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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dick in the Everglades, by A. W. Dimock
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dick in the Everglades
+
+Author: A. W. Dimock
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2004 [EBook #13168]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICK IN THE EVERGLADES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sandra Brown, the Online Distributed Proofreading Team,
+and Internet Archive; University of Florida, Children
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Dick
+In the Everglades
+
+BY
+
+A.W. DIMOCK
+
+Author of "Florida Enchantments"
+
+WITH THIRTY-TWO HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS
+FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY
+J.A. DIMOCK
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1909.
+
+
+[Illustration: author's handwritten note.]
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Dick in the Everglades is a true story. All that imagination had to
+do with it was to find names for the boys and arrange a sequence of
+events. Other characters, white and Indian, appear under names
+similar to, or identical with their own. Any old alligator hunter,
+familiar with the swamps and the Ten Thousand Islands, can follow
+the course of the explorers from the text of the story. It would be
+possible for two fearless boys, imbued with a love of Nature and the
+wilderness, to repeat, incident by incident, the feats of the
+explorers in the identical places mentioned in the story.
+
+Many of the stories are understatements, seldom is one exaggerated.
+I have been asked if it were possible for a boy to handle a manatee
+in the water as one of the boys was represented as doing. I have
+done it myself three times with manatees three times the size of
+these in the story. In the story the manatees escaped. Two of those
+which I captured were sent to the New York Aquarium, where one of
+them lived for twenty months. The crocodiles which the boys sent to
+the Zoological Park may be seen to-day, alive and well in the
+reptile house. The frequent swamping of canoes and skiffs by
+porpoises, or dolphins, tarpon and manatees are all experiences of
+my own.
+
+Aside from the Government charts which give the coast line only, the
+existing maps of the scene of the story are worse than useless. In
+them a hundred square miles are given to Ponce de Leon Bay, which
+doesn't exist, unless the little depression in the coast which is
+called Shark River Bight is accounted a bay. Rivers are omitted; one
+with a mouth fifty feet wide is represented as a mile broad. A
+little stream four miles long is sent wandering over a hundred and
+forty miles of imaginary territory. I have sailed and paddled for
+days at a time over the watercourses of South Florida, with a
+compass before me and a pad at hand on which every change of course
+was noted and distances estimated, and although no attempt at
+accurate charting has ever been made, I am quite sure that none of
+the natural features or products of the country traversed by the
+young explorers have been misrepresented in the book.
+
+The pictures are from photographs taken on the scene of the
+incidents they illustrate. They show more conclusively than can any
+words of mine, how beautiful is the region traversed by the boy
+explorers and what interesting and exciting adventures they enjoyed.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I THE CHUMS
+
+II DICK GOES TO SEA
+
+III LIFE ON A SPONGER
+
+IV CAUGHT IN A WATERSPOUT
+
+V OUTFITTING FOR THE HUNT
+
+VI DICK'S HUNT FOR HIS CHUM
+
+VII THE MEETING IN THE GLADES
+
+VIII OLD DREAMS REALIZED
+
+IX THE CAPTURE OF THE MANATEE
+
+X HARPOONING FROM A CANOE
+
+XI GHOSTS AND ALLIGATORS
+
+XII HUNTING IN HARNEY'S RIVER
+
+XIII EDUCATING AN ALLIGATOR
+
+XIV ENCOUNTER WITH OUTLAWS
+
+XV DICK AND THE BEAR
+
+XVI IN THE CROCODILE COUNTRY
+
+XVII AMONG THE SEMINOLES
+
+XVIII DICK'S WILDCAT AND OTHER WILD THINGS
+
+XIX A PRAIRIE ON FIRE
+
+XX DICK'S FIGHT WITH A PANTHER
+
+XXI CONVALESCENCE AND CATASTROPHE
+
+XXII THE RESCUE
+
+XXIII MOLLY AND THE MANATEE
+
+XXIV TO THE GLADES IN THE "IRENE"
+
+XXV IN FLORIDA BAY
+
+XXVI MADEIRA HAMMOCK AND--THE END
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"THERE GOES YOUR PET. THAT'S THE LAST OF HIM,"
+
+"DICK HUNTED ALL THE TURTLES HE SAW"
+
+"A SILVERY, TWISTING BODY SHOT TEN FEET IN THE AIR"
+
+"THE EVERGLADES AT LAST"
+
+"WE'VE GOTTER HAVE ONE OF THEM YOUNG TURKS IF IT TAKES ALL NIGHT"
+
+"THE SEMINOLE WAS STANDING IN HIS CANOE, LOOKING FIXEDLY AT US"
+
+"HE FOUND DICK STANDING IN WATER SHOULDER DEEP, HANGING ON TO THE
+FLIPPER OF THE MANATEE"
+
+"THE STRICKEN TARPON LEAPED SIX FEET IN THE AIR"
+
+"THE TARPON BEGAN A SERIES OF LEAPS"
+
+"GROUPS OF TALL PALMETTOES, OR MAGNIFICENT TALL PALMS"
+
+"HE HELD THE JAWS OF THE 'GATOR SHUT WHILE DICK SEIZED THE HIND LEGS
+OF THE REPTILE"
+
+"THE TARPON LEAPED AGAINST NED WITH FURY"
+
+"OUT CAME THE REPTILE'S HEAD FROM THE CAVE"
+
+"SEE THE BABY 'GATOR SIT UP, NED!"
+
+"A FEW OF THE HOMELESS BEES LIT ON THE COMB"
+
+"ALL BEYOND THE DARK MEADOW WAS A LIVID MASS"
+
+"THE BARB CAUGHT IN THE REPTILE'S LOWER JAW"
+
+"THE COON SCRAMBLED TO THE TOP OF A LITTLE TREE"
+
+"HE SAW THE GENTLY SWAYING HEAD AND THE LIGHTNING PLAY OF THE FORKED
+TONGUE"
+
+"NED FOUND A GOOD CAMPING SITE MARKED BY A FREAK PALMETTO"
+
+"THE LYNX SPRANG INTO THE CANOE AND SEIZED ONE OF THE FISH"
+
+"PORPOISES ROLLED THEIR BACKS OUT OF THE WATER"
+
+"THE HARD, POINTED HEAD OF THE BIG TARPON TORE THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF
+THE FRAGILE CANOE"
+
+"THE INDIGNANT BIRD PUNCHED HOLES THROUGH HIS HAT"
+
+"THE LIGHT FROM THE BULL'S-EYE SHOWED THE HEAD AND BODY OF THE
+REPTILE"
+
+"SLOWLY LIFTING HIS HUGE HEAD OVER THE SIDE OF THE SKIFF"
+
+"YOUNG HERONS SPREAD WINGS AND STRETCHED LONG LEGS AS THEY FLED"
+
+"THEY SAW A CROCODILE SWIMMING UNDER WATER NEAR THEM"
+
+"THE HARPOON STRUCK THE FISH IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS BROAD BACK"
+
+"SIXTEEN FEET OF FIERCENESS LAY STRANDED ON THE BANK"
+
+"THEY HAULED THE HEAD OF THE BRUTE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BOAT"
+
+"HE TOOK THE BABY CROCODILE IN HIS ARMS"
+
+
+
+
+DICK IN THE EVERGLADES
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING DICK'S CRUISE IN A CANOE]
+
+
+
+
+DICK IN THE EVERGLADES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CHUMS
+
+
+"Come in!"
+
+The doctor's voice had a note of sternness which was not lost on the
+two boys waiting outside his study door. The taller of the two, Ned
+Barstow, turned the handle and stepped into the study, followed
+immediately by Dick Williams. The doctor, sitting behind his desk,
+looked decidedly uncompromising as he said:
+
+"Now, Barstow and Williams, you were absent from your room last
+night. Where were you?"
+
+"Camping in Farmer Field's woods, sir," replied Ned Barstow.
+
+"How often has this happened before?"
+
+"Twice, sir."
+
+"Was any one else with you?"
+
+"Only last night, sir. Another boy was with us then," said Ned.
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"I can't tell you, sir."
+
+"Williams, you may go now. I will see you later."
+
+After the door had closed on Williams, the doctor turned again to
+Barstow, and said:
+
+"Barstow, I have always felt that I could rely upon your influence
+with the younger boys being for good. Now, I find you aiding to
+upset the whole discipline of the school by this camping affair. I
+hope there has been nothing worse. You know I never insist on
+tale-bearing regarding mere boyish escapades, but I would like to
+know if there was any other reason for your refusing to give up your
+companion's name."
+
+"Yes, sir, there was. We had a chicken for supper, that was taken
+from Farmer Field's poultry-house."
+
+"Did you or Williams steal that chicken, Barstow?"
+
+"No, sir, but we knew about it and helped eat it, and are just as
+much to blame as the boy who took it."
+
+"And, now, you mean to protect the thief?"
+
+"Well, you see, Doctor, a good many fellows don't look at hooking
+apples, or nuts, or chickens as real stealing."
+
+"What do you think about it?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I think it was wrong and I am very sorry it happened. It won't
+occur again."
+
+"I have no fear that it will. But it is too serious an offence to
+be lightly passed over. In the first place you and Williams must see
+Farmer Field, tell him what you have done and pay for the chicken
+that was--taken. After that I will talk with you. Now send Williams
+to me."
+
+When Dick Williams came in the doctor began:
+
+"Williams, how much do you love your mother?"
+
+"Why, more than anyone else in the world, sir."
+
+"She is keeping you here at considerable expense. Don't you think
+you owe it to her to pay more attention to your studies?"
+
+"Yes, Doctor, and I am going to do better hereafter."
+
+"How will your mother feel when she hears of this chicken-stealing
+episode?"
+
+"Oh! Doctor; she mustn't hear of it that way. We didn't think of it
+as stealing last night, but this morning Ned and I talked about it
+and we are going to see Farmer Field and tell him what we did and
+pay for the chicken."
+
+"Do you mean, Dick," and the good doctor's voice shook a little as
+he asked the question, "that you and Ned decided to tell Farmer
+Field about the taking of his chicken, before you knew that I had
+heard of your camping out?"
+
+"Why, yes, sir. I supposed Ned had told you."
+
+"Your friend Ned is rather a curious boy, but when you are in doubt
+about the right and wrong of anything, you might do worse than ask
+his advice."
+
+"Oh! I get enough of that without asking for it," said Dick.
+
+And the doctor laughed, but he soon looked pretty serious again, and
+said:
+
+"Dick, I think no one will tell your mother and she need never know,
+but I hope you will tell her all about it of your own accord."
+
+"Sure!" said Dick, "I couldn't keep that or anythink else away from
+Mumsey for five minutes after I saw her."
+
+There was a significant pause, during which the doctor stroked his
+chin meditatively before asking:
+
+"Now, what in the world made you two boys go on that camping
+escapade? I want you to tell me that, Dick."
+
+The boy hesitated a moment and then said:
+
+"Why, I really don't know, Doctor--we just wanted to. You see, there
+are so many things to see and listen to at night that way. Birds and
+animals, I mean. Ned and I are going to be explorers some day, you
+know."
+
+"Hum!" said the doctor.
+
+"Well, that will do for the present, Williams. I hope you understand
+that you are escaping serious trouble very easily and that you mean
+to be as good as you can for the rest of the time you are at the
+school."
+
+Fanner Field received Ned and Dick with an air of gruffness that was
+belied by twinkling blue eyes and, when Ned had finished telling
+his story and offered to pay for the chicken, said:
+
+"Did you take that chicken out of my poultry-house?"
+
+"Not exactly, but it's the same thing. We knew about it and helped
+eat it."
+
+"Was it tender?" asked the farmer.
+
+"No, sir, it was the toughest thing I ever put in my mouth."
+
+"I thought so. Why, that rooster was a regular antique. He must have
+been a hundred years old. Next time you want a chicken for a late
+supper, better let me choose it for you. Who helped you eat that
+rooster?"
+
+"Please don't ask us that. We'll tell you anything about ourselves,
+but we can't give him away."
+
+"Wouldn't think much of you if you did. No need of it anyhow. I know
+who it was."
+
+"He must have told you then, for we haven't told anybody."
+
+"Do you remember that while you were cooking that rooster out in my
+woods, Steve Daly, your companion, said he heard somebody in the
+bushes and you said it was only a dog?"
+
+"Yes, I remember it. I did say that."
+
+"Well, I was that dog!"
+
+"And you never told on us?" asked Dick. "Then you've been mighty
+kind and I'm ashamed to look you in the face."
+
+"Never be ashamed to look anyone in the face, my boy. It isn't good
+to take even a little thing that doesn't belong to you, but that
+won't happen again to you. But weren't you playing truant when you
+had that tough supper in my woods? Doesn't your conscience trouble
+you at all about that?"
+
+"Not a bit," said Dick; "that wasn't mean."
+
+It was fortunate for Dick's peace of mind that his conscience wasn't
+troubled by mischief, for he was never out of it and was at the root
+of about all the purely mischievous happenings at the school.
+
+Even the lesson of the camping incident and the doctor's kindly talk
+wore off in a fortnight. Yet he was popular with teachers as well as
+pupils. His head was crowned with a mass of sandy hair and his
+impertinent face plastered with freckles. The boy was quick and full
+of grace as a wildcat and so well built and lithe that he was a
+terror on the football team.
+
+Dick was often too busy to attend to his studies and fell behind in
+his lessons, until the good doctor sent for him and gave him an
+earnest but understanding talk which sent the boy back to his books,
+filled with remorse and determined to get to the head of his class
+in a hurry. One of these resolves was usually effective for about a
+week. After which Dick generally suffered a severe relapse.
+
+During his last winter at school, he frequently took long tramps in
+the woods in the hours when he should have been at his books, and
+was finally taken to task by his chum for the bad example he was
+setting the younger boys by playing truant.
+
+"But, Ned," said Dick, "I just can't keep away from the woods, and
+they do me good, I know they do. I am a whole lot better every way
+after a good long tramp by myself through the thickest woods I can
+find. I'd like to camp out in them to-night and I believe I will."
+
+"That's all right, Dick. I'll camp with you; only we've got to have
+Doc's permission. He trusts us a lot, and we can't go back on him."
+
+"Nice chance we've got of getting that. Maybe he'd camp with us!"
+said Dick satirically.
+
+"Shouldn't wonder if he would. You don't understand Doc. Did you
+ever know him to refuse a fellow anything he squarely asked for,
+unless he simply had to do it? Come along."
+
+And the boys walked together to the study.
+
+"Doctor," said Ned, "Dick and I want to camp out to-night in Farmer
+Field's woods, if you have no objection."
+
+"Want to camp out? Well, so do I, only I am afraid I might be needed
+here. Do you know how to camp? What do you expect to take with you
+and how will you keep warm?"
+
+"We thought of taking a hatchet, a blanket for each of us and some
+potatoes to roast. Then we will make a bed of hemlock boughs, build
+a fire near it and roll up in our blankets."
+
+"Well, you may go, and I will help out your commissariat with a
+loaf of bread and a chicken. But be sure you have plenty of fuel
+ready before dark. It will be a cold night and you will have to
+replenish your fire three or four times before morning."
+
+"Thank you, Doctor. You don't know how much obliged we are to you
+for your kindness."
+
+"And you don't know how much trouble I am in for, when the rest of
+the boys hear of this escapade of yours."
+
+But after the study door closed the doctor smiled quietly to himself
+and said under his breath:
+
+"Just like myself at their age--have the woods instinct."
+
+Ned and Dick slept little that night. There was about a foot of snow
+on the ground and they scraped bare a place for their camp-fire
+beside a big stump and gathered enough fuel from windfalls for the
+night. Then they rolled a log beside the fire for a seat and built a
+soft bed with fragrant branches of hemlock and spruce. They roasted
+the chicken over a thick bed of glowing coals and baked potatoes in
+the ashes of the fire. The chicken was carved with their pocket
+knives and they got along without forks or plates. By using bark
+gathered from a birch and softening it over their fire they made
+cups with which they brought water from a nearby brook. When supper
+was finished the boys rolled up in their blankets and lying on the
+bed they had built on the snow, inhaled its fragrance as they
+watched the eddying smoke of their camp-fire and the stars that
+shone through the spreading branches above them and listened to the
+voices of the night, from the distant cry of an owl to the whish of
+falling snow, shaken from evergreen boughs by the breeze. They had
+visions of camps, scattered from the equator to the poles, some of
+which were destined to be realized. Ned formed a plan that night, of
+which he wrote to his father, but of which he said nothing at the
+time to his chum.
+
+But as Dick stood beside Ned in their last hour at Belleville, and
+the sadness of parting was in the face and eyes from which fun
+usually bubbled, Ned said:
+
+"My father owns a tract of land in the Big Cypress Swamp of Florida.
+There is a lot of fine timber on it and he intends to set up a
+lumber mill in the swamp and perhaps build a railroad from Fort
+Myers to some part of it. A surveyor with a guide is going into the
+swamp this fall to locate the best timber and I'm going with them.
+You know how we have planned to do real camping and exploring
+together. Well, here's our chance. I've written to Dad and he
+invites you to go with me. We can start any time. When can you be
+ready, Dick?"
+
+"Ned, I'd give all I have in the world to go with you, but I
+can't--I can't. Mother has spent more than she could afford to keep
+me at this school and sometimes I'm ashamed when I think how I've
+wasted my time. Now I don't mean to be an expense to her or anyone
+else hereafter. I won't take a penny that I don't earn, from
+anybody, and I won't go on any trip, even with you, until I can pay
+my own way, every cent of it."
+
+"But, Dick, your companionship and the work you can do will be worth
+all it costs, twice over, to me and to Dad and he will feel just
+that way about it."
+
+"It's like you, Ned, to say all that, but it's no use and you know
+it. You've been mighty good to me ever since I came to this school
+and I'm going to keep your good opinion by not accepting your offer
+to go with you now. Some time, when I can keep up my end, I'll be
+with you bigger than an Injun. If you ever find strange footprints
+down in those Everglades, better foller 'em up. They'll likely be
+mine. Good-bye, Ned."
+
+The boys clasped hands and as Dick walked away tears rolled down his
+freckled cheeks.
+
+Four months after the parting of the two friends, at Belleville,
+Dick received a letter postmarked "Immokalee, Florida," which was
+headed:
+
+/#
+   Big Cypress Swamp, 20 miles from anywhere,
+
+   October 10th.
+
+   DEAR CHUM:
+
+   Here I am! on a prairie inside the Big Cypress Swamp, about
+   which we used to talk and where we planned to camp some day.
+   Well, it's bigger than anything we ever dreamed of and every
+   foot of it is alive. Sometimes I sleep in a tent, but more
+   often under the stars. Last night I heard the scream of a
+   panther, so near that it made me shiver, and the next minute
+   a frog dropped from the branch of a tree over my head and
+   fell on my face. I must have screamed louder than the
+   panther, for I scared Chris Meyer, the surveyor, who is
+   camping with me, pretty badly. The guide we expected didn't
+   come, so we are guiding for ourselves. I hope Chris knows
+   where we are, for I am sure I don't. We measure the big
+   cypress trees with a tape line and Chris calculates the
+   number of feet of lumber in each tree. Then we estimate the
+   trees in an acre and guess at the number of acres. At least
+   that's the way the business looks to me. Sometimes the
+   walking is easy, but to-day we had to wade through mud
+   waist-deep and the moccasins were pretty thick. I watched out
+   for the ugly things and it kept me on the jump, but Chris
+   marched straight ahead and paid no attention to them,
+   excepting once when a big cotton-mouth that was coiled on top
+   of a stump struck at him. Then he fell over backward into the
+   mud, and I had a good laugh at him--afterwards. Chris killed
+   that snake. It was a short, thick snake and about as pretty
+   as a Bologna sausage, but its mouth opened five inches and
+   its long, needle-like fangs were dripping with venom. I am
+   hungry all the time and enjoy our bill of fare very much,
+   although it is only bacon, grits and coffee, morning, noon
+   and night. We are traveling light, for we carry all our
+   baggage on our backs. We see deer and wild turkey every day
+   and it's pretty hard to keep my hands off my rifle, but I
+   promised Dad not to shoot anything out of season. In three
+   weeks the law will be off and then it will be bad for the
+   first buck I meet. Chris says it's good for me to see a lot
+   of deer before I shoot at any. He says I won't be so likely
+   to miss or only wound them when I really hunt them. I guess
+   he's about right, for when I first saw a deer--it was a big
+   buck and only twenty yards away--I had a regular attack of
+   buck ague and I couldn't have hit the side of a house even if
+   I'd been inside it. Now I can look at one, point a stick at
+   him and say _bang_, with my nerves just as quiet as if it
+   were a cow. I have seen a few bears, but they are very shy.
+   We'll turn loose on them, too, when we get round to hunting,
+   but in the mean time we are sticking to our timber job for
+   all there is in it.
+
+   An old alligator hunter is camping beside us to-night. He is
+   bound for Boat Landing, with a lot of alligator hides and
+   otter skins, and I am finishing up this letter to send by
+   him. Just as soon as this surveying business is over I am
+   going to have a glorious hunt. If only you were here we would
+   start out by our lonesomes and have all the adventures we
+   ever talked about. Probably Chris will go with me. I haven't
+   quite the pluck to try it alone, as I know you would do in my
+   place. I may brace up to it, though. Dad has given me
+   permission to do just as I please. He says he trusts me not
+   to be foolish or foolhardy and to keep him informed of my
+   plans. Isn't he a good Dad? Come if you can. Come when you
+   can.
+
+   Always and forever your chum,
+
+   NED.
+#/
+
+Dick's mother read Ned's letter and was quiet and sad all the rest
+of the day. After Dick had gone to bed she went into his room, sat
+down on the bed beside him, kissed him and said:
+
+"Dicky boy, mother wants you to take a good, long vacation. You've
+worked hard and been a great comfort to her since you left school
+and now she's going to send you to your chum Ned, down in Florida
+where she knows your heart is. Now--don't speak yet--mother knows
+what you want to say. dear, but she can perfectly well afford to
+send you and you will hurt her feelings if you don't let her."
+
+Dick put his arms around his mothers' neck and as soon as he could
+speak, half sobbed out:
+
+"Oh, Mumsey, I can't take your money. You've got so little."
+
+"But mother wants you to, so much."
+
+Dick held his mother's face close to his own for a minute and then
+said, very slowly:
+
+"Mumsey, I'll go--and it's really and truly because you want me
+to--but I won't take any of your money. Hush, now! Don't you say a
+word, or I'll--disown you. I've got a ten-dollar bill of my own and
+I'll keep that in my pocket just so you won't worry for fear I'm
+hungry; and I will bet you ten dollars I'll bring that same bill
+back to you and I won't go hungry one day either."
+
+"But, Dick--"
+
+"Not one word, Mumsey, except to say you'll take that bet. I can get
+a ride to New York on a boat, any day. Then I'll go to the Mallory
+Line and work my way to Key West on one of their boats; and from Key
+West I can find a fishing boat that will land me on the west coast
+of Florida somewhere within a hundred miles of Ned, and I'd walk
+that far just for the fun of surprising him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DICK GOES TO SEA
+
+
+Three days after Dick's talk with his mother, he boarded a Key West
+steamer just as it was leaving its New York pier. He sat on the deck
+and watched busy ferry-boats in the river, fussy tugs and
+chug-chugging launches in the harbor, and the white-winged yachts
+and great ocean steamers in the lower bay. He looked back from the
+Narrows upon the receding city, to the east upon Coney Island with
+its pleasure palaces, and to the southwest upon the great curve of
+Sandy Hook. Every step upon the deck near him brought his heart into
+his mouth in dread of what he knew he had to face. When the steamer
+was opposite Long Branch and there was small chance that he could be
+sent back, he inquired for the captain, whom he found talking to
+some young girls among the passengers. This somewhat reassured
+Billy, for he felt that the captain wouldn't eat him up in the
+presence of the young ladies, and he stood waiting with his cap in
+his hand until the captain spoke to him.
+
+"Do you want to see me, my boy?"
+
+"If you are Captain Anderson, I do, sir."
+
+"All right, go ahead."
+
+"I want you to set me to work, sir."
+
+"Why should I set you to work? Do you belong on the boat?"
+
+"Not yet, but you see it's this way. I had to get to Key West and I
+thought I'd work my passage with you."
+
+"Why didn't you ask me before we left the dock?"
+
+"Because I was afraid you wouldn't take me, if you could help it,
+and I had to go."
+
+"You cheeky little devil, I believe I'll chuck you overboard."
+
+"Oh!" said a brown-eyed girl who stood beside the captain, "you
+mustn't do that!"
+
+The captain laughed and said to Dick:
+
+"I hope you understand that you owe your life to this young lady.
+Now, go and report yourself to the cook and tell him to put you on
+the worst job he's got."
+
+"Thank you very much, Captain, but couldn't you make it the engineer
+instead of the cook? I'd rather work than wash dishes."
+
+"I'd like to oblige so modest a boy. Report to the chief engineer,
+give him my compliments and tell him you are to have the hottest
+berth on the boat. He'll probably set you to shoveling coal."
+
+Dick thanked him again; then looking into the face of the girl, he
+said:
+
+"Thank you, Miss Brown-Eyes, for saving my life," and, bowing low,
+turned away.
+
+"Captain, couldn't you see that he was a gentleman? What made you
+give him such hard work?" asked the girl.
+
+"Because he was such a cheeky gentleman that if I let him stay on
+deck he would take command of the boat by to-morrow and all you
+young ladies who helped him would be guilty of mutiny and would have
+to be executed."
+
+Dick was put to work in the engine-room, oiling the machinery. Some
+of the work was easy and safe, some of it was easy but not safe. Oil
+cups had to be filled as they flew back and forth, bearings must be
+oiled after great steel rods had flashed by and before they
+returned. The swift, silent play of the great piston and the steady
+motion of the resistless, revolving shaft, half hypnotized the boy
+and he stood, dazed and in danger, until called down by the sharp
+rebuff of the engineer.
+
+"'Tend to your business, there. Don't watch that shaft or you'll go
+dotty."
+
+On the second day of the trip there was trouble in the fire-room.
+The steamer had started on the trip short of firemen and now a
+fireman who had fallen in the furnace-room, striking his head on the
+steel floor, was lying unconscious in his berth. The pointer on the
+steam-gauge fell back, the engine slowed down, crisp commands came
+from pilot-house to engine-room, sharper messages passed between
+engine and fire rooms, while overworked men grew sullen and
+threatened to throw down their shovels.
+
+Dick offered to do the work of a fireman, but the engineer shook his
+head and said:
+
+"That's a man's work, boy."
+
+"Give me a shovel and a chance."
+
+And they were given him. He soon learned to throw the coal evenly
+and feed the furnaces like a fireman, but his unseasoned body shrank
+from the fierce heat; he staggered back from the hot blast every
+time he swung open a great furnace door and, until the clang of its
+closing, he could scarcely draw a breath. He threw off his jumper
+and his white skin fairly gleamed in that grimy place. The other
+firemen looked curiously at that slight, boyish form which was doing
+a man's work like a man and there was no more shirking in front of
+those furnaces. The fireman nearest the boy often pushed him aside
+and spread shovelfuls of coal over his grates, rushing back to his
+own work that it might not fall behind. A strong beam wind sprang up
+and the boat rolled badly, while Dick, with his hands blistered,
+fought fiercely to keep off seasickness and to keep up his fire.
+
+Up in the main saloon and around the deck a young girl wandered as
+if she wanted something without quite knowing what it was. She
+climbed stairs under the sign "passengers not allowed," went in and
+out of the pilot-house and, meeting the captain, asked if she
+couldn't go wherever she wished on the boat. He replied:
+
+"Yes, Miss. I appoint you third mate, with power to give any orders
+you please and go wherever you wish."
+
+A little later, with a dark waterproof drawn tightly over her light
+dress, she opened the door leading to the engine-room, and clinging
+to the heavy brass rail, climbed slowly down the narrow, greasy iron
+stairway till she stood beside the mighty engine. The engineer
+hastened to her side.
+
+"It's against the rules and very dangerous, Miss, for a passenger to
+come into this room."
+
+"But the captain told me I could come."
+
+"All right, but please be very careful and hold tight to that rail.
+I am afraid I haven't any right to let you stay, anyhow."
+
+"Thank you very much and I'll be very careful."
+
+The girl watched the engine for some time and then crept slowly
+along a steel bridge that looked like a spider's web, from which she
+could look into the furnace-room, with its roaring fires, scorching
+heat and constantly clanging iron doors. For some minutes she gazed
+silently, then turning quickly, hurried across the bridge, up the
+greasy stairs and on to the main saloon where she found her father
+in a big arm-chair, buried in a book. The girl first pulled the book
+out of her father's hands, then, sitting on the arm of his chair,
+clasped her hands on his shoulder and whispered eagerly into his
+ear.
+
+"Daddy, I want you to get that boy out of that hot place down in
+the bottom of the boat where he is at work. I know he's sick, for I
+saw him lean up against the wall and shut his eyes and he was just
+as white--"
+
+"Why, Molly, where have you been to see all this?"
+
+"First, I went where the big engine is, then I went a little farther
+and saw--Oh! Daddy, hurry, please; if you don't I know he'll die."
+
+"So you want me to get this boy up in the saloon to play with you?"
+
+"I don't mean that at all, Daddy. I should think you'd hate to see
+anybody worked to death down in that hot hole."
+
+"Well, I'll see the captain about it as soon as I have finished my
+book."
+
+"Don't you think you'd better see him now? I'm quite sure you won't
+enjoy your book while I'm here and I've decided to stay with you for
+the present."
+
+"All right, Molly, come along," and they hunted up the captain, whom
+they found sitting near the pilot-house.
+
+"Captain, I have taken an interest in that stowaway of yours. Is
+there any objection to having his name put on the cabin list, at my
+expense, of course?"
+
+"No kick coming from me," said the captain, "though we _are_
+short-handed in the fire-room and the boy has been doing a man's
+work there. I don't believe he will accept your offer, for he's an
+independent little cub and, as I have put him to work, I can't
+insist upon it."
+
+The captain sent a deck-hand for Dick, and the boy appeared on deck
+in overalls and jumper, cap in hand.
+
+"Dick," said the captain, "this gentleman has put your name on the
+passenger list. The purser will give you a room and a seat at the
+table."
+
+"Oh, Captain, please don't take me from my work. I know I've got to
+leave it if you say so, but--"
+
+"No, you haven't," interrupted the captain; "you are on the pay-roll
+and can hang on to your job as long as you do your work."
+
+Dick's face was still troubled as he turned toward Molly and her
+father, meeting a reproachful look from the girl, which made him
+wonder if he had seemed ungrateful for the kindness shown him, and
+said:
+
+"I want to thank you a thousand times for your kindness and I will
+come to the cabin if you think I--Have you any boy of your own,
+sir?"
+
+"Yes, I have a boy of about your age."
+
+"If he were here, in my place, what would you like to have him do?"
+
+"I'd be proud of him if he did just what you're doing, my boy."
+
+Tears were in Dick's voice as he said:
+
+"Thank you very much, sir," then, turning to Molly, a roguish smile
+lit up his face as he bowed to her, saying:
+
+"Thank you again, Miss Brown-Eyes."
+
+The next day when Dick was off duty, instead of going to his bunk,
+he dressed himself carefully and went up on the promenade deck. It
+was quite contrary to the rules, but the officers only smiled and
+looked away, while many of the passengers spoke to him, for the
+story of his having refused cabin passage was pretty well known on
+the boat. He walked about restlessly, as if in search of something
+or somebody, until he caught sight of a girl in the extreme bow of
+the boat, looking down upon the water twenty feet below her. Dick
+suddenly discovered that he wanted to look over the bow, too. A
+minute later he was leaning on the rail behind the girl, looking
+down upon a school of porpoises, or herring hogs, which were playing
+about the boat. A jet of water and spray curled upward from the
+cutwater of the steamer, which was running at high speed, but the
+graceful little creatures kept abreast of her without apparent
+effort. There were twenty or thirty of them, gliding in and out as
+gracefully as if they were moving to the measure of a waltz.
+Sometimes one touched the prow or side of the boat; usually they
+kept pace with the steamer as evenly as if they were a part of it;
+but occasionally one darted ahead at a speed which left the boat
+behind as if it were standing still. At last the girl, long
+conscious that some one was standing beside her, putting out her
+hand to that somebody, said:
+
+"Aren't they dears? Oh!" she added, as her hand was taken and she
+looked around, "I thought it was Daddy. Please excuse me."
+
+Dick looked as if he might be persuaded to forgive her, and for some
+minutes they stood in silence, leaning over the rail and looking at
+the playful porpoises beneath them, when he said:
+
+"I hope you don't think I didn't appreciate your father's lovely
+offer. You will never know how grateful I really was to him--and to
+somebody else, too, who, I think, had something to do with it."
+
+"Of course I don't think you were ungrateful, but I did hate to see
+you at work down in that hot place and I don't see why you couldn't
+have come up in the cabin and been comfortable and not had to wear
+such greasy clothes."
+
+"How did you know where I was at work?"
+
+"I happened to be looking at the big engine and I walked along a
+little way and saw you way, way down near the bottom of the boat in
+front of a hot furnace, shoveling coal into it."
+
+"Now I know where that offer came from," said Dick, "and I want you
+to see why I couldn't accept it. I wanted very, very much to get to
+Key West and I was very glad of the chance to work my passage.
+Perhaps it was wrong to come aboard the way I did. I guess it was.
+But Captain Anderson gave me a job and made it all right. Now I'm
+not ashamed to look anyone in the face, even when I have on my
+fireman's clothes, while if I gave up my work and let a stranger
+give me what I could earn myself I would feel like a charity scholar
+and I don't think I'd have the cheek to speak to you or any one else
+on board."
+
+Molly told her father of her talk with Dick and he said:
+
+"I can use that kind of a boy in my business. I'll have a talk with
+him when we get to Key West."
+
+Three days later the great steamer lay beside her wharf in Key West.
+Dick was paid the full wages of a fireman for the trip and when he
+said he wasn't worth so much, was good-naturedly told to shut up and
+advised that if he refused to take money that was offered him in
+that town he was likely to be caught and exhibited as a freak. He
+shed his jumper and overalls and exchanged hearty good-byes with the
+whole crew of the steamer. He walked through the saloons, but it was
+early, most of the passengers were yet in their berths and neither
+Molly nor her father was to be seen. Dick went out on the dock to
+inquire for a boat to Chokoloskee, Caxambas or Marco. He was
+referred to a Captain Wilson, who told him that the boat for
+Chokoloskee had just sailed, was beyond hailing distance and
+wouldn't leave again for a week, and that there was no Caxambas or
+Marco boat in port. Dick found the captain so genial and friendly
+that he told him something of his story.
+
+"I'll fix you out," said Captain Wilson. "I own a sponging outfit
+and am just starting out on a cruise, but I'm one man short. So you
+come in his place. It will be a short trip, not over four weeks.
+You'll make good wages and I'll find you a chance to get to
+Chokoloskee when we get back. You can live on board till I find it.
+If you stay here you are bound to lose a week and your board
+anyhow."
+
+"I'd like to go first rate, but I don't know anything about
+sponging."
+
+"You'll learn fast enough. Can you scull?"
+
+"A little. I can row better."
+
+"Have to scull in sponging, but you'll pick that up. Can you come
+aboard now? I want to be off."
+
+"I need some clothes and would like to say 'good-bye' to some
+friends on the steamer."
+
+"I can fit you out on board with all the clothes you will need on
+the cruise, so hurry up and see your friends. I'll wait here for
+you."
+
+But Molly and her father had left the steamer and Dick went with
+Captain Wilson aboard his sloop, which sailed at once.
+
+The captain hunted up some clothes for Dick to wear while sponging
+and as the boy came on deck after putting them on, his first glance
+fell on the white sails of a schooner yacht which had just passed
+them, but was then two hundred yards away. The beauty of the boat
+appealed to Dick and his eyes rested lingeringly upon her. How much
+greater would have been his interest had he known that the two
+forms which he could see on the deck of the yacht, near the
+companionway, were the Molly of whom he was thinking at that moment,
+and her father, and that they were talking of him. What a pity that
+he couldn't have known that Key West had been searched for him and
+that Molly's father had offered a reward for his name and address!
+Had Dick come on deck two minutes sooner the bow of the yacht
+_Gypsey_ would have been thrown up in the wind and that tiny launch
+lowered from the boat's davits in less time than it takes to tell of
+it. And then, had Molly's father known Dick's name, he would have
+taken the boy to his yacht, if he had had to tie him to do it, but
+if Dick had once heard the name of Molly's father it would not have
+been necessary to tie him. However, if either had known the name of
+the other this story would not have been written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LIFE ON A SPONGER
+
+
+The yacht sailed on and Dick, walking up to Captain Wilson, who
+stood at the wheel, said, as he lifted his cap:
+
+"I beg to report for duty, sir." The captain grinned, as he replied:
+
+"I hope you'll always be as polite. You'll sure be a curiosity on
+this coast. I'll put you in with Pedro. He doesn't know much
+English, but you can talk enough for both. There he is, that
+black-mustached fellow, with little rings in his ears. He will let
+you know what your duties are."
+
+A string of four dingies trailed behind the sponger and as many
+poles, each thirty feet long, with a sponge-hook at one end, lay
+upon the deck. Pedro was examining one of these poles when Billy
+went to him and said:
+
+"Pedro, I am to go in your boat. What do I have to do?"
+
+"You scull where I tell you--slow--I look in glass--see sponge--take
+up pole--you stop still--then you scull where pole go--you work
+good or I keek you."
+
+"Pedro, if you ever keek me, you'll go overboard queek and don't you
+forget it."
+
+The sponger lay at anchor on the sponging ground for nearly a week
+before the water was clear enough for work. Dick spent most of his
+time sculling his dingy and soon learned to throw his weight on the
+big sculling oar to the best advantage without going overboard very
+often. One day while Pedro sat in the bow, they saw a 400-pound
+loggerhead turtle lying asleep on the water. Pedro motioned to Dick
+to scull up to the turtle and when the dingy was within three feet
+of the creature he jumped on its back and seized the edge of its
+shell just behind the head, with both hands. Pedro's weight was so
+far aft on the turtle's deck that the bow pointed upward and the
+reptile's struggles only served to keep its head above water and
+thus carry the man comfortably on its back. Soon Pedro shifted his
+right hand to the tail-end of the turtle and thereafter navigated
+his living craft with ease. Dick sculled the dingy beside the turtle
+and, while trying to make fast the boat's painter around the
+creature, fell overboard. Pedro didn't know enough English to
+express his feelings fully, and so talked Spanish for a while. Dick
+thought he could get the rope around the turtle more easily if he
+stayed in the water, and he finally succeeded, though the reptile
+got one of the sleeves of his shirt while he was doing it. Then the
+boy and Pedro got into the boat and pulled the turtle beside it. In
+rolling the reptile aboard they shipped a lot of water and as the
+turtle dropped suddenly to the bottom of the dingy Dick fell
+backwards out of the boat. Pedro began to express himself in Spanish
+again, and, as the sponger was less than two hundred yards distant,
+Dick swam to it, leaving his companion to bail out the dingy and
+scull it to the big boat. The boat's tackle was required to hoist
+the turtle aboard, where it was turned over to the Cook, who
+butchered it on deck. The heart of the reptile continued to beat for
+hours after it had been removed from the body, so strongly that its
+throbbing could not be restrained by the grip of the most powerful
+hand. Pedro said that the heart would beat till the sun went down,
+and it did.
+
+For days Dick hunted all the turtles he saw lying on the water. At
+last he got near enough to one to grab him before he dove. But he
+got hold too far back, the reptile's head was already turned
+downward and his flippers forced him rapidly forward. Dick hung on
+as well as he could, which wasn't for long, for the strong rush of
+the water and its great pressure as the reptile made for the bottom
+quickly compelled the boy to let go. Yet he was under water so long
+that when he came to the surface Captain Wilson was in a dingy
+sculling like mad to reach him. The captain gave the boy a kindly
+warning, which affected him so much that in ten minutes he was off
+after another turtle, which he saw asleep. The creature began his
+dive just as Dick jumped for him, and the boy got hold of his
+tail-end as it was lifted above the water, in time to get a sharp
+slap in the face from the heavy hind flipper of the turtle. Dick
+sculled for an hour without seeing another turtle, when, as he was
+returning to the boat and within a hundred yards of it, one rose
+beside the dingy so near that the boy was on its back before it
+could go under the surface. He soon had his charger in fair control,
+but the science of riding a big loggerhead turtle isn't picked up in
+a minute. One of the crew came out in a dingy to help, but Dick
+asked him to pick up his boat and oar and take them to the sponger
+and said that he would ride back on the turtle. Sometimes his steed
+was manageable, and once he got within a few yards of the big boat,
+when it broke loose and carried him fifty yards away. Then, as Dick
+tried to check the reptile, he pulled its head too far and tipped it
+over on its back on top of himself, with his own head so near the
+parrot-like jaws of the loggerhead that when they were snapped in
+his face they missed his nose by about an inch. The turtle was as
+anxious to turn over as the boy, and, by favoring his motions, Dick
+soon had the creature right side up, while he again rode
+triumphantly on his back. In another hour the halyards were fast to
+the turtle and Billy had made good his promise to ride it back to
+the boat.
+
+[Illustration: "DICK HUNTED ALL THE TURTLES HE SAW"]
+
+When the water became clear the dingies were sent out with two men
+in each, one of whom sculled while the other sat with his face in a
+water-glass watching the bottom for sponges. The water-glass is a
+bucket with a glass bottom which so smooths the surface of the water
+as to produce the effect of a perfect calm to one who is looking
+through it. The first day of sponging was like a dream to Dick. The
+water was smooth as a mirror and no water-glass was needed. He
+sculled slowly over water so clear that he seemed to be floating in
+the air. Beneath him was fairyland, filled with waving sea-feathers
+and anemones, paved with curious shells, strangely beautiful forms
+of coral and sponges of various kinds, and alive with fish of many
+varieties. Sometimes there floated on the surface of the water
+Portuguese men-of-war, most beautiful of created things, like
+iridescent bubbles, with long silken filaments, delicately lined in
+pink, purple and entrancing blue. Lighter than thistledown, fitted
+to drift with the merest zephyr, they can nevertheless force their
+way against a breeze. Harmless as a soap-bubble in appearance, each
+of them is charged with virulent poison, and when Dick touched one
+with his hand he received a shock that made him wonder if a bunch of
+hornets had hidden in that innocent-looking bubble.
+
+Sometimes schools of little fish gliding beneath the dingy began to
+dash wildly about, and a moment later a group of jackfish or Spanish
+mackerel could be seen darting around and picking up stragglers from
+the little school, which often huddled for protection close beside
+and beneath the dingy. Dick like all brave boys, was on the side of
+the under dog, and he laughed with glee when a quick-moving mackerel
+shark appeared among the pursuers of the little fish and picked up a
+few of them for his breakfast as he drove the rest away. As Dick
+sculled easily with one hand, he kept an eye upon Pedro, and obeyed
+the signals of his hand, to go to the right, the left, or stop, as
+sponges were seen. Then from time to time the long pole with the
+claw at the end was lowered to the bottom and a sponge torn loose.
+
+Sometimes Dick changed places with Pedro, and manipulated the long
+pole with the claw, while Pedro handled the sculling oar. Then Dick
+began to learn the difference between coarse grass and common cup
+sponges, and the finer fibred glove and choice sheep's wool
+varieties. For when he was clumsy with the pole, Pedro only swore
+softly in Spanish, but when he brought up a worthless grass sponge,
+the big oar was lifted, and the boy might have been knocked
+overboard but for the iron claw which he held high, while a purpose
+gleamed in his eye which made Pedro peaceful. But Dick felt that
+Pedro was half right and he set to work studying sponges until he
+knew them almost as well as his teacher. His strength and skill with
+the sponge hook were less than the Spaniard's, but his eye was
+quicker and Pedro's chronic growls were often changed to grunts of
+approval. When the surface of the water was ruffled by a breeze it
+was needful to use the water-glass. Then Pedro sat with his head in
+the bucket, studying the bottom, and when he took up the heavy pole
+which lay on the thwarts of the dingy and dipped it vertically in
+the water, it was the duty of Dick to stop sculling at once. But
+once while Dick was sculling and looking for sponges he saw gliding
+beneath the dingy, a whip-ray, the most beautiful member of the ray
+family. Shaped like a butterfly, its back is covered with small,
+light rings on a black background. Its long, slim tail is like the
+lash of a coach-whip and at its base is a row of little spears with
+many barbs, which are capable of inflicting exceedingly painful
+wounds. The roof of the mouth and the tongue of the fish are hard as
+ivory and shell-fish are ground between them as rock is pulverized by
+the jaws of a quartz-crusher. As Billy watched the graceful swaying
+of the body of the whip-ray under the impulse of its wings, a
+wandering shark came upon it. In its first rush the tiger of the sea
+almost caught the beautiful creature, which fluttered for a hundred
+yards upon the surface of the water, with the jaws of its pursuer
+opening and closing within a few inches of its body.
