ain't a goin' back if the Captain knows it. He's got it all fixed
somehow in his head, you may bet your bottom dollar. Just wait till he
explains."

"That's so," said Billy Bowlegs, "only it seems to me he's got a
mighty hard sum this time, an' if he's got the right answer I'd like
to see just what it is."

"He's got it, ain't you, Sam?" asked Sid, confidently.

"I believe I have," said Sam.

"What is it?" asked all the boys in a breath.

"Canoe," answered Sam.

"To cross the river with? That's the trick," said Bob Sharp.

"No," replied Sam, "that was what I first thought of; or rather, I
first thought of building some sort of a raft to cross the river on,
and then it occurred to me that we could go on faster on high water in
a canoe than on foot; so my notion is to dig out a good big canoe and
ride all the way in it."

"Can we do that?"

"Yes, the Nepalgah river runs into the Connecuh, and the Connecuh into
the Escambia, and the Escambia runs into Escambia Bay, and Escambia
Bay is an arm of Pensacola Bay. Here, look at it on the map; you see
it's as straight a course as we could go even on land, or pretty