“Are you game, Johnny, to camp to-night where we jerked the venison?”

“I kin stand it if you kin.  Them squaws took two days, though, ’nd I ain’t lookin’ ter beat Injuns much with a canoe.”

It is doubtful if the boys could have made the camp, for darkness came before they were in sight of it, had not Dick said: 

“Johnny, isn’t that a light over there toward the land?  I’ve seen it two or three times.  Do you s’pose it’s a fire in the woods?”

“Don’t see it,” said Johnny.  “Yes, I do, now,” adding excitedly an instant later:  “Don’t you ‘member th’ big bend in th’ trail jest after we left th’ camp we’re lookin’ fer?  That fire ain’t in th’ woods.  It’s at our old camp, ’nd Charley Tommy built that fire, sure as shootin’.”

Dick was faint with excitement, and could scarcely hold his paddle.

“We must get there soon as we can,” said he.

“Sure!” said Johnny.  “Only let’s go quiet ’nd s’prise ’em.”

If Charley Tommy had been a white man the plan would probably have been successful.  As the boys approached the camp they moved more and more slowly, until Dick laid down his paddle and Johnny did all the work.  There was not a sound that Dick could hear, and when the canoe was within a hundred feet of the fire he could see Ned Barstow resting his elbow on a log near it, while the Indian lay beside a palmetto, apparently asleep.  But as the canoe continued to approach, Charley Tommy lifted his head, took a swift look around, and, half rising, gazed keenly out over the water toward the boys in the canoe.  Further concealment was impossible, and Dick called out: 

“Hello, the camp!”

Ned sprang to his feet, and looking across the water in the direction from which the dream voice seemed to have come, was silent until he saw the shadowy outline of a canoe, when he spoke in a voice that trembled with emotion: 

“Dicky boy, is that you?”

“Yes, Neddy!” And soon the reunited chums had grabbed and hugged one another till both were breathless.  Then they began asking and answering questions, sometimes by turns and sometimes together, till they were breathless again.

“How did you come to recognize my voice so quickly?” asked Dick.

“Because I was thinking of you, Dick, and wondering when we could take the trips we planned in that camp in the North.  Now those wonderful dreams have come true!”

CHAPTER VIII

OLD DREAMS REALIZED

There was a long council around the camp-fire that night, and it was settled that Ned and Dick were to take the light canoe with their own stores and start off by themselves on the hunting and exploring tour of which they had dreamed for years.  Johnny was to go on an alligator hunt with Charley Tommy.  Johnny thought the Indian could stand the work about two months, after which they would go to Chokoloskee