+
+Dick was so busy watching the chase and so earnest in his sympathy
+with the frightened, fleeing whip-ray that he quite forgot his
+duties. He was reminded of them when Pedro, who had been frantically
+signaling him, took his head from the bucket and made a speech in
+Spanish to Dick that must have used up all the bad adjectives in
+that language. Dick's conscience hampered him so much that he was
+quite unable to reply fittingly, and the battle of words was won by
+Pedro. The dingy drifted so far during the discussion that they were
+unable to find the sheep's wool sponge that Pedro had seen, and
+which he now described as the finest one ever found.
+
+Each day the spongers in the dingies worked farther from the sloop
+and each day more time was lost when the sloop made its round to
+pick up the spongers for dinner. There were too few sponges to
+please Captain Wilson, who sailed over the ground whenever the water
+was smooth, studying the bottom with practiced eye and throwing out
+little floats, with anchors attached, wherever a sponge was seen.
+
+"I'm going to the 'Lake,'" said the captain, one afternoon at the
+end of a day of little success. "It's a feast or a famine there. You
+get rich or go broke."
+
+"What is there at the 'Lake'?" asked Dick.
+
+"Sponge, all sponge, the bottom lined with sponge. If the weather is
+just right we'll pile the deck with sponges in a week till you can't
+see over them. If the weather isn't exactly right we won't get a
+sponge. On one cruise there, the men on this sloop averaged
+twenty-five dollars a day apiece. I've been there five times since
+without ever making enough to pay for our salt."
+
+A week later the captain said to the boy:
+
+"Dick, you are a mascot. You've brought us big luck. We never had
+such weather here but once and I don't care now how soon it comes on
+to blow. I reckon it'll begin to-night from the looks and we'll hike
+for Key West to-morrow."
+
+Dick was glad to go. The week had been a hard one, the work
+incessant and each night he felt as if his back were broken. He was
+used to the fresh, sweet air of his country home and the sloop he
+was in was arranged like most of the sponging craft, with quarters
+sufficient for half the crew it carried. The deck of the sponger was
+piled with the result of the work of the week. The sponge of
+commerce, the one you buy at the drug store, is the skeleton of the
+creature; the thing taken from the water is its corpse. Not until
+this body has rotted away is it pleasant to live with. Day by day
+the stench, like that of a charnel house, became more unbearable to
+Dick. The crew seemed never to notice it, which caused the boy much
+wonderment that noses had ever been given them. He was glad when a
+strong wind came and swept some of the smell away instead of leaving
+it to settle in chunks in every nook and cranny on the boat.
+
+At Key West most of the crew went to their homes, but Dick was
+invited to live on the sloop till he found a boat for the coast he
+wanted to reach.
+
+Cargoes sent to Key West for a market are almost always sold at
+auction and the auction houses in the early morning are busy marts.
+Cargoes of sponge, fruit, vegetables, lumber and other goods are
+sold in lots to suit purchasers, who range from the dealer who buys
+by the cargo, or the small merchant who takes a few boxes of pines,
+oranges, grape-fruit, or tomatoes, to the housewife who wants a
+watermelon or a bunch of bananas. On the day following their arrival
+at Key West Captain Wilson handed Dick a roll of bills containing a
+hundred dollars, saying to him:
+
+"That's about your share in the cruise, Dick. The sponge hasn't been
+sold yet, but you are in a hurry to get off and I reckon that's
+about right."
+
+Dick was dazed as he took the roll, but a moment later he handed it
+back to the captain, saying:
+
+"I can't take that, Captain Wilson. It is ten times as much as I
+have earned. You took me on as a boy and I want you to pay me just
+what you would have paid any other boy."
+
+"Put that money in your pocket, Dick. You've done a man's work and
+now you've got a man's pay and that's all there is to it. Lucky for
+you, though, that the weather was good at the Lake. If it hadn't
+been you wouldn't have got anything but your board. Now come ashore
+and we'll hunt up a boat for Marco or Chokoloskee."
+
+They stopped at an auction room in Key West for a minute, when
+Captain Wilson sang out to a boy who was passing:
+
+"Hi, Johnny! Where's the _Etta_?"
+
+"Same old place, off the end of the dock."
+
+"Thought yesterday was your sailing day."
+
+"So it was, but Cap'n's in the calaboose. Got drunk yest'd'y and
+had a fight. I got ter raise th' cash ter git him out."
+
+"Why don't the boss bounce him? He's drunk most of the time."
+
+"Boss says Cap'n Tom's a better sailor when he's drunk than any of
+th' others when they're sober."
+
+"Well, I'll get Tom out of limbo for you and charge it to the boss.
+Only you must take this friend of mine with you to Chokoloskee."
+
+"Sure! What's his name?"
+
+"Name's Dick. Can you make an alligator-hunter of him?"
+
+"Reckon I kin, or kill him tryin'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+CAUGHT IN A WATERSPOUT
+
+
+The next morning the _Etta_, with Dick on board, started for
+Chokoloskee. The weather was bad, with a succession of squalls from
+the southwest, and the captain kept in the lee of the line of keys
+instead of taking the straight course across the Gulf. But he
+carried all sail till the rotten main-sheet parted at the boom, and
+when he came up in the wind to lower the sail the main throat
+halyard refused to unreeve. Before an order was given Dick was half
+way up the mast and soon came riding down to the deck on the gaff.
+When reefs had been taken in the sails, the sheet replaced, and the
+boat was again under way, the captain said to Dick:
+
+"Who taught you sailoring?"
+
+"Captain Wilson taught me some, and--"
+
+"That's enough. You don't need to mention anybody else. What Wilson
+doesn't know about sailing, sponging and fishing isn't worth
+knowing."
+
+By noon they were about twenty miles southwest of North-West Cape
+and, as the wind had moderated, the reefs were shaken out and the
+bow of the _Etta_ pointed due north, straight for Sand-Fly Pass.
+The breeze grew less and less, and in two hours had died away
+entirely. From the northeast a black, threatening cloud was moving
+slowly toward them, while the sails flapped idly as the _Etta_
+rolled to a heavy ground swell. The cloud came nearer and grew
+blacker, while swirling little tails dropped from it, almost
+touching the water, and then suddenly returned to the black mass
+above.
+
+"What a funny cloud," said Dick to Captain Tom. "Does it mean a
+hurricane?"
+
+"No. This is the hurricane month, but hurricanes always give a day
+or two's warning through the barometer and that hasn't changed a
+tenth in a week. But this is worse than a hurricane if it hits us.
+Those are waterspouts in the making, that you see dropping from the
+big cloud, and when one of them gets a good hold on the water you
+will see something that you won't forget as long as you live, which
+won't be a great while if it hits us," said the captain.
+
+Almost as he spoke a great inverted cone of cloud settled down from
+the mass above and touching the surface of the water set it whirling
+furiously. The water from the Gulf was lifted skyward, in a column
+which constantly grew broader at the base while its pointed top,
+mingling with the almost equally solid cloud, gave hour-glass form
+to the huge, swirling, threatening mass that bore down on the
+_Etta_, within a half mile now. Suddenly the waterspout separated
+from the great cloud mass and moved rapidly eastward. For ten
+minutes the crew of the _Etta_ watched it until, when more than a
+mile distant, the waterspout collapsed more suddenly than it had
+formed and from the foam-covered water a great wave rolled outward,
+spreading until the _Etta_ rocked in its path.
+
+"Thank goodness, that trouble's over," said Dick to the captain.
+
+"Yes, but how about this one?" replied Captain Tom, as he pointed to
+the big cloud which was now within two hundred yards of them and
+more threatening than ever. Another waterspout was forming and soon
+its roar filled their ears, while a towering mass seemed to spread
+over their heads, ready to fall upon and crush them. Already,
+spiteful patches of wind, torn from the revolving cyclone, slapped
+the sails of the _Etta_ as if to tear them from the mast.
+
+"Shan't I take in sail?" asked Johnny of the captain.
+
+"No use," was the reply. "When that thing strikes us nothing will
+make any difference and a bit of breeze in the next minute might
+pull us out."
+
+For a long minute they watched the approaching demon which was now
+within a hundred yards and its tremendous suction was already
+disturbing the water about them when the captain shouted:
+
+"Launch the dingy and get aboard; leave the oars to me!"
+
+In an instant the little dingy had been slid overboard and the boys
+were sitting in the stern; then Captain Tom stepped aboard and was
+soon pulling mightily away from the _Ella_ and across the line of
+progress of the waterspout. But it was all too late. The dingy was
+less than two hundred feet from the _Etta_ when she began to toss,
+lifting her bow high and then plunging it deep beneath the surface.
+The first touch of the waterspout carried away mast and sails and
+swept clear the deck. In another instant the schooner was engulfed,
+but her bulk broke the back of the waterspout and it began to sway;
+its straight, smooth column began to kink up and break, and many
+hundred tons of water fell crashing into the Gulf. When the great
+column fell the dingy was within three hundred feet and, as Captain
+Tom threw his weight on the oars in a last effort to increase the
+distance, one of the oars snapped and the captain fell on his back
+in the bow of the boat, striking his head on the gunwale with a
+force that stunned him. At this moment the outflowing wave from the
+falling water swept over the skiff, rolling it upside down. Dick,
+who was a regular water-dog, saw the big wave coming and, as it
+rolled the dingy over, he sank for a moment beneath the surface till
+the wave had passed, then came up with all his senses alert. He swam
+to the capsized dingy, which was near him, and was soon joined by
+Johnny.
+
+"Where's the captain?" shouted Dick. "We've got to find him. Look
+everywhere, Johnny."
+
+The broken water was now tossing madly and it seemed an age to Dick
+before he caught a glimpse of the captain's head on the crest of a
+wave two boat's lengths distant. He swam to the place, and searched
+the water above and below, diving until he was exhausted. He was
+losing hope when once more the captain's body came to the surface
+and Dick seized it. He started for the dingy with his burden, but
+was fearing he would never make it, when he found Johnny beside him,
+saying:
+
+"Here, you're played out. Put your hand on my shoulder. I can take
+care of the cap'n, too."
+
+"All right, you take care of the captain. I can get back to the
+dingy."
+
+When they reached the dingy the water had become so much smoother
+that they were able to rest while clinging to the side of the dingy
+and holding the captain's face out of water.
+
+"Don't 'spose Cap'n's dead, do yer?" said Johnny.
+
+"Don't think so, but we've got to get this dingy bailed out and get
+him in it, mighty soon. Then I know what to do to bring him to, if
+there's life in him. Lend me your cap and I'll bail out the dingy."
+
+"That ain't the way we bail boats down here," said Johnny, who got
+into the dingy and began to rock it. In about a minute he had rocked
+it nearly dry and finished the job with his cap. Dick then climbed
+into the dingy and the boys pulled the body of the captain beside it
+and, bearing down on the gunwale until water began to come in,
+dragged it aboard, half filling the dingy as they did it. As Johnny
+began to bail again a feeble voice beside him whispered:
+
+"What you fellers doin'?"
+
+The captain soon got stronger, and said he was all right but for a
+headache which was splitting his skull. He tried to rise, but fell
+back in a faint, and Dick told him he must lie still and give
+orders, which Johnny and he would obey. Then Dick stood on a thwart
+and studied the water as far as he could see, hoping to find an oar.
+He saw a mast, a hatch cover and some broken fragments from the
+_Etta_ and at last the blade from the oar which the captain had
+broken. Johnny and he paddled with their hands until they recovered
+the oar blade. As a light breeze had sprung up from the south, which
+was causing them to drift northward, they headed south, paddling and
+watching by turns, until they found the lost oar. Then Dick, resting
+the oar in the sculling hole, called on the captain for orders.
+
+"Better strike out due east and make for Nor'-West Cape. That's the
+nearest land and we're liable to be struck by a squall 'most any
+minute. Then there's a cocoanut grove at the Cape and you'll be
+thirsty by the time you get there."
+
+"Gee!" said Dick, "I'm thirsty now. Wish you hadn't spoken of it."
+
+Dick put his weight on the oar and as he swung back and forth on it
+the captain called out:
+
+"You sure can scull, boy, but take it easy; you've got over a dozen
+miles of it to the Cape and near fifty more up the coast, after
+that."
+
+"Where do I come in?" said Johnny.
+
+"Go 'way, child, this is man's work," replied Dick, as he swung
+easily on his oar, but with a vim that drove the dingy through the
+water at good speed.
+
+Johnny begged for his turn, but didn't get it for two hours, by
+which time the tops of the cocoa palms could be seen. Then Captain
+Tom began to feel better and talked of doing his share of the work,
+upon which Dick whistled a few bars of "Go 'Way Back and Sit Down,"
+which the captain seemed to understand, for he gave no more trouble.
+
+It was nearly dark when they landed on a beach at the border of a
+forest of cocoa palms and in a few minutes Johnny had a dozen young
+nuts on the ground and was hacking at the tough husk of one with his
+knife. When the ape-faced end of the nut had been laid bare and the
+eye cut out with a pen-knife blade, he gave the nut to Dick, who was
+soon absorbing the most delicious drink of his life. There was about
+a pint of milk in each nut, and it took a round dozen to quench the
+thirst of the three. They broke open half-grown or custard nuts and
+ate their pulpy meat and they tried some of the hard flesh of the
+mature nut.
+
+The castaways built a fire on the beach for cheer and warmth and
+piled up fallen leaves of the palm to soften their beds on the sand.
+Captain Tom told the boys that the plantation house was not
+occupied, and that the next house down the coast was a number of
+miles distant and just opposite to the course they wanted to take.
+He then added that he was no more captain now than his companions
+and would give no orders, but he advised that they start up the
+coast before sun-up and do a lot of their sculling in the cool of
+the morning. The boys collected a couple of dozen of nuts to keep
+down their thirst and when the sun rose they were several miles up
+the coast.
+
+About nine o'clock Dick said to the captain:
+
+"I wish it was breakfast time. I'm starving."
+
+"Have your breakfast any time you want it."
+
+"Want it now."
+
+"All right," said the captain, who was sculling, and he headed the
+dingy for shore, where it struck on a reef at the mouth of a stream.
+
+"Now, if you boys will rustle some wood I'll have your breakfast
+ready."
+
+"I don't see anything to eat round here," said Dick.
+
+"How would an oyster roast strike you?" asked the captain.
+
+"My, but wouldn't an oyster taste good? Do you s'pose there is one
+within ten miles?"
+
+Johnny laughed and said:
+
+"What you standin' on? Must be a hundred barrels on 'em."
+
+Dick looked down and was amazed to see that the whole reef was
+composed of oysters--oysters of all sizes, oysters single, in small
+bunches and in great masses.
+
+"Woods are full of 'em," said the captain, and he pointed to the
+mangrove trees that lined the stream, the lower branches of which
+were burdened with bunches of oysters bigger than Dick's head. A
+fire was made and branches of these trees containing bunches of
+oysters were thrown on it. A few minutes later the branches were
+taken off of the fire, with shells bursting open showing hot,
+steaming oysters ready for the sharp sticks which took the place of
+forks with the castaways. After Dick had filled himself with roast
+oysters, he ate a few dozen raw, by way of a change, and then went
+back to his roasting, until he was so full that he told Johnny that
+he never wanted to eat again as long as he lived, at which Johnny
+grinned. Only three hours later, as Johnny was sculling over a
+shallow bank, he stopped work and began to thump the bottom with his
+oar.
+
+"What is it?" asked Dick.
+
+"Bottom covered with clams. Reckon I'll pick up a few for Cap'n and
+me. You said you didn't want to eat again, ever," replied Johnny.
+
+But both of the boys went overboard and in a few minutes had put
+more clams aboard the dingy than the whole party could have eaten in
+a week.
+
+The castaways camped on their second night at the mouth of Lossman's
+River, where they had a famous clam-roast. They found a fisherman's
+house where they got fresh water and a can to hold it, also some
+cornmeal, with which Johnny made an ash-cake, or, as Dick called it,
+Johnny-cake. The captain said it was the best thing he had ever
+eaten, and Dick engaged him on the spot as a camping companion on
+his hunt for his chum.
+
+[Illustration: "A SILVERY, TWISTING BODY SHOT TEN FEET IN THE AIR"]
+
+The next morning the boys slept till the sun had risen and the
+captain awoke them to look upon a gorgeous picture seldom to be
+seen. The unclouded sun was shining brilliantly and the eastern sky
+clear and bright, but in the west a storm was gathering. There were
+snow-clad peaks brilliant with sunshine, thunder-heads black as
+midnight from which lightning was playing, while above and beneath
+them all shone a perfect double rainbow and an equally perfect
+reflection of it from the mirror-like surface of the Gulf. So
+perfect a double-circled rainbow the captain had never before seen,
+and, though he lived near the coast, Johnny had never seen one at
+all. By the time they had finished their breakfast of roast clams
+and ash-cake the rainbow had melted away and the storm-clouds were
+nearer, but Dick wanted to start on up the coast. The captain shook
+his head and Johnny recited:
+
+"Rainbow in the mornin', sailors take warnin'."
+
+Half an hour later all hands were glad to run to the fisherman's
+house, from the doorway of which they looked out upon storm-driven
+sheets of rain that shut out the Gulf and fell in hissing masses
+upon the palmetto roof that covered them, while the continuous blaze
+of lightning and crash of thunder gave Dick his first taste of a
+tropical thunderstorm. Half an hour later the sky was cloudless, the
+sun more brilliant than ever, and the only reminder of the storm
+that had passed was the sullen roar of the surf as the big waves
+broke on the beach.
+
+When Johnny proposed to renew their voyage and the captain assented,
+it was Dick who held back.
+
+"What can we do out there?" said he, waving his hand toward the
+white-capped waves that were sweeping in and sending their foam high
+up the beach. Johnny only laughed in reply, but the captain and he
+dragged the dingy, in which two poles had been placed, out into the
+surf until the waves rolled waist deep past them.
+
+"Tumble aboard, both of you," ordered the captain, as he stood by
+the stern of the craft, holding its bow squarely against the
+incoming waves. The boys climbed aboard, and Dick, following
+Johnny's example, seized a pole and together they held the boat
+against the sweep of the surf until the captain was aboard with the
+oar in his hands. It was exciting work and as they pushed on and
+out, with each new wave tossing the bow of the boat in the air and
+spilling its crest of water and foam over the gunwales, Dick
+exclaimed:
+
+"Isn't it glorious? I never had such fun," and even the captain
+smiled assent.
+
+They pushed on until outside of the breakers and among the
+smooth-rolling waves, where the deepening water made poling
+difficult and they resumed their sculling. The captain took the
+first trick, while Johnny bailed out, with his cap, the water that
+the waves had spilled aboard.
+
+Everything went smoothly and there was no more excitement on the
+trip until in the afternoon, when Dick was working the sculling oar.
+He was swinging it slowly, as he looked down into the water, when
+there appeared suddenly, just under the dingy, a great black
+creature, broader than the boat was long. As it rose nearer to the
+surface, almost touching the craft, he saw a great open mouth, three
+feet across, with a heavy black horn on each side of it, which
+looked quite equal to disposing of Dick and his boat at a single
+bite. The sight was so frightful that Dick impulsively thrust his
+oar against the creature, and was instantly thrown from his feet as
+the stern of the dingy was tossed in the air and a column of water
+fell upon and around him. When the commotion was over and Johnny had
+crawled back into the submerged boat and was rocking it dry, Dick
+said to Captain Tom, who was swimming beside him:
+
+"I believe I'll swim the rest of the way. I'm getting tired of being
+pitched overboard every few minutes."
+
+After they were all aboard and Dick had resumed his work with the
+oar, he asked the captain:
+
+"What was that thing that looked like a devil, that I hit and that
+hit back?"
+
+"That was a devil-fish. They are perfectly harmless," said the
+captain, adding, reflectively, "unless you punch 'em."
+
+The tide favored the castaways at Sand-Fly Pass and they reached
+Chokoloskee Bay without further adventure, but then came the painful
+part of the trip: telling the owner of the _Etta_ of its destruction
+by a waterspout. All the comment Mr. Streeter made was:
+
+"Glad none of you went down with the boat."
+
+The captain and Johnny went to their homes, while Dick accepted Mr.
+Streeter's invitation to stay with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+OUTFITTING FOR THE HUNT
+
+
+The Streeter home was on the bank of a little river that emptied
+into Chokoloskee Bay, and Dick, for the first time, saw oranges and
+grape-fruit growing and tasted the delicious alligator pear and the
+guava.
+
+After supper Mr. Streeter said to Dick:
+
+"Johnny tells me you have got a friend lying around loose somewhere
+in the Big Cypress Swamp, or the Everglades, and that you and he are
+going to take a day off to look him up."
+
+"That's about the size of it, only of course I don't expect to find
+him in a day or a week. I had some hope that a month would do. I
+suppose it all seems very silly to you?"
+
+"Not a bit, not a bit. The Big Swamp isn't a bad place, if you've
+sand and sense, and I reckon you have both or you wouldn't have got
+as far as you have. I suppose it's Ned Barstow you're looking for?"
+
+"Who in the world could have told you? I haven't spoken his name
+since I left home."
+
+"Nobody told me, but last week Chris Meyer, the surveyor, was here
+and, as we are old friends, we talked half the night. He told me of
+his work for Mr. Barstow, the big lumber man, and said that Ned
+Barstow, his son, had been out in the swamp with him as surveyor's
+assistant for 'most a month, Chris told me that when he left, Ned
+was arranging to go on a hunting trip with Billy Tommy, a Seminole
+Indian. He thought the plan was to hunt slowly through the swamp to
+Tommy's canoe, which he had left somewhere between Boat Landing and
+Charley Tiger's. Ned expected then to work down through the
+Everglades to Cape Sable if possible."
+
+"Is there any chance of my finding him in that great wilderness, Mr.
+Streeter? It looks so much bigger than it did from up north. How is
+it possible to keep from getting lost?"
+
+"Don't have to. Soon as you begin to worry because you don't know
+where you are, trouble begins. More than one man in this country has
+gone crazy and killed himself because he thought he was lost. Why,
+you can't be really lost. If you're worried just start for the North
+Star. You'll hit somebody before you strike the North Pole. But it's
+a heap easier to keep from worrying if you've got company. Lordy,
+the picnic you and Johnny are going to have! I wish I was as young
+as you and going with you. Your best way to find Ned will not be to
+follow his trail, but to head him off somewhere in the Glades.
+That's easier than you think. I could pretty nearly figure out to a
+mile where he is this minute. You see, he's with Billy Tommy, and I
+know that Injun. Couldn't make him hurry if he tried, and he won't
+try. He'll be so busy shootin' things and skinnin' 'em and fussin'
+'round camp that they'll get ahead mighty slow. Shouldn't wonder if
+it took 'em a week from the time they started to get to where Tommy
+left his canoe. Then they will put out in the Glades and head
+straight for Charley Tiger's camp."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Because I know Tommy and because it's the only Injun camp 'round
+there where he'd be sure to find _whyome_--that's whisky, or rum, or
+anything that'll make drunk come."
+
+"But suppose Ned wouldn't go that way?"
+
+"Oh, Tommy'd fix that. He'd point to the west and say, 'Big Swamp,
+canoe no can take!' Then he'd wave his hand to the east, 'No trail,
+_oko suchescha_ (water all gone), saw-grass _ojus_ (heaps)!' No,
+they never got past Tiger's camp without stopping. Then Tommy got
+drunk and Ned couldn't move him under four days. It's an even chance
+that they are right there now."
+
+"How far from here is Tiger's camp?" asked Dick.
+
+"Less than forty miles, but you'd think it was four hundred before
+you got there, if you tried to cross the swamp to reach it. Besides,
+they would certainly be gone before you could possibly get to the
+camp. Then you couldn't take a boat, and you've got to have one to
+follow your friend."
+
+"Can I buy or hire a skiff, here?"
+
+"You can do a lot better. One of your Northern tourists left a
+little beauty of a canoe with me, to be sold first chance I got. It
+cost seventy dollars, delivered here, and you can have it for
+twenty. It's only fifteen feet long and about two feet wide
+amidships, but it weighs only forty pounds and when there isn't
+water enough for the canoe to carry you, why, you can carry the
+canoe. Then a few little traps go with it which you may find useful.
+There's a broken fly-rod, which you can fix all right, and a little
+single-barrel shot-gun, not worth much, but you can always pick up a
+supper with it. There are also a pair of grains, a light harpoon,
+and a cast-net which is torn some, but Johnny can fix it. Johnny's
+got a rifle and all the camp kit two tough boys will need.
+
+"Better take a piece of light, waterproofed canvas big enough to
+keep off some of the rain when it storms, an axe, a bag of salt to
+save the hides of the alligators you will be sure to kill if Johnny
+goes with you, and some grits and bacon. Oh! you may need a
+mosquito-bar, and if you do want it you're likely to want it bad.
+Make it of cheese-cloth; that'll keep out sand-flies, too. Some of
+my folks will run it up on the machine for you in a few minutes.
+There may be some other little things that you'll need, but you can
+trust Johnny to think of 'em. Now, Dick, you don't have to pay for
+any of these things till you get good and ready. I'm used to giving
+long credits and this time I'm glad to do it."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Streeter, you don't know how grateful I am to you for all
+you are doing for me. The money is the least part of it and I can
+fix that all right. You wouldn't think I was a capitalist to look at
+me, would you?" said Dick, laughingly. "Since I left home I've
+rolled up quite a fortune as a fireman and a sponger and I can pay
+my little bills and have money to burn besides. How soon do you
+think we can get off?"
+
+"You ought to start to-morrow. You can get ready in an hour. Know
+anything about canoeing?"
+
+"Not much, but I've rowed some in a shell."
+
+"That'll help you a little, but it leaves you something to learn.
+The man whose canoe you have bought was cruising down here with his
+family and he told me that every time one of 'em stepped in that
+canoe he went overboard. He said he had to choose between the canoe
+and his family and had concluded to let the canoe go. One of my boys
+owns a little Indian canoe in which Johnny and he have poled around
+a good deal, so I reckon Johnny can keep inside of your canoe, but
+you'd better spend the forenoon to-morrow practicing in it with a
+paddle, then you can get off right after dinner and your clothes
+will be dry before you make camp at night."
+
+"Does Johnny know the course we ought to take from here?"
+
+"Not far, but I can help you some and you'll find out the rest for
+yourselves. You'll have to. Then Johnny savvies Injun talk pretty
+well and you're sure to run across them or their camps. And he'll
+likely know them, and if Ned's anywhere in their country or has been
+there they'll sure know it. You will leave this bay by way of
+Turner's River, which will take you into the most tangled up part of
+the Ten Thousand Islands. You will go through rivers and bays,
+around keys, along twisting channels and up narrow, crooked creeks.
+You'll be lost from the start, but you don't want to think of that.
+Just make your course average southeast for the first fifty miles,
+which you ought to cover in three days. Then hunt for some creek
+coming from the east. It will be a little one, you will have to drag
+your canoe, perhaps for miles, under branches that close over the
+creek and you may have to carry your canoe and pack your dunnage
+over prairie land. In a day you ought to strike the Everglades. Then
+turn to the north and look for Indian trails, which you want to
+follow whenever they lead anywhere near where you are trying to go.
+They will help you to dodge the worst of the saw-grass which is
+likely to be your greatest trouble.
+
+"Keep along the border line between the Everglades and the cypress
+country and you will probably hit Osceola's camp. He's about the
+whitest Seminole in the State and he'll help you all he can.
+Remember, when in an Indian camp, that their brand of politeness is
+different from a white man's, though it may be just as sincere. If
+you're hungry, and don't see a spoon lying around, just dip your
+hand in the family pot, if you can eat that way. If you want to
+sleep lie down on the nearest unoccupied bunk. If you make a mistake
+they won't tell you of it.
+
+"Now, remember above all things, that you mustn't get rattled.
+That's the biggest risk you'll run in this country. If you get
+separated from Johnny and think about being lost and get excited and
+begin to walk fast, or run, stop right there and sit down and don't
+go on till you're perfectly cool, not if you have to camp right
+where you are for a night, or a day, or both. Just as soon as you
+have taught yourself that when you get excited you have got to sit
+still for an hour or two, you'll stop getting excited. There is
+mighty little real danger where you are going. There are bear and
+panther, but the only thing on earth that's a bigger coward than a
+bear is a panther. People from your country think the alligator is a
+dangerous brute. I have lived among them, killed them, dealt in
+their hides, of which I have shipped north the biggest consignments
+sent from this coast, since before you were born, and I never knew
+of a human being having been harmed by one. This deep river running
+in front of my door used to be full of them, and there are some
+there now, but my whole family of children swim in it almost every
+day without thought of danger. Only two weeks ago Johnny killed a
+ten-foot 'gator right in front of my house and within a hundred
+feet of it. Any of our hunters will wade into a pond where there are
+fifty alligators, to drag out one they have shot; many of them will
+tackle, with nothing but a stick, any 'gator under six feet that
+they can catch on a prairie or asleep on a bank, and a few of the
+boys will wade bare-footed and bare-handed into a pond on the
+prairie and bring out little alligators. Johnny is a dabster at
+that. Likely you'll see him do it before many days.
+
+"Of course rattlesnakes are bad, but they always give warning,
+usually a good long one. I've killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of
+them and never been bitten. Cotton-mouth moccasins are poisonous,
+but they are sluggish and not so very plenty. You'll have to get
+used to the smaller moccasins. You will find lots of them. I've
+kicked them out of my path on the prairies and in the marshes for a
+good many years without having been bitten by one.
+
+"Sharks have a bad name, and Florida waters are full of them, but
+there is no authentic instance on record of their having killed a
+man, woman, or child in this country. There are convicts and other
+outlaws in the Ten Thousand Islands. They may steal something from
+your camp, but they won't harm you. Some of them are bad men, and
+when they kill their own kind, people here don't mind it, but the
+outlaws know that the community wouldn't stand for their hurting any
+of you boys."
+
+Dick was ashamed when he got up to breakfast to find that Mr.
+Streeter and Johnny had been at work for an hour and had got
+everything ready for a start, even to the mosquito-bar, which one of
+the family had already made.
+
+The outfit consisted of a fly-rod, with reel, line and flies; rifle
+and shot-gun, with fifty cartridges for each; pair grains, harpoon,
+line and pole; cast-net, fish hooks and lines; forks, tin-cups and
+plates, two each; light axe, saucepan and frying-pan; piece of
+waterproofed canvas, six by eight feet; lantern, kerosene, and bag
+of salt; white bacon, hominy and corn meal, five lbs. each; canoe,
+two paddles and one long oar; five gallon can of water, and bucket;
+waterproof box filled with matches.
+
+Each of the boys carried a clasp knife and a pocket, watertight
+match safe.
+
+Nothing had been loaded on the canoe, as Mr. Streeter wanted to be
+sure that Dick could stay in it, before he filled it with goods that
+water might harm. He was soon satisfied on this point, for although
+Dick got into the canoe with exceeding care, he kept his balance
+perfectly, and after the first few strokes appeared perfectly at
+home in the craft. He paddled for a few minutes kneeling on the
+bottom of the boat, then sitting on a thwart, and finally came back
+to the dock sitting on the stern, while the bow of the canoe tilted
+up in the air. Then Johnny got in with him and the boys maneuvered
+the craft until Mr. Streeter called out to them:
+
+"You kids are all right and don't need to waste any more time.
+Better pack up and be off, and save half a day." They loaded the
+canoe carefully and took their positions, Dick in the stern and
+Johnny in the bow. Then lifting their caps to the family, who had
+come down to the dock to see them off, the boys dipped their paddles
+together in the river and began Dick's hunt for his chum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+DICK'S HUNT FOR HIS CHUM
+
+An hour's paddling brought Dick and Johnny to the mouth of Turner's
+River, up which they headed the canoe. A strong tide setting up the
+river nearly doubled their speed.
+
+"Lucky for us that the tide is running our way," said Dick.
+
+"Not much luck about it. Mr. Streeter knew about the tide. That's
+why he hurried us off 'fore dinner. Tide'll be other way this
+evenin'," replied Johnny.
+
+"Isn't Mr. Streeter a brick?"
+
+"He's all that. Lots o' people 'd have hard times 'f he moved away.
+He helps th' Injuns, too, when they're in hard luck."
+
+The first fork in the river was a mile from its mouth and Dick, who
+was steering, took the right branch, which led southeast, although
+it was much the smaller stream. At the next parting of the stream
+one branch led to the east and the other due south. Fortunately
+Johnny knew which fork to take, and for a mile or two there was no
+trouble. Then the river opened out into a broad shallow bay, filled
+with little keys, but nothing to tell Dick which way to steer. He
+tried to keep to a southeast course, but ran into shallows which
+soon ended in a pocket from which they had to back out. Often they
+followed a good channel for a mile, only to have it end in an oyster
+reef, and again they had to turn back. A pair of dolphins lifted
+their heads above the surface in front of the canoe and with a sniff
+of fright started away across the bay like an express train. They
+were great creatures, nearly nine feet long, and were followed in
+their flight by a baby dolphin less than half their size, which rose
+within reach of Dick's paddle, sniffed impertinently in his face and
+skittered away after his mother as fast as he could wiggle his funny
+flat tail.
+
+"Better foller them porpoises," said Johnny; "they know the
+channel."
+
+The dolphin is so uniformly miscalled porpoise, on the west coast
+and everywhere else, that the creature will soon come to think that
+it really is a porpoise.
+
+Dick followed the dolphins as long as he could see them and was led
+into a deep channel which opened out into a series of broad bays
+through which they paddled until, among the sunken lands of the
+flooded mangrove keys, they came upon a shell mound, the site of an
+old abandoned plantation. Dick's aching muscles and Johnny's
+clamorous stomach had long been pleading for a rest, and the boys
+landed on the mound for a picnic dinner. They opened a box which
+Mrs. Streeter had given them as they started from her home, and
+found a bountiful lunch of cold venison, baked sweet potatoes,
+boiled eggs, bread, butter, orange marmalade and two pineapples.
+
+"Gee!" said Dick. "Are we going to live this way, Johnny?" but
+Johnny only grinned.
+
+After the boys had eaten, as only boys can eat, they crawled through
+the vines and among the thorns of the overgrown plantation. They
+found stalks of sugar-cane and bunches of bananas; wide-spreading
+guava and lime trees, loaded with fruit; and tall Avocado pear trees
+from which hung purpling globes of that great, creamy, most
+delicious fruit, commonly called alligator pear. They filled with
+fruit the shirts they wore, till they bulged like St. Nicholas, and
+made many trips between the trees and their canoe. As Dick was
+standing beside a lime tree, he heard a sound near him like the
+whirring of a big locust. Dick had never before heard the angry
+jarring of the rattles of the great king of snakes, but he didn't
+need to be told the meaning of the blood-curdling sound, which
+seemed to come from all directions at once. He gazed about him for a
+moment, with every muscle tense, until he caught sight of the head
+of the reptile waving slowly to and fro above the irregular coils of
+his body. The snake seemed to be within striking distance and the
+unnerved boy sprang suddenly away from it, landing among the
+thorn-bearing branches of a big lime tree. Dick soon recovered his
+nerve, and hunting up a big stick, went cautiously in search of the
+reptile, which he found still coiled. He broke the creature's back
+with his first blow and had struck several more when Johnny came
+crawling through the undergrowth, and called out:
+
+"Want to save his skin?"
+
+"Sure," replied Dick, who hadn't thought of it before.
+
+"Then don't smash him any more and I'll show you how to round-skin
+him. He's dead enough, now. A feller from New York showed me how. He
+skinned 'em for a livin'. Birds, too. Said he'd give me ten dollars
+if I'd get him the skin of one of these fork-tailed kites. He wanted
+the nest and eggs, too. Say, but he could skin things. Skin a bird
+without losin' a feather or gettin' a drop o' blood on it. Said the
+best way to skin snakes was 'fore they was dead."
+
+As Johnny began cutting the skin free from the jaws of the reptile,
+the long, needle-like fangs dripped yellow venom and Dick, looking
+on with a white face, half whispered:
+
+"Suppose you happened to touch those fangs?"
+
+"Ain't a-goin' to touch 'em. Wish I had my pliers here, to pull 'em
+out. You oughter save 'em, and the skull, too. The feller I was
+tellin' yer about always did."
+
+"I don't want them; makes me sick to look at them," said Dick, who
+looked mightily relieved when, the head having been skinned, it was
+cut off and thrown into the bay. After that he became interested
+and helped Johnny with his work until he held in his hand the
+beautiful skin of a diamondback rattlesnake, over six feet long.
+
+In the afternoon the boys entered a big bay that seemed to have no
+other outlet. They followed its shore for an hour, exploring every
+little bay that looked big enough to hide the smallest creek. They
+sounded the depth of the water with their paddles and traced a
+little channel to a clump of bushes that overhung the water from the
+shore. Johnny pulled the bow of the canoe under the overhanging
+branches and found a little creek through which the water was
+flowing. They dragged the canoe into the stream and found water deep
+enough to float it, but branches and vines obstructed them above,
+while logs and snags troubled them below. They used their knives and
+the axe more than they did their paddles. At times they lay down in
+the canoe and dragged it under branches and at others got overboard,
+and standing in water and mud, lifted it over logs. They were in the
+deep gloom of a jungle from which the thick growth above shut out
+nearly all the light. As they pushed the canoe forward, unseen vines
+seized their throats in a garroting clutch, while solid masses of
+spider-webs stuck to their faces and spiders the size of a saucer
+ran over them. As Johnny sat in the bow, he collected the most
+spiders, since Dick only got those which his companion managed to
+dodge, but then Johnny was used to the critters and didn't mind
+them, while Dick wasn't, and did.
+
+"What kind of snakes are these swimming round my legs?" asked Dick,
+as he stood nearly waist-deep in mud and water and helped lift the
+canoe over the biggest log they had struck.
+
+"Speckle-belly moccasins. Mustn't get scared o' them, if you're
+goin' to hunt in this country. They ain't likely to bite if yer
+don't step on 'em and they won't kill yer, nohow," said Johnny.
+
+The stream was so crooked that the boys had to travel three miles to
+gain one and as the troubles in their path seemed to increase they
+talked of turning back. But as it was already too late to get out of
+the creek before dark, they decided to keep on. As it was, darkness
+overtook them while they were yet in the creek. Among their stores
+was a lantern, by the light of which they progressed for a little
+while, when Johnny proposed making camp.
+
+"But we can't camp here. I'm not a merman, to sleep in the water,"
+said Dick.
+
+"You can stretch out in the canoe, if we tie it so it won't tip
+over, and I'll build a brush bed good enough for me in ten minutes,"
+said Johnny, who took the axe, and cut a short pole, which he rested
+on the branches of two trees which grew side by side, so that the
+stick lay parallel to a fallen tree trunk which lay about five feet
+distant. Then he cut a number of inch saplings into six-foot
+lengths, with which he made a platform from the pole to the tree,
+and spreading his blanket on this elastic couch announced that his
+bed was ready. The boys made a hearty supper from the fragments
+that were left from the bountiful provision that Mrs. Streeter had
+made for their dinner. Dick's bed in the canoe was probably softer
+than Johnny's bed, but he didn't sleep as well. The sides of his
+canoe were only five inches above the water which contained the
+moccasins, and Dick was sure he could feel their tongues touch his
+face as the reptiles searched for a soft place to strike. Then the
+snarling from a tree beside him would have been less terrifying if
+he had known that instead of being, as he supposed, two wildcats
+quarreling for the first bite at him, it was merely a friendly
+family discussion between two 'coons.
+
+Things looked more cheerful by daylight, and when Johnny asked
+whether they should go on or turn back, Dick replied:
+
+"Go on just as long as the creek runs." But the creek became choked
+with brush and turned back on its course, until Johnny said:
+
+"If this crik gits any crookeder it'll fetch us back home."
+
+The boys had to cut away two trees which had fallen across the creek
+where the growth was so thick that to cut a path around would have
+been more work than to clear away the logs. The trees were large,
+their axe a little one, and when the boys came to three trees lying
+near together across the stream Dick was so dismayed that he said to
+Johnny:
+
+"Let's get back out of this creek. We must be on the wrong track,
+Mr. Streeter said Indians and hunters got through this country, but
+they never got through this way. What do you think?"
+
+"Hate to go back, but s'pose we've got ter."
+
+Dick's spirits ran low during the return trip through the creek.
+They were going in the wrong direction, and each hour was taking him
+farther away from where he supposed Ned was. Many times he wished
+they had kept on and fought their way through the creek. After
+reaching the bay they had left the day before they turned to the
+east and north as they followed labyrinthic channels that led around
+big and little keys in that part of the ten times Ten Thousand
+Islands. The work became confusing, the waterways they followed led
+them toward every point in the compass. Sometimes a narrowing stream
+made them think they had struck a creek which flowed from the
+mainland, but always it opened into some small bay filled with
+little keys. Late in the afternoon they found a point of land high
+enough for a camp, where they spent the night. After they had eaten
+their supper, Dick said:
+
+"Johnny, do you know where we are?"
+
+"Nope; bin goin' 'round so fast I've got dizzy."
+
+"You mean we are lost?"
+
+"Yep; but that's nothin' s' long's we don't stay lost."
+
+"What shall we do, and where shall we go?"
+
+"Go anywhere, only stick to it. Got ter do sumpthin; fresh water's
+'most gone. Reckon we'd better go 'bout sou'west. We kin find a
+river that'll take us t' the coast, 'nd I kin find a way that'll
+take us where you wanter go."
+
+An hour's paddling brought the boys to a bay in which were several
+pretty keys, on one of which Dick saw a number of beautiful white
+birds.
+
+"What are those?" he asked.
+
+"Egrets," said Johnny. "Want ter shoot 'em?"
+
+"Of course not," replied Dick. "It's against the law, and wicked,
+besides. They are the loveliest birds there are and never ought to
+be killed just for fun."
+
+"We never kill 'em for fun. Only tourists do that. If you Northern
+fellers didn't pay us ter git plumes we'd never kill 'em. D'ye
+remember that key over there?"
+
+"No. What about it?"
+
+"See that crik by the palmetter 'nd the big stump? Know it now?"
+
+"What! Isn't that the creek we slept in night before last?"
+
+"Sure! 'nd that's where we wanter go now. Them trees that we stopped
+fer was cut by our fellers to keep off the Lossman River plume
+hunters. We've got ter cut 'em out, er git 'round 'em if 't takes a
+week."
+
+"How about water?"
+
+"Find it t'other side o' the crik. I'd rather go without than go
+back t' anybody's house fer it."
+
+"But that old shack where we killed the rattler isn't far off, and I
+saw a water-barrel under the caves."
+
+"So did I, 'nd a possum floatin' in it, too. That's why I didn't
+fill up there. We'll go slow on what we got 'nd do without a day 'r
+two, 'nd we'll find some by then if we stick t' anything."
+
+"We're going to stick to things hereafter, Johnny. It was plumb
+foolish to lay down just because a tree got in our way, and it was
+my fault, too. It isn't going to happen again, though. Let's get
+through that creek to-night, if we have to work by the light of the
+lantern."
+
+"Ain't you 'fraid o' the snakes?" said Johnny.
+
+"No. I'm too ashamed of myself for backing out of that creek to be
+afraid of anything, except doing it again."
+
+When the boys got back to the trees which lay across the creek, they
+took turns with the little axe, which was not much heavier than a
+hatchet, until they had cleared an opening for the canoe. They found
+other trees in their way, but they kept on. Once they unloaded the
+canoe on stumps and logs until they could lift it over a log that
+lay so deep in the water that it was hard to cut. Five minutes
+later, and within a hundred yards of where they had turned back on
+the previous day, the boys reached the end of the creek, where it
+opened into a bay which seemed to Dick as beautiful as a dream. It
+was dotted with little islands, on some of which were picturesque
+groups of palmettos, and on others big trees filled with
+white-plumaged birds. Two black dots on the surface of the water a
+hundred yards from the canoe moved slowly across its bow. Johnny
+stopped paddling and said:
+
+"There's a 'gator. D'ye want him?"
