This thought lent him wings, and a few more jumps brought him to the bayou.
"I've got you now!" cried Godfrey, and David heard the switch whistle through the air, as his pursuer made an effort to reach him with it.
Godfrey thought the bayou would offer an effectual check to David's flight, but the boy himself looked upon it as his only means of escape.

He ran straight to the bank, which at this point arose almost perpendicularly from the water to the height of at least twenty feet, and just as Godfrey was stretching forth his hand to seize him by the collar, he disappeared.

His pursuer tried to stop himself, but so rapid was his flight that he made one or two involuntary steps, and it was only by catching hold of a friendly bush that he saved himself from following David over the bluff.
"Dog-gone my buttons!" thought Godfrey, gazing in astonishment at the bubbles on the surface of the water, which marked the spot where David had gone down.

"Who'd a thought he would a jumped into the Bayou sooner nor take a leetle trouncin'?
He's gettin' to be a powerful bad boy, Dave is, an' I had oughter be to hum every day to keep him straight.

Come back here!" he shouted, as the fugitive's head suddenly bobbed up out of the water.