The Secret of Smoking Swamp

Set against a Florida background, this story tells of the adventures of Bill Picton and his young companions who trail a gang of moonshiners through the steaming, sluggish swamp-lands. Fitzgordon had never in his life before been in a tropical swamp, and the very first thing he did was to get both feet tangled in a coil of tough bamboo vine, and come down flat on his face on the wet black muck.

• The stuff was like rotten sponge, and just as full of water as it would hold.
• When he gained his feet again he was soaked from his knees to his neck.