+
+"I don't see him."
+
+"See them two black knobs on the water? The little one's his nose
+'nd the big one's his eye. He's turnin' 'round 'nd showin' both
+eyes, now. Shoot him in the eye if yer want t' kill him. It'll take
+some time t' skin him, though, 'nd mebbe ye're in a hurry to get
+along."
+
+"I sure am," replied Dick, and as the paddles dipped together in the
+water, the alligator, suspicious of them, slowly sank from their
+sight.
+
+At the end of the bay the boys found a deep, narrow river with a
+current which Dick supposed was tidal, but which Johnny thought came
+from the Glades. Dick tasted the water and was surprised to find
+that instead of being salt it had the sweetish taste of merely
+brackish water. There were birds of many kinds in the trees on the
+banks of the river, and as the boys paddled against the current
+Johnny saw a brace of ducks swimming ahead of the canoe. He took in
+his paddle and picked up the shotgun, which, with much forethought,
+he had placed beside himself in the canoe before starting out. Dick
+paddled very slowly and quietly toward the ducks until they were
+within easy range. Johnny had been told that if he wanted to be a
+real sportsman he must never fire at birds with a shotgun unless
+they were flying. So he waited until the ducks rose before firing at
+them. The next instant a bird fell heavily on the water a few yards
+ahead of the canoe.
+
+"Why, that bird fell out of this tree!" said the astonished Dick. "I
+didn't know you fired up in a tree."
+
+"I didn't," replied Johnny. "That was a water-turkey, and he isn't
+hurt a bit. They often act so when they're scared. Watch out for him
+under the bank."
+
+In a minute or two Dick saw a long, snake-like head and neck thrust
+out of the water by the bank. The head twisted about with a quick,
+jerky motion till the bird's eyes rested on the canoe, when it
+disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
+
+"What became of the ducks?" said Dick.
+
+"Reckon we'll find one of 'em 'round that p'int. The other got
+away." Johnny was right, and the duck was found just around the
+point.
+
+At some places the river narrowed into deep creeks and at others
+broadened out into wide, shallow bays, where the boys were puzzled
+to find the inlet they wanted. It was nearly noon when they struck a
+stream of quite a different sort from anything they had previously
+seen. Its mouth lay between banks that were high for Florida, and
+through it flowed a stream of crystal-clear water, which, to the
+great relief and delight of the boys, was fresh as a mountain brook
+The bed of the stream looked like sand to Dick, but when he thumped
+it with his paddle he found it was coral rock. Suddenly Johnny
+called to him:
+
+"Watch out fur the boat," and resting his hands on the sides of the
+craft leaped into the water without disturbing in the least the
+balance of the canoe.
+
+As Johnny swam rapidly under water, close to the white coral bottom
+of the creek, Dick saw that he was chasing a turtle which was
+skurrying toward the bank for protection. It got there all right,
+but the bank didn't protect it, and soon Johnny came to the surface
+hugging to his breast with his left hand a wildly flapping turtle,
+while with his right he struck out for the canoe. Getting into the
+canoe would have been a ticklish job, so Johnny handed the turtle to
+his companion and swam to the bank while Dick followed with the
+canoe. By the time Johnny had butchered the turtle, Dick had
+constructed a very creditable camp-fire under a palmetto, in the
+shade of which the boys rested while they waited for the turtle stew
+to be ready for them. Their breakfast had been a cold one,
+consisting entirely of fruit, and they had decided that for dinner
+they would begin with turtle stew and end with broiled duck. When
+the stew had been finished, Johnny inquired:
+
+"Want that duck cooked now?"
+
+"No, I don't. If I ate another mouthful I'd bust. Let's have the
+duck next week."
+
+Yet each of the boys managed to eat about a hatful of wild grapes,
+which they found growing a short distance from their camp-fire.
+
+Just as the boys were starting out again, Dick saw a turtle, and,
+laying down his paddle, said:
+
+"Johnny, if you can catch turtles, I can. See me go for that one."
+
+"Hold on," shouted Johnny, as Dick was about to jump overboard.
+"That's an alligator turtle. Bites worse'n a bulldog, and ain't good
+fur much t' eat, nohow."
+
+As they kept on up the creek, its banks came nearer together, trees
+were more numerous, and the bushes thicker. Soon these began to
+close overhead, while the stream itself broke up into several
+smaller ones. As these twisted about, forming a labyrinth of little
+channels bounded by hundreds of tiny keys, all cohered by an
+interlaced canopy of leaves and branches, Dick wondered if ever they
+could find their way out. But he had resolved that morning that
+never again would he turn back in his exploring so long as it was
+possible to go on. The little streams continued to become smaller
+and the turns shorter, until to get around the bends the axe was in
+constant use to clear a path, while the boys waded and often dragged
+or carried the canoe. It was wearing work, and they frequently sat
+down to rest. On one of these occasions Johnny inquired:
+
+"How long you want ter keep this up? This ain't the right creek,
+not the one Mr. Streeter told about."
+
+"I know that. The creek he spoke of must be away south of this, but
+this will probably take us to the Everglades, or near them. So we
+had better keep on till the brook gives out and then travel to the
+east, toting the canoe till we get to the Glades. We may be away
+north of Osceola's camp, but there will likely be a trail that will
+help us to find it, and anyhow we will be near the line that Mr.
+Streeter thinks Ned and the Indian will follow. Don't you like the
+plan?"
+
+"Me? Sure! I don't want any better fun than t' keep on t' the
+Atlantic Ocean, only 'fraid it'd be too hard fer you."
+
+Night found the toys in a narrow stream, scarcely more than the
+width of the canoe, with bushes around them so thick that they found
+it hard to clear a place big enough to sleep on. They were tired
+enough to sleep soundly, in spite of the occasional cries of the
+birds and beasts of the forest.
+
+They made an early start in the morning, and, although the creek was
+crooked and they had to cut away many small trees, they were
+encouraged to find the bushes becoming less abundant as the water
+grew more shallow, and by dark they were on the border of an open
+prairie, where they made camp for the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE MEETING IN THE GLADES
+
+
+"The Everglades at last!" said Dick the next morning as the rays of
+the rising sun fell on the waters of the Everglades in the distance
+and lit up the clumps of cypress and groups of palmettos that dotted
+the prairie before him. A little to the north and extending into the
+Glades was a row of willows which Johnny visited and found that it
+marked the course of a slough that crossed the prairie and extended
+far out into the Glades.
+
+[Illustration: "THE EVERGLADES AT LAST"]
+
+They were soon afloat in this slough, paddling toward the
+Everglades, but the channel which they followed was crooked and it
+was an hour before they reached them. The boys made their camp
+beside a little group of palmettos on a bit of dry ground which had
+often been used for that purpose. Johnny pointed to a faint line in
+the grass of the Glades and told Dick that it was an Indian trail.
+Dick was excited at the thought that the chum he had come so far to
+meet might even now be in sight. When, far to the north, he saw what
+Johnny said was an Indian canoe with two people poling it, he could
+scarcely restrain himself from paddling out to meet it. The canoe
+came on rapidly, and Dick's excitement increased until he began to
+fancy that in one of the faces that showed above the grass he could
+make out the features of his chum, when Johnny dashed his hopes to
+the ground by saying:
+
+"Them's Injuns. Squaws, too. B'lieve I know 'em."
+
+Then as the approaching faces showed more clearly through the tall
+grass:
+
+"Sure thing. It's Miami Billy's girls. They'll savvy where Charley
+Tommy is."
+
+The Indian girls were poling past the canoe without appearing to see
+it, when Johnny spoke to them. Then the girls, who were clothed in
+the brightest of prints, with masses of beads on their necks, sat
+down in their canoe and had a pow-wow with Johnny that was
+altogether unintelligible to Dick. When the girls had gone, Johnny
+explained:
+
+"Squaws say: 'Think so Charley Tommy not been Osceola Camp, two
+moons. Been Big Cypress; hunt 'gator. Maybe so hunt with white man.
+Not been Charley Tiger camp this moon.' The girls left that camp day
+'fore yesterday. Only other trail from Tiger's camp goes t' Miami.
+We c'n camp right here 'nd ketch 'em sure."
+
+Johnny proposed that while waiting they do some alligator hunting.
+They got out their canvas and rigged up a regular camp. Dick wrote a
+few lines on a scrap of paper, addressed it "Mr. Edward Barstow,"
+and fastened it on a palmetto tree, in such a way that no one
+passing along the trail could fail to see it. The boys then unpacked
+the canoe, and turning it upside down on a bit of dry land stowed
+their stores under it. They gathered a lot of grass for their beds,
+arranged for an early start in the morning, and slept dreamlessly
+till morning came. The hunt was to be on foot, and Johnny insisted
+that Dick carry the rifle, while he made up a light pack for himself
+of axe, frying-pan, forks and a little bacon, corn meal, bait and
+matches. When Dick saw Johnny's pack, he said to him:
+
+"Won't we get back to-night?"
+
+"Mebbe so, but you can't allers tell. We might get to follerin'
+sumthin and be gone two or three days. I don't reckon we're goin' to
+get lost, though we may be bothered some."
+
+"If there's a chance of that we haven't got enough to eat."
+
+"Got plenty. All we really want is a rifle, matches and salt. They'd
+be good for a month."
+
+"What do you do for bread?"
+
+"Cut the bud out of a cabbage tree."
+
+The boys tramped across the prairie to a belt of cypress, where
+Johnny stopped for some minutes, looking back to study the landscape
+and take note of every clump of trees and bit of water in sight.
+
+"I thought you were not afraid of getting lost," said Dick.
+
+"I ain't afraid. I could alters git home all right, but I'd hate to
+lose the canoe."
+
+The cypress strand was swampy, and they crossed it by stepping from
+root to root, excepting that once, when Dick was looking at a
+moccasin, he made a misstep and landed in the mud, where he sank to
+his waist. The woods were narrow, and beyond them was a broad
+prairie with clumps of trees and pools of water scattered through
+it. As they walked and waded they crossed the tracks of many animals
+and birds, to most of which Johnny could give names. There were
+plenty of 'coons, a few wildcats, some deer, and one bear, while
+between the little ponds alligators had worn regular paths.
+
+"What's that?" said Dick as a lizard-like creature scuttled through
+the grass some fifty yards in front of him.
+
+"'Gator! Shoot quick, 'fore he gits t' that pond!"
+
+Dick fired, and his bullet spattered the mud over the reptile's back
+as it slid into the water.
+
+Dick was very much chagrined at missing his quarry, but Johnny
+consoled him.
+
+"I'll git ye another shot at him. I'll call him out o' the water,
+and if he don't come I'll take a stick an' go in there an' run him
+out."
+
+Johnny stood beside the pond and grunted in imitation of a young
+alligator. In a few minutes two black dots appeared on the surface
+of the water, and, slowly rising, disclosed the eyes and the point
+of the nose of an alligator. Johnny grunted again, and the big
+mouth opened wide to take in the baby 'gator which the reptile
+thought he heard. Then the horny ridges of the back began to appear,
+and soon the whole body of the reptile lay on the surface. Johnny
+whispered to Dick:
+
+"Shoot him in that hump behind his eyes." Dick took careful aim and
+fired. The alligator rolled slowly over, with its yellow belly on
+top and its four paws uplifted. Johnny waded into the pond and
+dragged out the body of the reptile, which Dick helped him skin.
+When this had been done Johnny cut from the creature a round strip
+of white flesh, about a foot long, beginning at the hind leg and
+running toward the tail.
+
+"What's that for?" said Dick.
+
+"Fur dinner. I told ye we'd find 'nuff t' eat."
+
+"Do yon s'pose I'm going to eat that?"
+
+"Sure! 'nd yer goin' ter like it."
+
+"Then I wish I hadn't helped skin it."
+
+Just as the boys were leaving the pond they heard a little grunt,
+and turning around saw a baby alligator, less than two feet long,
+lying on the surface.
+
+"Want ter ketch that alive?" asked Johnny.
+
+"Can you do it?"
+
+"I'll show' yer."
+
+And Johnny took off his shoes and waded into the pond. He waded
+about the pond, feeling in the mud with his toes until he felt the
+reptile, when, slipping his toes under it he lifted his foot
+suddenly and brought the alligator near enough to the surface to be
+able to seize him. Dick was delighted with the captive, but was
+frank enough to say:
+
+"Johnny, I said once that I could learn to do anything that you
+could. I take that back. I couldn't learn to do what you did then in
+a thousand years."
+
+Johnny laughed and said:
+
+"You'd do it this afternoon, and I'll bet on it."
+
+Johnny tied a string around the jaws of their little pet and handed
+it to Dick, who carried the wiggly thing so awkwardly that Johnny
+took it back and, opening the bosom of his shirt, put the alligator
+where he would have a soft bed and plenty of room to prowl around.
+
+"That's another thing I'd be scared to do," said Dick.
+
+Johnny led the way to a clump of palmettos beside a clear little
+spring and a nice shady bit of ground, where they made a camp-fire,
+after driving away a family of moccasins that seemed to own the
+place. A slice of alligator steak, nicely browned, was served on a
+palmetto fan to Dick, who nibbled squeamishly at the delicate morsel
+at first, but soon handed back his leafy plate for another helping.
+
+"Wouldn't have believed it," said Dick, "but I never tasted any
+better meat."
+
+"Wait till I cook ye a rattler. That beats fried chicken."
+
+"No, thank you. I draw the line at snakes."
+
+"You drawed it at 'gators this mornin'. Want some more?"
+
+And Dick shamelessly passed up his plate.
+
+The boys walked and waded several miles, until they were near a
+heavily wooded tract, which Johnny said was cypress swamp. It was
+late in the day, and they were about to turn back when Dick saw a
+turkey, which was holding her head half as high as his own, step
+silently into the cover of the woods, followed by half a dozen of
+her half-grown brood. Johnny saw the birds almost as soon as Dick,
+and exclaimed excitedly:
+
+"We've got ter have one of them young turks if it takes all night."
+
+They entered the swamp and got sight of one of the turkeys as he ran
+along a log, and they walked to where they saw the bird, only to get
+another glimpse at about the same distance. Again they followed the
+birds, this time as cautiously as if they had been stalking hostile
+Indians. Often they saw one or more of the turkeys, but never within
+easy range.
+
+"Better try a long shot. They're gettin' wild," said Johnny.
+
+"No, you try 'em, Johnny; you're used to the rifle and you're a
+better shot than I, anyhow."
+
+[Illustration: "WE'VE GOTTER HAVE ONE OF THEM YOUNG TURKS IF IT
+TAKES ALL NIGHT"]
+
+Johnny took the weapon, and his chance came soon. One of the young
+birds lit on a stump within long range of him and remained there
+until he had taken a careful sight and fired. The bird fell, and
+the rest of the brood flew into the depths of the swamp. When the
+boys were ready to start back to camp, Dick discovered to his
+chagrin that he had no idea of the direction in which they should
+travel. Johnny, too, was in some doubt, and as it was already
+growing dark and they had been traveling in the swamp for an hour or
+two, he proposed that they camp right where they were.
+
+"How can we camp here? Water's knee-deep, there's no place for a
+fire, and I'd starve to death before morning. Don't you expect to
+have anything to eat until to-morrow?"
+
+"Bet yer I do! What's the matter with young turkey?"
+
+"Young turkey's bully, but raw turkey's bum."
+
+Johnny laughed and waded to where a fallen tree had left a level
+place among its upturned roots. A few minutes' work with the
+hatchet, which Johnny always carried when hunting, cleared out a
+good foundation for a fire.
+
+"Bully for you! I'll dress the turkey while you build a fire," said
+Dick.
+
+By the time the bird was ready for the frying-pan, Johnny had not
+only built the fire, but had cut a lot of poles and rigged up a
+rough cot between the fallen tree and a rotten log that lay near it.
+Johnny cut some thin slices of bacon for the frying-pan and then
+filled it with thick slices and chunks of turkey. When this had been
+cooked and disposed of, Dick still looked hungry, and another panful
+of the bird was fried. Dick slept some during the night, but
+complained that he had a map of his bunk on his back, which had been
+printed deeply. When breakfast was over and the last bone of the
+turkey had been picked, the boys turned their faces to the east and
+started for their camp. They soon reached an open glade, which was
+quite unfamiliar to them, and were about to enter it, when Johnny,
+who was ahead, slipped behind a tree and held up his hand warningly
+to Dick, who promptly got behind another. Two deer were in the
+opening, about a hundred yards to windward of the boys, toward whom
+they were slowly feeding. Dick was excited and was nervously raising
+his rifle, when Johnny whispered:
+
+"Don't hurry. Got lots o' time."
+
+Dick was ashamed of his nervousness, and determined to conquer it,
+even if he didn't fire at all. One of the deer was a buck with fine
+antlers, and Dick watched his slow advance, as he looked around for
+a moment and then browsed for a minute or two, until the boy felt
+that his nerves were steady once more. The buck was within fifty
+yards when Dick lifted the rifle to his shoulder and let his cheek
+rest upon its stock. In another instant the hunted deer had caught
+sight of the hunter, but it was too late. The beautiful creature
+stood motionless for half a minute, while Dick wondered if he could
+have missed, and then sank slowly to the ground, dead. At the report
+of the rifle the other deer, which was a doe, scampered a few
+yards, then, turning back her head, gazed with wondering eyes upon
+her fallen mate. Johnny took from his pocket a cartridge, and,
+holding it between thumb and finger, looked inquiringly at Dick.
+Dick shook his head, and in another instant the doe had scampered
+out of danger. Dick helped Johnny skin and dress the deer, and
+learned a lot while doing so, but he seemed less happy than a boy
+should be after killing his first deer.
+
+"Johnny, I wish that buck hadn't looked at me out of his big eyes
+just when I was killing him. If I had waited a second I believe I
+wouldn't have fired."
+
+"Glad ye didn't wait, then. Why didn't yer worry about th' 'gator?
+'Gators has fine eyes."
+
+When the boys started on again they counted their loads light, but
+after they had crossed the glade and waded and wallowed through a
+mile or two of swamp they were of a different opinion. When at last
+they had crossed the swamp and only a bit of prairie lay between
+them and the Everglades, they were glad enough to throw down their
+packs for a long rest. The Everglades were before them, but where
+was their camp? In that open country they could have seen it for
+three, perhaps four, miles. Johnny had studied the country around
+the camp when they left it the day before, but could see nothing
+familiar now. However, the boy wasn't worried.
+
+"Reckon we're too fur north. Better go south a few miles, 'nd if we
+don't find it we'll turn 'round 'nd go t'other way. All we got ter
+do is t' stick t' the saw-grass," said he.
+
+For a quarter of a mile the tramp was an easy one. Then the boys
+struck a hit of boggy ground, in which they sank over their knees at
+every step. When the ground became firmer the water got deeper, and
+after wading half a mile without a chance to lay down his pack and
+rest, Dick said:
+
+"Johnny, I always heard that Florida deer were small, but this one
+must have weighed a ton. Wonder if your half is as heavy as mine.
+I've got to sit down on that hummock and rest."
+
+Dick waded to the hummock and sat down on it, wondering what Johnny
+was laughing at. The next minute he understood, for the hummock gave
+a heave and Dick rolled off into the water, while a scared alligator
+scurried away through the water and mud of the prairie. The hummock
+was only a pile of loose grass such as alligators often collect and
+under which they live in the Everglades and the submerged prairies
+about them. Soon the boys found dryer ground, and after a brisk
+tramp of half an hour were cheered by the sight of their camp. There
+was no sign of life about it, to the great disappointment of Dick,
+who had been hoping that Ned had found it. Before reaching their
+camp they had to cross a slough that was wide and deep.
+
+"Reckon we've got ter swim," said Johnny as he found a dry place on
+the bank for his pack and his rifle before wading into the stream.
+But the bottom was of coral and hard, the water reached only to his
+arm-pits, and the boys crossed without trouble, carrying their packs
+on their heads. Dick decided to wait for Ned at the camp, and Johnny
+collected wood and proceeded to smoke their venison. For two days
+they stayed by the camp, watching the trail and keeping the buzzards
+away from the venison by day and listening to the cries of the wild
+creatures in the woods near-by at night, when Dick's patience gave
+out.
+
+"Johnny," said he on the morning of the third day, "we've got to
+find Ned Barstow. Do you s'pose if he knew that I was within fifty
+miles of him he'd loaf in camp for a week expecting me to run over
+him? Not much he wouldn't. He'd be sky-hootin' from daylight till
+dark over the whole country till he lit on me. Mr. Streeter said
+Charley Tommy couldn't get past Tiger Tail's camp under four days.
+Now, what's the matter with our meeting him there? Can't you follow
+the trail of those squaws bade to Tiger's camp?"
+
+"I kin try. Mebbe 'tain't so easy's you think, though."
+
+"What risk do we run in trying it?"
+
+"Nothin', 'cept we may miss your man. We're all right 'nd could live
+anywhere in this country for a year on what we've got and could pick
+up."
+
+"Then let's hike out. I can't keep still any longer."
+
+The boys followed the trail by which the squaws had come without
+difficulty for a few miles. Then came a stretch of open water, where
+their eyes failed to catch the faint traces of the passing canoes
+among the few scattering blades of grass that appeared on the
+surface. Several times they picked up the trail after they had lost
+it, but at last they missed it for miles. They decided not to go
+back, and kept on, hoping to find it again. They kept in the light
+grass as much as they could, but in avoiding the strands of the
+heavy saw-grass of the Glades they were forced farther and farther
+to the east, until night found them in the open Everglades with no
+hope of a place to camp.
+
+They made their way to a flooded key of sweet-bay, myrtle and cocoa
+plums, and Johnny piled up brush on which he tried to sleep, while
+Dick lay in the canoe, which had been lashed between two little
+trees. They were awakened by a deluge of rain, and in a few minutes
+there wasn't a dry rag between them. They used their canvas to
+protect guns, ammunition and such things as had to be kept dry. A
+cold wind chilled them to the bone, and they had to sit down in the
+water to get warm. It was a short-lived storm, and when the rain
+ceased and the stars came out Dick said to his companion:
+
+"It's no use trying to sleep to-night; let's pull out for Tiger
+Tail's."
+
+When morning came the boys saw, far to the northwest, an Indian
+camp which they knew must belong to Charley Tiger Tail. But between
+them and the camp was an almost impassable barrier of saw-grass.
+They paddled to the east, keeping on the southern border of the
+saw-grass strand, and whenever an opening appeared they followed it
+until turned back by grass too heavy for them to force their way
+through. They worked until noon and were out of sight of the Indian
+camp when they saw, a mile north of them, a couple of Indians poling
+their canoe. Johnny waved his hand to the Indians, who stopped
+poling and waited for the boys to get to them. He was soon
+pow-wowing with them, and translating to Dick as he talked.
+
+"These Injuns, Charley Jumper and Cypress Tiger. This Miami trail.
+Goes Tiger Tail's camp, 'bout six mile. Hooray! Charley Tommy 'nd
+your man there. No, went away this mornin'. They say think so on
+Osceola trail. That's the trail the squaws was on, 'nd we lost it."
+
+"Can't we cut across to that trail and head them off, or catch up
+with them?"
+
+"I asked 'em. They say: 'No good, trail bad, trail to Charley Tiger
+good, then go Osceola trail. Maybe so Charley Tommy stop Osceola
+camp, maybe Miami Billy camp, maybe so not stop anywhere.' They say
+they sick _ojus_, want _whyome_. That means they're awful sick and
+want whisky, but all Injuns is that. These is good Injuns. Better
+do what they say."
+
+The trail to the Indian's camp was a crooked one, but Johnny
+followed it without trouble, although it was nearly dark when they
+reached the camp. They slept on one of the high tables which the
+Seminoles use for their beds, and found Charley Tiger Tail quite a
+civilized Indian, who spoke a little English, sold whisky and dealt
+in the contraband plumes of the egret.
+
+The boys were up and off at daylight, for they had agreed to do two
+days' work in every twenty-four hours till they caught the canoe
+they were chasing. Johnny had talked with Tiger about the Osceola
+trail, until he felt he could follow it blind-folded, and little
+time was lost in studying as they poled and paddled that day.
+
+Soon after their start in the morning Dick had said, as he threw his
+weight on the paddle, which he was using as a pole:
+
+"Are you game, Johnny, to camp to-night where we jerked the
+venison?"
+
+"I kin stand it if you kin. Them squaws took two days, though, 'nd I
+ain't lookin' ter beat Injuns much with a canoe."
+
+It is doubtful if the boys could have made the camp, for darkness
+came before they were in sight of it, had not Dick said:
+
+"Johnny, isn't that a light over there toward the land? I've seen
+it two or three times. Do you s'pose it's a fire in the woods?"
+
+"Don't see it," said Johnny. "Yes, I do, now," adding excitedly an
+instant later: "Don't you 'member th' big bend in th' trail jest
+after we left th' camp we're lookin' fer? That fire ain't in th'
+woods. It's at our old camp, 'nd Charley Tommy built that fire, sure
+as shootin'."
+
+Dick was faint with excitement, and could scarcely hold his paddle.
+
+"We must get there soon as we can," said he.
+
+"Sure!" said Johnny. "Only let's go quiet 'nd s'prise 'em."
+
+If Charley Tommy had been a white man the plan would probably have
+been successful. As the boys approached the camp they moved more and
+more slowly, until Dick laid down his paddle and Johnny did all the
+work. There was not a sound that Dick could hear, and when the canoe
+was within a hundred feet of the fire he could see Ned Barstow
+resting his elbow on a log near it, while the Indian lay beside a
+palmetto, apparently asleep. But as the canoe continued to approach,
+Charley Tommy lifted his head, took a swift look around, and, half
+rising, gazed keenly out over the water toward the boys in the
+canoe. Further concealment was impossible, and Dick called out:
+
+"Hello, the camp!"
+
+Ned sprang to his feet, and looking across the water in the
+direction from which the dream voice seemed to have come, was
+silent until he saw the shadowy outline of a canoe, when he spoke in
+a voice that trembled with emotion:
+
+"Dicky boy, is that you?"
+
+"Yes, Neddy!" And soon the reunited chums had grabbed and hugged one
+another till both were breathless. Then they began asking and
+answering questions, sometimes by turns and sometimes together, till
+they were breathless again.
+
+"How did you come to recognize my voice so quickly?" asked Dick.
+
+"Because I was thinking of you, Dick, and wondering when we could
+take the trips we planned in that camp in the North. Now those
+wonderful dreams have come true!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OLD DREAMS REALIZED
+
+
+There was a long council around the camp-fire that night, and it was
+settled that Ned and Dick were to take the light canoe with their
+own stores and start off by themselves on the hunting and exploring
+tour of which they had dreamed for years. Johnny was to go on an
+alligator hunt with Charley Tommy. Johnny thought the Indian could
+stand the work about two months, after which they would go to
+Chokoloskee and sell the hides. Ned paid the Indian for his time and
+made him a present, in addition, of an outfit of clothing from hat
+to shoes, without any objection from Charley. But when Dick came to
+settle with Johnny there was trouble. For Johnny refused to take any
+pay and said that if Dick paid him for coming to where Ned was he
+would have to pay Dick for carrying him to where Charley was. Ned
+had to chip in before Johnny could be persuaded to take the pay he
+had earned. Ned had a better equipment than Dick and a much larger
+lot of stores. These he shared with Johnny, so that the boy was
+provided with more luxuries than are often carried on an alligator
+hunt.
+
+When the boys were about to start away in the morning, Johnny told
+them that Tommy wanted to go to Osceola's camp for a day or two, and
+he proposed that the boys come with them. Johnny said that if they
+went to the Indian camp with Tommy the Indians would talk and the
+boys could learn a lot of Seminole in two or three days, enough to
+pull them through in their visits to other camps. The chance was too
+good to be lost, and the long, heavy Indian canoe was followed down
+the Glades by the light Canadian canoe of the boys.
+
+Ned and Dick were pretty husky youths, and as their canoe didn't
+weigh more than one-fourth that of the one just ahead of them, they
+thought they were in for a picnic. Very soon they changed their
+minds. Sometimes they could paddle, but generally they used their
+paddles as poles. They had one oar for pushing, which helped them a
+little. A light push sent the canoe forward, but when the push ended
+so did the motion. It took a stronger push to start the Seminole
+canoe, but the stroke was much longer, and when the stroke ended the
+motion continued. The boys were game and wouldn't admit that it
+tired them to keep up. But when a strand of heavy saw-grass had to
+be crossed they found trouble to burn. The round, heavy wooden
+cylinder of Seminole make slid slowly through the tall, stiff,
+saw-edged mass. But the light canoe was thrown back from each
+stroke by the elastic grass. Dick never liked to be beaten, so he
+went overboard and floundered along the trail ahead of the canoe,
+dragging it by the painter, while Ned got out and pushed from behind
+the stern. The sharp, serrated edges of the grass cut their faces
+and lacerated their hands. No air was stirring at the foot of those
+tall spears, and Dick thought of his hours in the fire room of the
+Southern steamer. Sometimes a big, deadly cotton-mouth, the ugliest
+snake in the world, swam in front of Dick as he struggled forward,
+but though his flesh quivered he said nothing lest he make Ned
+nervous. Then occasionally a poisonous brown moccasin rose out of
+the mud which the canoe stirred up, and, with uplifted head and open
+mouth, threatened Ned as he stumbled behind the craft, but he was
+silent about it lest he worry the chum who was new to the country.
+The saw-grass strand was only two hundred yards across, although it
+seemed a mile to the boys, who made light of it when they reached
+the other canoe, but their bleeding hands, torn by the terrible
+grass, told another story.
+
+The canoes and cargoes arrived at Osceola's late in the afternoon,
+and Ned and Dick saw their second Seminole camp. It was the best
+camp in the Everglades, as Osceola himself was perhaps the best
+specimen of the Florida Seminole.
+
+The three buildings which constituted the camp consisted merely of
+high roofs, beautifully constructed of palmetto, which came within
+four feet of the ground at their outer edges. Below this they were
+entirely open. These buildings were nearly filled with tables, about
+four feet high, on which the Indians slept at night and occupied as
+a floor during the day. The buildings were placed about a round
+shed, under which the cooking for the whole camp was done. The fire
+was built in the usual Seminole fashion. Logs of wood were arranged
+like the spokes of a wheel, and the fire built at the hub. When the
+cooking was finished the logs were drawn back a few inches and the
+fire went down to coals, but continued to smolder. When the logs
+were brought together again the fire blazed up.
+
+Ned and Johnny made their bed on one of the tables and slept well,
+but they kicked at dipping their hands in the family stew, and
+broiled their venison and made their coffee over the common fire. It
+was a good-natured camp, but the boys made life a burden to the
+Indians for two days by their incessant attempts at conversation in
+the Indian tongue. Some of the old Indians were sociable, and the
+boys got along very well with them, but the younger ones were shy
+and refused to talk until, having put on the white man's clothes
+that Ned had given him, Tommy took several of the young squaws and
+pickaninnies out in an Indian canoe. The young Indians laughed so
+much at Tommy that they began to forget their shyness, and when
+Tommy bought for Ned a bright-colored Indian shirt that a squaw had
+just made and the boy put it on, the Indians gathered around him
+and made fun, very much as white children would have done. One of
+the squaws brought him a red handkerchief, such as many of the
+Indians wore, and when Ned nodded and tied it around his neck they
+all laughed. Another squaw motioned at Ned's hat, and then at
+several Indians who were bareheaded. Ned nodded again and tossed his
+hat aside. Then as a squaw pointed at his trousers and afterwards at
+the bare-legged Indians about him, Ned shook his head vigorously,
+and even the older Indians joined in the laughter.
+
+The children of the camp were shy things, and peeped out at the
+strangers from behind trees and out of hiding-places, but Dick was
+fond of all wild creatures and few of them could resist his friendly
+advances. Soon every pickaninny in the place was tagging after him.
+The older ones took him out in canoes, which soon were capsized, and
+all hands swam back, each accusing the other of having upset the
+craft.
+
+When the boys went to the Osceola camp of Seminoles with Tommy they
+found a people as stolid and taciturn as those of any Indian tribe
+of which they had read. After four days, during which all
+hospitality was extended to them, they left behind them a kindly
+group of untaught native Americans, who went out of their way to
+show friendliness to their guests. Johnny nearly cried over the
+parting, and would have bartered his hopes of the hereafter to have
+been allowed to accompany the boys, while Tommy, clothed again in
+his native costume and in his right mind, preceded them for two
+miles in his canoe to show them a blind, side trail which they were
+to take. When they turned to take their last look at him, the
+Seminole was standing in his canoe, leaning on his long pole and
+looking fixedly at them.
+
+[Illustration: "THE SEMINOLE WAS STANDING IN HIS CANOE LOOKING
+FIXEDLY AT US"]
+
+For a few miles the trail was easy, but then became too dry for
+paddles, and Dick pushed with an oar, while Ned used a pole which he
+had brought along for use with a harpoon. As the trail grew dryer,
+it became impossible to pole the canoe, and Ned took the painter
+and, stepping into the nearly dry ditch in front of the canoe,
+dragged the craft, while Billy got overboard and pushed from behind.
+Sometimes Ned stopped to kick something out of his path, and at last
+Dick called to him:
+
+"What are you kicking, Ned?"
+
+"Nothing but yellow-bellies and once in a while a brown moccasin. I
+used to worry myself half sick over them, but after seeing Chris
+Meyer wade through bunches of them in the Big Cypress without paying
+any attention to them, I got ashamed of being afraid, and now I
+don't mind moccasins much unless they are cotton-mouths."
+
+"But they have all got fangs, are all poisonous, and all seem
+anxious to bite," said Dick.
+
+"But their bite isn't fatal. Tommy told me that he had been bitten
+six times, and when I asked if the bites made him sick, he said:
+'Lilly bit, one moon.' I asked him about rattlesnake bites, and he
+said: 'Make sick _ojus_ (heap), think so big sleep come pretty
+quick.' He told me that the moccasins bit him while he was pushing
+his canoe and stepped on them."
+
+"Neddy, Johnny used to talk just as you do, and Mr. Streeter said a
+lot more, but it makes me sick to hear it. I can feel the little
+squirmy beasts under my feet every step I take."
+
+About noon the boys struck a creek, where their paddles came into
+play, and very glad they both were. For a time grass troubled them,
+and their progress was slow, but the stream gradually broadened and
+deepened, while its banks became covered with trees and vines, and
+the very sound of their paddles dipping into the clear water was a
+joy to them. Again the brook widened, this time into a shallow bay,
+but a narrow, deep channel remained, which soon led the boys into a
+tidal river.
+
+They were about to follow the current of the river when the head of
+some strange animal was lifted above the surface of the water near
+them, followed by a mass of water thrown high in the air by a big
+tail, which flashed in sight for a moment. A line of great swirls,
+like those made by the propeller of a steamboat, led out in the bay
+and marked the course of the fleeing creature. Ned and Dick forgot
+that they were tired, and paddled furiously on the trail until they
+reached the end of it. Another line of swirls showed where the
+creature had gone, and once more they followed him. Again and again
+they were led on until they had traveled a couple of miles, when
+they lost the trail completely. While they were trying to find it
+Dick saw the head of the thing lifted for an instant, some two
+hundred yards away, at the mouth of a little cove. When they reached
+the cove they found the water clear and deep, and while drifting
+quietly on its surface they saw resting on the bottom near them a
+curious creature about ten feet long, with flippers like a seal and
+a big, powerful tail set crosswise like that of a dolphin.
+
+"I know what that is," said Ned excitedly. "I've been reading about
+the fauna of Florida lately, and this isn't a fish. It's a very rare
+mammal, a manatee, or sea-cow. It's perfectly harmless. I wonder if
+we could catch it. Let's try it. I'll fix a lasso and throw it over
+the manatee's head when it comes up to breathe."
+
+"S'pose you get your rope over its head, what will happen next to
+the canoe--and to us?"
+
+"That's what I want to find out. Please paddle a little nearer very
+quietly. He is beginning to rise," said Ned, who had made a noose in
+the end of a harpoon line and was standing in the bow of the canoe,
+ready to throw it the instant the creature's nose reached the
+surface.
+
+"I see our finish," said Dick as he held his paddle ready to steady
+the canoe, which was already endangered by Ned's standing up in it.
+The next instant the manatee came to the surface, and as the
+creature lifted its head Ned threw his lasso over it. An upward
+stroke of the big tail of the manatee sent a column of water in the
+air which half filled the canoe and nearly capsized it, in spite of
+Dick's best efforts. When the commotion subsided Ned had
+disappeared. Dick looked wildly over the surface and then into the
+water, and was just going overboard to search the bottom when Ned's
+head appeared on the surface. At first the boy seemed confused and
+swam away from the canoe, but turned when Dick called to him. The
+canoe was half full of water, and as it would have been difficult
+for Ned to get aboard without capsizing it, he swam to the nearest
+key, while Dick paddled the canoe to the shoal water beside it. As
+the boys stood in the water bailing out the canoe and examining its
+cargo, Dick said to Ned:
+
+"What did your book say about the manatee being a perfectly harmless
+animal? I'd sure hate to be spanked by that harmless tail."
+
+"So it is harmless, and if we can tire one out I'm not afraid to go
+overboard and tackle him in the water."
+
+"Neither am I afraid, and I'll go overboard with you, only I'm
+afraid that by the time we've tired one of those things I won't be
+able to swim at all."
+
+Late that afternoon, as the boys were paddling through a long narrow
+bay of many keys, they became anxious, because for hours they had
+not seen a bit of ground on which they could camp.
+
+"Looks as if we've got to sleep in the water," said Dick. "If Johnny
+were here he would fix up a camp anywhere, and I'll do the best I
+can. Let's keep on to that point where the palmettos are. If we
+don't find land there we'll camp on mangrove roots."
+
+The boys were in luck, for under the palmettos on the point was a
+regular Indian camping-ground, with logs for the camp-fire in place
+and poles ready for stretching a canvas covering, or rigging up
+mosquito bars.
+
+It was the boys' first real camp together, the very camp of which
+they had talked and dreamed for years in that far-off Belleville,
+now more than a thousand miles away. Never before was there so
+wonderful a supper as the boys enjoyed that night. There was
+venison, superbly broiled by Ned; a perfect ash-cake, built and
+baked by Dick, and a pot of gorgeous coffee, for which both claimed
+credit. They lingered long over their supper, and then talked for
+half the night as they lay on their bed of palmetto leaves and
+watched the stars that looked down upon them through the tops of the
+trees. From the deep water that flowed past the point on which they
+were encamped came the occasional snort of a dolphin, the crash of a
+whip-ray as he struck the water after a leap high in the air, and
+the splashing of fish as they pursued others or were pursued by
+them. From the thicket behind their camp came the snarling of
+wildcats, while in the more distant woods the curdling cry of the
+panther, or mountain lion, could be heard from time to time. A long
+roar that rose and fell and seemed to come from all sides at once
+was recognized by Ned as the bellowing of an alligator. Sometimes
+they heard the beating of invisible wings as flocks of birds flew
+over them, while the "Hoo! hoo hoo! hoo hoo!" of talkative owls as
+they conversed lasted throughout the night.
+
+Ned was so anxious for another chance at a manatee that the boys
+decided to camp where they were and hunt the creature regularly.
+
+"We'll leave all our stores in camp," said Ned, "because we might
+get capsized."
+
+"Oh, yes! We _might_ get capsized! Is there a chance on earth that
+we might _not_ get capsized? We'll leave everything in camp
+excepting the paddles and that lasso of yours which did you so much
+good yesterday."
+
+"You like to talk, Dick, but you know you wouldn't miss that manatee
+hunt for a farm. We will have to put it off a day or two, though,
+until we kill a deer and jerk the venison. We've just eaten the last
+scrap of meat in camp. There's a trail running back into the bushes
+that must lead to a meadow where we can walk and probably find
+deer."
+
+"All right. You'll take your rifle and I'll tag on with the
+shotgun, just to see that you keep out of mischief."
+
+The trail which the boys followed did lead to a meadow where there
+were plenty of deer tracks, but no deer. They waded and tramped
+through the meadow to its farther side, where they entered a wooded
+swamp. Here they started up a deer, at which Ned took two snap-shots
+as the creature ran away. They traveled in the swamp for an hour,
+when they came to another meadow, on the farther side of which two
+deer were feeding. The wind must have carried a hostile scent to the
+quarry, for they slipped quietly into the swamp, and when the boys
+entered it were not to be seen. Again the young hunters sought their
+game through the swamp. They worked their way through thickets,
+among tangles of roots and vines, and wallowed through
+moccasin-infested pools of water and mud. In the excitement of the
+chase the boys took no note of time or of the direction in which
+they were traveling. It was late in the day when, with clothing
+muddied and torn, the boys, exhausted and discouraged, sat on a log
+in a swamp and decided to give up the hunt and go back to camp. They
+turned back and Ned led the way while Dick followed until they
+brought up against an impassable mangrove swamp. Ned looked to the
+right and the left, and then turning to Billy asked if he knew where
+camp was.
+
+"No," said Dick.
+
+"Then we're lost."
+
+"Of course. You're always lost in a swamp. Mr. Streeter says so. He
+says you may lose your boat or your camp, but with a rifle, matches
+and a little salt you can travel over all South Florida.".
+
+Ned looked so unhappy over their prospects that Dick took the lead,
+saying:
+
+"If we don't get out of this swamp pretty soon we'll have to camp in
+it, and we'll need some daylight to fix up in."
+
+At this moment a night heron lit on a branch near Dick, who raised
+his gun and shot it.
+
+"That's our supper, Ned. I wouldn't shoot a bird sitting unless I
+was starving. Don't the woods look lighter over there?" In a few
+minutes the boys were in an open prairie, where Dick produced a
+waterproof match-box, which was well filled, and a small bag of
+salt. A fire was soon built, the heron dressed, broiled and eaten
+with only fingers for forks. The boys washed down their dinners with
+water from a pool, which they first examined for moccasins by the
+light of a burning palmetto fan.
+
+Ned slept with his rifle by his side, and Dick was awakened in the
+morning by its discharge. He saw Ned sitting beside him with the
+rifle in his hand, while a hundred yards away, on the edge of the
+clearing, a buck lay on his back kicking. While the boys were
+hoisting the carcass to the branch of a tree, Ned said to Dick:
+
+"I was in a blue funk yesterday afternoon. I want you to promise to
+kick me if I get scared that way again."
+
+Dick laughed and replied:
+
+"That would be all right, Ned, if I felt sure what you would be
+doing while I was kicking you."
+
+After breakfast, which consisted of venison, Dick suggested that
+they go to work systematically to find their lost camp, and
+proceeded to climb a tall palmetto that stood in the clearing to
+take an observation. When half way up the tree he slid back to the
+ground looking like a chimney-sweep. For the outside of the
+palmetto, like most of those that grow on prairies, had been turned
+into charcoal by the burning of the prairie grass.
+
+"Ned," said Dick, when the former had stopped laughing at the
+blackamoor before him because he was out of breath, "I guess it's
+your turn to kick me. Do you see that trail where I stopped last
+night to build our camp-fire because I didn't know the way to camp?"
+
+"See it now. Didn't know it was there before, though."
+
+"No more did I; but I saw it yesterday morning, and I took special
+notice of this palmetto and made sure that I'd never forget this
+prairie. Why, Ned, this is our own camping-ground, and I could throw
+a biscuit from this prairie to our canoe. Now you can kick."
+
+After the boys had carried their venison to their camp, Ned said:
+
+"Dick, do you know how to jerk venison?"
+
+"I've seen Johnny smoke it. Is that the same thing?"
+
+"Sure! So while you're skinning the buck I'll lam into that black
+mangrove log and build a fire under the little scaffold of small
+poles there, which you hadn't seen, but which was built to cure
+venison. Say, Dick, don't you want to hire out as a scout?"
+
+Dick grinned, but made no other reply, and they began the work of
+jerking the venison. They cut it in thin strips and hung it over the
+fire of the black mangrove, which is one of the smokiest woods on
+earth. All day long they fed the fire and watched the venison, while
+scores of buzzards sat around on the trees and overlooked the work.
