“And now, friends, if you please, get ready for the trip to Lake Kissimmee.  Russ, see to it that you have plenty of film, for we won’t be able to get any out there.  Now I leave you to make your arrangements.”

There was a buzz and a hum of excitement as the players talked over what lay before them.  Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon rather shared the disappointment of Mr. Towne that there was no “society” at the place where they were going.  But Ruth and Alice, aside from a little feeling of apprehension, and of regret at the fate of the two girls of whom they had read, rather welcomed the coming change.

“It will be a new experience for us,” exulted Alice.

“And I hope it will be a pleasant one,” rejoined Ruth.

Final visits were paid to points of interest in St. Augustine.  It would be some time before they would see it again, as Mr. Pertell intended remaining in the interior for several weeks, and then going back to New York by a different route.

“We must have another drink from the Fountain of Youth,” laughed Alice, the day before their departure.  “Who knows but what it may preserve us, out in those dismal swamps?”

“Good idea!” commented Paul.  “Come on, I’ll go with you.”

So they went and made merry at the historic well.

Mr. Pertell and Russ had much to do to get ready for the trip.  A motor boat had been arranged for to meet the party at Sycamore, where the headquarters would be for most of the work in the wilds of Florida.  On this it was planned to take trips on Lake Kissimmee, and the river of that name.

“And we may go as far as Lake Okeechobee,” said Russ in speaking of the matter to Ruth.

“That’s down among the Everglades; isn’t it?” she asked.

“Close to them.  I’ve always wanted to go there, and see what they are like.  Now I may get the chance.”

“I think I should like to see them, too,” she agreed.

“Ruth, you are getting very brave,” observed Alice a little later, when the two sisters were packing up in their room.

“Why, dear?”

“To offer to go with Russ to the Everglades.”

“I didn’t offer!”

“It was the same thing, sister mine.  It makes a big difference; doesn’t it?”

“Silly!”

Alice laughed.

“I wonder if we ought to take all these light waists?” she asked a little later, holding up a beautiful flimsy one.  “It’s sure to be hot there, I suppose.”

“I imagine so.  And yet there may be cool and damp evenings.  I’d take everything, if I were you.”

“I was thinking of sending some of my things back to Mrs. Dalwood.  She promised to look after them, if I did.”

“Oh, I’d take everything.  Where did you get that?” Ruth asked curiously, as she held up one of her sister’s garments, ornamented with a peculiar lace.

“At that little Spanish shop we pass every day.  Oh, she has some of the most gorgeous things there, and some of the most beautiful!  I wish my purse were as long as my desires.  But I got this very reasonably.”