen feet from the ground, the space below being occupied by a great net-work of exposed roots, some of them a foot or two in thickness, and others varying in size all the way down to mere threads.