+Far into the night the boys lay beside the fire, watched its curling
+smoke, and talked of that camp in the snow in the North of the long
+ago.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CAPTURE OF THE MANATEE
+
+
+The manatee hunt began as soon as the venison had been cured. The
+boys explored the waters about their camp, making each day a longer
+trip and taking careful note of all the waters they explored. They
+usually hunted through the forenoon, and after dinner Ned mapped out
+the course they had taken while Dick took a walk with the shot-gun
+and picked up an Indian hen, or limp-kin, or a brace of ducks for
+supper. Within a week Ned had made a good working chart of the
+country about them, both land and water, and the boys had come to
+know their surroundings as if they had been born among them. Nearly
+every day they found and chased a manatee. Sometimes they found
+three or four in a day, but the creatures always swam faster than
+their pursuers and were still frisky when the boys were worn to
+frazzles.
+
+One morning a big manatee which they were chasing happened to come
+up beside the canoe to breathe, when Ned splashed it with his paddle
+and drove it under water before it could catch its breath. The
+sea-cow had to come up again in a few seconds and was once more
+driven below the surface by Ned. Almost instantly the creature
+lifted its head so far above the surface that Ned dropped his paddle
+and seized the soft nose of the manatee with both hands.
+
+"Look out!" yelled Dick, but he was the one to have looked out. For,
+as the sea-cow threw down its head and tail, Ned was dragged out of
+the canoe onto his upward-arching back. Then the animal's back was
+curved downward and the flat tail thrown violently upward into the
+air. As the stern of the canoe was over the tail and Dick was in the
+stern of the canoe, both boy and canoe went suddenly in the air with
+a few barrels of water over and around them. When Dick came to the
+surface he saw his companion being savagely tossed about by an angry
+monster that seemed to be holding him between his jaws. Dick was
+terribly frightened and swam as swiftly as possible to Ned's help,
+but before he could reach him the boy had been tossed aside and the
+manatee had disappeared.
+
+"Are you hurt?" said Dick, as soon as he got enough breath to speak.
+
+"Course not! Manatees are harmless. Told you so before. But, say,
+Dicky boy, why didn't you get there a minute sooner and grab a
+flipper? He'd be our manatee now, if you had."
+
+"More likely he'd have had us, Neddy. You didn't see what he did to
+me with just one slap of his tail."
+
+The boys collected their paddles and swam with the canoe to shoal
+water, where they lifted it, poured out the water and got aboard.
+
+On their next hunt the boys put a number of chunks of wood in the
+canoe and when a manatee was started they paddled quietly and tried
+not to frighten the creature by going too near it at first. Then Ned
+took in his paddle and armed himself with chunks of wood, while Dick
+paddled toward the quarry. When the sea-cow lifted its nose out of
+water, for air, it was hit or splashed by a chunk. The frightened
+animal dove quickly, but came up again almost immediately for the
+air it had to have. Another chunk hit its nose, but, confused and
+half strangled, the manatee hardly moved until Dick had driven the
+canoe beside it and Ned had landed on its back. Ned failed to grasp
+the creature's nose with his right hand, but caught the manatee by
+the flipper with his left and clung to it, although tossed off of
+the back of the animal. But Dick was in the river a second after his
+companion and was clutching the right flipper of the manatee with
+one hand and reaching for its nose with the other. The sea-cow threw
+its tail high in the air, then lashing it downward, plunged,
+head-foremost, deep in the water. The boys went under but hung on to
+the flippers, and Dick got a grip on the creature's nose. Both of
+the boys were expert swimmers and divers, and were prepared to stay
+under water as much as a minute rather than release their quarry,
+but within half that time the animal wanted to breathe and rose to
+the surface. After that the boys had little trouble, and the
+manatee, which was a small one, became almost tame. They swam with
+it to a shoal place where, standing in water a little more than
+waist deep, they petted and soothed their prize until it seemed
+quite friendly. Suddenly, Dick exclaimed:
+
+"What's become of the canoe? I capsized it when I went overboard and
+haven't thought of it since."
+
+"I'd forgotten it, too. It must have floated with the tide a good
+ways down the river by this time. I'll swim down stream and hunt it
+up, if you will stay here and take care of the manatee, unless you
+think we had better turn it loose and both go for the canoe. We will
+be in a bad fix if we lose it. If you can take care of the manatee I
+can find the canoe." And Ned swam away down the river.
+
+Helped by the current he had swum a mile when the stream spread out
+into a bay that was a mile long and nearly as wide, which was filled
+with eel-grass and covered with moss. He soon found one of the
+paddles, but in getting it became entangled in the long grass, until
+he was in great danger of drowning. By lying lengthways on the
+paddle, keeping his legs extended and swimming with long over-hand
+strokes, he got out of the tangle. He had been pretty well
+frightened, and swimming to the shore, climbed up on some mangrove
+roots. After looking for a long time, Ned made out the bow of the
+submerged little canoe sticking out from a bunch of moss in the
+eel-grass. It was about an eighth of a mile away and he started for
+it, swimming along the edge of the field of grass, but sheering away
+constantly, as the treacherous current seemed striving to sweep him
+within the clinging clutch of the swaying blades of the rope-like
+grass.
+
+When Ned got opposite the canoe he found that it was forty feet
+within the field of grass. He dreaded to put himself again within
+that deadly grasp, but the thought of Dick waiting for him, alone
+with that strange beast, nerved him to make the plunge. Again he lay
+on the paddle, keeping his feet quiet and making his way slowly with
+his hands toward the canoe. At last he reached the craft, but could
+do nothing with it. He could not pull it and it refused to be
+pushed. He could touch the bottom with his feet, but it was of soft
+mud and the thick grass tangled him worse than ever. He got into the
+canoe and lay on his back under the thwarts, with only part of his
+head out of water. By rocking the canoe, with a short, jerky motion,
+he got rid of some of the water and finished the bailing with his
+hat. It was not easy to paddle out through the grass and moss to the
+open water, but Ned accomplished it. Standing up in the canoe, he
+searched for the other paddle and soon saw and recovered it. He had
+now more than a mile to paddle against a tide that was still strong,
+and he saw, to his alarm, that it was nearly sunset. It was about
+midday when they tackled the manatee, and Dick must have been alone
+with it for a good many hours. Ned was so anxious that he paddled
+furiously and was glad enough when he found Dick standing in water
+shoulder deep, hanging on to the flipper of the manatee, and
+occasionally patting its nose with his hand.
+
+[Illustration: "HE FOUND DICK STANDING IN WATER SHOULDER DEEP,
+HANGING ON TO THE FLIPPER OF THE MANATEE"]
+
+"Oh, Ned! I'm glad to see you," was Dick's greeting to his chum. "A
+hundred times, I've almost let this beast go so that I could swim
+down the river and look for you. If I hadn't heard you coming a few
+minutes ago I'd have been off by now, anyhow."
+
+"What could you have done, swimming down a big river like this, in
+the dark?"
+
+"What could I have done here, or back in camp, without you, Ned?"
+
+Ned gave an amusing account of his adventures and made fun of his
+fears.
+
+"Now tell me what happened to you, in those long hours. Did you get
+scared, too, Dick?"
+
+"Most of my scare was about you, though I did have one or two little
+troubles of my own. For a good while after you swam away the baby
+behaved like a cherub. He let me put my arm around him, as far as it
+would go, and when I rubbed his soft mouth with my hand he seemed to
+like it. Then, suddenly he lashed out with his tail, threw me off my
+feet and carried me out into deep water. I don't quite know how I
+managed to turn him around and get back with him into shoal water. I
+know I was under water a good deal and got very much out of breath.
+I guess, though, from the grip I kept on that baby's nose, that he
+was short of wind himself. Anyhow, when we got back and I let go,
+he lifted his head out of water and sniffed and snorted like a cow
+with the consumption. Then, just as I was feeling pretty good and
+thinking what a nice nurse for a manatee baby I was and what an easy
+job it seemed, I got a terrible jar.
+
+"Something punched me gently in the back, and when I turned my head
+I saw a monster that must have been twelve feet long, and weighed a
+ton or two. It was Baby's ma! She poked her nose all over him and
+even rubbed it against my arm, which was around him, but I never
+flinched, though there ought to be some stronger word than scared to
+fully express my feelings, when I felt that big mouth against my
+arm. The great manatee mother didn't seem to mind me a bit, as she
+swam around us two or three times, but I squirmed a good deal when
+that tremendous tail, which was moving so slowly, came opposite me,
+and I wondered if it was going to mash me as flat as a sheet of
+paper, or only knock me over the tops of the mangroves. But that
+scare was nothing to the next one. After Ma Manatee had gone, Baby
+and I had a quiet hour or so and I was getting pretty tired and
+beginning to worry a lot about you, when something happened to set
+me to worrying about myself. This is a big, deep river, and there
+was enough going on to amuse me, dolphins, turtles and tarpon coming
+up to blow as they passed and small fish jumping out of the water
+most of the time.
+
+"Sometimes a splash and the scattering of little fish when a big
+one got after them startled me for a minute, but I got over minding
+it much, when a big, big splash came and there was a long struggle
+in the river near me. Perhaps I wouldn't have minded it so much, but
+Baby got crazy again and I couldn't soothe him. Next minute I didn't
+blame him, for I was 'most crazy myself. Out from all the ruction in
+the water, there came, swimming slowly toward us, a great leopard
+shark. I knew him from the spots which covered his body, for he was
+so near that I could have counted them. He was certainly over ten
+feet long and looked as if he had plenty of room in his stomach for
+both the baby and me. I remembered that Mr. Streeter had told me
+that no shark in this country had ever attacked a human being, so I
+braced up a little and pulled that splashing manatee baby out toward
+the shark, and I splashed some myself and acted as if I wanted to
+eat that Tiger of the Sea. Would you believe it? He was scared silly
+and, though I was in a blue funk myself, I laughed so that you might
+have heard me if you had been listening. For behind that shark was a
+wake such as a big motor boat would have made. After the shark had
+gone, I had another worrying fit. You had been gone a long time, and
+the thought kept coming to me that you might have met that shark.
+Neddy boy, next time you go off alone on a long swim, I'm going with
+you. Now what shall we do with the baby? The tide will turn before
+long and I s'pose we could get him to camp. He'd go along all
+right, but it would be a mile swim, though we could take turns at
+it."
+
+"I'd rather swim all the way," said Ned, "than to climb into this
+canoe once, from the river. But what's the use? There's no grass at
+the camp and the water is too deep for an infant like Baby. Why not
+tie him here for to-night? Then to-morrow we will take him down to
+that big bay and make a nursery for him in a shallow little cove
+that I saw there. It's full of nice manatee grass and we can put
+stakes across the mouth, or pasture Baby at the end of a rope. But
+what are we going to do with him, after that?"
+
+"Don't borrow trouble, Ned. That question will come up later. The
+next thing for us to do is to tie this little beast. So trot out
+that harpoon line."
+
+Dick untied the harpoon line, which was kept lashed to a thwart in
+the canoe, and, after getting overboard, carefully fastened the
+painter of the canoe to a mangrove root. The boys made a harness for
+the little manatee of one end of the line, by making one loop around
+the body of the baby, just behind his flippers, another around his
+tail and then connecting the two. The other end of the harpoon line
+was then fastened to a mangrove tree on the bank and the baby was
+turned loose. Dick steadied the canoe while Ned climbed aboard, but
+when Ned tried to steady it for Dick to get in it, there was a
+capsize. Dick apologized for his clumsiness and Ned complained that
+he hated to get wet. The next attempt was successful and the boys
+were soon eating venison and drinking coffee at their camp. They
+were tired and talkative when they lay down for the night, and both
+went to sleep in the middle of a sentence.
+
+The boys hurried through their breakfast the next morning, anxious
+to see their captive, which they found where they left him, quite
+friendly and almost unafraid. Dick took the line in the stern of the
+canoe, while Ned paddled from the bow. Baby was tractable and
+allowed himself to be towed, even swimming himself. He behaved best
+when his head was brought beside the canoe and seemed to like the
+petting that Dick gave him. When the baby had been tied in the
+little cove that Ned had discovered, in such a way that he could
+range over the whole of his nursery, the boys decided not to put a
+row of poles across the mouth of it. Dick thought it was too much
+work and Ned said it was no use, because Ma Manatee would knock the
+whole business over the tree-tops with one gentle little whack of
+her tail.
+
+They paddled back to their camp and hunted over the prairies behind
+it all the afternoon. Ned shot another buck, this time in a very
+boggy swamp. It was not a big buck, but before they got out of the
+swamp with it the boys had learned several ways in which a deer
+should not be carried. First, one took the carcass by the tail-end
+and the other by the head. The middle of the body sagged down in the
+mud and pulled the boys after it. Then the creature was slung on a
+pole, which they took on their shoulders. This was better, but every
+time one stumbled, which was most of the time, both landed in the
+bog. Then Ned remembered what all boys should know, and the legs of
+the buck were skinned up to the knee joints. With these loose ends
+of skin, the legs were so tied together in pairs as to form a loop
+through which the arms could be thrust and the whole body of the
+deer worn like a coat.
+
+By taking turns at toting the thing, the boys got their venison to
+camp without very much trouble. While jerking it they were very glad
+to lie around camp and rest, and gossip. But their talk always came
+around to one subject--what to do with their captive. Ned wanted to
+send him North to some aquarium, but didn't quite see how to do it.
+Dick offered to swim him down the rivers to the Gulf of Mexico if
+Ned would sail him up the coast to Marco or Myers, for shipment by
+water or rail.
+
+"I'm really in earnest about this, Dick, because I know father would
+like it so much. He is always looking out for curiosities to send to
+museums or his collecting friends, and this would be such a rare
+thing."
+
+"Would your father stand for a good big bill to get Baby north?"
+
+"He'd stand for anything! What's in your noddle, Dick?"
+
+"It can be done, easy. We're not many miles from the coast, and
+I've been wrecked on that coast, Neddy, so I remember it. We will
+paddle down this river, and as many more as are necessary, until we
+get to the Gulf. Then we'll paddle along the coast to the shack of a
+fisherman whom I know. He's got a sloop and all you've got to do is
+to offer him enough, to make him hustle around for lumber and make a
+water-tight box big enough for Baby to travel in. Then we will help
+him get the infant aboard, start him for the railroad and go back to
+our hunt. Has your father an agent in Myers who'd take your word for
+the bill? Coz if he didn't the account would likely be settled with
+a shot-gun."
+
+"Agent? Why, dad will be there himself by that time. And if he
+isn't, the agent is there all right, all right. So if your pirate
+settles with me with a shot-gun, I'll settle with that agent, same
+way."
+
+As soon as the meat was cured, the boys started for the coast in
+their canoe. On the way they stopped at the nursery and found Baby
+almost glad to see them, and when Ned put half a banana in his
+mouth, the little manatee seemed really grateful. Ned even thought
+that when he pressed the baby's flipper good-bye, the pressure was
+returned, at least that is what he told Dick. The canoeists had
+trouble in avoiding the grass and moss of the big bay, but two hours
+of paddling carried them to the coast, where a strong on-shore wind
+was sending long rollers up on the beach. Dick knew where they
+were, and said that they had come down Broad River, and that the
+fisherman's ranch was only six or seven miles up the coast.
+
+"We can walk up the beach to it and save time. The water is too
+rough for the canoe," said Ned.
+
+"I don't know about that. I've lived on the water some and I've seen
+curious things done with canoes. Let's try it."
+
+"Better try the waves with an empty canoe first. Then I'll be with
+you."
+
+The canoe was unloaded on a quiet bit of the beach which lay behind
+a shoal and the boys by turns got into the canoe and paddled out
+among the breakers. Then they went out together and through it all
+the canoe rose to the waves like a duck. Then they reloaded their
+canoe and started up the beach. At times the wind was stronger and
+the waves bigger, but always the canoe rode them with a gait like a
+rocking-chair. They paddled easily, "taking the waves on the bias,"
+as Dick observed, heading a little off-shore to balance the push of
+the wind and the waves.
+
+The fisherman was at home, and Ned soon closed a contract with him
+to carry Baby Manatee to Myers at Ned's cost and risk, payment to be
+made in Myers by Mr. Barstow or his agent. The man had just got in
+some lumber to build a skiff. This would serve to build the box, and
+the charge for it would be five dollars. The fisherman said he would
+need the help of his son; that the charge for the two would be four
+dollars a day, and he "reckoned" it would take eight days, so the
+contract was closed for thirty-seven dollars. He was ready to start
+right off and catch the evening tide up Broad River.
+
+"Don't you want to make the box first?" said Ned.
+
+"Reckon not. 'Druther see the manatee 'fore I spile good lumber.
+Manatees is mighty scurse in this country."
+
+Dick flared up, and said to the fisherman:
+
+"Do you mean that we've been lying about a manatee?"
+
+"Course not, not lyin'; manatee's all right, only you ain't much ust
+to 'em and it may be bigger'n you think, 'nd I'd hate to make th'
+box too little."
+
+The lumber was taken on board, the canoe unloaded and laid on the
+deck of the sloop, the sails reefed and with her skiff drawn close
+up under her stern the craft was soon flying down the coast. When
+she reached the river the reefs were shaken out and in little more
+than an hour anchor was dropped beside the manatee cove. It was
+nearly dark and work was to begin the next morning, but all hands
+wanted a look at the little manatee. The fisherman and his son went
+in their own skiff while Ned and Dick led the way in the canoe.
+
+"Now I'll show you something worth seeing," said Ned, as he took
+hold of the end of the line and pulled it all easily in. As Ned sat
+looking at the broken end of the line, half stupefied by the
+greatness of his surprise, the fisherman laughed and said:
+
+"That sure was worth seem', 'nd I reckon I've saved you five
+dollars by not makin' that box till I got here 'nd saw the critter."
+
+"I'll keep the contract. It isn't your fault that the manatee has
+got away."
+
+"No, I reckon 'twan't anybody's fault, much. All I want out o' you
+is four dollars for one day's work," and the fisherman laughed
+again, adding a moment afterward:
+
+"I'm 'most ashamed to take that much, but I reckon the joke's been
+wuth it ter you."
+
+Ned paid the four dollars and the boys paddled back to their old
+camp for the night. On the way back Ned stopped paddling, and
+turning back, said to Dick:
+
+"Did that old fellow mean that he didn't believe we had caught a
+manatee at all?"
+
+"If I thought he did, I'd go back and punch his head."
+
+"No, you wouldn't. He isn't to blame. He only thought what everybody
+who hears of it and don't know us will think. I hope he won't tell
+about it in Myers, so that it will get to Dad's ears."
+
+"I shouldn't think you'd care for that," said Dick.
+
+"Well, Dad enjoys a joke and I would likely hear of 'Ned's manatee'
+pretty frequent for some time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HARPOONING FROM A CANOE
+
+
+Do you want to go for any more manatees?" asked Dick, the next
+morning.
+
+"Guess not. We're pretty well acquainted with the critters already
+and if we tackled another it would likely be a bigger one, and the
+sample we had was about all we could manage. But the bay here is
+full of big fish. Suppose we get out the little harpoon and pick up
+some drum-fish, channel-bass or a whip-ray?"
+
+When the boys started out for a day of harpooning, Dick sat high up
+on the stern of the canoe with the paddle, while Ned stood in the
+bow with the harpoon.
+
+"Hadn't you better sit down in the bottom of the canoe to paddle?
+The canoe feels wobbly to me," said Ned.
+
+"What's the matter with your nerves, Neddy? I'm not going to capsize
+you. S'pose I practiced half a day with that papoose for nothing?"
+
+"Most of that practice was swimming, wasn't it? I don't want any of
+that in mine to-day."
+
+Ned harpooned several large drum-fish, and finally got a
+channel-bass, after missing several.
+
+"We've got a lot more fish than we can eat now. Let's go for
+something big and have some fun. Hit that shark over there."
+
+"That shark could bite this canoe in two and then swallow the
+pieces. I wouldn't mind that so much if we were in the Glades, but I
+don't want to be set afoot so far from fresh water. See that big
+whip-ray! It's a beaut;--paddle up to it, Dick."
+
+Dick paddled toward the fish, which was shaped like a butterfly,
+with a back six feet broad, covered with beautiful little white
+rings placed on a jet black background. The graceful creature
+fluttered along the surface of the bay with a bird-like motion, at a
+speed that soon took it nearly out of sight of the boys. Dick
+followed it, as it zigzagged about the bay, sometimes skimming on
+the very surface and then disappearing in the depths for minutes at
+a time. Once it was out of sight for five minutes, and Dick had just
+stopped paddling, saying:
+
+"Got to give it up. That big butterfly is the other side of the bay
+by this time," when Ned saw the broad back of the creature gliding
+beneath his harpoon, beside the canoe and a foot or two under the
+surface. His quick side-throw was doubly effective, for the harpoon
+was buried in the back of the quarry, while Ned and Dick were buried
+in the water of the bay. The center of gravity of the canoe's cargo
+of boys was at least two feet above the gunwales of the craft, and
+when Ned's side-thrust threw him out of balance, the canoe popped
+from under him, and as Dick sat on the stern of the canoe and quite
+outside of it, he was in the water as soon as his chum. The whip-ray
+had darted away at high speed as soon as the iron touched him, but
+before the line which was coiled in the harpoon tub had run out, Ned
+had seized the tub, which was floating near him when he came to the
+surface.
+
+The end of the line was fast to the tub and when it was reached Ned
+was hauled through the water by the fish. If Ned had been built like
+a canoe, he would probably have caught the whip-ray, but the drag of
+the boy in the water was too much for the hold the iron had in the
+body of the creature, and the harpoon tore out. The boys managed to
+rock the water out of the canoe, but swamped it several times while
+trying to get in it without going ashore. After they had succeeded,
+Dick took the harpoon, while Ned sat in the bottom of the canoe with
+his paddle.
+
+"Now go ahead and harpoon your fish and I'll show you how to keep a
+canoe trimmed. What you really need is a scow," said Ned.
+
+"If I couldn't throw a harpoon over the side of a canoe without
+going over the other side myself, I'd give up fishing and try
+farming. Now just paddle softly in the wake of that big fin. Know
+what it is? I thought not. Well, it's the bayonet fin of the tarpon,
+my son, and if you'll paddle quietly and stay inside the boat, you
+shall have the fun of your life."
+
+The tarpon was tame, and Ned paddled within twenty feet of it
+without frightening it, but Dick made a poor shot. The back of a
+tarpon is narrow and a small mark for a harpoon when thrown from
+behind the fish, and Dick's weapon grazed its side, while the pole
+fell across the back of the tarpon, causing it to give one wild leap
+and depart for regions unknown. Dick was now out for tarpon, and
+paid no attention to smaller fish, many of which came within
+striking distance. Tarpon were scarce that day, and Dick's next
+chance was an hour in coming, and then the fish happened to be
+headed for the canoe. The boy had not learned the difficulty of
+throwing an iron through the coat of mail of a tarpon excepting from
+abaft the beam of the fish, and he drew in his harpoon with a
+beautiful four-inch scale fixed on its point.
+
+"Take the harpoon, Ned. I couldn't hit a house."
+
+"Yes, you could. You hit that tarpon. Only trouble was, you didn't
+know where to hit it. Keep on practicing. You said I'd have the fun
+of my life, and I'm having it."
+
+[Illustration: "THE STRICKEN TARPON LEAPED SIX FEET IN THE AIR"]
+
+Half an hour later Dick made a beautiful, long throw of nearly
+thirty feet, and the stricken tarpon leaped six feet in the air. For
+two hundred yards the frantic fish towed the canoe in a straight
+line, at a high rate of speed, and then began a series of leaps in
+the air. Some of these were long jumps which barely cleared the
+surface of the water, while others were from eight to ten feet
+vertically upward. The tarpon then darted away in a new direction,
+blistering Dick's hands as the line tore through them. For a quarter
+of an hour the drag of the canoe made little difference in the speed
+of the tarpon, but then it began to slacken and Dick was able to
+pull the canoe up beside the fish, which gave a leap and a sweep of
+its tail that drenched both of the boys and, if the tarpon had been
+a foot nearer, would have wrecked their craft. Again the creature
+dashed away, getting back most of the line that Dick had taken in.
+Once more the fish weakened, and the canoe was drawn up beside it,
+and once more it sprang in the air and dashed away. But with each
+fresh effort the tarpon became weaker, until Dick said to Ned:
+
+"He's about played out. Better take the gaff next time I get near
+him and see if you can land him in the canoe."
+
+"No," replied Ned, "he's your tarpon and you can gaff him yourself.
+He'll capsize the canoe when he comes aboard and I want to be ready
+to swim."
+
+[Illustration: "THE TARPON BEGAN A SERIES OF LEAPS"]
+
+Dick drew the canoe beside the tarpon and, dropping the
+harpoon-line, held the handle of the big gaff-hook in both hands,
+ready to strike. But the fish saw the uplifted weapon and sheered
+away, swimming with renewed vigor, and Dick had to work for another
+half hour before his quarry was quiet enough for the blow. This
+delay was fortunate for the boys, since it left the tarpon too tired
+to struggle. When Dick sank the steel gaff deep in the throat of
+the Silver King and dragged it over the side of the frail canoe,
+Ned sat in the bottom of the craft with a hand on each gunwale,
+ready to balance the boat or swim, as events might indicate.
+
+The boys took a lot of the big silver scales as souvenirs and then
+slid the body of the tarpon into the bay, where it was soon devoured
+by a couple of wandering sharks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+GHOSTS AND ALLIGATORS
+
+
+The boys spent a day exploring the bay to the east and south,
+finding but a single creek, which lost itself in the jungle after
+wandering a few miles.
+
+"I don't believe we can get through this way," said Dick to his
+chum, as they were resting, after an hour of hard work, cutting away
+branches of trees and dragging the canoe. "Mr. Streeter told me that
+the Indians say there is no creek between the bays at the head of
+Broad River, where we are, and the rivers south of it. Suppose we
+work our way to the mouth of this river and then follow the coast
+down to Harney's, which is the next river south of us and the
+longest one in South Florida."
+
+"All right, and we can explore that big creek running west from the
+foot of this bay, which we saw yesterday."
+
+The boys found the creek to be deep with swift water, but so crooked
+that a snake would have had to slow up to get through it. After two
+miles of paddling, which advanced them about half a mile, they found
+themselves in a broad smooth-flowing river, the most beautiful
+stream they had ever seen. The big trees on the banks were clothed
+with airplants, draped with long, flowing gray moss and garlanded
+with flowering and sweet-scented vines. Sometimes an opening in the
+forest showed broad savannahs, or prairies, or disclosed groups of
+tall palmettos or magnificent royal palms, the grandest tree that
+grows. The water was mirror-like, and the great trees, capped by a
+mass of white clouds in the blue of the heavens, were repeated below
+in a reflection that was perfect. The boys paddled for a long time,
+silent as if in a dream, when Ned spoke in a voice so low that his
+companion could scarcely hear what he said:
+
+"Does it make you think of Heaven, Dick?"
+
+"Guess it does; only," added Dick, in a louder tone, "it will make
+you think of the other place, pretty soon."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"It's a deserted river. Only ghosts stay here. The plantations are
+grown over, the houses rotting and little sticks in the ground tell
+where the old owners are. The climate is so bad that skull and bone
+notices grow on the trees. Then things happen. People eat something
+and die, or fall out of their boats and drown, or go out in the
+woods and stay till the buzzards find them. Oh, but it's the
+peaceful, lovely Rodgers River!"
+
+"Why, where did you hear all that, Dick?"
+
+"From Mr. Streeter. He talked a lot and I didn't forget much that
+he said. Then Johnny had heard the talk of convicts, and others who
+ought to have been, and told me about them almost in a whisper, for
+fear somebody would hear him."
+
+"There's a rotting old shack, now, by that date palm. Are you afraid
+of ghosts?"
+
+"No, rather like 'em. I wouldn't mind camping with them for a day or
+two, with you for company."
+
+[Illustration: "GROUPS OF TALL PALMETTOS, OR MAGNIFICENT TALL
+PALMS"]
+
+The house looked too spooky and snaky to live in, and the boys made
+their camp in the open, near a tamarind tree and, as they observed
+later, beside an overgrown grave. An old barrel under the eaves of
+the house was nearly full of rain water, which they were likely to
+need, since their only supply of fresh water was contained in a
+five-gallon can, which would hold about two days' requirements. The
+rain water was good and would have been better but for Ned's
+gruesome inquiry:
+
+"You don't suppose it has been poisoned, do you, Dick?"
+
+On their first afternoon the boys crossed the swampy jungle in the
+rear of the old plantation and found themselves on a typical South
+Florida prairie. On it were oases of fire-blackened palmettos,
+little ponds, palmetto scrub and bits of soggy meadow, in which they
+often sank to their knees, as they plodded across them. There were
+tracks of wild animals in the meadows and regular trails of
+alligators between the ponds. Billy stopped beside one of the ponds
+and grunted, as he had been taught by Johnny, until a little 'gator
+showed his head.
+
+"See that alligator, Ned? Let's go in there and fetch him out."
+
+"Not much do I go in that mud-hole, alligator or no alligator."
+
+"Then, just you watch me," said Dick, as he took off his shoes and
+stockings.
+
+"See here, Dicky boy, come out of there," said Ned.
+
+But Dick kept on, wading all round the pond before he felt the
+wiggle he wanted. Perhaps his toes were less tough than Johnny's, or
+maybe he didn't manage them as well, for one of them got in a baby
+'gator's mouth. Dick couldn't suppress a yell as two rows of
+needle-like teeth sunk into his flesh, and he jerked his foot away
+so violently that he lost the chance of bagging his game. Then Ned
+came floundering through the mud and almost dragged him out of the
+pond.
+
+"I mean to get that little alligator if it takes all day, only I
+won't try him barefoot again," said Dick, as he slowly drew his
+stocking over his aching toe.
+
+Dick waded out into the pond again and for half an hour explored
+with his feet for the reptile he was after, but all in vain. Several
+times he thought he touched the creature with his shoe, but could
+not be sure. Then he waded ashore and began taking off his shoes.
+
+"What are you going to do now, Dick?" said Ned.
+
+"Johnny waded barefoot into just such a pond as that and brought out
+a 'gator. I told him then that what he could do, I could. I'm plumb
+scared to go in that pond barefoot, but that young Cracker, who's a
+year younger than I, waded right in without stopping to think
+whether it was safe or not. If Johnny was here he'd have that 'gator
+out of that pond, toes or no toes, and that's what I'm going to do,"
+and Dick waded barefoot into the pond again and began feeling around
+in the mud with his toes.
+
+"If you feel that way about it, I'm with you, Dick," said Ned, as he
+began to take off his shoes. But before he reached the water the
+reptile had been caught, and Dick waded ashore with the wriggling
+little alligator in his hand.
+
+"There's a bigger one in there. He whacked me on the shin with his
+tail, just after I caught the little one. Let's get him."
+
+The boys waded side by side, the length of the pond, several times
+without finding another 'gator, although the occasional roiling of
+the water showed that there were others in the pond. They were about
+to give up the hunt when something struck Ned's leg and, grabbing
+suddenly at the thing, he found that he had a five-foot alligator by
+the head. He held the jaws of the 'gator shut while Dick seized the
+hind legs of the reptile, and together they carried the creature
+ashore.
+
+"I wonder where that fellow was hidden," said Dick, after the
+alligator had been safely tied. "My toes have felt in every inch of
+the mud in the bottom of that pond. Maybe there's another one. Let's
+get him," and Dick started into the pond.
+
+"Wait till I get some clubs and I'll be with you. There may be a big
+'gator in there who wouldn't be satisfied with a toe."
+
+It was well they had clubs when they went back in the pond, for
+after a few minutes' searching, Dick struck something, and the tail
+of a reptile came to the surface beside him. As he grabbed it with
+both hands, and hung on with all his strength, a long body curved
+upward from it, a big head was uplifted, and two rows of ivory teeth
+gleamed from wide-opened jaws before Dick's eyes. Before the boy
+could move or the beast strike, Ned's club came crashing down on the
+reptile's head. As the jaws closed and the head fell back, a second
+and yet more furious blow fell upon it. As they dragged the stunned
+or dead 'gator out of the pond, Ned said:
+
+"I'm going to round-skin this alligator and save the skull, for
+mounting. I'll keep it in my den as a reminder of this trip and of
+you."
+
+"If it hadn't been for your club, it would have been more of a
+reminder of me than it is now."
+
+The alligator came to life a few times, while they were skinning it,
+and had to be killed over again, and the tail did some wiggling even
+after the spine had been severed. When the skinning operation was
+over the boys went back to camp, where they found an old kettle, in
+which they boiled the skull of the alligator and cleaned it of flesh
+and brains in preparation for mounting.
+
+[Illustration: "HE HELD THE JAWS OF THE 'GATOR SHUT, WHILE DICK
+SEIZED THE HIND LEGS OF THE REPTILE"]
+
+"How did you sleep last night, Dick?" asked Ned, the next morning.
+
+"Didn't sleep at all. This place is sure bad medicine. First the
+hoots of the owls and the snarls of the wildcats kept me awake, then
+the booming of the big alligators worried me, and after I did get to
+sleep, the ghost of that alligator that we killed to-day shook his
+white teeth in my face, and I could feel the man in the grave under
+me trying to push me off of it. Let's get out of this river this
+morning, Ned."
+
+As they paddled down Rodgers River, in the bright sunshine, Dick's
+spirits rose and when they were off the mouth of the river, headed
+down the coast and bound for Harney's River, two miles distant, he
+took in his paddle and, calling to Ned to hold steady, vaulted
+lightly from the canoe, without even jarring it, and landed on a
+sandbank in water that was but little above his waist. Stooping
+under the water he picked up clams of several pounds weight each,
+with which the bottom was paved, until clam-roasts for days had been
+provided for. Getting back into the canoe was a ticklish operation,
+but was accomplished without disaster, although a pailful or two of
+water was taken aboard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HUNTING IN HARNEY'S RIVER
+
+
+The boys had chosen the last of the ebb tide for the trip down
+Rodgers River, which gave them low water for their work on the clam
+bar and a flood tide to help them up Harney's River. They made a
+false start at the mouth of the river by taking a channel that ran
+too far to the east and led them a mile or two out of their course,
+before they discovered their mistake and returned. After entering
+the channel, the course up the river, which averaged east-northeast,
+was plain, there being but a single branch to mislead them, in the
+first six miles. At the end of these the lower section of Harney's
+unites with a branch of Shark River to form Tussock Bay. This bay is
+a labyrinth of channels and keys and opens into creeks large and
+small, and water-courses shallow and deep, grass-choked and clear.
+
+After exploring its mazes for miles, Dick and Ned found, near the
+northeast end of the bay, a tiny key marked by two tall palmettos,
+on which were the signs of an old Indian camp. Here they roasted a
+mess of clams and spent the night. An entire day was wasted in
+following creeks that led nowhere and blind trails. That night they
+slept again at the Indian camp and on the following day found a
+small channel which, through twisting creeks and crooked waterways,
+led to the broad waters of the upper section of Harney's River,
+which they followed until they were stopped by the Everglades. They
+made their camp by a lime tree which was burdened with fruit, and
+went out from it each day to hunt fish or explore and to study and
+chart the country about them. The waters of the streams were all
+flowing clear and fresh from the Everglades. The creeks were alive
+with fish of many kinds, and their surfaces dotted with the heads of
+edible turtles.
+
+Alligators were abundant and otters could often be seen sliding down
+the banks, or in families, playing together in the water. Ned had
+seen a pet otter at Myers and wanted one for himself. He had brought
+with him an otter trap, with smooth jaws instead of the cruel teeth
+which are customary, and he set it near an otter slide. The next day
+as the canoe approached the point where the trap had been set the
+rattling of the chain that held it told of the victim it had made.
+The hind leg of the otter was held firmly by the trap, but he sprang
+fiercely at Ned as he came near, and the sharp teeth snapped
+together within a few inches of the boy's face as the short chain
+straightened out. The boys went back to their camp, where Ned made a
+cage out of the box in which they kept most of their stores, and
+then returned to their captive.
+
+"How are you going to get him into the cage, Ned?"
+
+"Hold his head down with a forked stick, take him round the neck
+with my hand so he can't bite, take the trap off of his leg and poke
+him in the cage."
+
+"Ned! He'll eat you up. I'd rather tackle a wildcat."
+
+"Just watch him eat me up. You stand by, when I've got a good hold,
+and take off that trap quick as you can. Then I'll drop him in the
+box and--there you are."
+
+"No, we won't be there--not all of us. I wish I was the otter. He'll
+have all the fun."
+
+Ned got his forked stick and, after a long struggle, in which Dick
+had to help with another stick, caught the otter's neck in the fork
+and held the creature firmly to the ground. Then putting his left
+hand around its neck he held the head down in the mud, and with his
+right hand clutched the skin of the animal's back.
+
+"All right, Dick, take off the trap."
+
+"Trouble's goin' to begin. Here goes," said Dick, and the trap was
+removed.
+
+Like a flash of light, as Ned lifted the little beast, it thrust its
+head through the loose skin of the neck and turning backward bit
+Ned's hand to the bone four times in something less than a second.
+The otter would have been free, but that Dick, who was looking for
+trouble, had it by the neck with both hands and in spite of its
+biting, scratching and struggling, it was dumped in the box and the
+door of its cage closed.
+
+"Been having fun! Haven't we?" said Dick, ruefully, as the boys,
+scratched, bitten and bleeding, stood looking at each other, after
+their victory. Ned's hand was disabled and so painful that Dick
+paddled the canoe, with its cargo of boys and pet otter, to their
+camp.
+
+"Now, Ned," said Dick, "I'm the surgeon and you are to be respectful
+and call me Dr. Dick. Let me see your left hand first. I've got to
+decide whether to chop it off, or to try and save some of it."
+
+"You look as if you needed some fixing up yourself, Dick."
+
+"That will be all right. You shall have a chance at me--if you
+survive the operation."
+
+Dick got a bottle of carbolated vaseline from their stores, tore up
+one of Ned's shirts and put the strips in boiling water. He then
+washed Ned's wounds with warm water and soap and dressed and
+bandaged them. His own injuries were less serious than Ned's,
+although more numerous, and although he spoke lightly of them, his
+companion insisted on their having as careful treatment as his own.
+When the bandaging was over, Dick said:
+
+"We ought to have a yellow flag to fly over this hospital. I wish we
+had a medical book to tell us what we've probably got. The only
+things I'm sure of are blood poisoning and hydrophobia. Then there's
+enlargement of the spleen. I've got all the symptoms of that."
+
+"Your only danger is from melancholia, Dick. But what are we to do
+with the otter? That box is too small for his comfort."
+
+"I'm not losing any sleep over his comfort. I thought I'd take him
+out of his cage every morning and lead him around the camp for
+exercise until you were ready to begin his education."
+
+"It does not seem quite as easy to tame him as it looked before we
+caught him."
+
+"Guess you mean before he caught us."
+
+"Shouldn't wonder if I did. Couldn't we build a cage of poles, with
+some of these big vines woven in basket fashion?"
+
+"That would be all right. We could watch him day times and you could
+put him back in the box every night for safe keeping. I don't think
+he's an otter at all. He just fits the definition of a white
+elephant."
+
+On the day after his little difference of opinion with the otter,
+Ned's left hand and wrist were so sore and stiff that he could
+neither hold his paddle nor his gun. Dick, too, was partially
+disabled by the soreness of his arms, but he managed to get about in
+the canoe and shoot ducks enough for their meals. They could not
+induce the otter to eat anything, although it seemed much less
+fearful of them. The leg which had been in the trap was broken and
+appeared to trouble the animal, but they could do nothing to help
+it. Dick did propose to take the otter out of the cage and offered
+to set its leg if Ned would hold the creature. On the second day
+their wounds continued to be so troublesome that the boys stayed in
+their hospital camp. As they sat that afternoon in the shade of a
+lime tree, drinking limeade, Dick, the philosopher, began to
+question Ned.
+
+"Don't you pity all these folks about here, Ned? Crackers,
+alligators, Indians, the whole ignorant lot of 'em. If they had got
+hurt as we did, they would have gone right on about their business.
+They'd never have found out that they were probably suffering from
+appendicitis and microbes and ought to go to a hospital and be
+carved up."
+
+At this moment the bow of an Indian canoe glided silently into the
+tiny cove in front of the camp. The boys recognized one of the two
+bronzed, bare-legged Seminoles that stood so erect in the canoe, as
+from Osceola's camp. His response to Ned's greeting was a question.
+
+"_Whyome_ (whiskey), got him? Want him, _ojus_ (very much)."
+
+Ned told them he had no _whyome_, but brought out coffee and sugar
+and invited them to make a brew for themselves. He also produced
+grits and venison. The Indians sat down to a feast which lasted as
+long as any food remained in sight. One of the Indians looked
+curiously at Ned's bandages and smiled a little as he pointed to
+the box that held the pet otter. Ned nodded and asked the Indian, by
+signs, if he had ever been bitten by one of the creatures. The
+Indian held out his hand and showed the scar of a bite that must
+have nearly taken off his thumb. After the Indians had gone Dick
+looked ruefully over the diminished stores and exclaimed:
+
+"There's going to be a famine in this camp if those Injuns hit us
+again."
+
+The next day the boys were very much better and ready for work. Ned
+could not hold a paddle with his left hand, so they took a trip into
+the Everglades, where the water was so shoal that they used their
+paddles as poles and he could push with one hand. They left their
+stores in camp, for which afterwards they were glad, and pushed out
+several miles among the keys of the Glades, where Dick got a shot at
+a deer which was running from one key to another, but made a clean
+miss. They saw several alligators and in the afternoon chased one
+with the canoe. The boys could go faster than the 'gator, but the
+reptile could turn more quickly. At last the canoe was right behind
+the quarry and within a few feet of it.
+
+"Give it to her!" yelled Ned, as he seized his paddle in both hands
+and threw his weight upon it.
+
+"Here goes!" shouted Dick, as he threw his weight on his paddle,
+which, unfortunately, slipped from the point of coral rock on which
+it first struck. Dick landed on his back in the water, capsizing the
+canoe as he fell. When the young canoemen had picked themselves up,
+righted the canoe, and found the rifle, it was too late to look for
+the missing alligator, and they plodded slowly home to camp. They
+found their captive much tamer. He drank a little water, although he
+refused to eat. His leg was badly swollen and they were anxious
+about him, and with good reason, for when they awoke in the morning
+he was dead.
+
+Ned's last, reckless thrust with his paddle had broken open his
+wounds and they became very painful. Dick dressed them again and
+warned him that he wasn't to use his hand until he had Dr. Dick's
+permission. They explored the creeks around their camp in the canoe,
+Dick doing most of the paddling, while Ned helped as well as he
+could, with his unhurt arm. The clear water of these little streams
+abounded with baby tarpon and other small fish, while often, in the
+deeper pools, turtles could be seen scurrying along the bottom. Dick
+had never told Ned of the turtle-catching that Johnny had taught
+him, so when he said, very casually, "Ned, I think I'll go overboard
+and pick up that turtle for supper," Ned replied:
+
+"Don't be an idiot. You couldn't catch that thing in the water in a
+thousand years."
+
+"Just hold the canoe steady and watch me." And Dick, resting his
+hands on the gunwales, threw himself overboard.
+
+The splash frightened the turtle, which made off up the creek, but
+the boy was on his trail and, after a few futile grabs, had the
+reptile in his hand.
+
+"Think that will do for supper, Ned, or shall I pick up a few more?"
+said Dick, as he put the turtle in the canoe.
+
+"I'd like to know who taught you that, you rascal, playing roots on
+your poor old chum, who never had your chance to see the world."
+
+While they were waiting for Ned's hand to get well, Dick got out the
+fly-rod and cast-net that came with his canoe and spent all his
+spare time trying to learn to throw the net. Johnny had given him a
+few lessons, until he thought he had learned to cast it. It was the
+kind of net which is used by the Florida Cracker, to the knowledge
+of which he is born, which he can cast when he leaves his cradle.
+The net was conical, six feet long with a ten-foot mouth, lined with
+leaden sinkers. The top of the net was closed, excepting for a small
+hole in which was fitted a small ring, through which puckering
+strings led from the mouth of the net to a 25-foot line, which was
+to be fastened to the fisherman's wrist.
