Well, that was a feast the boys enjoyed to the limit—­the ducks were tender, delightfully browned, and possessed of a flavor our young and hungry cruisers had never seen equaled; the stuffing proved to be a success; the coffee was as tasty as usual, and, in fact, they fairly reveled in good things until nature called a halt, and the board was cleared.

The night proved very quiet, and as there was now a moon of fair size, the early part of it was not wholly dark and forbidding.

And such a variety of queer sounds as came to their ears from the adjacent marshes, most of which must have been made by the aquatic birds that spent the night there; but there were also mysterious grunts and squawks that kept both boys guessing for the longest time, while they sat on deck, Thad smoking his pet pipe and Maurice just bundled up in a blanket, taking it easy.

“I rather think if a fellow hunted around in that place he’d find ’coons and ’possums galore, besides a fox or two prowling around in search of a fat duck, for you know, Thad, they’re like you, and can eat one at every meal, day in and day out.  A funny assortment of sounds to woo a chap to sleep, eh?  If you wake up in the night please don’t think you’re in a menagerie and shout for me to jump in and pull you out.  To speak of it makes me feel that I’m pretty sleepy and that a turn of a few hours in that cozy bunk of mine wouldn’t go amiss.  What say?”

It turned out that Thad was about as sleepy as his chum, so after looking to the anchor to see that it had good holding ground, for a sudden storm coming out of the east would be apt to sweep them down the big river, extremely dangerous at this point, they retired inside the cabin.

The night passed without any storm, breaking over their devoted heads, for which both boys were thankful when morning came, and they looked out to see the sun painting the heavens red with his advance couriers.

Maurice was washing his face in the only little tin basin they owned when he heard an exclamation from his friend—­whenever anything out of the usual occurred Thad always began growling and talking to himself as though he had an audience which was waiting to be addressed.

“Well, it’s gone sure enough, and that’s all there is to it.  Now, hang it, how could a fox have come aboard our boat with twenty feet of water separating us from the shore?  That’s a conundrum I give up,” Thad was saying to himself.

“Hey what all this row about—­who’s been aboard during the night, and what do you miss, Mr. Cook?  You remember we ate those two ducks last night; did you expect they would turn up again this morning to be devoured over again?” laughed the Captain, still dashing the cold water in his face, and finally snatching up the coarse huck towel to rub his skin dry.

“That’s all right, but it’s the other chap I’m after now—­perhaps you’ll be so obliging as to tell me where I can put my paws on him.  I hung the duck from this nail—­the cord was good and strong, and it couldn’t have broken loose.  You see it ain’t there now.  So the question is did the blamed bird come to life again and skedaddle off, or was one of your friends the foxes aboard while we snoozed, to make way with my fat duck?  Anyhow, it’s gone, dead sure, and that’s no lie.”