The Boy Aviators on Secret Service

dark man in Washington-he was now certain their plans had been overheard-the episode of the tramp and the attempt to blow up the aerodrome all combined to convince him

at Miami as openly as possible, and then under cover of night run down Biscayne Bay and eventually double Cape Sable by the inland passage. Then they were to beat up through

ther and friends and started by the Southern Limited for Miami. With them they carried in ordinary trunks their mess and camp kit outfits, rifles and medical supplies as well as two of the Government's field wireless outfits. The rest of the party was to follow a week later in a private car with all the other baggage, including the boxed sections of

d. Everyone has heard of the Everglades, few have any accurate idea of them beyond a sort of hazy conception of a vas

that here in our own country is a vast waste, 130 miles long and 70 wide, that is as little known to the white man as the heart of the Sahara. The Everglades are bounded on the north by Lake Okeechobee, on the east by a belt of scrub pine-land about six

ditions that have penetrated the great mystery have reported, the water is fine and the air healthful. The saw-grass, the Seminoles a

vation but has no means of "smoking him out" of the impassable wilds he has chosen for his refuge. The Seminoles also haunt the Big Cypress Swamp and observe numerous tribal rites and legends of which we know little. They are di

the subject-which were not many. The government had placed the latest maps and charts of the region at their disp

have to blaze

t for such a region the boys had m

aces not more than two feet deep. An overloaded canoe might therefore cause a lot of trouble and delay. Like true old campaigners th

t weighing nine pounds. There were two pots, a frying pan and four plates nesting into each other. And then there was a coffee pot in which was stowed away four cups (nested) pepper and salt castor

These were all put in glass jars with screw tops and rubber gaskets so that even in case of an upset the contents would remain dry. There was also a blue-flame double burner kerosene stove of the marine type, lanterns, an

gray wolves or any human enemy. They also purchased two three-barreled guns having two parallel barrels, twelve gauge, for shotted shells, and another rifled barrel underneath of .35-55 caliber. Two 16-gauge shot-guns for

Stubbs and Billy. Frank, of course, carried his nautical instruments. A sextant, a

erial and flannel shirts with campaign hats. Each carried a change of underwear and socks

o secure canoes and a lighter draught "cruiser," similar to a Barnegat duck-boat. The

r them when they left the north. The car was sidetracked at Miami and the train kept on its way to Key West along the wonderful chain of cement bridges constructed over the numberless keys that run out from the "leg" of Florida. The boys an

t suit of white serge and a straw hat with a light blue ribbon. In addition he sported snowy canvas shoes, topped off with light purple socks and a pale pink tie. Altogether

car, two more unpresentable youths from a sartorial standpoint, could not well be imagined. The th

o, fe

arth are you doing here?"

ild impulse," began La

question

that told me, they were close as clams,"-he hurried on, "but when old Schultz told me that you were going to cro

ather lamely but with a longing look in his face that told

ous way of doing things," commented

to the hotel and engaged rooms and tidied

of amusement, the cause of which

, "you are here now and I suppose you'll have to stay. We can find some wo

you tell me," began the boy eag

e coming with us you'd better go up to the village store and get an outf

himself a working outfit. As he hastened down

that we can make something out of Lathrop, besides we owe him a debt of gratitude for helping us ou

uess he will work out all right.

out laughing at

ary five-horse engine, the four canoes and the light draught "sneak-box," they had secured for their transportation round the Cape and into the Thousand Island Archipelago. The canoes were of the "Ontario" type, fitted with narrow decks round the edges and canv

quiet boarding house at which the boys had been stopping the adventurers that night finished the stowage of their impedime

other name-was to take them round the cape as far as the Thousand Island Archipelago where they were to be

arry had allowed it to become widely circulated that they were a hunting party bound for some of the keys to the east of Cape Sable, and "Pork Chops" a

sparkling blue of the tropical waters in whose crystalline depths hosts of fish of all kinds could be easily seen and on the surface of which floated great masses of yellow gulf weed, the boys rejoiced that their momentous expedition had started so auspiciously. As for Lathrop he acted like a boy out of his head with joy at his unexpected good fortune. Ben Stubbs and the inky Pork Chops relieved e

avigation on a newspaper but