+
+For casting, about half of the net is thrown over each wrist and one
+of the sinkers held between the teeth. The net is then swung behind
+the fisherman, thrown forward with a whirling motion, the sinker in
+his mouth released at exactly the right instant and the net falls in
+an almost perfect circle wherever, within thirty feet, the fisherman
+wishes. That is the way the net behaved when Johnny threw it. And
+when Johnny arranged the net on Dick's arms, told him just what to
+do and watched him, Dick made some respectable throws, and thought
+he had learned the game; but now, away from his teacher, when he
+tried to cast it, net and leads went out in a solid mass that never
+could have caught anything, though it might have killed a fish by
+knocking it in the head. Dick, however, was bound to learn, and
+practiced by the hour, without seeming to make any progress, when
+suddenly the net began to go out in circles and his casts became
+creditable. He was so fearful of losing his new-found facility that
+he practiced for the rest of that day, and lay down at night with
+what he called the toothache in every muscle.
+
+But from that day fish was on the bill of fare of the young
+explorers.
+
+When Ned's hand was well enough to be used a little, he began by
+fishing, sitting in the bow of the canoe, with the fly-rod, while
+Dick paddled. He caught several of the big-mouthed black bass, often
+called in the South fresh-water trout, and other small fish which
+they saved for the pan. Then the line was carried out with a rush by
+a fish that twice jumped one or two feet in the air.
+
+"Got a tarpon, sure," said Ned, who had never taken one, and he
+became most anxious lest the fish escape.
+
+For nearly half an hour he carefully played the fish, which never
+jumped again. When the tired fish was ready to be landed Ned found
+that his prize, instead of a tarpon, was a ten-pound fish which he
+did not recognize, but which he afterwards learned was a ravaille.
+
+"Well, it was mighty good fun, almost as exciting as if it had been
+a tarpon," said Ned, who didn't know how foolishly he was talking.
+
+They were down the river bright and early the following morning but,
+for the first hour, failed to hook any of the fish that struck. Then
+the hook was snatched and instantly a silver, twisting body shot ten
+feet up in the air. As it fell back in the water, the reel began to
+buzz and Ned's fingers were burned where the line touched them.
+Again and again the great fish leaped high in the air, while the
+line ran low on the reel.
+
+"Paddle, Dick, paddle all you know," shouted Ned.
+
+But Dick was already doing his very best. The tarpon changed his
+course, came back a little, leaped once more and again started off.
+But Ned had got a good many yards of line back on his reel, and was
+getting hopeful of landing his first tarpon. He was beginning to
+lose line again, when the tarpon turned around and, swimming
+straight for the canoe, leaped against Ned with such fury that the
+craft was nearly capsized, and when Ned had recovered from the shock
+his line was nearly out and the fish headed for a little creek that
+was almost overgrown with trees and vines. The first jump of the
+tarpon as he entered the stream carried him up among the bushes
+that hung over the water, but fortunately the line did not catch in
+the branches and, as the fish swam slowly up the little channel, the
+canoe was close behind him. Ned held the point of his rod low, that
+it might not catch in the bushes, but his heart was up in his mouth
+every time the tarpon sprang in the air.
+
+[Illustration: "THE TARPON LEAPED AGAINST NED WITH FURY"]
+
+"It's no use, Dick, we've got to lose him. He isn't a bit tired and
+the tangle is getting worse. Then if he turns back I won't have room
+for the rod and you can't turn the canoe."
+
+"Never say die, Ned. If he gets away from you, I'll go overboard and
+pick him up."
+
+"The creek's opening out into a big river, Dick. We may land him
+yet."
+
+The tarpon stayed in the big river, swimming a mile or so and then
+turning back, while Ned put all the strain he dared on rod and line
+and, excepting when the tarpon made a rush, Dick held his paddle
+still and let the fish tow the canoe by the line.
+
+"We've got all the scales we want," said Dick, "and I move we don't
+gaff another tarpon. When we have tired this one so it's through
+jumping, let's turn it loose. We don't need it to eat and I hate to
+feed sharks with such a beautiful creature."
+
+"Sure!" said Ned. "And if it is as tired as I am it will give in
+pretty soon or die."
+
+The tarpon grew weaker, his leaps lower and soon the canoe was held
+close to him, while Ned even laid his hands on the tired fish.
+
+"Think we can take him aboard, Dick?"
+
+"I think you can swamp the canoe and break the rod, all right."
+
+"I don't mind swamping the canoe and we can take care of the rod. If
+you'll take the rod now, I'll hang on to his jaw and take out the
+hook, which I can see in the corner of his mouth. Then, if you will
+look out for the rod and balance the canoe, I'll slide that tarpon
+over the gunwale--"
+
+"And we will all go overboard together," added Dick.
+
+"No, we won't, but just as soon as we have fairly caught him and got
+him in the canoe, we'll slide him overboard again."
+
+Dick took the rod, Ned removed the hook from the mouth of the tarpon
+and hoisted its head over the gunwale. The canoe canted over until
+water poured over its side, and the attempt would have failed but
+for the tarpon which, with a blow of its tail, threw itself up in
+the air and fell on top of Ned, who had tumbled into the bottom of
+the canoe. The sight of Ned hugging the big fish, which was spanking
+his legs with its tail, was too much for Dick, who sat down on the
+gunwale of the canoe in a spasm of mirth, and of course the craft
+was capsized. Ned clung to the fish for a few seconds until his
+captive had bumped him with its head and slapped him with its tail a
+few times, when he was glad to let it go. He then joined Dick, who
+was holding the rod with one hand and clinging to the canoe with
+the other, as he swam to the bank.
+
+On the way back to camp Dick had several fits of laughter that made
+him stop paddling for a minute at a time and caused Ned to say:
+
+"It's all right to laugh now, but that was my tarpon. I had him safe
+in the canoe and if you hadn't tipped us all into the river I'd have
+hung on to him."
+
+"I'm awful sorry, Ned, but if only you could have seen yourself,
+you'd have had to laugh or bust. Besides, you had your fun. You
+caught your tarpon and you wouldn't have done any more if you had
+lain in the bottom of the canoe and let it spank you all night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+EDUCATING AN ALLIGATOR
+
+
+The boys wished to explore the Whitewater Bay country, and spent
+several days following to their sources streams that led in that
+direction, until satisfied that no stream connected the two regions.
+Returning to Tussock Bay, they crossed it and entered a branch of
+Shark River, which led to Little Whitewater Bay. As they neared the
+bay a loggerhead turtle rose near them and Dick wanted to hunt it.
+
+"We need the meat," said he. "We can smoke it and then it is as good
+as jerked venison."
+
+"We haven't time to smoke it. We are in a salt-water country with
+only two or three days' supply of fresh water. We may not find any
+more for a week. We've just got to keep moving. I wish we had a keg
+of water. If we were to spill what we've got in that canoe we would
+have to hike in a hurry, back to the Glades or some other place
+where we knew there was fresh water."
+
+On the eastern side of Little Whitewater Bay, the boys found a
+straight and narrow creek which led to Whitewater Bay. Paddling for
+six miles, east-southeast, across the bay, they were fortunate
+enough to strike the narrow mouth of what soon proved to be a broad
+river. They paddled long and late without Finding the fresh water
+they looked for, and camped on ground so wet that they had to cut
+branches to sleep on. As they kept on in the morning, the river they
+followed forked and they took the deeper branch. This in turn split
+in two and again they followed the deeper branch. Near the close of
+a day of hard work the stream they were following opened out on a
+beautiful park-like prairie, while beside the canoe was an ideal
+camping site fitted by Nature to that end.
+
+It was a circular bit of high ground, surrounded by big trees whose
+spreading branches, draped in moss, shaded it on all sides, while an
+immense growth of wild grape-vine canopied it overhead. The water
+that flowed past the camp was pure and sweet, fresh from the
+Everglades. There was heavy timber about the camp and more than once
+during the night the boys heard the tread of a wild animal. Once it
+seemed to be the step of a deer in shallow water near the camp, then
+it was the soft footfall of some catlike animal and when Ned raised
+himself on his elbow to listen to a heavier tread, the "_wouf_" of
+the startled beast told that Bruin had caught the offensive scent of
+the white man's camp. As the boys lay awake and talked while they
+watched the stars peeping through the canopy of vines above them,
+they heard the distant bellowing of a Bull alligator.
+
+"Dick," said Ned, "do you s'pose we could find that 'gator? He must
+be fifteen feet long, from the noise he makes. I'd like mighty well
+to rope him. We could stake him out so he'd never, never get away
+and he would live for weeks if it took us that long to get him
+carried to Fort Myers. Dad would sure be delighted and pay all the
+bills like a major."
+
+"Don't you think he'd throw in new rifles with silver plates and our
+names on 'em?"
+
+"He sure would."
+
+"Well, we haven't got the big alligator yet, but we'll hunt for him
+to-morrow."
+
+Just as Dick spoke the distant report of a gun was heard.
+
+"There goes your fifteen-foot alligator and both of our new rifles
+with silver plates and our names on them. Good-night."
+
+The boys started out across the meadow in the morning on the hunt
+for the big 'gator. They carried a rope for the 'gator and Ned took
+his rifle to be ready for the bear that spoke to them in the night.
+There was no more danger of their losing their camp, for Ned had
+made a chart every night, of their course during the day, until his
+memory had learned to map every scene his eyes looked upon. As they
+crossed a bit of wooded swamp, they heard the step of some heavy
+animal in a jungle near them, but they could get no sight of the
+creature and the slushy mud through which it had waded left no
+prints that inexperienced eyes could read. They found little ponds
+from which small 'gators rose to their calls, but none of a size
+worth thinking of. They saw one big alligator sunning itself on a
+dry bank, and spent an hour in creeping near it only to find that it
+was not over ten feet long. As it grew late and they turned
+homeward, Dick said:
+
+"Ever since that otter of yours died I've wanted a pet in camp. We
+need one for a watchdog. 'Most any night we might be eaten up for
+want of one. Let's take home a young alligator and I'll train it.
+These ponds are full of 'em."
+
+"I don't want you to go wading in any more ponds, Dick."
+
+"That's all right. Don't have to. There are 'gator caves all round
+these ponds. You find one of 'em and I'll do the rest."
+
+The boys hunted around several ponds till Ned found a hole in the
+bank of one, just under the surface of the water. Dick handed Ned a
+pole, which he had cut in the last bit of woods they had passed, and
+then made a noose on the end of the harpoon line which he carried.
+He arranged the noose around the hole in the bank and stood a little
+back of it holding the line in his hands.
+
+"Now, Ned, just poke that pole down in the mud, all around, about
+fifteen feet back of this hole, and pretty soon you'll punch
+something. Then, you'll see fun."
+
+Ned poked around in the soft ground for awhile, then:
+
+"Look out, Dick! Something is wiggling."
+
+"I'm all here. Let her come!"
+
+Out came the reptile's head from the cave, straight through the
+noose which tightened around the alligator's neck, as Dick threw his
+weight back on the line. At first it tried to back into the cave,
+but the line held it. Then it plunged into the pond, but Dick soon
+yanked it out on the prairie. It scuttled over the prairie like a
+great lizard and when the boy jerked it back it ran toward him, but
+he side-stepped quickly out of reach of that open mouth. When the
+reptile became a little quiet, Dick dragged it to the pole which Ned
+had left sticking in the ground and walking twice around it had the
+alligator's head fast to the pole. Then stepping quickly up to the
+creature he seized it by the head, holding its jaws firmly together
+with both hands.
+
+[Illustration: "OUT CAME THE REPTILE'S HEAD FROM THE CAVE"]
+
+"Now, Ned, if you'll tie these jaws together, he'll be gentle as a
+lamb and we'll have a real pet that won't get away like a manatee or
+die like an otter."
+
+"I'll tie it, and bully for you, Dick, boy! You did that in great
+shape. I shouldn't wonder if it made a pretty good pet, and I don't
+care how big its mouth is, it couldn't have a bigger bite than that
+otter of ours."
+
+The 'gator was less than five feet long and quite babyish in its
+ways, but it gave Dick a lot of trouble as he was leading it toward
+their camp.
+
+"Just boost him up on my back, Ned. He's only a baby and wants to
+be toted."
+
+Ned found it a pretty vigorous baby when he tried to boost it and he
+got some spanks from its tail that made him think of his tarpon of a
+few days before. Finally Ned stood in front of his companion, and
+with his help the reptile was dragged up Dick's back with its
+forepaws on his shoulder. Dick hung onto the paws, in spite of the
+sloshing about of his pet's tail for about a quarter of a mile, when
+he dumped it on the ground and addressing it, said:
+
+"There! You uneasy little cuss, you've got to walk. I don't mind
+your wiggling your tail, but you tickle my ribs with your hind claws
+and you pound my head with your hard old jaws. Now come along
+straight, or instead of being toted you'll get a lickin'."
+
+When they reached camp Dick staked the pet out with a line long
+enough to let it get into the river when it chose. He took the rope
+from its jaws, leaving them free, and the 'gator never took
+advantage of it by trying to bite. At first the pet got very much
+excited when he was dragged out of the water and up on land, but
+after awhile he got used to it and seemed to almost enjoy it. Dick
+caught fish for his pet which always refused to eat them. Then Dick
+cut the fish in pieces and while Ned held the little 'gator, stuffed
+them in its mouth and then held its jaws together till it swallowed
+its food.
+
+"See the baby 'gator sit up, Ned," said Dick one day, after he had
+been training it for some time. "I'll have him eating with a fork
+and drinking from a cup in a week."
+
+[Illustration: "SEE THE BABY 'GATOR SIT UP, NED!"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ENCOUNTER WITH OUTLAWS
+
+
+One day, just after the boys had returned from an unsuccessful hunt
+for deer and Dick was at his usual occupation of training his pet,
+they heard the sound of oars, and a skiff, rowed by a man who looked
+like a product of the swamp, landed beside the camp.
+
+"Kin you fellers let me have a little salt to save my hides? 'Gators
+are pretty thick 'nd my salt's gi'n out."
+
+"We have only about a bushel of salt, but you can have half; yes, we
+can spare you three-quarters of it. We only use it for specimens and
+there'll be enough left for us," said Ned.
+
+"That's mighty kind o' you, 'nd I won't fergit it, tho' that won't
+be any use t' you, bein's ye ain't likely t' see me ag'in."
+
+"Why not? You go to Myers, I suppose. We might meet you there and
+we'd be glad to see you."
+
+"Thar's other folks 'd be glad t' see me thar, perticiler the
+sheriff. Ain't you fellers skeered, now yer know yer talkin' t' an
+outlaw?"
+
+"Not much," laughed Ned. "If you are an outlaw you have probably
+had all the trouble you want."
+
+"You bet I hev."
+
+"Then you aren't looking for any more. So what is there to scare
+us?"
+
+"Not a blame thing. But you boys is plucky. There's men 'd fight shy
+o' staying 'round here."
+
+"Well, it doesn't worry us. We didn't suppose there was any one
+around here, though, and we wondered who it was we heard shooting
+last night and we are glad to find out. Did you get any big
+alligators?"
+
+"'Twasn't me shootin'. I didn't shoot las' night. Say! You've gotter
+look out! I know them fellers. One on 'em's bad and you boys ain't
+safe. I'm goin' ter hang 'round, 'n if you smell trouble jest fire
+two shots 'nd trouble'll cum a-humpin' fur them fellers,"
+
+"All right and much obliged, and if anything does come that we can't
+manage we'll remember you, sure."
+
+Whenever the boys passed a pond on the prairie they stopped and
+grunted till the young 'gators came to the surface. One day Dick
+fired a shot near enough to splash one that had come up, but in ten
+minutes the reptile had forgotten his scare and again answered the
+call. Dick was disposed to wade in the pond and catch the little
+'gator, but Ned coaxed him out of the notion and proposed that they
+find a cave and rope another 'gator to cheer up Dick's pet, which he
+said was getting lonesome. This pleased Dick and the boys spent
+half a day finding an inhabited cave, when they secured its occupant
+with no trouble excepting that, as the alligator came out of his
+hole, Dick slipped on the muddy turf and was dragged into the pond.
+The 'gator was soon brought out on the prairie and its jaws tied. It
+was larger than the one first captured, and Dick didn't try to carry
+it on his back, but led and dragged it the entire distance.
+
+As the boys approached their camp they saw a skiff, with two
+rough-looking men in it, just being pushed from the bank. Ned called
+to the men, but received no reply, and the skiff was rowed rapidly
+away.
+
+"That spells trouble," said Ned. "Those are the fellows that our
+outlaw warned us against."
+
+The boys found their stores in some confusion and a lot of them had
+disappeared, and with them had gone Ned's rifle, which he had left
+in camp. Ned was quite too angry to speak and walked quickly to the
+canoe, followed by Dick.
+
+"What are you going to do, Ned?"
+
+"Going to get that rifle."
+
+"All right. I'm with you."
+
+"Dick, I'm going alone. It's a fool's errand and I don't want you
+mixed up in it."
+
+"Maybe it is a fool's errand, I guess it is, and that's the very
+reason I'm going with you, Ned. You know I'm going, that I wouldn't
+miss going with you for the world and you haven't any right to ask
+me to be a sneak and crawl out of the trouble, for it is trouble
+and probably big trouble."
+
+"Why, Dick, boy, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, and I'm sure
+glad to have you with me, only you must let me manage when we find
+those fellows."
+
+"Of course you'll run the thing and I won't interfere, unless it
+becomes mighty necessary, which is quite some likely."
+
+As they got into the canoe Dick said:
+
+"Don't you want the shotgun?"
+
+"No. Got better weapons than that."
+
+"Glad of it. You'll need 'em."
+
+The boys paddled rapidly down the narrow river for several miles
+before they came up to the men they were seeking, who were then just
+getting out of the little skiff into a larger one which had a canvas
+cover and was evidently used as a camp.
+
+Dick guided the canoe beside the larger boat and Ned spoke quietly
+to one of the men, who was scowling at him.
+
+"You know what I have come for. I want my rifle."
+
+"What rifle? I don't know anything about your rifle."
+
+"I mean the rifle you stole from our camp this afternoon. I want it
+and I'm going to have it."
+
+"See here," said the man, who was purple with rage, as he picked up
+a rifle, "I'll blow the top of your head off if you tell me I lie."
+
+"You lie," said Ned calmly. "You are a liar, a thief and a coward.
+Now give me that rifle. I am not going to ask you for it many more
+times."
+
+"I won't give it to you and I don't know what keeps me from blowing
+your head off. I believe I will yet."
+
+"I can tell you why you don't. Because you know there would be a
+hundred men on your trail who would never leave it while you were
+alive. Because you wouldn't dare show your face to man, woman or
+child, white, black or red, in Lee County or anywhere else. Because
+your own partner would be the first to give you up."
+
+"He would, would he?"
+
+"Yes, he would!" said the man referred to. "Don't be a fool, but
+give the kid his gun, or I will."
+
+The rifle was handed to Ned and the boys paddled back to their camp.
+On the way Dick said:
+
+"I was scared stiff, Ned, when that fellow took up his rifle and I
+saw how mad he was. Weren't you a little bit frightened yourself?"
+
+"Not then. I'm a good deal scared now to think of it."
+
+As the boys that night sat leaning against a log which they had made
+soft with masses of long gray moss, watching the dying out of the
+fire which had cooked their supper, another skiff touched at their
+bank, bringing the man to whom they had given the salt and also
+carrying the carcass of a fine buck.
+
+"There, boys, better smoke what yer can't eat by termorrer. I'll
+show yer how."
+
+"We know how and we're very much obliged. But we must pay for it,
+you know."
+
+"I can't take a cent and it makes me feel bad t' have yer talk about
+it. Have yer seen them fellers yit?"
+
+"Oh, yes. They called on us and we returned the call. We didn't
+happen to be at home when they called, though," said Dick.
+
+"They come here t' your camp?"
+
+"Yes. They certainly came."
+
+"'nd you not here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What did they take?"
+
+"Stole a rifle," said Dick.
+
+"I'll git it back. Don't yer worry, I'll git it back and I'll start
+now," and the outlaw rose from the log on which he was sitting.
+
+"Don't go. We got the rifle back."
+
+"How did yer do it?"
+
+Dick told the story of the recovery of the rifle. The outlaw sat for
+a minute looking down at the ashes of the fire, and then, speaking
+very slowly and with emphatic little nods between the words, said:
+
+"And them's th' fellers I thought needed lookin' arter."
+
+There was silence for some time and then Ned spoke in a voice that
+was low from suppressed feeling.
+
+"My friend, I don't know your name. I don't know what you did. I
+don't ask it. But I believe you are too good a man to be living the
+life of an outlaw. Now, can't something be done to help you? If some
+men of influence worked for your pardon, couldn't it be got?"
+
+"Reckon not. It's bin tried. I'll tell yer jist how 'twas. I killed
+a man. He worried me 'nd threatened me 'nd tried ter kill me with a
+knife, 'f I'd shot him then, nobody'd said nuthin', but I waited 'nd
+then I got scared, thot he'd kill me, 'nd one day I shot him. I was
+put in th' pen, then I was sent t' the chain gang 'nd set t' boxin'
+trees f'r turpentine. Saw a man flogged day I got thar. Sed I'd
+never git whipped if work would save me. I was the strongest man in
+the gang. Boxed more trees 'n anybody. More I did, more I had t'. I
+don't say I was whipped. If I was I didn't deserve it. If I was 'nd
+ever see th' man that did it I'll kill him. Know how turpentine
+gangs is guarded? Boy sits up on platform with rifle 'nd gives
+orders. S'pose yer sassy to him or he just wants fun with yer. When
+Cap--that's th' man that whips--comes 'long, boy sez feller's bin
+shirkin'. Then feller's tied t' tree 'nd Cap beats him till feller
+begs t' be killed. I don't want t' hurt anybody 'cept one feller,
+but I ain't goin' back t' no chain gang. If the sheriff holds me
+up, 'nd sez 'Come back or I'll shoot,' I'll say 'Shoot!'"
+
+The boys were very silent after the outlaw's story and when he left
+them they shook hands warmly with him and asked what they could do
+for him; ammunition, food, clothing, money, anything they had was at
+his service.
+
+"Don't want nuthin'. You've give me more'n you'll ever know," said
+the outlaw gruffly.
+
+But the gruffness was a bit tremulous and there were tears in the
+man's voice.
+
+The outlaw got in the way of spending his evenings with the young
+explorers and Ned pumped him dry of his knowledge of the Everglades,
+the Big Cypress and the lesser swamps of South Florida. He made
+charts from lines traced in the dirt to show rivers, bays, prairie
+land and swamps. Ned learned of hidden creeks that connected waters
+thought to be completely separated by land and of others that could
+be connected by a short carry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+DICK AND THE BEAR
+
+
+Dick wanted a bear and the outlaw showed him a near-by swamp where
+several of the creatures lived. Day after day Dick waded, wandered
+and watched in that swamp with the rifle, while Ned tramped in
+another direction carrying the shotgun, making maps of the country,
+and picking up occasionally a duck or Indian hen for dinner.
+Sometimes Dick got sight of a bear, but Bruin was shy and kept well
+out of range. One day, while sitting in some thick woods, hoping
+that a bear would wander near him, Dick heard a loud tearing sound
+that seemed to come from the top of a little group of young
+palmettos. He crept as slowly and silently as possible near the
+trees and saw a bear sitting in the top of a palmetto, tearing away
+the outer husk of the bud of the tree which is the cabbage of the
+Cracker and often serves as his bread. While Dick was creeping
+nearer to get a surer shot, Bruin tore out the bud and, with the
+cabbage in his mouth, dropped from the top of the tree to the
+ground, alighting on its fore shoulder. Dick didn't know that this
+was the way bears in that country usually came down a tree when in
+a hurry, and supposed the bear had met with an accident and was
+killed. He changed his mind the next instant when the creature came
+racing toward him. Dick and the bear were about ten feet apart when
+they saw one another. The bear had to turn quickly to keep from
+running over Dick, and Dick had trouble to keep from punching the
+bear in the ribs with his rifle when he fired at it.
+
+No one was hurt on this first round and the bear thought it had
+escaped and so did the boy. Dick churned a cartridge from the
+magazine to the barrel of his rifle and watched closely the
+undergrowth through which the bear was running, hoping for another
+shot. Just as the splashing in the marsh grew indistinct and Dick
+realized that his last chance had gone, he got one glimpse of the
+bear as it sprang upon a log that lay across its path. Dick threw
+his rifle to his shoulder with the quick motion of the sportsman who
+takes a woodcock on the wing, and fired. The bear, which was distant
+more than a hundred yards, disappeared and it seemed to the boy
+scarcely worth while to follow it. It was only the notion to look
+for the mark of his bullet on some tree near the log that induced
+him to wallow through the swamp to where he had last seen the bear.
+To his amazement he found a piece of bone and some fresh blood on
+the log. He had no thought now of abandoning the trail. He followed
+it through swamp and jungle, sometimes losing it where the ground
+was hard or where it crossed the path of an alligator. Often when he
+became fearful that he had lost the trail a smear of blood on root
+or leaf told him that he was on the track. From former hunts and the
+study of Ned's maps, he knew the general lay of the land, but he
+stopped often and noted his course, for he meant to follow that
+trail and camp on it if necessary until he lost it finally or found
+the bear. The animal seemed to know all the bad stretches of marsh
+and thorny bits of jungle and, as the hours passed and night drew
+near, without his getting a sight of his quarry, he consoled himself
+with the thought of what Mr. Streeter had told him:
+
+"A man is never lost in the swamp so long as he knows where he is
+himself."
+
+Dick knew he wouldn't starve. There were always birds to be shot,
+alligators which he could kill with a club, and palmetto cabbage
+which he could dig out with his knife. He had his matches in a
+watertight box, a little bag of salt in his pocket, the swamp water
+was fresh, and what more could a hunter-boy ask for? He felt so
+cheerful that he began to whistle, which brought him bad luck, for
+he stumbled over a root which caught both feet and threw him
+head-down into a deep pool of mud. He was half strangled before he
+got out and was looking down shudderingly into the morass out of
+which he had crawled, when he missed his rifle and knew he had got
+to get back into the mudhole. It was so deep that he laid a branch
+across it to cling to, before venturing in. A big moccasin crawled
+from under a root beside the pool of mud as Dick stepped in it and
+the boy shut his teeth tight as he forced himself to wallow through
+the slimy, snaky mass from which his flesh recoiled.
+
+He was waist-deep in that broth of mud when his feet found the rifle
+and he stooped down into it and groped around among roots that felt
+like living, squirming reptiles before he recovered the weapon. When
+he had scraped the most of the mud off of himself and out of the
+rifle it was too dark to follow the trail and Dick walked to a
+near-by thicket where he hoped to find better ground for a camp. He
+was peering into a dark recess in the thicket when a fierce growl
+within a few feet startled him terribly, but told him that he had
+found his bear--or another one. Dick was about to run, when a
+picture of Ned facing the outlaw formed itself in his mind and after
+that the bear couldn't have kicked him out of its path. As the boy's
+eyes became accustomed to the gloom he saw the bear lying within six
+feet, with jaws half open, and eyes fixed upon him. Dick believed
+the bear was dying, since he failed to spring upon him, but he
+thought a bullet would make things safer and he raised his rifle. He
+pointed the weapon at the animal's head, but it was too dark to see
+the sight of the rifle, the brain of the creature was small, and
+Dick, remembering that a bear with a sore head is likely to be
+cross, dropped the muzzle of his weapon to the fore shoulder of the
+beast, and fired. The bear scarcely moved, but its eyes closed and
+Dick was prudently waiting before touching it, when he heard the
+distant report of a gun and knew that Ned was worried about him. He
+fired an answering shot and then, finding a bit of dry ground beside
+the body of the bear, decided to eat his supper the next morning and
+lay down to sleep with his head on his new bear robe.
+
+At daylight he heard the report of Ned's gun and fired his rifle in
+reply. The bear was so heavy that Dick had trouble in handling it
+and before he had finished skinning it the report of a gun within
+two hundred yards showed that Ned was out hunting for him and had
+taken the right course.
+
+"Hope you didn't worry about me," was Dick's greeting as the boys
+met.
+
+"Nope, didn't worry after you answered my shot, but I was mighty
+envious of you, for I knew you had got hold of something. I didn't
+believe it was a bear. Were you scared, Dick?"
+
+"Yes, I was, a heap, but I pulled through," and Dick told his chum
+of the thought that braced him up.
+
+Ned tried to speak roughly, but his voice trembled and he looked
+affectionately at his companion as he said:
+
+"See here, Dick, boy, you can cut out all that outlaw talk. The gun
+business was all bluff and you know it as well as I."
+
+"You looked pretty white, Neddy, for a fellow who didn't think he
+was taking any risk. But if you'll tell me now, honest Injun, that
+you didn't think there was any danger when you faced that convict
+and called him a liar, a thief and a coward, why I'll never speak of
+it again. I noticed that your pet outlaw, who said the fellow was a
+murderer, three deep, didn't seem to think that you had done
+anything so very amusing in giving that fellow the lie and all the
+rest of it."
+
+"I see you are round-skinning your bear for mounting. I'm glad of
+that. Some day I'll see it in your house and we'll be talking about
+last night."
+
+"That skin is for you. I want you to have it stuffed and put where
+it can watch your alligator."
+
+"I'm not going to take all the trophies of this trip. You can bet
+your life on that."
+
+"Don't get slangy, Neddy. You aren't used to it and it isn't
+becoming. Besides, we may never get these little souvenirs out of
+the wilderness."
+
+By which remark Dick proved himself to be a prophet.
+
+The trail of the bear had been roundabout and had brought Dick
+within less than a mile of the camp. The buzzards were gathering and
+Dick remained to guard the meat while he finished removing the skin
+and cleaning the skull. Ned made two trips with good loads and then,
+taking all they could carry, the boys returned to camp, leaving a
+big feast for the bird scavengers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE CROCODILE COUNTRY
+
+
+One evening while Dick had one of his alligator pets sitting up on
+his tail, teaching him to sing, as he told his chum, Ned said:
+
+"Crocodiles are a lot more interesting than alligators and the
+Florida crocodile is nearly extinct. All that are left are in a
+little strip of land near Madeira Hammock, which is only a mile or
+two wide and eight or ten long. Let's go down to Madeira Hammock and
+catch some to look at. We can turn them loose after we are through
+with them."
+
+"Mr. Streeter says there is no way to get through to Florida Bay,
+where Madeira Hammock is, by water from Whitewater Bay."
+
+"Your outlaw says there is, only you have to tote your canoe some."
+
+"He isn't my outlaw. I don't sit up nights making maps with him, and
+anyhow we can't tote the canoe through a mangrove swamp, and that's
+what we're up against if we go that way."
+
+"But our outlaw--the outlaw, if you like--says we can find little
+creeks up toward the Glades that will take us almost through."
+
+"All right. We'll start in the morning. I wish we'd cured about a
+ton or two less of that meat. We'll have to make a lot of trips
+across the carries. You don't see any way to take my alligators
+along, do you?"
+
+Two days were spent in following creeks that led to nothing and then
+one was found with a deeper channel which led them for miles, after
+which it broke up into several little waterways, which were almost
+without current and so shallow that the boys had to wade and drag
+their canoe. Their progress was slow, and they slept on a bed of
+brush which had lumps and knots to bruise every soft spot on their
+bodies. Their next trouble was a strip of mangrove swamp which a cat
+couldn't have crawled through. After following along the mangroves
+for an hour they found a creek which entered it. As they followed
+this creek it grew wider and deepened. There was a slight current
+that flowed with them; the water was brackish, and they knew it led
+to the Bay of Florida and that the Madeira Hammock was near.
+
+The mangrove gave place to a better growth, the soil became richer
+and vegetation more luxuriant. Soon they had to cut away vines and
+branches to clear the way for the canoe, but they counted their
+troubles over. They were paddling gaily ahead when they saw in front
+of them a branch that stretched across the creek about a foot above
+the water. They had met plenty of similar obstructions, but this
+was different. There was a big wasps' nest on the branch and the air
+was filled with flying little pests. It was impossible to get around
+the nest and it was doubtful if there was another creek that would
+take them through.
+
+"Let's get some dry palmetto fans and make torches. Then we can burn
+and smoke the wasps out," said Ned.
+
+"Dunno as I want to wade up to that nest and set it afire. Ouch!"
+said Dick, who had sat down on what he thought was a stump, but had
+turned out to be an ants' nest. "Holy smoke! Don't these things
+bite? I don't believe wasps are in it with them. Anyhow, I'm going
+to find out."
+
+Dick took the oar that was used to pole the canoe and wading
+straight toward the nest struck it a blow that most fortunately
+knocked it to the water, while a second blow sent it under the
+surface. A few of the outlying insects stung the boy and he had a
+dozen little lumps to show for a day or two, but he had captured the
+fort and drowned the garrison and the canoe passed in peace.
+
+The creek emptied into a wide bay on the high bank of which the boys
+camped. It was part of the Madeira Hammock, the most beautiful
+native forest they had seen. At daylight a large crocodile was
+floating on the bay near the camp, but sank out of sight as the
+campers showed themselves. From the bay the canoeists entered a deep
+river with high banks on which were growing madeira, wild sapadillo,
+palms of several kinds and other varieties of trees. In the sides
+of the high banks at the water line the boys saw holes which they
+believed to be the caves of crocodiles. In the mouth of one the
+water was muddied and Dick cut a long pole which he poked into the
+hole. At first he felt something seize the pole, but could not
+afterward find the creature. He then took the pole on the bank and
+thrust it into the ground where he thought the reptile was most
+likely to be. When he had worked thirty feet back from the bank he
+felt something move and the next instant Ned, who had stayed in the
+canoe at the mouth of the cave, was nearly capsized by the rush of a
+great beast nearly the size of the canoe.
+
+"Why didn't you grab it, Ned? What is the use of my driving game to
+you, if you let it slip through your fingers?"
+
+"Perhaps you think that was one of the alligator babies you've been
+nursing. You didn't see the big head with the tusks running out of
+the top of it."
+
+"No, but I mean to see the next one. It'll be your turn to do the
+punching while I rope the critter."
+
+"If you had got your rope on that one and held on, you'd be in his
+cave now, inside the owner's tummy."
+
+The next crocodile was not far away and the hunters saw it crawl
+into its cave. Dick stood on the bank over the cave and arranged the
+noose on the end of the harpoon line around the mouth of the cave,
+while Ned paddled the canoe a few rods down the stream. Dick had the
+line fast to his wrist, but Ned wouldn't punch it until it had been
+made fast to a chunk of wood instead.
+
+"What difference does it make?" grumbled Dick. "If the chunk goes
+overboard I follow it. See?"
+
+Ned hit the crocodile on his first poke and Dick had his hands full
+from the start. He would have been dragged into the river within a
+dozen seconds, but for Ned's coming to his aid. The crocodile was as
+quick as the alligators had been slow.
+
+"If he digs round as fast on land as he does in the water there's
+goin' to be a circus when we get him out on the bank," said the
+panting Dick.
+
+"And you wanted to be tied to his mammy by the wrist. This is only
+an infant. It isn't nine feet long."
+
+But it was, and a foot over that, yet when they got the reptile on
+the bank and drew its head close to a sapling, they tied a piece of
+the line around its knobby head without any trouble. From that
+moment the crocodile was tame, and soon Dick was handling him
+fearlessly, although Ned warned him that if he didn't keep out of
+the way of that tail he'd be knocked endways. But Dick sat on his
+back, pulled his tail and tried to lift him on his own back without
+the crocodile showing displeasure in any way.
+
+"Ned, this thing is a peach. Why not send him to your father? He
+could be taken to New York in a baby carriage or led like a puppy
+dog. There would be no such trouble as there would be with a
+manatee. He's a curiosity, too."
+
+"If it was the big one I believe it would be worth trying. That
+fellow must be as big as they come. I wish we had fixed for him."
+
+"It isn't too late. Let's lay for him to-morrow."
+
+The crocodile hunters camped beside their captive and Dick spent the
+afternoon trying to educate it. He talked of taking the string off
+of its jaws, but Ned stopped that.
+
+"I'm afraid he might eat the wrong thing, by mistake, and then I'd
+have to go home alone. I suppose I could take the crocodile along in
+your place. Your mother might like him as a kind of souvenir."
+
+"But see how gentle he is and how mild his eye. He doesn't whack
+around with his tail like an alligator and I think he likes to have
+me sit on his back."
+
+"That's only his slyness. Look at him now." For the crocodile,
+thinking itself unobserved, was crawling slowly toward the bank of
+the river. When it reached the end of its tether and could go no
+farther, it lay down and, lifting its head, looked all around as
+innocently as if it never dreamed of escaping, but had just moved a
+little way to get a better view of the scenery.
+
+Every hour or two of the next day the boys called at the cave of
+the big crocodile, but never found him in.
+
+"Well, we'll go at it again to-morrow," said Dick.
+
+"We will be doing something else to-morrow. We've got to hike out of
+here, and keep moving, too. Last drop of water has just gone into
+the coffee pot," and Ned turned the empty water can upside down.
+
+"Hope you can find the creek that leads to the fresh-water country.
+I don't believe I could. We came through too many twisty, narrow
+places. We sure don't want to be three or four days finding it. I'm
+awful thirsty now."
+
+"You must stop thinking about it. I believe I won't try for that
+creek. It's a regular Chinese puzzle up among the mangroves, and I'm
+not a bit sure I could follow our trail back to fresh water. I'd
+rather take chances of that river that leads more to the east. I
+know it can't go through to our bay, but it must lead up to the
+Everglade country where the mangroves won't be so bad. We may have
+to do some toting, but we will be sure to find water by to-morrow
+night or the next day at the worst. But I won't go that way unless
+you think best. It's too serious a thing for me to decide alone."
+
+"Oh, I'm with you Ned. I might live till day after to-morrow without
+water, but I wouldn't have a ghost of a chance beyond that, and we
+might be three days in your Chinese puzzle country. Wow! but I'm
+thirsty."
+
+"Say that again, Dick, and I'll confiscate your coffee. I'm going to
+save half of it for breakfast, anyhow. So go slow. You're on
+allowance now. We will have breakfast before daylight. I want to
+start as soon as we can see. It's a lot cooler before sun-up."
+
+"I'll wake easy. I'll be so thirsty--Oh! excuse me, I forgot. But
+Ned, would you mind if I took my crocodile along in the canoe? He
+wouldn't take up much room and I could sit on his back. I could lead
+him across any carry and I've grown quite fond of him."
+
+"You had better stop talking nonsense and get some sleep. You may
+need it."
+
+"Yes, I know. 'Most anything may happen. You'd feel bad to think you
+had refused a poor boy's dying request--and he your chum, too. Can't
+I have my little pet crocodile?"
+
+When the sun rose the young explorers had already paddled several
+miles and were in a labyrinth of little bays from which they
+followed channel after channel until each one shoaled down to a few
+inches in depth. Finally they found one that deepened as they
+advanced, although its banks came nearer together and the branches
+of big trees closed over it.
+
+"This is all right. Fresh water soon," said Dick joyfully.
+
+But he was soon to be disappointed. For the little creek ended in a
+round shallow pond, a hundred yards across and entirely shut in by
+thick bushes. Dick became very blue and even Ned was discouraged.
+
+"I hate to go back for miles and begin all over again, just when we
+are so far along in the right direction. We can get through these
+bushes and walk a mile or two, and perhaps climb a tree and see what
+the country looks like," said Ned.
+
+"I'd rather do anything than go back," replied Dick. "Let's paddle
+round the edge of this pond and see where the bushes are thinnest."
+
+They paddled along the shore of the little lake, finding the water
+so shallow that it barely floated the canoe, until just where the
+bushes seemed thickest it deepened to several feet, and parting the
+bushes disclosed a deep but very narrow creek through which the
+water slowly flowed. There was no room to paddle and for more than a
+mile the boys dragged the canoe by taking hold of overhanging
+branches. Sometimes they could lift branches that crossed the creek
+over the canoe as they passed. Sometimes they had to lie down in the
+canoe to get under the obstructions and often they had to stop to
+cut away limbs of small trees. They were finally stopped by the
+trunk of a large tree which had fallen across and completely blocked
+up the creek. Just beyond it two palmettos had fallen in the stream,
+one of which lay lengthwise in the channel. It would have taken days
+to remove the obstructions and the young explorers explored the
+swamp near them to find a possible carry. They found that a hundred
+feet behind them the woods were thinner and they could cut a path
+through which they could carry the canoe and stores.
+
+"This is going to take all the rest of the day," said Ned, "and it
+will be a dry camp after a heap of hot work. What do you say to
+leaving this till to-morrow, and putting in this afternoon hunting
+for the best route and looking for fresh water?"
+
+"That's me," replied Dick. "Let's hike in a hurry. Only don't you
+lose your way. We have got to get back to the canoe and you're the
+guide."
+
+"Don't you worry about that. You may have to go slow, but I won't
+lose myself and I will bring you back to the canoe," said Ned.
+
+Instead of following the creek, Ned bore off to the north where the
+woods seemed more open and soon reached a stretch of dry, open
+prairie. On the border of it stood a tall mastic tree with a
+lightning-blasted top and many branches which made it easy to climb.
+Ned was soon in the top of the tree making a mental map of the
+country round about.
+
+"It is all right now," said he as he climbed down. "I can see the
+open Everglades within four or five miles, and there is something
+that looks like a slough that is only half as far away. We'll leave
+the creek in the morning and cut our path this way, instead of
+around those trees. It won't be as much work, either. We can do
+some of that work to-night and camp right here. Then in the morning,
+at daylight, we will start out with the canoe on our shoulders and
+tramp till we find water to float it."
+
+"But how about water to drink? I need it worse than the canoe."
+
+"Where there's water for the canoe, there will be water for you.
+It's Everglade water from now on."
+
+"I wish it would begin this minute. There's a little mud-hole that
+looks pretty wet. Do you think that might be fresh?"
+
+"Only way to find out is to try it." A minute later Dick called out.
+
+"Come here, Ned, it's muddy, but it's fresh. Oh, isn't it good!"
+
+As Ned approached the pool Dick, who was lying on the prairie beside
+it, lifted his face from the water of which he had been drinking,
+and was turning to speak to his companion when the head of a great
+alligator, with wide open jaws, was thrust violently out of the
+pool, just touching the boy's face. Dick fell back on the prairie
+and scrambled away from the pool. It was a minute before he spoke
+and then he said to Ned:
+
+"Let's get back to work. I don't want another drink for a month. It
+makes me sick to think of it."
+
+The slough was farther away than Ned thought and the road to it lay
+through a marsh. Often they sank to the waist and wallowed for
+rods, carrying the canoe which seemed to weigh a ton, or dragging it
+beside them. Moccasins were plentiful, but the boys were too tired
+to be worried by them. They had to make two more trips to carry
+their cargo, and on the last one, as Dick was staggering under a
+load of smoked meat and a heavy, salted skin, he was heard to say:
+
+"I wonder why I killed that bear. I will never kill another one."
+
+There was dry ground beside the slough, under some willow trees, and
+the explorers were glad to rest there for the night. A duck flew
+down by the willows as if seeking to camp with them and he
+succeeded, for they had him for supper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AMONG THE SEMINOLES
+
+
+The young explorers had found an uncharted route from the Bay of
+Florida to the Everglades and the work before them was now easy.
+
+The water was deeper than was needed to float their canoe, and the
+grass too light to trouble them. They sheered off and avoided all
+bands of saw-grass unless they found trails across them. The Glades
+were dotted with little keys of bay, myrtle and cocoa plum. These
+were small and usually submerged. A few larger keys were covered
+with heavier timber, pine, oak, mastic, palmetto and other woods. In
+these, deer were plentiful and bear and panther sometimes found.
+
+The boys went to several keys before they found one with dry land
+enough for a camp. It had been used for camping by the Seminoles for
+many years and was the only bit of land above the surface of the
+water for miles. On it were piles of turtle shells, while scattered
+about were bones of deer and alligator and skulls of bear and
+smaller animals. A cultivated papaw which some Indian had planted
+within a few years, stood twelve feet high and was filled with
+great melon-like papaws, each one of which weighed from five to ten
+pounds.
+
+"Better than cantaloupe," said Dick as he finished half of a big one
+as a preliminary to his supper, "but what's this you are giving us
+for coffee?"
