"At six o'clock in the morning, Colonel Raybone will be ready to start on his trip. He will go down to the pier, and expect to find us all there." "Gossifus! we shan't be dar!" exclaimed Cyd, whose imagination was lively enough to enable him to picture the scene that would ensue. "What then, Cyd?" "Golly! Massa Kun'l up and rave like he neber did afore," replied Cyd, who appeared to enjoy the idea. "Well, what then?" "Dunno. He can't help hisself," chuckled Cyd. "Suppose we had left the boats?" "Mossifus! He tell four stout boys to git in de club-boat, and streak it down de riber like an alligator arter a possum. Yah! ha, ha!" roared Cyd, holding on to his sides. "Do you see why I have taken all the boats?" "Yes, Dandy--Dan; I sees into it jes like a millstone. You'se got a long head, Dan. But what ye gwine to do wid de paint?" "We shall live in the swamp till the colonel has done looking for us. This boat is white now, and we will paint her green, so that she can't be seen so easily." "Dat's good, Dan; but de kun'l won't stop lookin fur us till he finds out something." "I mean that he shall find out something. He will suppose that we have gone to the north. He will never suspect that we have come this way. Here we are," said Dan, suddenly rising in the boat, as she came to a narrow opening on the southerly bank of the river. Running the boat up to the bank of the bayou, he ordered Cyd to make her fast to a tree on the shore. "What's gwine to be done now, Dan?" asked Cyd, when he had obeyed the order. "We shall follow the big river no farther. Now, I want to make Master Raybone think we have gone up that way, which leads to the Mississippi. I left some papers in my room, which will convince him that I intended to go that way. Now, Lily, we must leave you for a little while," added Dan, as he drew the bateau alongside. "We will not be gone more than an hour." Dan and Cyd got into the bateau, and towed the other boats about two miles up the river, where they secured them in such a position that they seemed to be abandoned. When the search for them was made, these boats would be found two miles from the course the fugitives had actually taken. They then pulled back to the Isabel, and got under way again. Their course was now changed, and the boat passed down the narrow cut-off, which soon widened into a broad stream. The wind, which had been quite fresh when they started, had now subsided to a gentle breeze; but as the country was more open than on the Big River, as it was called, they still moved along at the rate of three or four miles an hour. At five o'clock in the morning--Dan had a silver watch which had been presented to him by Master Archy--they reached the entrance of Lake Chicot. It was about daylight, and as there was a plantation on the western bank, it was not deemed prudent to proceed any farther, for if the boat was seen, it would at once be recognized as that of Colonel Raybone.