“We’re them!” cried Alice, with a justifiable disregard of grammar.

“And can you take us to that steamer?” asked Ruth, eagerly.

“I shore can, honey lamb; but it’s quite a far way t’ row t’night.”

“We can go in the motor boat!” cried Mabel.  “Oh, how glad I am that we have it.  There’s gasoline enough, I think, and there is a powerful searchlight.  Oh, Helen, we’re found—­we’re found!” and she fell to sobbing on her sister’s shoulder.

Ruth and Alice, too, clasped their arms about each other.  All their troubles seemed over now.

“Do you think you can pilot us to that steamer?” asked Russ.

“I shore can, honey lamb!” chuckled the old negro.  “I’se libbed in dese waters boy an’ man all mah life.  Yo’ can’t lose me!”

“And is this your place?” asked Mrs. Maguire, pointing to the palm hut.

“Dat’s what it am, honey lamb.  Uh, huh!  I comes heah t’ hunt alligators an’ sea cows.  Sometimes I stays fer a week at a time.  I jest come up now t’ see if dere any traces of ‘gators.  I’se gwine t’ start in huntin’ next week.”

“Oh, isn’t he a dear!” laughed Alice, with tears of joy in her eyes.

“Well, I guess you can postpone your investigation for a while,” suggested Russ.  “It’s getting dark, Uncle, and we’d like to get back to the steamer.  Now, if you’ll pilot us we’ll pay you well, and see that you get back in the morning.  You can stay on the Magnolia to-night—­if we find her.”

“Oh, I’ll find her, all right—­don’t yo’ all let dat fret yo’!” chuckled the negro.  “I knows jest where’s she tied.  It’s a few miles from heah, but in dat choo-choo boat yo’ all kin soon be dere.”

Leaving his own boat on shore the colored man got into the motor boat with the others.  The rowboat from the steamer was towed, and in it were left the rugs, blankets, moving picture camera and other things.

The two Madison sisters brought away with them a box of rare orchid specimens, the results of their search.

“I wish I could get a moving picture of this; but I can’t,” sighed Russ, as the motor boat started off in the twilight.  Soon it became so dark that the searchlight was set aglow, and this gave a fine illumination.

But Uncle Joshua, which the negro said was his only name, seemed to need no light.  In and out among the creeks, rivers, and bayous he directed Russ to steer, until finally, making a turn in a stream, there burst out on the eager eyes of the refugees the lights of the steamer.

“Magnolia ahoy!”

“Here we are!”

“Oh, Daddy, Daddy!”

“On board the Magnolia!”

Such joyful shouts as there were, and such joyful answers!

And then—­but I leave you to imagine the scene aboard the steamer when the lost ones stepped out of the motor launch.  Mr. DeVere, who was in a state of collapse through fear for his daughters, nearly fainted from joy, but he soon was himself again.  And as for Tommy and Nellie, it is a wonder their grandmother was able to stand all the hugging and kissing they gave her.