+
+"Coffee's out," replied Ned. "The fellows that took the rifle
+cleaned out most of the coffee."
+
+"Why didn't you make 'em give it back when you had 'em on the run?"
+
+"Reckon I was glad to get out of it as easy as I did. Then I had
+said enough unkind things to them for one time."
+
+"Sorry you think you were unkind. Your feelings must be a good deal
+torn up. But you haven't told me what I'm drinking. Tastes something
+like the sassafras tea I used to get dosed with when I was a kid.
+It's pretty good, though."
+
+"It's something like it. It's made from the leaves of the sweet bay
+tree, which grows on all these islands and all over this country.
+Sweet-bay tea is all you're going to get to drink, excepting water,
+from now on."
+
+"What is that fruit that looks like a big stubby pear on that
+curious-looking tree there?" inquired Dick.
+
+"Custard apple."
+
+"Does it taste like custard?"
+
+"Yes, if the custard has been mixed with turpentine."
+
+The explorers made little progress the following day. Bunches of
+thick saw-grass turned them back. They found shallow water where for
+long distances they had to paddle slowly to avoid little pillars of
+coral rock that came close to the surface and endangered their
+fragile canoe. Most of the afternoon was vainly spent in searching
+for a camping site. They found a key where the water was shoal and
+made a bed of poles and branches. Both of them chose to sleep on the
+bed they had made. Whether this was simply politeness or because
+both were afraid of rolling out of the canoe nobody else knows. The
+poles and branches sagged under their weight until both were wet.
+Then such a deluge of rain as is seldom seen outside of the tropics
+fell on them. They got out in the dark and tied their canvas sheet
+over the canoe. They didn't need it for themselves. They were
+already as wet as they could be.
+
+In the morning they dried themselves--so Dick said--by rolling into
+the water and sloshing around. They made a cold lunch of smoked
+bear, cold hominy, or grits as it is called in Florida, and water,
+choosing to wait for breakfast until they should find land enough
+for a fire. During the day they saw high trees to the eastward and
+made for them. Here they found a Seminole camp of several families.
+
+As they landed from their canoe they saw several pickaninnies, for
+Seminole children are not called papooses like children in other
+tribes of Indians, watching them from behind trees and boats. The
+squaws whom they met were equally shy and kept their faces hidden.
+Ned spoke to several of them, but they gave no sign that they even
+heard him.
+
+"They don't like your looks," said Dick. "Let me speak to the next
+one."
+
+The next one was a young girl and Dick was very confident, as he
+addressed her, with his very best smile. But he was turned down as
+badly as his chum, for the girl didn't see him at all. At the camp
+they found one old Indian and several squaws. The Indian welcomed
+them with a grunt and the question,
+
+"_Whyome_ (whiskey), you got um?"
+
+"_Whyome holowaugus_ (bad), no got um," replied Ned. The Indian
+grunted again and conversation ceased. Dick was sitting on the edge
+of the table which serves also as floor in a Seminole camp, when he
+heard a low growl just over his head. He looked up and saw, crouched
+on a shelf within four feet of him, a full-grown wild-cat, or bay
+lynx, which seemed disposed to spring at him. Dick tried to keep
+from showing how much he was scared, but he asked Ned to find out if
+the wild-cat would bite. To Ned's question, the Indian nodded
+emphatically and replied,
+
+"Um, um, _unca, ojus_ (yes, heap)." Dick moved away, but the
+creature fascinated him and he came back. Dick never could resist
+the temptation to play with wild animals and he put out his hand to
+the wild-cat, saying:
+
+"If that Injun can tame that beast, I can."
+
+"That Injun understands you, just as well as I do. He only pretends
+he doesn't so as to make us try to talk his confounded lingo."
+
+A half smile stole over the stolid face of the Indian, either on
+account of what Ned was saying or because Dick's hand was slowly
+approaching the wild-cat. The paw of the lynx flashed out and back
+so quickly that it could scarcely be seen, but the blood began to
+flow from several deep, parallel cuts on the back of the boy's hand.
+Dick still held out his hand, scarcely moving a muscle, while Ned
+called out:
+
+"Come away, Dick, that beast'll scratch out your eyes."
+
+"Wonder what it would do if I cuffed it?"
+
+The Indian appeared to understand this, for he spoke sharply to the
+lynx, and going up to it patted its head and stroked its body
+lightly. He then motioned to Dick to do the same. To Dick's great
+delight the wild-cat not only allowed him to stroke it, but even
+purred as well as a wild-cat can.
+
+"Ned, I've got to have that cat. I've given up all my other pets
+because you didn't want them in the canoe, or there wasn't room. Now
+Tom will take care of himself and won't need any toting. Shouldn't
+wonder if he'd feed himself, too."
+
+"That's what I'm most afraid of.
+
+"Don't worry. I won't let him eat you. Ask old Stick-in-the-mud
+there what he wants for his beastie."
+
+Ned talked with the Indian and reported to Dick.
+
+"He says he will sell for one otter skin like that one in the
+canoe."
+
+"How could he see that skin from here? Tell him it's a whack. Only
+he must make Tom go with me if there is any trouble about it."
+
+"He says wild-cat go with you, you brave boy, not afraid of him.
+Says somebody get scared, he eat 'em up."
+
+"Ned, you old hypocrite, you made that up."
+
+"Honest Injun, I didn't. I told it straight, just as I got it. That
+Indian likes you."
+
+"Why don't he talk white man lingo to me, then, instead of his old
+gibberish that he can't possibly understand himself? Ask the old
+snoozer what's cooking in that pot. It smells bully and I'm hungry."
+
+Ned turned to the Indian and pointing to the steaming pot, said:
+
+"_Nar-kee?_ (What is it?)"
+
+"_Lock-a-wa._ (Turtle.)"
+
+"_Esoka bonus che._ (I want some.)"
+
+"_Humbuggus cha._ (Come eat.)"
+
+The boys took turns with the big, wooden, family spoon and found the
+mess very good. There was another kettle of which the Indians ate
+freely into which Dick dipped his spoon. He made a wry face as he
+swallowed the portion he had scooped up and said to Ned:
+
+"Tell your copper-faced friend that he had better give that swill
+back to the pigs he stole it from."
+
+"Be careful, Dick, he understands."
+
+"Then let him say so in a decent language and I'll apologize for
+hurting his feelings, but I won't say that stuff is fit to eat, not
+if I am tied to the stake."
+
+Dick spent one afternoon getting acquainted with the Indian
+children, in which he succeeded so well that when he came back to
+the camp streaming with water, the whole bunch, although they were
+quite as well soaked as he, followed him screaming with laughter,
+quite like white children.
+
+"What is the trouble?" inquired Ned as soon as the youngsters gave
+him a chance to be heard.
+
+"Only the usual thing. These Indians don't know how to manage their
+roly-poly canoes and I'm afraid I'll be drowned before I get 'em
+taught."
+
+Dick had found a big family canoe that looked as if it couldn't
+capsize and had made signs to an Indian boy to go out in it with
+him. Before they were fairly afloat all the pickaninnies belonging
+to the camp had piled into the craft. From the smallest squab to the
+biggest boy, the Indian children danced about in the canoe without
+disturbing its equilibrium. The boy in the stern, standing on the
+extreme point of the craft, set his pole on the coral bottom and
+threw his weight back upon it until his whole body stood out almost
+parallel with the water behind the canoe. Dick stood on the tiny
+deck on the bow of the boat, but with every thrust of his pole the
+canoe wabbled till the pickaninnies balanced it. But Dick improved
+with practice and as he grew confident, threw his weight on the pole
+in true Seminole fashion. He would have pulled through with credit,
+but for the slipping of his pole on a point of coral rock, when he
+fell heavily in the water, capsizing the craft as he went overboard.
+At first the boy was alarmed for the safety of his cargo of
+children, but soon saw that they were as much at home in the water
+as on land and were quite capable of caring for themselves. After
+Ned had heard what had happened he called the attention of the
+squaws to the ducking of their babies without causing the faintest
+gleam of interest to cross their stolid faces.
+
+After another day of eating with the Seminoles and sleeping on their
+tables, Dick announced that Tom and he were tired of Injuns and
+wanted to light out. The whole Indian family saw them off, even the
+squaws coming half way to the canoe from their camp. Dick carried
+Tom on his shoulder and the lynx stepped into the canoe as if it had
+always owned it and curled up on the canvas of the tent.
+
+"Where do you want to go, Dick?"
+
+"What's the use of asking me? You have been talking Everglades and
+Big Cypress in a steady streak, for two days to that old Injun. You
+must have a map of his brain by this time."
+
+"We can go through the Everglades to Lake Okeechobee, out through
+the canal and down the Caloosahatchee, but the Everglades will be
+much the same as we have seen, only more and worse saw-grass and so
+harder work. If we go to the east we will pretty soon come out at
+the coast which we want to avoid. I think we had better strike
+across to the prairies and the border land between the Everglades
+and the Big Cypress Swamp. Bear, deer, panther and wild turkey are
+to be found in that country, and we won't have to hurry so much to
+get through in the time we talked of for the trip. What do you say?"
+
+"The woods for me, every time. Then I think it would be better for
+Tom's health. I am afraid he would get melancholy if we kept him on
+the water too much. Let's put in a big day's work and get somewhere.
+I can stand sleeping in the water once in a while, but don't like it
+as a regular thing."
+
+They put in their big day's work without getting very far. They
+struck shoal water in the morning where little pillars of coral,
+rising almost to the surface, threatened to tear a hole in their
+canoe. When they got overboard and waded, the same sharp points of
+coral hurt their feet and bruised their shins. During the afternoon
+they held their course, as best they could, for a tall palmetto,
+which, lifting its head above a waste of water and grass, gave
+promise of land enough for a camp beneath it. They dragged the
+canoe through a narrow strand of saw-grass, but were turned westward
+by a heavier band of the same obstacle, and finally made their camp
+for the night on a bushy little submerged key, where Ned lay on top
+of the canoe and was kept from sleeping by the fear of rolling over
+into the water, and Dick lay on a bed of brush that soon settled
+into the water with him. At first Tom climbed a little tree, but
+didn't seem pleased with his quarters. He looked at Dick's bed for a
+moment and turned in for the night with Ned in the canoe. Good
+progress was made on the following day, for the boys were tired of
+trying to sleep on the water and meant to find land enough for a
+camp before another night. They found much open water, most of the
+grass was light and the few strands of saw-grass they encountered
+were easily avoided. They saw few keys and all of those were
+submerged. So again when night came there was no dry land for a camp
+and the bed of branches was built up in the shallow water. About
+midnight Ned, noticing that his companion was restless, said to him:
+
+"Dick, can you sleep any more?"
+
+"Sleep any more?" said the indignant Dick. "I haven't slept any,
+yet."
+
+"Then let's get out of this and paddle the rest of the night. It's
+full moon, paddling isn't half as hard as trying to sleep on that
+bed and we may get somewhere."
+
+"Good thing, and I move that we keep paddling till we get to those
+woods you talked about, if it takes a week. Tom votes with me.
+Motion carried."
+
+About the middle of the forenoon they saw a clump of palmettos on a
+key, for which they headed at once, where they found ground which
+had been often camped upon. Dick climbed a tree and could make out a
+forest near the horizon, in the west. A few more hours' work would
+see them out of the Glades, but they chose to rest for the remainder
+of the day.
+
+"There goes your pet. That's the last of him," said Ned, pointing to
+the lynx in the top of the tree, which Dick had climbed.
+
+"He'll come back all right. If he doesn't I'll go up and fetch him
+by the scruff of his neck."
+
+[Illustration: "THERE GOES YOUR PET. THAT'S THE LAST OF HIM"]
+
+Dick was right, for when the wild-cat saw the stores broken into for
+dinner he came down for his portion of meat and then curled up for a
+nap on his canvas in the canoe. Tom tolerated Ned, but never
+permitted any familiarities from him, while Dick could handle him as
+he chose and the lynx only smiled, in his own fashion.
+
+To reach the woods they were aiming for the boys left the Indian
+trail they were on and, after forcing their way through a strand of
+saw-grass, found themselves on a prairie, bounded on the west by a
+heavy growth of cypress, oak and other heavy timber, while the
+prairie itself was made beautiful by picturesque little groups of
+palmettos which were scattered through it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+DICK'S WILDCAT AND OTHER WILD THINGS
+
+
+The Everglades had been crossed and that great region of romance was
+no longer a mystery to our explorers, who found a dry, shaded site
+for their camp on the border of the swamp which they planned to
+explore and there fitted up for a long stay. They stretched their
+canvas, tent fashion, and gathered grass and moss for their beds. A
+round, deep pool of clear fresh water was just beside the camp, and
+after one rattlesnake and a few moccasins that claimed squatter's
+title had been killed they felt that nothing was lacking. In the
+evening the distant gobbling of a turkey told the hunters what would
+be the first duty of the next day. When they started out on the hunt
+prepared to be gone for one or more days Dick was troubled for fear
+Tom might not understand his long absence and skip out. He had a
+long talk with the lynx and told Ned that he thought Tom would be
+good. Then he got out two days' rations for the animal, which it ate
+up at once. There was more dry land in this swamp than in those
+farther south to which they had become accustomed, and traveling
+was better, or rather, less bad. Yet to persons with less experience
+than the young explorers it would have seemed to be as bad as it was
+possible for it to be. For half a day the boys tramped and waded in
+the swamp without finding the game they were looking for. They had
+found other birds, some of which they would have shot for their
+dinner had they not been afraid of frightening the wary turkeys,
+which they believed were not far from them. Alligators were
+plentiful, large and small, but the boys were not hunting for hides
+and Dick said that Tom was all the pet he cared to have charge of
+for the present. Early in the afternoon they sat down to rest under
+a big tree and were eating their lunch of smoked meat and cold
+hoe-cake when a turkey gobbler lit on a branch of the tree under
+which they were sitting. The turkey was in plain sight and less than
+twenty feet from them, but Dick's shot-gun was resting against a
+tree fifteen feet from its owner, while Ned's rifle lay on the
+ground five feet from his hand. Both kept as quiet as graven images,
+for they knew that at the motion of a hand the big bird would take
+flight. If Dick's gun had been within five feet he would have jumped
+for it, trusting to be ready with it to cut down the turkey before
+it could get out of sight among the trees. But a run of fifteen feet
+made his chances too small and he waited to see what Ned would do.
+Ned's rifle lay just out of his reach, and before he could lay his
+hand on it the bird would be on the wing and quite safe from
+anything he could do with a rifle. At last Ned began to push himself
+inch by inch toward the rifle, while Dick sat silent and breathless
+with excitement. Very slowly Ned progressed until his hand touched
+the rifle. Before he could move it the fraction of an inch, the
+turkey saw the trouble in store for him and was off. Ned grabbed the
+rifle and took a harmless snapshot at the bird, while Dick rushed
+for his gun and sent after the turkey, which was then a hundred
+yards distant, a shower of shot which could never have overtaken it.
+
+"Next time I eat I'm going to feed myself with one hand and hold my
+gun in the other," said Dick. "I think I'll stay home to-morrow and
+keep camp. Tom will go hunting with you. He's got sense and he
+always keeps his weapons handy."
+
+"Keeps 'em too handy for me. I don't like the way he looks at me
+sometimes. He acts as if he wanted to feel of my ribs to see if I am
+fat enough for his purposes. I reckon I'm the one to keep camp. My
+rifle was right at my elbow, but I didn't seem to know enough to use
+it. Dick! Look at that hole in that tree and all those insects
+around it. It's a bee-tree. There's a barrel of honey there that
+belongs to us!"
+
+"Do you s'pose the bees know that it belongs to us, or will they
+make trouble for us?"
+
+"Of course they'll make trouble. You can't rob a hive without being
+stung."
+
+"I'm going to keep camp to-morrow, just as I told you, and let Tom
+go with you. Wonder how he'd like to climb that tree."
+
+"We will chop down that tree to-morrow and likely get stung a lot,
+but you know, Dick, you wouldn't stay away for a farm."
+
+"Better not try me. I wish I had a sheet-iron jacket and stove-pipe
+pants. Let's go home. I want to see Tom and tell him about it. I'm
+afraid he's lonesome."
+
+But Dick didn't tell Tom anything, for when they got back to camp
+Tom had gone. Dick scarcely tasted his supper and his sleep was
+restless and troubled. He woke with a scream, from a terrible
+nightmare in which a wild beast had him by the throat and was
+crushing him to death under his tremendous weight. He was happy when
+he woke to find that his dream was true. For Tom had come home and
+showed his joy at the sight of Dick by leaping on the boy's chest
+and licking his face and neck. Even Ned rejoiced that Tom had
+returned and stroked his back, which for once the lynx graciously
+permitted.
+
+"You are glad that Tom has come back, aren't you, Ned?" said Dick as
+he laid his face against the soft fur of the wild-cat whose purring
+sounded so like a low growl.
+
+"Oh, yes. I'm glad. 'Course I am. Only wish all of 'em would come
+back, the two alligators, the crocodile and the dead otter. Then
+we'd start a menagerie and I'd tell fearful stories of man-eaters
+while you went into their cages with a big whip in one hand and a
+small cannon in the other."
+
+When the boys started for the bee-tree they carried a bundle of dry
+palmetto fans, an axe, and a bucket for the honey.
+
+"Shall we tote the guns?" asked Ned.
+
+"What's the use? Don't either of us know how to use 'em. Better
+leave 'em with Tom."
+
+But the guns did not stay with Tom, or rather Tom did not stay with
+the guns, but quietly followed the boys as a pet dog might have
+done. He stepped daintily from root to root and walked along fallen
+logs and the branches of trees which he climbed, easily keeping up
+with the bee hunters, without muddying his paws, while they wallowed
+in mud which was usually knee-deep and occasionally a foot more.
+Before tackling the tree they built a fire some fifty yards away,
+which they made smoke by putting on rotten wood and wet moss. They
+intended to hide in this smoke if the bees attacked them while they
+were chopping down the tree. The palmetto leaves were to be kept
+until the tree had fallen and were then to be made into smoky
+torches, under cover of which the boys hoped to secure the honey.
+They took turns in slinging the axe and resting, yet the exercise
+and the bees together kept them pretty well warmed up. For, after a
+while the bees began to take notice of the knocking at their door
+and occasionally a few of them dropped down and stung the chopper
+and the looker on, quite impartially. The art of wood-chopping has
+to be learned before one is born. The children of back-woodsmen can
+sling an axe as soon as they can stand. Boys born as near New York
+City as Dick and Ned were, never can learn. They think when they go
+up in the Adirondacks and chew down some trees with an axe, that
+they are chopping wood, but their guides who lie around smoking
+their pipes while the sportsmen sweat over the task, know better and
+slyly wink at each other while they praise aloud the skill of their
+employers.
+
+When the boys stopped work and went back to their smudge to give the
+bees a chance to rest, and to find out if mud really drew the poison
+out of the little lumps that covered them, the tree had been cut
+nearly half through. Any Nature-lover would have known that a beaver
+had been at work, while everyday folks would have suspected a
+saw-mill.
+
+Dick missed Tom and at first was troubled, but finally discovered
+him sitting on a branch behind a tree around which he could look
+without making himself conspicuous.
+
+"Shall we wait till to-morrow to finish the job?" asked Ned.
+
+"Not much. By to-morrow my face will be so swollen that I can't see
+and the rest of me so sore that I can't move. Let's make a big
+smudge at the foot of the tree. I'd rather be smothered by smoke
+than stung and poisoned to death by those little beasts."
+
+[Illustration: "A FEW OF THE HOMELESS BEES LIT ON THE COMB"]
+
+The smudge worked and the bee hunters had no more trouble until the
+tree fell, when they got into the thickest of the smoke they had
+made. This did not save them altogether, for the bees were very
+numerous and very mad and a few dozen of them got far enough in the
+smoke to leave their marks on their enemies. When the insects had
+quieted down and were gathered in bunches on logs and stumps,
+looking stupidly at the wreck of their home, the boys made another
+smudge near the hole in the fallen tree which led to the home of the
+bees. They sounded the hollow tree and found it only a shell where
+the honey was stored and a little work with the hatchet laid open
+the storehouse of the insects. A few of the homeless bees lit on the
+comb they had made, other bees gathered on the cypress knees which
+abounded in the swamp and through which the great cypress trees
+breathed, but their spirit was gone and they made no attack on the
+destroyers of their home. Of the comb and honey which the boys found
+in the tree they were able to carry away less than half and they
+wondered if the bees would have the sense to save what was left or
+if some wandering bear would scoop it in for his supper.
+
+As the young bee hunters started for camp laden with their spoils,
+Tom stepped softly out of a nearby thicket, licking his chops and
+apparently thinking of the delicate lunch of fat tree-rat he had
+just eaten.
+
+"Dick," said Ned, as they were lazily resting against a log, after a
+supper that was mostly dessert, having consisted of a little smoked
+bear and a lot of honey, "something has got to be done for the
+larder. We go for honey when we need meat. We let Indian hens which
+we can get, escape on the chance of turkeys which we can never bag.
+We are looking for deer that are miles away and overlooking ducks
+that are trying to fly into the pot."
+
+"I'm not overlooking much, Neddy, since that turkey biz. I've got my
+gun in my hand this minute and here's a chance to use it."
+
+As Dick spoke he raised the gun to his shoulder and fired. A little
+black creature, thirty yards away in the grass, sprang into the air
+and fell to the ground. Both of the boys started for it, but Tom was
+ahead and looked back upon them, growling fiercely, with his fangs
+fixed in the throat of the dying creature. Dick tried to coax the
+lynx to give up the creature he had seized, but the animal was
+filled with the fierceness of his race and even Dick dared not touch
+him. The creature which the cat held in its claws was clearly a
+rabbit, little and jet black, unlike anything which either of the
+boys had ever seen before.
+
+"I've heard of these little Everglade rabbits," said Ned. "Tommy
+told me of a key in the Everglades where there were plenty of them.
+If we had time we might look it up."
+
+"How much time have you got, Neddy?"
+
+"Another month will use up the time I said I would be gone. I left
+that word for Dad in Myers. Guess he's there now and maybe my sister
+with him. He won't worry a minute till the time I set is up, after
+that there'll be trouble."
+
+"What kind of trouble?"
+
+"'Most anything," laughed Ned. "Might be a lot of nurses out looking
+for a lost baby."
+
+"He won't be frightened about you if you're not quite up to time,
+will he?"
+
+"Not exactly frightened, but he will want to see me, and I'll be
+glad enough to see him, and sis, too."
+
+"I knew you had a sister, but you never talked about her much."
+
+"She's a nice child, alle samee. I think you're going to like her.
+She's a little your style of foolishness."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Oh, it isn't very bad. But you haven't had much to say about your
+own self, lately. You never told me exactly what took you around by
+Key West. Why didn't you come straight to Fort Myers instead of
+taking the tiny little chance of finding me in the big Everglades?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you. You see, mother knew how much I wanted to go
+with you on this hunt and she begged me to let her foot the bills.
+Of course I couldn't stand for that, you know, and--"
+
+"Oh, Of course not, you stuck-up little donkey," interrupted Ned.
+
+"So I started as a stowaway on the Key West steamer--"
+
+"You cheeky little imp! Did they put you in command of the ship when
+they found you?"
+
+"No, only put me in the fireroom, shoveling coal in the furnace."
+
+"But that's not boy's work. What business--"
+
+"Hold on, Ned, wait till I get through. The captain was bully. So
+was everybody else. I went to him soon as we were outside Sandy Hook
+and asked for a job. I was independent about it. I believe I offered
+to swim ashore if he didn't happen to have a job for me. He gave me
+an easy one, for a boy, but I struck and asked for a man's work, and
+got it--in the fireroom. But I pulled through, Neddy, and made good,
+though once or twice I did have to call myself hard names and think
+how you'd have hung on, if you'd been in my place. Yes, everybody
+was good to me. One passenger wanted to pay for a first-class
+passage for me and I had hard work to beg off, and--but that's all."
+
+"Dick, you mustn't talk that way about me. You make me ashamed. I
+wouldn't have stuck it out in that fireroom for one day. Now how
+about your time for the trip? Will a month suit you?"
+
+"Yes, that's all right. I wrote mother from Key West and told her
+the hunt would be a long one without any chance to mail a letter and
+that she was not to worry because there wasn't a show of danger in
+the whole business. Of course mothers do worry a little when there
+isn't any reason."
+
+"Yes, mothers do worry, foolishly. Pity yours couldn't know how
+faithfully Tom looks after you. She'd be so relieved."
+
+On the day after cutting down the bee tree the boys were glad to
+stay quietly in camp. Ned's neck and arms were badly swollen and
+Dick's eyes could scarcely be seen. Both of them lay awake nearly
+all night, but it was uncertain whether this was due to the pain of
+the stings or the quantity of honey they had eaten.
+
+Tom shed his fierceness soon after he had disposed of the rabbit and
+again became friendly to Dick, who, even while he petted him,
+explained that he could never quite trust him again.
+
+Every evening turkeys could be heard in the swamp near the camp.
+Every morning they had departed. One morning Ned said to Dick:
+
+"I'm turkey hungry and I'm tired of shilly-shallying. The way to get
+anything is to get it. Let us get a turkey. We'll start out for it
+now and come back after we have got it, and not before."
+
+"All right, Neddy, we goes for it, we gits it and we comes back when
+we gits it and not afore."
+
+The boys started out with their usual equipment of weapons, salt,
+matches and axe. They crossed the swamp without finding the bird
+they sought and then, as they were hungry and tired, Dick shot a fat
+young ibis and broiled it for their dinner. After dinner they
+crossed the meadow to a narrow strip of woods, beyond which, on a
+wide stretch of prairie, they saw three bunches of turkeys. The
+bunch nearest them appeared to be a hen turkey with her family, each
+member of which was about as large as its mother. They were a long
+rifle-shot away, and a shot, if it missed, would send every turkey
+to cover for the day. The same thing would happen if either of them
+set foot on the prairie.
+
+"Our best chance," said Ned, "is to wait for them at the edge of the
+prairie. It's getting late and pretty soon they'll be looking for
+places to roost among these trees. They may come right here. Anyhow,
+by spreading out we will cover quite a stretch of woods. It may be
+too late for the rifle but the shotgun ought to do something."
+
+"That means that you're tired of my society, Neddy. So I'll go and
+hide myself on the edge of the prairie, a little further off than
+you can hit anything, in case of you mistaking me for a turkey."
+
+Soon after Dick had reached his station, the turkeys began to feed
+toward the woods. Two of the bunches went to the opposite side of
+the prairie. The hen turkey with her grown-up family fed slowly
+toward Dick's hiding place, but, when just out of range, appeared to
+become suspicious and turned toward Ned. Slowly she walked, darting
+her quick-moving head in every direction as she searched trees and
+bushes for hidden enemies. The younger turkeys put much faith in the
+wariness of the old lady and stalked fearlessly behind her. Ned
+waited for a chance which he thought couldn't be missed and,
+avoiding the mother turkey, shot down one of her brood. Instantly
+the flock was in the air, following its leader down along the edge
+of the forest. This brought them directly over Dick, who neatly cut
+down another member of the family. While Ned was dressing the
+turkeys and building the fire for the broiling of one of them, Dick
+was climbing a young cabbage palm and cutting the bud from its top.
+
+"Couldn't tell this palmetto cabbage from big fresh chestnuts, by
+the taste," said Dick. "I'm going to roast that other turkey at the
+camp to-morrow with his whole inside crammed full of chestnut
+stuffing."
+
+While the turkey hunters were eating their breakfast of cold turkey
+a doe, followed by a fawn which was still in the spotted coat,
+walked out on the open prairie within fifty yards of them and gazed
+at them without a sign of fear.
+
+"They know we wouldn't shoot a doe or a fawn," said Ned. "That's
+what makes them feel so safe."
+
+"Wonder if they would have felt as safe last night, before we got
+those turkeys?"
+
+On their return Tom, met the turkey hunters a quarter of a mile from
+their camp and they wondered whether he had heard them coming, or
+happened to be strolling that way. He looked so earnestly at the
+turkey which Dick was carrying that the boy said to him:
+
+"See here, Tom, that's my turkey and I won't stand for your laying a
+paw on him. So you had better be good unless you are looking for a
+mix-up with me." Tom looked cowed, but showed his friendly feelings
+by walking beside Dick, rubbing against his legs and purring in his
+half-growling fashion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A PRAIRIE ON FIRE
+
+
+"Dick," said Ned as they rested against a log, having their regular
+after-dinner, heart-to heart talk, "we had better _hiepus_ (light
+out), if we mean to get to the coast and bring up at Myers on time,
+besides taking in all we want to on the way. We know the Harney's
+River route like a book and we've been over the Indian trail to
+Lawson's River, so we've got to find some new way out. There is a
+chain of salt-water lakes between the Everglades and the rivers of
+the west coast and we must get into them. I have made a pretty fair
+chart of the country and can tell how far across the swamps and
+prairies it is to almost any point, but how much of that distance is
+easy water and how much tough swamp or boggy prairie is what I don't
+know, but what we have got to find out. We have explored the country
+right around here pretty well and now let's put in a day working the
+canoe through the grass to the south, then leg it westward till we
+strike salt water."
+
+"That sounds well," replied Dick, "and then, you know, if your
+charts don't pan out straight, you can always ask Tom or me. Wonder
+if you half appreciate your privileges, having us along to take care
+of you."
+
+The young explorers "lit out" as proposed and, after a day of hard
+work and easy work, of open water and thick saw-grass and of clear
+channels and half dry meadows, camped beside a little slough on the
+border of a swamp, in the jungle of which it soon lost itself.
+
+The first excitement of the new camp came in the night when Tom, who
+was sleeping, as usual, beside Dick, sprang up with a fierce cry,
+which they had never before heard from him, and dashed into the
+woods near the camp. There came from the woods the battle cries of
+warring animals, but soon all became quiet and the cat came back,
+but he growled at intervals throughout the night.
+
+"What got into you, Tom?" said Dick to the lynx the next morning,
+after he had looked him over in vain for marks of a fight. "Was it
+jimjams, or only a bad nightmare?"
+
+Tom listened gravely and looked as if he could have explained a good
+deal if only Dick had understood his language.
+
+Tom followed the boys through the swamp on the morning of their
+first tramp, but when they struck a marshy meadow where the water
+was knee deep and the mud as much more, with no trees to make it
+pleasant for a poor cat, he looked reproachfully at Dick and turned
+back toward the camp. At the end of the meadow was a dense thicket
+which Ned entered first. He had only advanced a few steps when he
+turned back and held up his hand in warning to Dick. The thicket in
+which they stood was on the border of a big prairie of rich grass in
+which more than a dozen deer, nearly all bucks, could be seen
+feeding, with only their backs and antlers showing above the tall
+grass, excepting when some buck of a suspicious mind lifted his head
+high and gazed warily about him.
+
+[Illustration: "ALL BEYOND THE DARK MEADOW WAS A LIVING MASS"]
+
+"Isn't it us for the big luck, Neddy?" whispered Dick. "When I ate
+that very last bit of turk this morning I wondered when I'd get
+another meal and Tom asked me in confidence if we meant to let him
+starve. And now, just look. There's venison enough for the rest of
+the trip."
+
+"It don't belong to us yet. You want to be mighty cautious. You can
+sneak up to that tree with the rifle and wait till that nearest buck
+shows up in good shape and then drop a bullet somewhere around his
+fore-shoulder. Don't fire at his head unless you have to. The brain
+is a mighty small mark, and you're not playing to the gallery down
+here."
+
+"Ned Barstow, what are you talking about? Take your own rifle and
+shoot your own buck. If you don't I'll let out a yell that will
+scare the whole bunch to Kingdom Come. I don't run to you with my
+gun, whenever I find game, and ask you to shoot it. You mean well,
+Neddy boy, but sometimes you get mistaken. I'm afraid I didn't
+begin this trip right. I ought to have given you a lickin' every
+day, just to keep you in your place."
+
+Ned crawled out to the tree with his rifle and watched for his
+chance. The nearest buck was within easy range, but the grass hid
+his body and when the creature, scenting his enemy, threw his head
+high in the air Ned sent a bullet through his brain. As the boys
+were dragging the carcass to the woods where they proposed to skin
+and cut it in two for carrying to camp, Dick said to Ned:
+
+"Do you know what hypocrite means?"
+
+"I s'pose so, but what are you trying to get at?"
+
+"Hypocrite means a fellow who tells his friend that the only way to
+shoot a buck is through the body, coz the head is too small to be
+hit, and then goes out himself and sends a bullet plumb through the
+center of the brain of the beast."
+
+"But Dick, I couldn't see the shoulder."
+
+"Neither could I. You can't sneak out that way."
+
+A strong wind from the northwest sprang up while the boys were
+finishing their supper of broiled buck's liver and they built a
+wind-break to protect them while they slept. The wind became a gale,
+but they slept soundly, soothed by its roaring. They were rudely
+wakened by the crashing of some wild animal through the brush of
+their wind-break and, sitting up, saw that the whole western sky was
+lit up and all beyond the dark meadow was a lurid mass of flame.
+The roar of the fire mingled with that of the gale, while, as the
+swirling columns of flame bent to the earth and swept the meadow,
+the crackling of the grass was like the rattling of musketry or the
+spitting fire of a hundred Catlings. Soon the air became filled with
+sparks and cinders, and thick with smoke.
+
+"We've got to mosey, Ned. Reckon there isn't any time to waste,
+either. Shall we take the meat?"
+
+"Got enough to do to take care of our own."
+
+There was plenty of light, but the flickering shadows of the trees
+caused by the wavering flames made the steps of the boys uncertain
+as they fled from the flames that were following so fast. Ned fell
+headforemost into a thicket of the terrible Spanish bayonet and it
+was only the excitement of the hour that made the pain bearable.
+They floundered across the narrow swamp and into the marshy meadow
+often waist deep in the mud and more than once both of them fell
+flat in the water of the marsh. The narrow belt of timber which they
+first crossed checked the fire and although tongues of flame crossed
+it and a few trees took fire, while live coals were scattered
+broadcast over the marshy meadow, the fire died out without crossing
+the belt of woods that first stopped it. The boys crossed the marshy
+meadow to the swamp which they first entered when they left their
+camp the previous morning. As Ned's Spanish bayonet wounds kept him
+from sleeping, the boys sat up and talked till daylight.
+
+In the morning the wind had gone down and a few burning trees and
+little columns of smoke were all that was left of the great fire of
+the night.
+
+"If you will go on to camp, Ned, I'll go back and get that venison.
+It must be well smoked. Hope it didn't burn up. Give my regards to
+Tom. If he isn't good tie him up."
+
+"Guess I'll go with you, Dick. These stickers hurt worse when I keep
+still. Then you will need help to carry the venison. I hope the
+buzzards haven't got at it. We can leave our guns here."
+
+"No, thank you. My gun goes with me. I have had trouble enough from
+not having it handy."
+
+They found the hide of their buck had been destroyed by the fire,
+but the venison had only been roasted and partly smoked and they
+made their breakfast on it. The outsides of the palmettos, on the
+prairie where Ned shot the buck, were still burning and the trees
+looked like big sticks of charcoal, but palmetto trees get used to
+that and are seldom harmed by it, though it does spoil their beauty.
+The boys walked out in the ashes of the grass of the meadow and were
+sorry they did, for it made them look like the burnt ends of
+matches. When they got back to camp Tom came out and sniffed at Dick
+and then, instead of rubbing against his legs, went back and lay
+down. Dick spent the rest of the day working over Ned's face and
+body with tweezers, pulling out bits of thorns. When he got through
+the boys were about equally tired.
+
+Ned's wounds were so painful that for several days the explorers
+stayed around the camp and Dick amused himself and his chum by
+worrying a family of young alligators that lived in a pond near the
+camp. He grunted the little ones to the surface until they were
+tired of being fooled and refused to respond and he drove the
+largest one out of its cave in the bank until the reptile refused to
+play any more and would not come beyond the mouth of his cave. Then
+Dick cut a pole leaving a bit of a branch sticking out like a barb
+at the end and poked that in the hole till the alligator grabbed the
+end of it. Dick now pulled good and hard, the barb caught in the
+reptile's lower jaw and the boy soon had him out of his cave and up
+on the prairie. The 'gator was lively and Dick had to chase around
+the prairie a lot after him and finally get Ned to help before he
+could tie it. Tom didn't approve of the new member of the family,
+but he made no trouble while the camp was awake. The alligator
+became very restless at night and got in the habit of thrashing
+around almost constantly. In the morning his tail was seen to be raw
+and bleeding and day by day it grew worse. Tom was suspected, but
+always denied having had anything to do with it, with an expression
+of such injured innocence when accused that Dick had to believe him.
+One night, however, a heavy blow was heard, accompanied by a yowl
+from Tom and followed by some sort of scrimmage. In the morning Tom
+had a mussed-up look and the reptile had a number of fresh wounds.
+As the camp was moved that day and Ned continued to object to taking
+an alligator in the canoe the reptile was turned loose. He walked
+with dignity out on the prairie until he was near the slough, when
+he scuttled hastily to the water and plunged in.
+
+[Illustration: "THE BARB CAUGHT IN THE REPTILE'S LOWER JAW"]
+
+The new camp was in a little glade on a creek which the explorers
+had followed for about three miles west from the Everglades. They
+paddled through the creek till it melted in the meadows; they poled
+their canoe along the channel which the grass concealed; they
+dragged it by hand under bushes which covered it, until the little
+glade opened to them and showed enough dry ground for a camp and
+several shallow streams winding around clumps of bushes, but always
+stretching out toward the west. At daylight the young explorers were
+again on the move, dragging the canoe along twisting streams not
+deep enough to float it, until they struck a larger stream in a
+heavier growth. The little streams disappeared, the water grew
+deeper, but the jungle became worse, and every yard of their path
+had to be carved out with their knives.
+
+"This doesn't look very hopeful," said Dick as they stopped the
+heavy work for a few minutes' rest. "Hadn't we better go back a ways
+and hunt up a more open trail?"
+
+"Not on your life," replied Ned. "We are on the right track and
+we've got to fight it through. The only thing I'll stop for is a
+mangrove swamp, and I'll try mighty hard to get around that. But we
+won't find any mangrove swamp to trouble us."
+
+"You seem to know just what we're going to find on this trail, if
+you call it a trail."
+
+"I know what we ought to find, and that's better."
+
+"Why is it better?"
+
+"Because then we'll know if we're on the right track."
+
+"All right, Neddy, I quite agree with you. I only wanted to know
+that you were sure of your ground."
+
+The trees became heavier in a narrow belt along the stream, but open
+sky could be seen beyond them.
+
+"Don't you want to walk across to that open place, Ned, to find out
+what kind of country it is?"
+
+"I know now. It's open prairie or swamp and the next big water we
+strike will be the salt-water lakes. We will probably come to a
+fresh-water river first and that pretty soon."
+
+"Conceit's good for the consumption, Neddy. What do you want to bet
+on finding that river in an hour?"
+
+"I'll eat my hat if we don't find it in a quarter of a mile. I won't
+bet on the time, because at the rate you're working it may take
+three weeks to get there."
+
+"Ned, you're a wizard, for there is the river."
+
+The river flowed gently between high banks, densely wooded. The
+waters were alive with fish, and long-legged wading birds of the
+heron family stalked over the shallows in the stream. An hour's
+paddling brought the canoe to the mouth of the river, where camp was
+made. The water beside the camp was fresh, but the salt-water bays
+spread out for miles before them.
+
+"Everything is easy now," said Ned. "These bays are in the Ten
+Thousand Islands and lead to the head waters of the rivers of the
+coast. We may get tangled up in these keys, aground on the flats or
+cornered up in some of the bays and perhaps lose a few days, but
+we're safe to get out without hard work or trouble of any kind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+DICK'S FIGHT WITH A PANTHER
+
+
+"I've always noticed, Ned, that when everything looks simple and
+easy, it is a good time to expect trouble."
+
+"Not this time, Dick."
+
+But it was this time, and that night Ned had his last care-free
+sleep for weeks.
+
+"How long shall we camp here?" asked Dick.
+
+"Better stay here for a week or two. We can hunt in the woods back
+of us and explore all these bays. This may be the last fresh water
+we will find on the trip, so we don't want to leave it till we are
+ready to pull straight through to Myers."
+
+In the morning the boys started across the woods on the bank of the
+stream, hoping to find a buck on the prairie beyond them. When they
+reached the prairie they saw three deer near its farther end, about
+half a mile away. They went back in the woods and started to work
+their way around the prairie to its farther end where the deer were.
+It took them some hours to get where the deer had been, only to find
+that they had gone. They saw them again on a smaller prairie and
+once more tried to get near the creatures by creeping through the
+woods. When the hunters were as near the game as they could go
+without getting out of cover the animals were yet a hundred and
+fifty yards distant. One of them was a fine buck and Ned watched it,
+rifle in hand, for many minutes, hoping it would come nearer. As the
+deer fed they sometimes came nearer and his hopes rose, only to sink
+into his boots when they turned away. At last he gave up waiting for
+a better chance and fired. The buck threw up his head, looked around
+for a moment and trotted quietly away, entirely unharmed, followed
+by the other deer.
+
+"It isn't our day, Dick," said Ned, ruefully, as he watched the
+disappearing animals.
+
+"Here goes for something to eat, anyhow," replied Dick, as he
+dropped a curlew that was flying over them. After broiling and
+eating the bird, together with some hoe-cake which they had in their
+pockets, the boys resumed their hunt for deer. They saw several more
+during the afternoon, but ill luck followed them and they finally
+set out for camp empty-handed.
+
+As the boys were passing through a thick clump of trees on the bank
+of the river, about two hundred yards from their camp, Ned was
+suddenly held back by a clutch on his shoulder, and turning his
+head, saw Dick's face upturned and his eyes fixed on the large
+branch of a big tree just before them. As Ned looked upward he saw
+the form of a huge panther, or mountain lion, crouching upon the
+limb and apparently about to spring upon him. The animal was within
+ten feet, every muscle was tense, his long tail was waving slowly
+and Ned stood motionless, charmed by the living beauty of the beast,
+until he heard Dick's whisper in his ear:
+
+"Shoot, Ned!"
+
+The hypnotic spell was broken and Ned slowly raised his rifle to his
+shoulder, while the panther crouched lower and waved his tail more
+quickly. In another second it might be too late, and once more Dick
+whispered:
+
+"Shoot, Ned! Quick!"
+
+The bullet struck the beast and the next instant Ned was knocked
+down by the body of the brute. He was unharmed, however, for Dick
+had jumped between them and it was in Dick's arm that the panther's
+teeth were set and Dick's shoulder and side that were being raked by
+its cruel claws. In an instant Ned's clasp knife was being driven
+into the body of the beast whose throat Dick's hand was clutching in
+a feeble effort to keep from his face those long, sharp fangs.
+
+Bullet and knife had done their work and the panther was dead. But
+Dick was unconscious and covered with blood which was flowing from
+deep gashes in his arm and a side that was torn from shoulder to
+waist. Ned half carried and half dragged the unconscious Dick a few
+yards to a level piece of dry ground and examined his wounds. Bad
+as they looked, there was no spouting of blood from an artery, or
+heavy flow from a large vein. With simple bandaging and care the boy
+would get well, and Ned's relief was so great that he was almost
+happy. He removed what the panther had left of Dick's shirt, which
+was sodden with blood, and tearing off his own, bandaged the wounds
+from which blood was still flowing. He then filled his cap with
+water from the river and sprinkled Dick's face, but failed to bring
+him to consciousness. He was wondering what next to try when Dick
+opened his eyes and smiled weakly.
+
+"Did he hurt you, Neddy?"
+
+"No, he didn't hurt me, thanks to you, Dicky boy. Now I'm going to
+bring the camp here, in the canoe. Can you get along without me for
+half an hour?"
+
+"Sure. Don't forget Tom."
+
+Ned didn't forget Tom. He thought so much of him that he took his
+rifle with him when he went to move the camp. For he was without a
+shirt and was stained with Dick's blood and therefore very doubtful
+how the lynx would behave. But Tom merely sniffed at him and when
+the canoe was loaded stepped aboard as coolly as if his passage had
+been paid for. When the canoe landed at the new camping ground Tom
+took a few steps toward Dick and then suddenly sprang into the woods
+and away, as if witches were after him. Ned was surprised at first,
+but remembered that Tommy, the Seminole, had once said to him:
+
+"Wildcat eat 'coon, panther eat wildcat," and he ceased to wonder
+why Tom had run away.
+
+Ned stretched the canvas over Dick, built a camp fire, got out a
+clean shirt for himself and tore up another for bandages. He washed
+Dick's wounds, which had ceased to bleed, with warm water and soap
+and put fresh bandages on them. After he had gathered a lot of moss
+and made a soft bed for the invalid, he picked up Dick's gun and
+walking a few steps down the river bank, shot a curlew that sat on a
+branch by the stream and was young enough to make a broil or stew
+for the invalid.
+
+"Been breaking the law, have you, Neddy?"
+
+"I'd break anything, to get you some nice chicken broth such as I am
+going to make now."
+
+At daylight Ned saw that Dick was sleeping quietly and taking the
+shotgun started out in search of a breakfast suited to a sick boy.
+When he returned, an hour later, he had a brace of ducks, a little
+brown Florida rabbit and a 'possum. Dick was awake when he returned
+and when offered his choice of the game for his breakfast chose all
+of them. Ned stewed the rabbit and broiled a duck, giving Dick a
+little of each, but the 'possum looked fat and greasy and he kept it
+for himself.
+
+"Dick," said Ned after breakfast, "shall I roll that beast into the
+river, or do you want his skin?"
+
+"Want it, of course. I've got no hard feelings against him."
+
+"Want him skinned for mounting or a rug?"
+
+"Rug, I guess. Think I'll enjoy walking on him."
+
+The big cat was nearly eight feet long, including his tail, and was
+so heavy that Ned found skinning him a hard job. After he had
+finished he had to cut a stout stick for a lever, before he could
+get the carcass into the river. The bad luck of the hunters seemed
+to have run out, and game began to come to them. Ducks flew over the
+river beside the camp and plovers often lit on a bank near them. Ned
+went out for deer and came back in an hour with half a buck on his
+shoulders. When he approached the camp he saw Dick sitting up and
+tossing bits of hoe-cake to a 'coon that was watching him with some
+suspicion from a distance of three or four yards.
+
+"You ought to have seen him, Ned. I had him half tamed. He took
+little bits of wet hoe-cake that I threw him and rolled them up into
+balls with his funny little hands before he ate them. In an hour
+more I'd have had him eating out of my hand."
+
+"He'll come back to-morrow, Dick. You've got a way with you that
+wild things understand."
+
+"It's only that I really love them and they know it."
+
+The 'coon did come back the next day while Ned was out exploring the
+bay in the canoe and, although he did not eat out of Dick's hand, he
+came within a few feet of him and showed very little fear. When Ned
+returned, the 'coon scrambled to the top of a little tree and looked
+down on the boys in a friendly way. Day by day the 'coon became
+more intimate with Dick, even to eating out of his hand, but always
+scampered away when Ned came back. On the third day, as Ned came in
+from an exploring trip, instead of the 'coon he found his old friend
+Tom, the lynx, sitting beside Dick with the air of a trained nurse.
+
+"Bully for you, Tom; I'm glad to see you back," said Ned.
+
+"I'm not glad he's come back, the murderer. He has killed my 'coon."
+
+"You remember what my Indian said. 'Panther eat wildcat, wildcat eat
+'coon.' Shall I shoot him, Dick?"
+
+"Shoot Tom? Well I guess not. He didn't know any better. I'm awful
+sorry the 'coon has gone, but I'd hate worse to lose Tom."
+
+"How did it happen?"
+
+"I was feeding the 'coon, and had just put out my hand to rub his
+head when he jumped in the air and started for that tree like a
+streak of lightning. He never got there, though. Something was after
+him like two streaks of lightning. I didn't know it was Tom till it
+was all over. That wasn't very long, either. If there had been any
+time I'd have had Tom by the ears or tail and taught him a thing or
+two."
+
+"Glad you didn't have time, Dick. I'm afraid Tom might have taught
+you a few things. Don't you think you had better get over what one
+cat has done to you before you tackle another?"
+
+"But Tom isn't that kind of a cat, Ned. I'm not afraid of his
+hurting me much. He might scratch me a little at first, but he'd be
+sorry for it, soon as he had time to think it over. Wouldn't you,
+Tom?"
+
+"Cats are cats, Dick, and I don't think it's safe to leave you alone
+with that wildcat. You are too weak to help yourself if he really
+tackled you."
+
+"But he won't attack me. So what's the use of talking about things
+that aren't going to happen? You are a good boy, Neddy, but you've
+got your limitations and you can't appreciate Tom."
+
+[Illustration: "THE COON SCRAMBLED TO THE TOP OF A LITTLE TREE"]
+
+Ned spent much of his time coddling the invalid. He paddled out in
+the lakes and among its keys. He explored the waters and the woods
+and brought Dick wild grapes with much character and cocoa plums
+with little; sea-grapes with juice that had the taste of claret and
+the color of blood; figs, of which Dick said: "De breed am small,
+but de flavor am delicious"; wild sapadillos that were sweet as
+honey, but chewed up into a solid ball of soft india rubber; and
+mastic berries that were delicious to the taste, but stuck like a
+porous plaster to the roof of the mouth. He got out the rod and
+caught mangrove snappers from under the banks and sheephead from
+their hiding places among sunken logs and snags. He dove for turtle
+that he never got and hacked at young palmettos for buds that he did
+get.
+
+Days followed days and though Dick grew better he didn't grow
+strong. Ned got anxious and told his chum that he was going to take
+him to a doctor. Dick laughed and said:
+
+"You are my doctor. I've great confidence in you and don't care to
+make a change."
+
+"Glad to hear it. Your doctor, in whom you have such confidence,
+desires to consult with his brother physicians in Fort Myers
+regarding your case, and you will light out with him to-morrow."
+
+The next morning a little canoe with a cat couchant in the bow, a
+young invalid comfortably reclining amidships and a husky youth in
+the stern started down the river and into the salt-water lakes. The
+first day's run was a short one and the camp was made on a bit of
+high ground covered with thin grass and shaded by a group of
+palmettos. It was bordered about with cocoa plums and sweet-smelling
+myrtle, on one of which flourished an orchid, the vanilla bean,
+which made heavy with its fragrance the whole camping site.
+
+    "But there lurked a taint in the clime so blest,
+    Like a serpent coiled in a ring-dove's nest"--
+
+and as Ned stood dazed by the enchantment of his environment, he was
+brought to earth with a jar by the whirring of rattles almost under
+his feet. Every muscle of the boy was tense with excitement as he
+stood motionless, knowing that death, in a horrible form, was within
+striking distance of him. The strange, paralyzing music of the
+dreaded "King Snake" of the Indians seems to come from all sides
+and until the threatened victim can see the reptile the motion of a
+hand may be fatal. The seconds seemed minutes to Ned as he waited
+and watched, waited and watched, before he saw the fascinating,
+dreadful, gently swaying head and the lightning play of the forked
+tongue within easy striking distance.
+
+[Illustration: "HE SAW THE GENTLY SWAYING HEAD AND THE LIGHTNING
+FLAY OF THE FORKED TONGUE"]
+
+He felt that if he jumped, the snake, so much quicker than he, would
+sink the glistening white fangs of that wide-open mouth deep in his
+flesh before he could get out of reach. He compelled his quivering
+nerves to hold steady while he slowly, inch by inch, moved away from
+the coils of the angry reptile. When Ned was six feet from the
+rattlesnake he sprang back and stood, almost fainting, quite out of
+reach of the reptile, which continued to wave its head and jar its
+rattles, but with less passion. The boy had often been told never to
+leave a rattlesnake alive and he looked around until he found a
+stick about five feet long, with which he returned to the field of
+his fright. The rattler had uncoiled and was creeping away when Ned
+rushed up and struck at him. The snake coiled like a flash and
+striking back, sunk his fangs in the stick within a foot of the hand
+of the boy. Again Ned struck, and the snake returned the blow, both
+of them missing their marks. Then the stick fell on the coils of the
+reptile and the back of the rattlesnake was broken. After a few
+finishing blows Ned dragged the six-foot creature by the tail to
+the bank and was thrusting it into the water when Dick called out:
+
+"Don't you want to save the skin?"
+
+"Don't want to save anything to remind me of it. I never expect to
+get the frightful sight of the open jaws and white fangs of that
+beast out of my dreams."
+
+Dick rested in camp the next day with the lynx, while Ned explored
+with the canoe, looking for the head of some river of the west coast
+that led to the Gulf, or for enough dry land to serve for a camp.
+Every water course that he followed, sooner or later closed up on
+him. He paddled four miles to the west through a long bay, only to
+find that there was no outlet on the western end, excepting a narrow
+creek which he followed until he could drag his canoe no farther. He
+followed floating wisps of manatee grass, freshly torn up by the
+roots, hoping to find the manatee which had spilled them, that he
+might follow him to a channel which would lead out of the
+wilderness. He discovered the manatee and was nearly swamped by the
+first dash of the frightened creature. Then he lost track of the
+animal after a long chase among the innumerable keys of the
+so-called Ten Thousand Islands, and found that he was himself lost.
+He paddled until it was dark and for an hour after that, when he
+gave up hope of finding his camp that night.
+
+He had a map of the country in his brain, but that was for daylight
+use only. He was hungry, and that was nothing; but he was parched
+with thirst from his long labor, and that was everything. He had
+seen no dry land during the day, and it was hopeless to look for it
+at night. It was never easy to keep the canoe balanced; if he dozed
+for an instant he would certainly roll it over. He had made up his
+mind to sentry duty for the night when through the darkness there
+came to him a gleam of light from a far-distant fire. As he
+approached, it brightened and sent up a crackling flame, in the
+blaze of which Ned saw the tall palmettos of his camp.
+
+"Were you worried, Dick?" he asked after the first warm greetings
+were over.
+
+"I sure was. I thought you couldn't get lost and wondered what had
+happened to you. Tom was uneasy, too, and I reckon he is out looking
+for you now. He went away in a good deal of a hurry. I made a
+lighthouse out of those palmetto fans that you cut for my bed, just
+on the chance of your having lost your way."
+
+Tom came home about daylight and lay down beside Dick, where he
+grumbled and growled as if he were a man with a next-morning
+headache.
+
+When daylight came and Ned began to bestir himself, he missed the
+cheery "Good-morning" of his companion, who was not able to lift his
+head from his pillow of palmetto. His wan smile went to Ned's heart,
+and the boy had to busy himself with the fire to hide his emotion.
+Every hour of that day he watched over the invalid, and from time
+to time tempted him with bits of broiled bird, heron soup and sips
+of hot tea made from leaves of the sweet bay. Ned's acquaintance
+with sickness was slight and his apprehension great, so that the
+night was a sleepless one and the day that followed brought no
+relief to his mind. Another day brought new anxieties. Dick was no
+better, and Ned couldn't bear to leave him, for the invalid's thirst
+was continuous, but now the supply of fresh water was running low,
+and a trip back to the river was imperative. He put the bucket, with
+what water was left, beside Dick's bed and said:
+
+"Dick, boy, I've got to go for some water. I'll have to be away a
+few hours, but I'll get back the first minute it is possible."
+
+Dick put out his hand, and his smile was cheery, though his voice
+was weak as he said:
+
+"Don't you worry, Neddy. I'm all right for all day. I don't need
+anything but amusement, and Tom will 'tend to that."
+
+"I'm afraid to leave a big wildcat with you when you are so weak. I
+am going to take Tom with me."
+
+"Don't do it, Neddy. He'd only be in your way, and I do want him for
+company. You don't understand Tom; he likes me and I like him.
+Please don't take him away."
+
+"Of course I won't take him away, Dick, boy, but you will have to be
+very good and keep cheerful and get strong and well to pay me for
+leaving him."
+
+Ned's apprehensions made the day a hard one for him. He was afraid
+of capsizing the canoe and being unable to get back in it. He
+imagined a tarpon jumping into it, a shark swimming against it, or a
+porpoise smashing it. When he reached the river of fresh water he
+carried the canoe up on the bank and tied it to a tree while he
+walked along the river bank and shot a few tender young birds for
+the nourishment of the invalid. His nerves were so unstrung that he
+feared to go far lest he lose his way, and was even apprehensive of
+failing to find on his return the camp where his companion was
+awaiting him, although the path to it was plain as a pikestaff.
+Ned's meeting with Dick was a joyful one, for the boy was clearly
+better and his voice stronger, although his first words were:
+
+"Don't go away again, Neddy. You've been gone a year, and I thought
+you were never coming back."
+
+By careful economy the five gallons of water which their can
+contained was made to last as many days for the three of them, for
+Dick insisted that Tom must share the rations of food and drink of
+the other members of the family. Each day Ned made a little trip
+around the keys nearest the camp by way of doing the marketing for
+his family, and returned when he had shot enough birds for its daily
+needs. He was happy in the thought of the invalid's increasing
+strength, but dreaded the necessary trip for fresh water. Dick
+surprised him by bearing the separation with cheerfulness, and his
+voice was so much firmer and his strength so obviously on the mend
+that Ned began again to plan for his return to civilization.
+
+On one of his marketing excursions Ned saw a skiff containing two
+men about a quarter of a mile distant. He waved his hat to the men
+and paddled toward them, but they rowed away. He followed, but was
+unable to find them, and concluded that they were outlaws, who did
+not care to extend their acquaintance. After this he paddled about
+on the lookout for some one who might help him to carry Dick to the
+outside world, for he had given up the idea of attempting it by
+himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+CONVALESCENCE AND CATASTROPHE
+
+
+Ned's hopes and plans were suddenly changed, and he no longer hoped
+for help, but planned to take Dick to the coast himself. For Dick
+was getting well. There was no doubt about it. His appetite came
+back, until, instead of urging him to eat, Ned waited for him to ask
+twice for food before giving it to him. He was still thin and weak,
+but his spirits bubbled over, and his laughter was on tap, ready to
+be turned on any minute. He began to clamor for a move toward the
+coast, but Ned was obdurate and refused to stir for a week. Then one
+day Ned started out and paddled some miles toward the coast,
+examining the shores of the keys and the mangrove-lined banks of the
+salt-water rivers for a camping-ground. He could have made his own
+camp on the overflowed meadows almost anywhere, but Dick was still
+an invalid and Ned was always anxious about him. Six miles from the
+camp, where he had left Dick with Tom, Ned found a good camping
+site, marked by a freak palmetto with a trunk that branched into two
+stems about midway up. The ground was covered with palmetto scrub,
+which Ned examined carefully for rattlesnakes, after which he got
+out his fly-rod and caught a mess of fish for supper. On his return
+to camp the lynx sprang into the canoe, seized one of the fish and
+growled so fiercely that Ned thought best to let him keep it.
+[Illustration: "NED FOUND A GOOD CAMPING SITE MARKED BY A FREAK
+PALMETTO"]
+
+"Fresh water is all out, Dick," said Ned that night, "so I'll start
+at daylight and go back to the river and fill up. I'll take it
+slowly and be here about noon. Then we can start out and make easy
+work of being in the new camp long before sun-down."
+
+"Ned, I can paddle all right, and I'm going to help. I am sick of
+being a baby."
+
+"Go 'way, chile, you make me tired. Don't forget that I'm your
+doctor," replied Ned.
+
+"Do you see any chance of getting to the coast?"
+
+"Yes; pretty sure thing. I found a deep channel near the camp with
+some porpoises playing in it, and I think it's near the head of one
+of the big coast rivers. I am almost certain it's Rodgers River."
+
+[Illustration: "THE LYNX SPRANG INTO THE CANOE AND SEIZED ONE OF THE
+FISH"]
+
+Ned was a tired boy when the day's work was done and the young
+explorers were settled in the new camp, but a night's sleep braced
+him up so that he agreed to his chum's plan to make a dash for the
+coast, for Dick had said:
+
+"What is the use of losing a lot of time in prospecting for a soft
+spot for me to sleep? We can be on the coast to-night within sight
+of houses and help if we need it, which we don't, for I'm going to
+do my share of the paddling. I know that coast and you don't, so
+I'll naturally be boss."
+
+When the little canoe had been loaded with all their stores and
+trophies, and the boys were ready for their final trip, Tom stepped
+gravely aboard, and seating himself in the bow, turned to Ned with
+an expression which Dick translated as:
+
+"I am here, you may start the engine."
+
+Ned dipped his paddle deeply in the water, that with his every
+stroke flowed more swiftly. The banks became well defined, and
+although the stream was so crooked that it flowed by turns to every
+point of the compass, its general trend was to the west. The river
+broadened and the channel deepened, the forest on the banks became
+more heavily timbered, and the boys recognized the beautiful Rodgers
+River. Curlews and water-turkeys watched them from the trees; herons
+flew lazily up from the shoals as the canoe approached; porpoises,
+going out with the tide, rolled their backs out of water and gave
+sniffs of affright as they saw the canoe beside them. The fin of a
+great shark, longer than their canoe, cut the water as its owner
+swiftly pursued a six-foot tarpon, which escaped by leaping in the
+air within thirty feet of the canoe, toward which it was headed.
+Another clash of the shark brought its huge body within its length
+of the boys, while the great mouth, with its rows of serrated
+teeth, razor-sharp, opened wide to take in the tarpon, which leaped
+wildly ten feet in the air, and turning, plunged head-down straight
+for Ned as he sat in the canoe, paddle in hand. Dick started up from
+his seat, while Ned tried to fend off with the paddle, but the hard,
+pointed head of the big tarpon tore through the bottom of the
+fragile canoe as if it had been paper. A minute later the shattered
+canoe was floating down the river, while everything sinkable had
+gone to the bottom.
+
+[Illustration: "PORPOISES ROLLED THEIR BACKS OUT OF THE WATER"]
+
+Tom, who had been asleep in the bottom of the canoe, was swimming
+for shore, and Ned, who had not for a second lost his presence of
+mind, was treading water and supporting the unconscious Dick, who
+had been struck by the tail of the tarpon as the big fish crushed
+the canoe. Even as the tarpon struck the canoe Ned was reaching out
+for Dick, and the boys went down together.
+
+Then to Ned came the struggle for life--for two lives. His only
+thought was of Dick. Dick mustn't drown; Dick's face must be kept
+out of the water; he must get Dick ashore. He swam high, wasting his
+efforts to keep Dick's head above the surface. Strength goes fast
+when one struggles in the water, and Ned was soon gasping for
+breath. As he struck out more and more feebly for the bank, while
+the current swept him down the stream, he sank lower and lower,
+until only his eyes were above the surface and his lungs seemed
+bursting for want of air. A great shark swept past him, and the wave
+from the big fish rolled over him. He felt his senses going, his
+muscles refused to respond to the call of his brain. His grasp on
+Dick was loosening, and the thought of this roused him to renew the
+struggle. To save Dick he must save himself; he must breathe; he
+must not exhaust himself, and above all his mind must not wander. He
+was _so_ tired; for himself he would have given up the struggle and
+dropped into rest, but for Dick--never! A great calmness came to
+him. He rolled over with his head thrown back until all but his face
+was under water. This floated clear of the surface as he lay back
+and drew air into his smothered lungs in great gulps. He began to
+kick out with his feet and was soon swimming on his back toward the
+bank, making fair progress with little effort. Some of his strength
+came back, and he found that he was easily dragging Dick along,
+happily with his face upward. Hope took the place of despair, and
+Ned felt that now he could swim for hours. He saw the overhanging
+branches of trees above him and knew he was nearing the bank. Then
+suddenly he found himself aground on a shoal with water less than
+knee-deep. He dragged the unconscious form of his companion into the
+jungle on the bank, and a great wave of thankfulness rolled over him
+as he felt the weak beating of Dick's heart, which was followed by
+the familiar smile as the boy opened his eyes.
+
+[Illustration: "THE HARD, POINTED HEAD OF THE BIG TARPON TORE
+THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF THE FRAGILE CANOE"]
+
+"Well, Neddy, what have you been doing now, and what are you going
+to do? Last time I saw you a thousand-pound fish was dropping on
+your head. Seems as if he hit me, too."
+
+"Going to make a camp for the two of us, feed us, and get us out of
+the wilderness. That's what I am going to do," replied Ned.
+
+"You'll do it, all right; but what have you got to work with?"
+
+"Pocket-knife and some matches. First thing I'll make a fire to dry
+you. Then I'll forage. You see, Dick, we've got to stay right here
+until you get strong enough to travel. I can make a palmetto shack
+big enough to keep the rain off in half a day. The worst trouble
+will be fresh water, but I think I can fix that. I know how to get
+things to eat. I have picked up a couple of old cocoanuts, and I'll
+bring them to you in an hour full of water. Then to-morrow I will
+start early and find that old shack where we camped in the
+graveyard. You remember that old kettle there? Well, I'll bring it
+here full of fresh water. Then if you don't get well pretty quick
+I'll leave you plenty to eat and drink and find my way to the coast.
+I can do it in a day, and have your old friend, who don't believe we
+know a manatee from a tarpon, up here with his boat the next day
+sure."
+
+"Don't do it, Neddy. I'd be thinking of a hundred things happening
+to you, and the night would be pretty lonesome without even Tom."
+
+Ned started away from the river through a wooded swamp, and before
+he had gone a quarter of a mile struck a prairie on which several
+deer were feeding. The animals seemed to know that he had no weapon,
+for they showed no alarm until he had walked some distance toward
+them. There were a number of small ponds near him, and as Ned
+approached the nearest one a small alligator slipped from the bank
+into the water. The boy had provided himself with a short, heavy
+pole, and he waded fearlessly in after the 'gator; but although the
+pond was not thirty feet across and he explored every foot of it, he
+could not find the reptile. He finally came across an opening in the
+bank, in which he thrust his pole, when it was promptly seized by
+the alligator. Ned tried to pull the reptile within reach, but when
+the head came out of the cave it was larger than he had looked for,
+and before he had made up his mind to tackle it the creature had let
+go of the pole and gone back in his cave. Then the boy got earnest
+and determined to have that alligator if he had to crawl into the
+cave after him. He sharpened a bit of branch that stuck out beside
+the big end of his pole like the barb of a harpoon, and again thrust
+it in the cave. Soon he had the reptile fighting mad with his head
+out of the cave, when he pushed the pole into his open mouth, and
+catching the barb in the soft skin under the alligator's jaw, just
+as Dick had done weeks before, hauled him out of the cave and
+dragged him out on the bank. When a few yards from the pond the
+reptile broke loose from the barb and started back for the pond.
+Ned was after him like a tiger and struck two or three smashing
+blows on the creature's head with his pole, and then, as the reptile
+neared the water, threw himself on its back and seizing its jaws
+held them together while he turned the brute on its back. At first
+the alligator lashed out with its tail, but soon became quiet; and
+then Ned got out his knife and severed the spine of the reptile.
+
+The water of the pond was so nearly fresh that its taste was only
+slightly sweetish, and after Ned had drank all he could hold he
+filled his two cocoanuts for Dick. On his way to camp he hunted up a
+young palmetto for the bud or cabbage which grew in the top of the
+tree. The sharp edges of the great, tough leaves tore his flesh as
+he climbed through them, and it was only after more than an hour of
+hard work with his knife that he secured the cabbage he was working
+for. By this time the water he had drunk had oozed out through his
+pores. He was so parched with thirst that he took a long walk back
+to the pond and filled up again.
+
+That night Dick and Ned had broiled alligator steak and palmetto
+cabbage for supper. Both suffered so much for want of water that Ned
+started out at daylight to find the old abandoned plantation. Dick
+was pale and his smile so wan that Ned's heart was sore at leaving
+him. He was too earnest to think of trivial things, and he sloshed
+through the swamp without thought of the swaying heads of little
+speckle-bellies in his path, or the great, ugly cotton-mouth
+moccasins that moved slowly aside as he wallowed through their
+lairs. He stopped long enough on the border of the prairie to find a
+club, with which he fiercely pounded to death a rattlesnake, upon
+whose coils he had nearly stepped when the locust-like warning found
+its way to his consciousness.
+
+After about three miles of tramping, during which he waded
+waist-deep across two sloughs, the prairie opened upon familiar
+ground, and Ned knew that he was opposite the plantation he sought.
+In the decaying building he found an old bucket that would hold
+three or four gallons, and a couple of quart cans in which water
+could be boiled. From a tamarind tree he gathered the half-dried
+fruit with its sweet acidity, and in the old garden he discovered a
+few stalks of sugar-cane. He picked up a rusty fish-hook and from an
+old net got a quantity of string. Then filling his bucket with rain
+water, he started back to Dick and the camp. The journey was a hard
+one, and though he refused to drink a drop of the water, half of it
+was lost on the way. The weight of it pressed him down in the mire
+of the sloughs until he sank to the armpits as he held the heavy
+bucket on his head. Dick laughed aloud with joy, even if it was a
+bit hysterical, when Ned got home to camp.
+
+"Been lonesome?" asked Ned after Dick had drank a quart of water
+and looked as if he wanted a gallon more.
+
+"Not very. Tom has amused me," replied Dick, as he pointed to a
+branch over his head. Ned looked up, and there was Tom gazing
+benignly down upon him.
+
+"Wonder if Tom is hungry?" said Ned.
+
+"Guess not. I tried him with a piece of alligator steak, and he
+turned his nose up at that."
+
+"What do you think he would say to a mess of fish?" and Ned produced
+his fish-hook and line. Dick's eyes glistened.
+
+"Oh! I am so hungry for some broiled fish."
+
+Most Florida streams are alive with fish that are not fussy about
+the tackle with which they are taken. Ned baited his hook with a
+piece of alligator, which was promptly seized by a salt-water cat.
+The cat-fish was given to the wildcat, which grabbed it fiercely.
+Two mangrove snappers were the result of a few minutes' fishing. Ned
+put some tamarinds in one of the quart tins, which he filled with
+water and then stirred with a stick of sugar-cane which had been
+peeled and split.
+
+Dick perked up a good deal during his supper of broiled fish,
+palmetto cabbage and tamarind water, after which Ned made him a tin
+of tea from the leaves of the sweet bay. In the days that followed
+Ned gathered oysters, which he found some distance down the river,
+caught fish and killed several heron and a young curlew with sticks.
+The broils, roasts and stews which he made would have done credit
+to a professional cook. He wanted to set snares for rabbits and
+birds, but had to give it up owing to the difficulty of making a
+snare which would distinguish between Tom, whom he didn't wish to
+catch, and the rabbits which he wanted.
+
+Dick was improving, but so very slowly that Ned determined to find
+his way to the coast and get help. He put it off, at Dick's request,
+for several days, until they had been in camp a week, when one
+afternoon it was agreed that Ned should start early the next
+morning. Dick, who was feeling very blue at the prospect of Ned's
+leaving him, was lying on his bed of moss when suddenly he sat up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE RESCUE
+
+
+"Listen, Ned, listen! There is a motor-boat in the river. Don't you
+hear it?"
+
+"I don't hear it, Dick."
+
+"But you must hear it. It's growing plainer every minute. It's a
+four-cycle engine, and a fast boat, too. I can tell you that. Who
+can it be? Do you suppose it is your father looking for you?"
+
+"I hear it now. No, it isn't Dad. My time isn't up for several days
+yet. After that anything might happen, but until then Dad won't lift
+a finger toward looking me up."
+
+"Oh, Ned! It's coming nearer, nearer, nearer! There! It's 'round the
+bend. Of course, you see it now. How it is coming!"
+
+"You bet it's coming. You ought to see the water pile up against the
+bow. It's a glass-cabin launch. There's a man standing on top of the
+cabin. I think he sees us, for he is pointing this way, and--the
+boat's headed straight for us--hear that whistle, and--Dick, Dick,
+boy!--there's a tall man and a girl standing in front of the
+pilot-house, and--oh, Dick! it's too good to be true, but it's Dad
+and Molly!"
+
+"Molly?" said Dick.
+
+"Yes, my sister, you know. Sometimes we call her Mary."
+
+"I didn't know your sister's name was Molly. What does she look
+like?"
+
+"Just watch that girl who is waving her hat as if she was crazy.
+That's Molly."
+
+Ned was in the launch before it touched the bank, and Mr. Barstow
+was holding his son by the hand, although neither spoke, while Molly
+had her arms around Ned's neck and was laughing, crying and talking
+by turns.
+
+"You blessed, blessed Neddy! What did happen to you? We were
+frightened, oh! so frightened."
+
+"Ned," said Mr. Barstow, "your friend, young Williams, was with you.
+I never saw him, but I hope no harm came to him."
+
+"No, daddy; Dick will be all right, now you are here, but he has
+been very, very sick, and I was dreadfully afraid he wouldn't get
+well, and all his trouble came because he saved my life without
+thinking of his own. Come right ashore and see him."
+
+"Shall I come, too?" asked Molly.
+
+"Sure," replied Ned. "He wants to see you especially."
+
+A moment later Mr. Barstow had one of Dick's hands in both of his
+own.
+
+"My boy, my boy, what made you run away? The hue and cry is out for
+you in Key West. Why did you never tell me that you were Ned's
+nearest friend? Why didn't you tell Molly who you were? Ned has
+talked to her for years about you. Come here, Molly, and tell your
+friend Dick Williams what you think of him for hiding his name from
+you."
+
+But Molly didn't tell him just then. For Dick's strength had been
+overtaxed, and when his eyes met Molly's he promptly fainted.
+
+When Dick had recovered, Ned invited his father and sister to dine
+before going aboard the motor-boat, and as he was busy preparing the
+meal and his father had much to hear from him, the care of the
+invalid fell upon Molly, a duty which she performed to the apparent
+satisfaction of her patient.
+
+"Those oysters are lovely," said the girl as she speared with a
+chop-stick a small one which had been roasted in the shell.
+
+"Yes. Ned waded through half a mile of mud to get them."
+
+"I wondered how Neddy got so muddy. I was so glad to see him that I
+just hugged him, and now I ought to be in a wash-tub. Just look at
+me."
+
+Dick obeyed her so literally that she added a moment later:
+
+"I mean look at the mud on my dress."
+
+The broiled snappers were pronounced the finest fish ever served,
+the palmetto cabbage better than cauliflower, and then the girl
+asked:
+
+"This white meat is pretty good. What is it?"
+
+"Alligator."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"Really and truly. You said you liked it."
+
+"I didn't know it was a reptile. Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't
+have eaten it if I had known."
+
+"Ned wouldn't have liked it if I had told. He is my doctor, you
+know, and I have to mind him."
+
+"You don't need a doctor any more. What you want is a nurse."
+
+"That's so. I could mind her easy," said Dick.
+
+"Oh, I meant a man nurse," said the girl.
+
+Ned produced some joints of sugar-cane for dessert, and made a can
+of after-dinner sweet-bay tea, and then began to ask questions.
+
+"Daddy, I want to find out whether you and Molly are crazy or
+whether I am. You never saw Dick before. You said so half an hour
+ago. Dick never saw you or Molly. He said so half an hour ago--"
+
+"But Ned--" interrupted Dick.
+
+"You keep still. I've got the floor. Now, Dad, you and Molly rush up
+to this chap, whom you never saw before, and fall into his arms--"
+
+"Neddy Barstow, I didn't do anything of the kind. But I had seen him
+and I did know him," said the girl.
+
+"Now, there you go. How ever did you know this chum of mine, who
+never saw you?"
+
+"How did Dick save your life, Ned?" asked Mr. Barstow in a voice
+that wasn't quite as steady as usual.
+
+"I can tell you," broke in Dick. "He didn't do it at all. That's
+how."
+
+"Dad, when our canoe was wrecked, we lost the beautifullest skin of
+the biggest kind of a panther--eight feet from tip to tip. Dick saw
+the panther first, when he was ten feet from us, ready to jump. I
+fired at the beast, and he sprang for me, but Dick jumped at the
+same time and got between us, so the panther landed on him and I was
+saved. That's why he is sick now. I s'pose that is what knocked his
+memory endwise, so he don't remember anything about it."
+
+"Mr. Barstow," said Dick, "I wish you would ask Ned who it was that
+swam ashore with me when the big tarpon smashed the canoe and
+knocked me out. Yes, and he almost lost his own life in saving mine.
+Please ask him. I want to see if he has lost his memory."
+
+Ned tried to speak, but Molly had her arms around his neck, saying
+nice things to him.
+
+"See here, sis, doesn't part of this belong to Dick?" said Ned, and
+got his ears boxed very promptly.
+
+"Did not Dick tell you, Ned, that he came from New York to Key West
+on the steamer with us, and that Molly and I got acquainted with
+him, and that he then slipped away at Key West so that we could not
+find him?" asked Mr. Barstow.
+
+"Never told me a word. Dick, you gay deceiver, you pretended to
+tell me everything, and you left out the most interesting part. You
+probably thought I wasn't interested in Dad or Molly."
+
+"But, Ned, I never knew they were your father and sister until just
+now. I told you everything that seemed worth speaking of."
+
+"Hear that, Molly? This young man says you didn't seem worth
+speaking of. Can't you get even with him for that? Now, tell me how
+you happen to be here, you and Dad. I told Dick that he wouldn't
+move a finger for us till the time of my vacation was up."
+
+"You were all right about that, Neddy. He wouldn't budge an inch,
+for I tried to make him start out and hunt you up, and he refused
+until--Well, one day the boat that carries the mail between Key West
+and Chokoloskee picked up, out in the Gulf of Mexico, a broken canoe
+that everybody seemed to know was the one you and Mr. Williams were
+out in. Then Mr. Streeter made a night run to Myers, got Dad out of
+bed, and things began to happen. Of course, I was coming, so I got
+into a few clothes, skipped my breakfast and was aboard this boat
+barely in time not to be left, for Dad was just plain crazy. But
+before he came away he chartered everything in sight and told the
+men not to leave an unexplored channel in the whole Ten Thousand
+Islands."
+
+Ned held out his hand to his father without speaking, but Dick
+looked at the girl with more gratitude in his eyes than she could
+possibly have deserved, although she seemed willing to accept a good
+deal of it.
+
+"Well, boys," said Mr. Barstow, "if you are ready we will go aboard.
+I don't see much that you will care to take with you."
+
+"Nothing but Tom," said Dick. "Can't he go? He'll be good."
+
+"Of course he can. But who is Tom?"
+
+"Oh, he's nothing but a savage old wildcat," replied Ned. "He'll
+probably eat us all up but Dick. He has eaten some of him already."
+
+"Oh, what a beauty!" cried Molly, when Tom, who had been sitting in
+a tree over their heads, was pointed out to her. Dick soon coaxed
+the lynx, which sat there looking suspiciously at the strangers,
+down to his shoulder.
+
+"Can't I pet him?" asked Molly.
+
+"No!" said Ned.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, and Molly stepped forward and laid her hand
+fearlessly on the soft fur of the beautiful creature. Tom began a
+low growl, but Dick talked soothingly to him, and in a few minutes
+he became quite friendly with the girl.
+
+"There!" said Molly. "Now we're friends, and I can play with him all
+I want to."
+
+"Oh, no, not yet. You must promise that you won't touch him unless I
+am with you," said Dick.
+
+"Of course, I won't promise. I'll pet him when I please."
+
+"Then poor Tom will have to stay here."
+
+"Do you mean to say that if I don't make that ridiculous promise I
+can't have Tom?"
+
+"Tom belongs to you the minute you make that promise, but not
+before."
+
+"Well, Mr. Williams, I make the promise rather than lose Tom, but as
+for you--" And the blank which Molly left was filled with feminine
+possibilities.
+
+A bunk was fixed up in the cabin of the launch for Dick, and the
+throb of the heavy engines became a steady hum as the boat turned
+down the stream, with water and spray curling up from its bow and
+heavy waves from its propeller breaking with a sullen roar on the
+banks of the river. Dick's bunk must have been uncomfortable, for
+very soon he crawled up on deck and, going forward to where he could
+lean back against the cabin, sat down, looking pale, but not
+unhappy. Molly, who happened to be on the bow of the boat, was so
+indignant with him that she told him he ought to have a guardian,
+and then went below and brought back an armful of pillows and
+cushions, with which she proceeded to make life a burden to Dick.
+Then, as she seemed about to go away, Dick began to talk to her
+about the old plantations on the river and tell her the ghost
+stories that belonged to them, until she sat down near him. "I hope
+you don't think I was rude about Tom? I was only--" But Molly
+interrupted him.
+
+"You need to be good and strong before I tell you what I think of
+that." And the girl walked away from him so indignant that she
+didn't return for nearly two minutes.
+
+As the launch neared the mouth of the river a yawl-rigged craft with
+an auxiliary engine had just entered it. Her captain was sitting on
+deck with his right hand grasping the wheel, his body leaning
+forward, rigid as bronze, while his roving eye scanned water and
+sky, reefs, banks and keys. A roll of the wheel, and the launch
+darted toward him. When within a hundred yards the whir of the big
+engine and the chugging of the two-cycle motor of the yawl stopped,
+and as the boats were passing each other, Mr. Barstow hailed the
+skipper of the yawl.
+
+"Oh, Captain Hull! All's well. The boys have been found. Spread the
+news. Hunt up the other boats and all hands report to me at Myers."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" came from the bronze statue, and the chugging and
+the whirring began again as the yawl resumed its course, while the
+launch wove in and out among the oyster reefs, that guard the mouth
+of the river, at a speed that would have torn the propeller out of
+her had she struck one of them.
+
+Dick's eyes sparkled as the Gulf opened out, and the launch turned
+down the coast to clear the bar before making her course. Before him
+were the waters where the waterspout destroyed the _Etta_; the
+Shark River bight was near, and in the distance the cocoa-palms of
+the Northwest Cape could be made out. He turned eagerly to the girl
+beside him, and was telling her the story of the waterspout when Mr.
+Barstow came to them and said:
+
+"Run away, little girl, I want to talk to Dick."
+
+"So do I," said Molly as she made a little face at her father, who
+laughed at her.
+
+"You mustn't think you own Dick. Go play with Tom, there. He looks
+pretty amiable just now."
+
+"But he won't let me play with Tom. He's mean about that."
+
+Dick began to explain, but the girl had gone.
+
+"What are your plans for your future, Dick?" asked Mr. Barstow.
+
+"I am going home and going to work at anything I can find to do."
+
+"How would you like to work for me?"
+
+"I don't know of anything else in the world I would like so well."
+And Dick fairly beamed.
+
+"Then, if the work suits you, your engagement will date from
+to-day."
+
+"What will be my duties, sir?"
+
+"First a vacation to get well in and visit your mother. Then you and
+Ned will go to my timber property in Canada, familiarize yourselves
+with the present methods of working it, and suggest any improvements
+that occur to you, and make the best estimate you can of the amount
+and kind of lumber I have. I don't care for present returns, but I
+wish the property administered in accordance with the most advanced
+knowledge of the science of forestry."
+
+"Mr. Barstow, you are good to me, too good, and I am as grateful as
+I can be, but I can't take money for amusing myself. You would be
+paying me for taking the most delightful excursion in the world, and
+there wouldn't be any other side to it. I couldn't make good to you
+in any way. I don't know anything about lumbering, forestry or
+practical surveying."
+
+"Don't begin by criticizing your employer, Dick. Just make believe
+that he knows what he is about. I am not paying you for what you
+know now, but for what you will know in a few months. I am expecting
+great things of you. The science of forestry and economic methods of
+lumbering are fairly well understood in Canada. You will find
+yourselves with young men of education and enterprise, enthusiasts
+who think nothing of starting out alone on snowshoes for a week or a
+month in the woods, where the mercury in the thermometer often
+freezes. You will find your work cut out for you if you only keep up
+with them, and I am hoping that you will get near the head of your
+class. I want you to learn the business from the beginning to the
+end from the planting to the cutting of the tree, and from forest to
+freight car. So don't fear that you will not have a chance to earn
+your salary. Your pay and Ned's will be the same. It will take good
+care of you, but you will not find much over to waste. Here, Molly,
+come back and hear the rest of that romance that I interrupted. And
+don't look so cross at me next time I speak to Dick."
+
+"Isn't he the nice old daddy?" said the girl to Dick, as she sat
+down near him. Dick looked as if he thought so too, but was troubled
+to find words to express all he felt. The launch, which was now
+flying up the coast, was just opposite the shack of the fisherman
+whom the boys had hired to help with the manatee which couldn't be
+found. Dick was telling the girl the story of the manatee when Ned
+put in an appearance.
+
+"Run away, Molly. I want to talk to Dick."
+
+"Neddy Barstow, when daddy says 'Run away, Molly,' I have to go, but
+when you say it, I stay right where I am. See?"
+
+"But this is important, Molly. It's business."
+
+"So am I important, even if I'm not business. If business is in a
+hurry, it can go ahead; if it isn't it can wait."
+
+"Dick," said Ned, "Dad thinks we need a little vacation before going
+to work, and he offers to take us on a cruise in the _Gypsey_ to the
+Bahamas and to Cuba, or to charter a light-draft boat that could go
+through the Bay of Florida and let us finish our cruise in the
+crocodile country, beginning where we turned back when the fresh
+water gave out. Maybe he will let Molly go."
+
+"Let Molly go!" repeated the girl mockingly. "Only question is
+whether she will let you go. But I thought you said it was business.
+That isn't business; it's fun. We choose the small boat and the
+crocodiles. That will be new. I know all about the _Gypsey_ now."
+
+"Shall we let it go at that, Dick?"
+
+"Sure. Wonder if we can find my crocodile again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MOLLY AND THE MANATEE
+
+
+A week later the party of five (for both Molly and Dick insisted
+that Tom belonged) was sailing down the coast in the _Irene_, a half
+houseboat with auxiliary engine, which was sailed by Captain Hull.
+An engineer and a darky cook had been engaged, but the three young
+folks held a meeting and then announced that Dick had been elected
+engineer and Molly chief cook, with Ned as assistant. They added
+that the man engineer and the darky could "go bounce." When they
+notified Mr. Barstow of the result of the meeting he told them to
+see Captain Hull and that if they could stand their own cooking and
+engineering he thought the captain and himself might manage to live
+through it.
+
+The captain grimly assented; said that he had been wondering where
+he could sleep his cook when it rained; that Dick couldn't be a
+worse engineer than the one he had engaged, and that he hoped he
+would keep sober more of the time than the other one was in the
+habit of doing.
+
+The _Irene_ was of less than three feet draft, and towed or carried
+on her davits a small launch and a skiff. Excepting when the wind
+was especially favorable, the sails were kept furled, and an awning
+stretched above the cabin-top made of it a pleasant lounging place.
+When the _Irene_ was opposite the mouth of Broad and Rodgers rivers,
+the whole party, including Tom, who kept beside Dick, were sitting
+on the cabin roof, and Mr. Barstow said to his son, as he pointed to
+Broad River:
+
+"Is that the river where you caught your phantom manatee, that
+wasn't there when you brought a fisherman to get it? You know the
+story is all over Myers that you saw a porpoise and imagined the
+rest. How was it, Ned?"
+
+"Yon've made a lot of fun of me, Dad, and Molly has bothered the
+life out of Dick about that manatee ghost. Now, if you will let Dick
+and me boss this boat for three days, no questions to be asked,
+we'll show you a sure-enough manatee and give some folks a chance to
+think up real handsome apologies."
+
+"But supposing you don't make good?"
+
+"Then Dick and I will do a whole lot of kow-towing ourselves."
+
+"What do you say to that, Molly?"
+
+"See here, sis," interrupted Ned, "it's up to you to put up or shut
+up. If you don't give us this chance to make good you are not to say
+'manatee' again on this trip."
+
+"Give 'em what they want, Daddy. They can't do much harm in three
+days, and just think of the fun I'll have with them afterwards."
+
+"Well, hoys, you shall have your chance. It may prove a good lesson
+to you."
+
+"You heard that, Captain? Dick and I are boss for three days, and we
+want this boat to start up Broad River immejit!"
+
+"Tide's jist a-bilin' out of the river. It'll take all day to get
+anywhere. Hadn't you better anchor at the mouth of the river till it
+turns? We can run up the river in the night, so you won't lose any
+time."
+
+The _Irene's_ anchor was dropped behind the bar that lies opposite
+the mouth of the river, and Molly and the boys went out in the skiff
+to call on a family of pelicans which were keeping house on a little
+coral key, surrounded by oyster reefs, between Rodgers and Broad
+rivers. As the skiff neared the key the old birds flew lazily away
+and lit on a mud-flat a hundred yards distant, but the pelican
+children waddled around on the oyster reef without showing much
+alarm until Dick caught one, when the indignant bird struck him with
+its big bill and punched holes in his hat. As the tide fell the
+oyster bars were uncovered, the water shoaled on the mud-flats, and
+the boys gathered oysters from one, and clams weighing from half a
+pound to four pounds each from the other.
+
+[Illustration: "THE INDIGNANT BIRD PUNCHED HOLES THROUGH HIS HAT"]
+
+A fire was built on the reef, bread and coffee brought from the
+_Irene_, and Mr. Barstow and Captain Hull invited to a picnic
+supper which they were polite enough to say they enjoyed greatly.
+After supper Molly and the boys took a walk on the beach on the
+north side of Rodgers River and amused themselves by chasing the
+crabs that were skurrying along close to the shore to keep out of
+the way of their enemies. They had a lot of fun, but caught no
+crabs, until Dick went back to the _Irene_ for a scoop-net and a
+bucket, which he soon filled with the crustaceans. Molly had never
+before seen shell-fish growing on trees, so Dick cut a few
+oyster-bearing branches from a mangrove tree and roasted bunches of
+the bivalves on the beach. When the sputtering of the oysters on the
+branch told Dick they were cooked, he hauled the limb from the
+coals, sat down with his companion on the beach, and with sharpened
+sticks the young people picked the roasted oysters from their
+shells, while Dick told the girl of that other picnic on the coast
+near-by after the waterspout had wrecked the _Etta_. They talked
+after the oysters were eaten and the fire had gone out, until Ned's
+voice came to them:
+
+"Do you kids expect to settle here and grow up with the country?
+Don't you know it's 'most night, the tide's been right for the river
+for an hour, and everybody is waiting for you?"
+
+When they reached the _Irene_, Mr. Barstow proposed putting off
+their start until morning to give Molly and him a chance to see the
+river as they sailed up it. Mr. Barstow replied to a quizzical look
+from his son:
+
+"Of course, this doesn't come out of your time, Ned. You are to have
+your full three days."
+
+"Maybe you'd like to see some fire-hunting," said the captain.
+"There are 'gators in these rivers, and there's time before the moon
+rises to find one or two. If you don't want one killed I'll fire a
+blank cartridge at him, unless you'd like to shine the eyes of one
+yourself."
+
+"I don't think I'll try any fire-hunting, but I should like to see
+it done," said Mr. Barstow.
+
+Dick was proud of his sculling, and at his request it was arranged
+that he should scull the skiff for the captain, while Ned was to
+pole the little motor-boat, in which his father and sister would go
+with him. Before they had gone far Dick found that he had
+overestimated his strength, and that handling the heavy sculling oar
+was too much for him. Mr. Barstow offered to pole the motor-boat,
+and Ned took Dick's place at the oar in the skiff, where Dick
+remained as a passenger. They entered Broad River and Ned sculled
+slowly along the bank, while the beam of light from the lantern,
+which was bound to the captain's forehead, played along the surface
+of the water under the mangroves that overhung the banks and
+sometimes swept the banks above the water. In the shallow places
+mullet leaped wildly as the rays of the bull's-eye lantern fell on
+them, while porpoises sniffed and tarpon splashed in their light.
+Sculling was hard work for Ned, who had none of the easy and
+graceful swing with which Dick threw his weight on a sculling oar, a
+skill which he had acquired during his life on the sponger. Several
+times the oar jumped out of the scull hole in the skiff, and once
+Ned nearly went overboard. But a little extra noise didn't much
+disturb wild creatures that were fascinated by the light; and on the
+land 'coons sat motionless, two dots of greenish light told of a
+hypnotized wildcat, and when all on the skiff saw the light
+reflected from two big, round eyes, while the captain held the beam
+from the lantern steadily upon them, Dick whispered:
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"A big buck. Wish I didn't have a blank cartridge in the rifle,"
+replied the captain.
+
+They cruised for half a mile up Broad River, then back to its mouth
+against a tide that made the captain take the oars of the skiff, to
+which the painter of the motor-boat was then fastened. Then Ned
+sculled to the mouth of Rodgers River, where, upon a little beach,
+the captain first saw the gleam for which he had been looking. Then
+for a few minutes Dick took the oar and slowly and more slowly
+sculled toward those little round stars. Soon the light from the
+bull's-eye on the captain's forehead showed the head and body of the
+reptile, which remained as motionless as if cast in bronze, while
+Dick held the skiff in place that the launch might come near. With
+the roar of the blank cartridge came the scream of a girl and the
+quick scrambling of the alligator into the water. Every one wanted
+to continue the hunt, but the rising of the moon put a stop to the
+sport.
+
+[Illustration: "THE LIGHT FROM THE BULL'S EYE SHOWED THE HEAD AND
+BODY OF THE REPTILE"]
+
+In the morning the tide was rushing up the river, and with it came
+rolling porpoises and schools of leaping tarpon.
+
+"Couldn't you catch one of those tarpon?" asked Molly.
+
+Dick said nothing, but Ned shook his head slowly, and Molly
+understood that he couldn't so quickly forget that desperate
+struggle in the water, during which two lives hung by a thread after
+a tarpon had wrecked their canoe.
+
+As the _Irene_ sailed up the river birds flew from the trees on her
+approach, alligators slid from their beds on the banks, and otters
+lifted their round heads above the surface of the stream. Six miles
+from its mouth the river spreads out into a bay, and as the boat was
+entering it Mr. Barstow called out:
+
+"There is your manatee, sure enough, boys!"
+
+A big, ugly head appeared beside the _Irene_ for an instant,
+followed by a column of water thrown in the air by the huge
+porpoise-like tail of the frightened animal. The anchor was quickly
+dropped and the little motor-boat, with Dick at the wheel and Mr.
+Barstow and Molly as passengers, started in pursuit of the sea-cow.
+Captain Hull and Ned were in the skiff, which was towed by the
+motor-boat. Every few minutes the long eel-grass of the shallow bay
+choked the propeller of the motor-boat. Then the motor was stopped,
+the skiff pulled under the stern of the power-boat, and Ned, with
+half his head and shoulders under water, tore the grass from the
+wheel. For two miles all eyes scanned the surface of the water
+without sight of the quarry; then came a shout from Molly:
+
+"There it is!"
+
+"Take the wheel, Molly; it's your manatee," replied Dick.
+
+And the girl, without a hat and with her loosened hair streaming
+down her back, headed the power-boat straight for the creature,
+which was distant about the eighth of a mile. Twice the grass choked
+the wheel and twice with desperate haste it was cleared by Ned. The
+boat had gone many yards beyond the place where Molly had seen the
+animal when there was a great swirl in the water beside the craft,
+followed by other swirls, which grew less and less as they led in a
+straight line up a broad tideway that opened into the upper end of
+the bay. A moment later another series of swirls was seen and
+followed, after which, for a time, nothing was seen, although four
+pairs of eyes were scanning every inch of the stream ahead of the
+boat. Then came a cry from the captain, who had been cannily
+watching the water behind the craft. The sea-cow had turned around,
+and, swimming silently beneath the boat, would have escaped but for
+the glimpse the captain got of him as he rose to breathe just
+before reaching a bend in the stream, which would have hidden him
+from his pursuers. Soon the motor-boat was again on his trail, never
+to leave it till the creature was a captive. For the manatee was
+tired and had to come to the surface for breath at shorter and
+shorter intervals, until the power-boat almost ran over him at every
+turn.
+
+"Turn us loose!" shouted Ned, and in a moment the skiff was free and
+being sculled by the captain toward the quarry, while Ned stood in
+the bow with a noosed rope in his hand. Soon the manatee rose beside
+the skiff, so near that Ned laid the noose over the creature's nose.
+But it didn't stay there, for a column of water rose in the air, and
+when it subsided Ned was swimming two yards from the skiff.
+
+There was a cry from Molly in the motor-boat which no one noticed,
+for in half a minute Ned was back in the skiff and the pursuit was
+on keener than ever. Every ten seconds the manatee came up to
+breathe, every time he rose he was driven back under water by the
+blow of the rope across his nose. Finally the half-strangled
+creature lifted his whole head out of the water and held it there
+long enough for Ned to slip the noose over it. The next instant the
+blow of the manatee's tail deluged the boy with water and jarred the
+skiff from bow to stern, which was then dragged through the water at
+a rate which for minutes left the motor-boat behind. The sea-cow
+carried the skiff around keys, through deep channels, over shallow
+banks and under bushes that projected from the shore, until the
+animal was fairly tired out. As the speed of the creature slackened,
+Ned drew the skiff close beside him, and plunging overboard, threw
+his left arm over the neck and with his right hand grasped the right
+flipper of the manatee. Then Captain Hull took a hand, and pulling
+the skiff up to the manatee was soon swimming beside him and
+clinging to his left flipper.
+
+Dick slowed down the motor, while Molly kept the boat circling
+around the swimmers until the manatee surrendered and became quiet
+as a cow. The motor was stopped, and the sea-cow was brought beside
+the boat, where Molly patted the head and laid her hand on the soft
+lips of the gentle creature.
+
+"Now, Daddy," said Ned, "Dick and I want a certificate that this
+isn't a phantom manatee or a porpoise."
+
+"I'll certify to that, Ned. You boys have made good, although nobody
+ever doubted it, anyway, for the fisherman was only having a little
+fun with you."
+
+The manatee was so tractable that Captain Hull swam back for the
+skiff, while Ned loosened his hold on the flipper of the creature.
+Suddenly a cascade of water half-filled the power-boat, drenched
+every one in it, and the manatee disappeared. Ned was chagrined, but
+Mr. Barstow cheered him:
+
+"It is all for the best, Ned. He had done all he could do for us. We
+hadn't time to arrange for his shipment, and so had to set him
+free. The only thing I am sorry for is that I didn't go overboard,
+too, and have some of the fun. I am just as wet as you are, without
+having anything-to show for it."
+
+"Me, too," said Molly, whose red cheeks and sparkling eyes shone
+from among streaming mermaid tresses, and whose pretty frock had
+been deluged.
+
+"Dad," said Ned, after they were back on the _Irene_, "you know Dick
+and I are in command for two days more."
+
+"I thought you were to have charge for three days, or until you
+found a manatee."
+
+"No, sir; three days--seventy-two hours, and not a minute less."
+
+"What are you going to do with all that time?"
+
+"I have elected myself senior boss and Dick junior boss, and we are
+going to show you and Molly the Everglades. The _Irene_ will start
+down Broad River at once. But Molly is to take the power-boat
+through the cut-off to Rodgers River, and down that river to its
+mouth, where she will find us. Oh, by the way, Dick will go with her
+as engineer, but subject to her orders."
+
+When the _Irene_ was opposite the cut-off, the power-boat, with
+Molly and Dick on board, was set adrift and was soon twisting and
+turning at half speed as it followed the channel of the crooked
+creek. Swimming through the creek would have made a snake dizzy, and
+the girl at the wheel had to keep it spinning. There were logs to
+be dodged and sharp-ended stumps to be avoided. Trees lay nearly
+across the stream, leaving barely the width of the boat to spare,
+and others under which the boat had to be driven between flexible
+branches, while the steerswoman crouched low down in the craft.
+There were birds and beasts on the bank, fish and reptiles in the
+water, but the girl could spare them scarcely a glance. Great
+spiders hung in midair on nets that stretched from bank to bank, and
+Molly's face was matted with webs that she could not avoid, while
+her teeth were tightly clenched lest she scream when the hairy legs
+of a spider with a spread of five inches traveled across her face.
+Dick saw her trouble and came forward to where he could lean ahead
+of her and take the brunt of the spider's work. Molly spared him a
+grateful glance, but got in trouble for it the next instant. For
+just then a quick turn of the craft happened to be necessary, and
+although Dick helped to roll the wheel, it was too late, and because
+of the inattention of a moment the motor-boat crashed into the bank.
+The pilot and engineer were thrown violently against the wheel, but
+nothing was injured excepting the temper of the girl, who said to
+her companion:
+
+"That was all your fault, Dick Williams, and I wish you would go
+back to your engine. I will try to manage the wheel by myself."
+
+After two miles of squirmy navigation the boat came out into the
+broad, beautiful Rodgers River, down which they turned; and when
+Dick pointed out where the tarpon had wrecked their canoe and
+stunned him, and told of Ned's struggles to save his life, the
+girl's voice trembled and there were tears in her eyes as she
+listened and asked questions. The tide was low when they arrived at
+the mouth of the river, and Molly ran the boat on one of the oyster
+bars that form a network across the entrance to Broad and Rodgers
+rivers. Almost the instant the boat touched, Dick was overboard
+heaving on the bow, and soon had the craft afloat. Then turning to
+Molly, he said, while mischief sparkled in his eyes:
+
+"I am sorry I ran you on that bar, Miss Barstow."
+
+"You shouldn't bear malice, Dick," replied the girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TO THE GLADES IN THE "IRENE"
+
+
+They found the _Irene_ waiting for them near the mouth of the river,
+with Ned impatient to be off to catch the inflowing-tide from the
+mouth of Harney's River, which was about two miles down the coast.
+
+It was still daylight when they crossed the bar and passed the
+little key inside the mouth of the river, but they sailed up the
+stream by the light of the stars, which gave mystic beauty to the
+smooth water and the shadowy outlines of the tropical forest that
+bordered the banks of the river. Captain Hull anchored the _Irene_
+for the night in Tussock Bay, at the head of the lower division of
+Harney's River, because, as he said, he needed all the daylight he
+could get when he tackled the crooked courses between Tussock Bay
+and the Everglades.
+
+When the anchor was hoisted in the morning, Dick was at the wheel,
+which he held on to when the captain came up to relieve him. The
+captain stood by as the boy steered across the bay, and wondered at
+the chance that kept him for miles on exactly the right course. As
+the boat was passing Tussock Key, Dick headed up to the northeast.
+
+"Too far north," said the captain. "Course is east-southeast."
+
+"No talking to the man at the wheel," said Dick, and Captain Hull
+laughed and waited for the trouble that was coming. But no trouble
+came, and the _Irene_ twisted in and out, always in plenty of water,
+for a mile and a half of crooked creek, until it floated in a wider
+stream, the banks of which were covered with long prairie grass,
+when Dick handed over the wheel to the captain, saying:
+
+"Guess you know the rest of the way, don't you, Captain? If you get
+in any trouble call on me."
+
+"That was one on me," said Captain Hull as he took the wheel. "I
+never came that way before. Wonder who taught you piloting? Mighty
+few pilots can find their way up this river."
+
+"I came that way," said Dick nonchalantly, "because the water is
+deeper and there is less grass. The other river is pretty shallow
+and gets badly choked up at this season."
+
+"That's so," replied the captain, "but I'd like to know who told
+you."
+
+It took the rest of the day to reach the Everglades. There were
+narrow streams so crooked that the _Irene_ had to be poled around
+the sharp corners, broad, shallow rivers, so choked with eel and
+manatee-grass that every five minutes one of the boys went overboard
+to clear the clogged propeller, and twisting creeks, through which
+the water of the Everglades poured so swiftly, that to make headway
+and avoid snags kept the captain busy at the wheel and the boys
+fending off from the banks with oars. Sometimes for miles the
+channel was clear; and while the captain stood at the wheel the rest
+of the exploring family sat upon the cabin roof and chattered like
+children about the turtle and terrapin heads that dotted the
+surface, the leaping young tarpon, grave old alligators, shy otters,
+and birds that flew from the trees or soared overhead.
+
+The sensitive Tom resented Dick's neglect, and was seen sitting on
+the after end of the cabin, in front of the wheel, making friends
+with the captain. Every few minutes Tom put out a paw and rested it
+on the captain's hand as it rolled the wheel. Then Tom would look up
+in his face, and finally rubbed his cheek on the captain's hand, and
+after that became his shadow. That night Tom abandoned his sleeping
+place beside Dick's bunk and turned in with the captain. Dick was a
+little annoyed at first, but his conscience told him that he had
+neglected Tom, and had himself to blame.
+
+When the anchor was dropped, the _Irene_ rested in a solid mass of
+lily pads, with her bowsprit extending over the border of the
+Everglades, which stretched out eastward, a great, grassy,
+overflowed meadow, dotted with keys, to the horizon. A slough of
+clear water, deep enough to float the little power-boat, zigzagged
+out into the Glades, and the captain, with Mr. Barstow, Molly and
+Dick in the craft, followed it for more than a mile. There was
+water enough over the light grass of the Glades to float the skiff,
+which Ned poled through a carpet of white pond-lilies, that here and
+there covered the surface. Many little grassy mounds showed where an
+alligator had his cave. From one of them an alligator slid out and
+started across the Glades at full speed. Ned was soon on his trail,
+poling like mad. He was nearly up to the reptile when it swung
+around and darted away at right angles to its former course, gaining
+many yards on its pursuer, for the grass prevented the quick turning
+of the skiff. Time after time the reptile repeated this dodge, time
+after time the boy was near enough to have touched the alligator
+with a pole, but always he dodged, until Ned was too exhausted to
+follow the creature any farther.
+
+"Oh, I wish you could have caught it," said Molly when Ned returned.
+
+"We'll get one to-morrow sure," said Dick, while Ned's only comment
+was:
+
+"Don't you get Dick to try fool things, sis."
+
+"Captain," said Dick that evening, "I want an alligator, and if you
+will help Ned pole in the skiff in the morning until we are near
+enough to one, I'll either put a rope over his head or go overboard
+and grab him."
+
+"Don't try that on these 'gators; but I'll rig up a harpoon for you,
+and if you can hit one with that there won't be any trouble in
+getting him."
+
+"I don't want to kill the thing with a harpoon."
+
+"I'll fix that. I'll stop down the harpoon so you can't drive it
+more than an inch beyond the hide, and the 'gator will never know
+he's hurt. He'll think a fly lit on him."
+
+In the morning, as they were about to start on the 'gator chase, Ned
+said to his father:
+
+"This is our third day and our last chance, so we have got to keep
+busy."
+
+"Not quite," replied Mr. Barstow. "You and Dick have done so well
+that you can stay in command until I have to call you down."
+
+"Where do I come in?" said Molly. "Haven't I got something to say
+about things?"
+
+"Looks as if you were having too much to say now. You mustn't try to
+influence the officers of this ship or lure them away from their
+duties."
+
+The little face that Molly made at her father wasn't quite
+respectful, but Mr. Barstow only laughed at it.
+
+On this day of the 'gator hunt, Molly took the wheel and her father
+ran the engine of the motor-boat, while Ned and the captain poled
+the skiff and Dick stood in the bow with the harpoon pole. They soon
+started a nine-foot alligator out of his cave, and after a chase of
+ten minutes and a few sudden turns were so near the reptile that
+Dick fixed his harpoon to the end of the pole and stood ready. Twice
+he threw and missed, and each time many yards were lost while the
+pole was being recovered. Dick was so mortified at missing that he
+offered the harpoon to the captain, who refused it, saying:
+
+"You threw all right and almost got him last throw. You'll fetch him
+next time."
+
+The captain's prophecy was fulfilled and at the next throw the
+harpoon pierced the soft hide of the hind leg of the reptile. From
+the beginning of the chase the alligator had been making for the
+river and was within a hundred yards of it when struck. They headed
+it off from the river and Dick dragged on the line while the others
+poled until the skiff was beside the 'gator. A heavy blow on the bow
+of the boat from the tail of the reptile and the big open jaws with
+their rows of great gleaming teeth that swung before Dick's face
+made him drop the line and fall backward into the skiff, while the
+alligator started off in a new direction. On the next approach the
+creature turned on the skiff again and though the captain fended it
+off with an oar the reptile had the best of the battle. Several
+times Dick brought the skiff near the alligator and tried to lasso
+it with the painter of the boat, but the reptile was too wary for
+him. The captain suggested running the reptile into the river,
+saying it would be easier to take it aboard from the deeper water.
+As soon as they gave the brute a chance it plunged into the river
+and towed the skiff two hundred yards down the stream, then turning
+and rising to the surface the alligator came with open mouth at
+Dick, who sprang from his place in the bow and, seizing the
+painter, the boy soon had a rope around the head of the brute and
+its jaws tied. They tried towing the alligator up the river to the
+_Irene_, but it is easier to drag an anchor than an alligator. Then
+as Dick was winded the captain and Ned finally hauled it aboard the
+skiff, where for a time it amused itself by trying to smash the
+skiff or knock somebody overboard with its tail. It became perfectly
+quiet before the _Irene_ was reached, when the captain dragged on
+the rope which bound its jaws while Ned boosted with his arms around
+the tail of the brute. But the alligator was playing 'possum and had
+Ned just where it wanted him and, with a swing of its powerful tail,
+lifted the boy in the air and neatly tossed him overboard. It was
+fortunate for Ned that he was holding the alligator so tightly that
+it was more of a push than a blow that he received. As it was, the
+breath was so completely knocked out of him that for an instant he
+could not swim and was drifting with the current, feebly paddling
+with his hands, just enough to keep afloat, when he felt Dick's
+supporting hand and heard a voice in his ear:
+
+"Don't say you're hurt, Neddy."
+
+"No--no--not a--bit. Nothing but--the talk--knocked out of me. Gee!
+Wouldn't he make a fine spanking machine?"
+
+Both of the boys were glad when the captain came for them with the
+skiff and they were saved a hard swim against the current.
+
+"Where is our alligator?" said Ned to the captain. "Hope you didn't
+turn him loose."
+
+"Nope. He's all right. He slipped back into the water when you went
+in swimming, and of course I knew you wanted him looked after first,
+so I gave his line a turn round the big cleat. When I left he was
+trying to pull it out."
+
+When the boys were back on the _Irene_, Molly clung to her brother's
+hand, hardly able to speak, while Mr. Barstow said to his son:
+
+"Is that the sort of thing you boys have been doing in your odd
+hours when you were not squabbling with panthers or mixing up with
+tarpon? I am afraid you need a traveling guardian to look after
+you."
+
+A hundred feet was added to the rope that held the alligator and he
+was left to pasture in the water until the _Irene_ was ready to
+sail, when he was hauled aboard the skiff and lashed there. While he
+was being tied he was perfectly tame and peaceful, but, though he
+looked as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, no one trusted him
+and even the captain fought shy of his tail.
+
+For two miles from the Glades the river was broad and the
+navigation, excepting for many bunches of moss and manatee grass,
+was easy. Then came half a mile of a twisting narrow creek, in
+places not twice the width of the _Irene_, through which poured
+swiftly the whole volume of the big river. At the head of this
+creek the captain came to anchor.
+
+"We won't get through this creek without a lot of trouble. The
+current will throw us against the bank a dozen times and we haven't
+speed to prevent it and couldn't turn the corners if we had. The
+launch must go ahead and keep the bow of the big boat out of the
+bushes if it can. Then we can't be bothered with the skiff or the
+'gator. We'd likely lose both. Somebody must take the launch and tow
+the skiff through and then come back, if he can get back, and help
+the big boat through. I hate to do it, but we can't tow the skiff
+and, of course, it would be torn off of the davits in two minutes.
+We are going to scrape the sides and perhaps tear out half the
+rigging of the _Irene_, anyhow. Now who volunteers to tow the skiff
+through the creek? I can't go because the launch may not be able to
+buck the current and get back and I must stand by the big boat."
+
+"I volunteer," said Molly, "if you can get anybody to go as
+engineer."
+
+Every one laughed at this, excepting Molly, who blushed a little,
+and Dick pulled the power boat up beside the _Irene_ as if he were
+afraid that somebody would change her mind if there was any delay.
+
+"Can she do it and is it quite safe?" asked Mr. Barstow.
+
+"Do it as well as anybody. They may swamp the skiff or get caught in
+a corner, but they can get out on the bank without anything worse
+than a ducking."
+
+As the power boat started, with Molly at the wheel, Dick standing by
+the motor and the skiff hauled close under the stern, the captain
+called out to Dick:
+
+"Full speed. It's your only chance to get through. Don't bother with
+the skiff, but keep an oar handy to fend off from the bank." The
+speed of the boat was doubled by the current and Dick's heart was in
+his mouth as the banks flew past and some log-guarded point
+threatened to smash the bow of the boat. But Molly was quick to see
+the coming peril and the wheel rolled swiftly to starboard or port,
+always in time to avert it. There were double turns which the boat
+could never have made but for the rush of the current which often
+swept them aside from a stump or log that it seemed impossible to
+avoid. It was a thrilling experience to both pilot and engineer, and
+when the broad, placid river opened before them and the perilous
+trip was past, the girl turned a flushed and beaming face toward her
+companion and said:
+
+"Wasn't it just lovely?"
+
+And the boy replied with enthusiasm:
+
+"It was glorious!"
+
+Dick fastened the skiff to a tree on the bank, gave a look at the
+lashing of the alligator and the return through the creek began.
+There was nothing exciting about this trip. As the craft was working
+against the current, the flow of the water balanced the power of
+the engine, and log stumps and points on the bank were passed
+slowly, inch by inch. Often there was no progress and then the boat
+was steered close beside the bank and Dick pushed with his oar
+against the trees until less swift water was found. The run down the
+creek was made in three minutes. The return 'took half as many
+hours. On the _Irene_ all were anxious but the captain and Tom. At
+the end of an hour Ned was for starting down the creek with the big
+boat, but Captain Hull said:
+
+"No. It may take them three hours. Give them two at least. If we
+start now we'll make sure of a smash-up."
+
+In another minute the motor of the launch could be heard, although
+it was half an hour more before the wanderers were welcomed aboard
+the _Irene_ and their story told.
+
+"It's our turn for trouble now," said the captain, "and we're likely
+to get it, good and plenty."
+
+"Want me to tow?" said Dick.
+
+"Sure," replied the captain.
+
+"Me, too?" inquired Molly.
+
+"No," replied the captain, rather sharply. "It isn't piloting this
+time. You can't steer the launch much while it's fast to the big
+boat. Best you can do is to fend off and then you're likely to get
+caught, and when you do get caught and fifteen tons comes down on
+you at ten miles an hour, somebody has got to be spry."
+
+"Is there much danger to whoever goes in the little boat?" asked
+Mr. Barstow.
+
+"Some, not much. It's the big boat that is likely to get caught and
+if the launch did get stuck and we couldn't sheer off it would only
+mean a quick jump and a little swim and--a busted launch."
+
+The _Irene_ started down the creek with her engine at half speed,
+the captain at the wheel and Dick standing in the bow of the motor
+boat with an oar at hand. Molly stood in the companionway at the
+captain's request because he feared her being swept overboard by
+overhanging branches. Mr. Barstow and Ned were stationed near the
+bow with long poles for fending off from the banks when necessary.
+The first trouble came from a wooded point on the starboard side,
+but Dick swung the power boat to port while Ned nearly went
+overboard as he threw his weight on the pole with which he was
+fending. The bow cleared the point, though the bowsprit swept the
+bushes and a low-growing branch tore out the screens on the
+starboard side. Before the point was passed Dick had the launch on
+the starboard side, working to turn the _Irene_ before she should
+strike the opposite bank. The efforts of all hands failed to make
+the turn in time and a stump by the bank caught in the jib-stay of
+the boat and held her fast. As the stern of the _Irene_ swung on the
+point she had nearly passed, she lay broad-side to the current,
+subject to all its power.
+
+"We're in for it now, if that jib-stay don't part pretty sudden,"
+said the captain.
+
+And before the words were out of his mouth the eye-bolt that held
+the stay broke short off and the _Irene's_ bow swung down the
+stream. The boat was not caught badly again, although her fore
+rigging on the port side was carried away and her sides somewhat
+scarred. The only accident that threatened was prevented by a
+precaution which Dick had taken. He had fastened his tow line to the
+stern of the launch with a knot that could be slipped and led the
+end of the line forward to where he stood by the wheel. It happened
+that when nearly through the creek it became needful to drag the bow
+of the _Irene_ far to port. Dick did this, but found himself in a
+pocket from which he could not escape and in position to be dragged
+stern first under the bow of the big boat. A quick jerk on the
+towing line, and the launch was safe behind the _Irene_. There was
+no more trouble for the big boat, which a minute later was headed
+down the broad but shallow river, at half speed, while Dick picked
+up the skiff with its alligator passenger who slowly opened one eye
+when spoken to. In a few minutes the _Irene_ was traveling at full
+speed toward Tussock Bay while her joyful passengers sat on the
+cabin roof and talked of perils which had passed.
+
+[Illustration: "SLOWLY LIFTING HIS HUGE HEAD OVER THE SIDE OF THE
+SKIFF"]
+
+From Tussock Bay to the coast, the _Irene_ sailed by way of a branch
+of Shark River. The deep water of this river near the Gulf of Mexico
+was roughened by a high wind and the rising and falling of the
+skiff seemed to excite the alligator which for hours had been as
+quiet as if he were asleep or dead. Slowly lifting his huge head
+over the side of the skiff he gave a lurch which strained the rope
+that held him and enough of the weight of the reptile was on the
+side of the skiff to capsize it. The captain, who first heard the
+struggle and saw the upset of the skiff, shouted to Ned, who was
+below oiling the engine, to shut off the power. Before the _Irene_
+lost her headway Ned was in the river with the alligator, resting on
+the bottom of the skiff which he rolled from over the reptile to
+save it from drowning. Instantly the freed jaws of the alligator
+opened wide in his face and the boy threw himself backward in the
+water and swam swiftly away from his dangerous companion. The rope
+had slipped from the head of the reptile, which now seized the
+gunwale of the boat and thrashed about until he had freed himself
+from the rope which bound him, after which he quickly disappeared.
+Half an hour later Ned was pouring his grievances into the ear of
+his chum, who was resting in his bunk from the fatigue of the
+morning.
+
+"Don't you think, Dick, it was bad enough to be scared to death by a
+whopping old alligator that I thought was going to bite me in two,
+without being scolded by everybody on board for recklessness? First
+there was Dad, and he uses pretty powerful language when he gets
+real earnest, then Captain Hull gave it to me like a Dutch uncle,
+and even Molly lectured me and squeezed out a few tears. I told Dad
+it wasn't half as bad as your jumping in the way of that panther,
+but he said that was altogether a different thing and had some sense
+in it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+IN FLORIDA BAY
+
+
+After the _Irene_ had sailed twenty miles down the coast and was
+about opposite East Cape (Sable) Captain Hull asked for his orders.
+
+"Isn't Madeira Hammock on the coast, about thirty miles from here?"
+inquired Ned.
+
+"Yes, but you will have to go seventy to get there. You've got to go
+way round by the keys."
+
+"Isn't there water enough for the _Irene_ along the coast?"
+
+"Isn't enough to float the skiff. You can go about ten miles. After
+that there's an inch of water and I reckon a mile of blue, soft,
+sticky mud. I've been a few feet down in it and the farther I went
+the softer and stickier it got."
+
+"Suppose we go the ten miles you talk about what will we find?"
+
+"Tarpon, sharks, porpoises, lots of fish, birds and enough sawfish
+to make a picket fence of their saws all around the coast."
+
+"That's us, Captain," said Ned.
+
+And the _Irene's_ mud hook went to the bottom that night in eight
+feet of water off Joe Kemp's Key.
+
+In the shoal water over the broad banks which lay to the south and
+east of the _Irene_ the bayonet fins of many tarpon rose high above
+the surface as the fish beneath them pursued their prey. Often the
+two fins shown by a wandering shark swept swiftly across a bank, or
+three big reddish fins moving in a straight line slowly behind a
+great, swaying, four-foot weapon marked the course of a fifteen-foot
+sawfish. There was water to float the power boat in the channels
+between the banks, and families of porpoises or dolphins were always
+ready to serve as pilots and point the path through these
+labyrinthine waterways. A school of porpoises, rolling in the water
+and leaping in the air, passed the motor boat as if they had been
+telephoned for in the greatest haste. Two minutes later, a quarter
+of a mile away, a great splashing could be seen and huge bodies
+hurled in the air, which seemed to be filled with flying fragments.
+
+The power boat, with Molly at the wheel, started for the fray at its
+best speed and when it reached the battlefield its occupants saw a
+little band of porpoises in the midst of a great school of silver
+mullet. Each blow of a porpoise tail sent several mullet flying in
+the air, each blow that was struck was followed by a quick turn or
+leap of the agile animal for the victim which it caught before it
+fell. Ned and Dick were in the skiff which had been towed by the
+power boat, hoping to harpoon a sawfish or a shark. They had not
+before thought of the swift and wary porpoise. They called to the
+captain to cast them loose, and soon Ned was poling the skiff toward
+the busy porpoises while Dick stood in the bow of the skiff with his
+harpoon handy. Quick as a flash the porpoises separated and
+scattered in every direction and the boys followed several in vain.
+Then Molly took a hand in the game and sent the power boat at one
+after another of them until the captain called to her:
+
+"If you'll stick to one you'll run him down."
+
+Then Molly kept steadily after a single porpoise, until the animal
+came to understand that it was the chosen victim, and quickly put
+half a mile between it and its pursuer. In a few minutes the half
+mile between them had vanished and the creature made another frantic
+dash. After that it swam back and forth as if confused, and traveled
+in narrowing circles, wasting its strength, while the wheel of the
+pursuing boat rolled back and forth without ceasing as it followed
+the course of the animal or took short cuts to head it off. The boys
+came near with the skiff, but the worried quarry paid so little heed
+to them that soon Dick sunk his harpoon in the tail of the porpoise.
+All the life and strength of the creature seemed to come back and it
+threw a column of water in the air which nearly swamped the skiff,
+while Dick's hands were torn and blistered by the outgoing harpoon
+line, before way could be had on the skiff. The frantic creature
+tore back and forth, sometimes striking the skiff a powerful blow
+with its tremendous tail as it passed, sometimes towing it at high
+speed until Dick, who was not yet strong, was more tired than the
+porpoise. He changed places with Ned and the two were nearly worn
+out when the porpoise surrendered.
+
+They took the harpoon from the animal's tail and tried to drag the
+creature over the gunwale of the skiff, but found it too heavy for
+them. At length they lifted and dragged the porpoise up on the
+gunwale of the skiff which they pressed down until the water was
+beginning to flow over it. Half of the animal was now over the side
+of the skiff and the boys threw their weight backward expecting to
+roll the porpoise into the bottom of the craft. This would have
+happened if the porpoise had kept still, which it neglected to do.
+With a blow of its tail on the water the animal threw its own body
+forward and Ned and Dick found assistance instead of resistance as
+they pulled, and promptly went over backward into the water with the
+porpoise and the capsized skiff on top of them. When they got to the
+surface their captive had escaped, but the power boat was beside
+them with three highly edified occupants. After the skiff had been
+righted and bailed out and the floating poles, oar, hats, and line
+tub gathered in, Ned saw the fin and swaying tail of a shark cutting
+the surface of the water near them, and calling on Dick to take the
+harpoon, began to pole the skiff toward the tiger of the sea.
+
+"Look out," shouted the captain. "That's a shark. You'll lose your
+iron if you strike him."
+
+Th captain spoke too late, for the shark was struck and the skiff
+was towed at speed for a hundred feet by the angry fish, which then
+turned and rolled up on the taut line till it caught the rope in its
+mouth and bit it in two as easily as scissors snip thread.
+
+"Told you so," said the captain. "A shark always bites the line and
+often rolls up in it. An alligator always rolls up in it, but can't
+bite it. I've had an alligator roll up against a skiff and pretty
+near come aboard after I'd harpooned it. There's another harpoon on
+the _Irene_, and I'll fix it to-night with a few feet of wire for
+the next shark to bite on. I reckon it'll give him a surprise."
+
+Molly was in full command of the power boat for the day, and as
+harpooning was over, she ran it at her own sweet will. Sometimes the
+captain helped her with a hint when he saw her heading for water
+that was too shoal. The course she took was southerly and brought
+her near Man-o'-war Bush, from which rose hundreds of man-o'-war
+hawks, or frigate pelicans, the most graceful bird on the continent,
+excepting the fork-tailed kite. These birds soared high overhead,
+circling, rising and falling with scarcely a perceptible motion of
+their wings. From another key a flock of roseate spoon-bill, or pink
+curlew, flew at the approach of the boat, while young herons sat
+fearlessly on branches of trees or spread wings and stretched long
+legs as they fled in affright.
+
+That night Mr. Barstow called a council on the cabin top.
+
+"Boys, I would like to have you make Miami in four days from now, if
+you can manage it."
+
+"That's easy," said Ned. "We can make the trip in a day. That leaves
+us one day here and two at Madeira Hammock to find Dick's pet
+crocodile."
+
+"If you're going to Miami by way of Madeira Hammock," said the
+captain, "you'd better allow two days for the trip. You're likely to
+get some tangled up in that country."
+
+"Then we'll cut out our day here. We have had our share of fun out
+of this place. What is there in that bay to the east of us,
+Captain?"
+
+"There's a creek that leads to the Cuthbert Rookery, but it isn't
+the season for that. It's a hard trip anyway, through small
+salt-water lakes and little overgrown creeks where you have to drag
+your skiff most of the way. And you've got to carry all the water
+you drink and you won't find that a joke."
+
+"We have had all we want of that kind of country, Captain, so we'll
+hike out of here at daylight and get to Madeira Hammock quick as you
+can find the way."
+
+"I can find the way now, anyhow as far as Lignum Vitae Key, and if
+the tide doesn't bother me too much in the cut, maybe to Hammer
+Point. Beyond that I want daylight and then I ain't sure. Do you
+want to make a night run?"
+
+"Sure," said both the boys together.
+
+"If you will excuse me from any share in this night navigation,"
+said Mr. Barstow, "I think I will turn in. How is it with you,
+Molly?"
+
+"Oh, I'll stay up a while and help Captain Hull navigate the ship."
+
+The moon rose soon after the anchor was broken out, and its light
+reflected from the white canvas of the bellying sails and the tops
+of the white-capped waves, gave a dream-like beauty to the night.
+Captain Molly called to Engineer Dick:
+
+"Stop that noise in the engine room!" and Dick promptly shut off the
+gasoline from the motor. Captain Hull made no complaint of this
+mutinous interference with his authority, but said:
+
+"That's right, we don't need the engine now and I reckon we ain't
+going to need it to-night."
+
+The wind was fair and strong from the north, and every minute its
+sweep grew wider and the waves bigger as the _Irene_ drew from under
+the shelter of the cape. The captain and Ned stood by the wheel,
+while the girl and Dick sat on the front of the cabin in the
+moonlight, watching the white water that rose from under the bow of
+the clumsy craft, with each heavy blow that it struck upon the
+waves.
+
+[Illustration: "YOUNG HERONS SPREAD WINGS AND STRETCHED LONG LEGS AS
+THEY FLED"]
+
+As they sailed the wind grew stronger and at Horse-neck Shoals the
+crest of breaking waves covered the deck of the _Irene_ with foam.
+Following the swish of each heaving wave as it lifted and swept
+past the boat came a heavy jar as the craft struck in the soft mud
+beneath her and her headway was checked.
+
+"It's all right," said the captain, in answer to Ned's look of
+anxiety. "I expected her to touch, but she'll pull through."
+
+No one else was alarmed, for Mr. Barstow was asleep in his bunk
+below, while Molly and Dick were too busy watching the effect of the
+moonlight on the breaking waves and the distant keys to notice that
+anything unusual was happening. Soon the water became deeper, the
+waves ceased breaking and subsided, and the _Irene_ sailed smoothly
+on till she was hauled up in the wind to enter the cut in the bank
+near Lignum Vitae Key, through which an adverse tide was pouring.
+Dick was called from his post near the bow to start the motor, which
+was kept running until the boat had made her way through the channel
+between the white banks that showed clear under the moon as daylight
+could have made them. Then the motor was shut off and Dick returned
+to his post and resumed his study of moonlight effects as its rays
+fell on the palms of Lignum Vitae, the line of outer keys, the
+Matecumbies, and the jewel of an Indian Key, of which he told Molly
+the legend. At this Molly jumped up and said:
+
+"It's all too lovely for anything and Daddy has got to come on deck
+and see it."
+
+She went below and when she returned had Mr. Barstow in tow, to
+whom she pointed out the beauties of sea and sky, of clouds and
+light just as Dick had been doing to her. Then she went for Captain
+Hull, who turned the wheel over to Ned and came forward, where he
+answered the rapid fire of the girl's questions, about Shell,
+McGinty and other keys as they passed them and about the channel and
+cuts through which their course lay, until he assured her he had
+told all he knew and if she remembered it she was as good a pilot as
+he. But questions continued until, having passed Tavernier Creek and
+neared Hammer Point, the _Irene_ was anchored for the night.
+
+All hands were on deck when the rays of the next morning's sun first
+fell on the mirror-like water about them, but Ned spoke sadly as he
+said:
+
+"I've shipped as cook and I s'pose I've got to get breakfast, but I
+wish my assistant didn't waste so much of her time."
+
+"If you'd let me keep the cook I hired we'd have crawfish for
+breakfast," said Captain Hull.
+
+"Where would we get them?" inquired Ned.
+
+"Every one of these coral keys is built on crawfish and Snake Creek
+here is full of 'em."
+
+"Then after you've shown us a lot of crawfish and we've caught them
+we'll have breakfast."
+
+Captain Hull lashed two tarpon hooks to broomsticks, and getting in
+the skiff with Molly and the two boys, poled to the nearest key.
+Beneath the water the steep coral banks of the key were filled with
+deep holes from out of many of which long feelers projected. Pushing
+a hook into one of these holes the captain gave it a quick turn and
+brought out a squirming, squeaking imitation of a young lobster.
+Then he handed the hooks to the boys. Ned got overboard and began to
+haul out crawfish at the rate of two a minute. Dick was less
+successful, for Molly had promptly commandeered his hook and left
+him nothing to do but watch her when she tried to hook the
+shell-fish. They didn't get many fish and when Ned came along with a
+bunch of crawfish which he dropped in the skiff, he said:
+
+"Here, you kids, you aren't earning your salt. Just take my hook,
+Dick, and catch some crawfish. I'll help Molly do whatever she's
+doing."
+
+On the way to the _Irene_ Molly called out:
+
+"Oh, the beautiful, beautiful, bubble!"
+
+"Don't touch it," shouted Dick.
+
+But he was too late, for Molly had picked up a Portuguese man-o'-war
+and sat wringing her hands with the pain of its poison. For, while
+nothing in nature is more exquisite, few things are more virulent
+than this animated, opalescent, iridescent bubble with its long,
+delicate, purplish tentacles.
+
+Molly's hand pained her all that day and the next, while Dick's
+commiseration was boundless, but was kept in restraint by Ned, who
+frequently assured both of them that, although a surgical case, it
+was probably not quite hopeless. A run of two hours in directions
+that varied, but averaged northwest, brought the _Irene_ to Madeira
+Hammock, where the anchor was dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+MADEIRA HAMMOCK AND--THE END
+
+[Illustration: "THEY SAW A CROCODILE SWIMMING UNDER WATER NEAR
+THEM"]
+
+Mr. Barstow wanted to explore Deer Key which was nearby and Ned took
+him there in the power boat. The captain took Molly and Dick out in
+the skiff to show them a crocodile and Dick stood in the bow with
+the harpoon while Molly sat amidship and the captain poled. Almost
+as they left the _Irene_ they saw a crocodile swimming under water
+near them, but failed to get another sight of him. They cruised
+vainly in open water, beside banks and in narrow channels. Finally
+while going through a narrow creek a wave rolling high ahead of the
+skiff showed that some big creature was fleeing before them. The
+next moment a four-foot weapon of a hand's breadth, armed with a
+double row of teeth, was lifted for a second above the surface and
+was followed by the three fins, tandem, that proved the presence of
+a sawfish. Dick fairly quivered with excitement as he held his
+harpoon at ready.
+
+"Captain," said he sharply, "will there be the least bit of danger
+to Miss Barstow if I strike that fish now?"
+
+"There'll be some, of course. If he turns round and comes back at
+us in this narrow creek the only safe place will be in the bottom of
+the boat."
+
+"Dick Williams, don't you stop for me. I'm not a bit afraid. If you
+don't harpoon that sawfish and give me his saw, I won't speak to you
+for a week," said the excited girl.
+
+"No use, Molly, I wouldn't do it if it meant that you'd never speak
+to me."
+
+"If Miss Barstow will wait on the bank for half an hour you can
+bring her the saw, all right," said the captain, who seemed anxious
+to oblige both of the passengers.
+
+"Put me ashore quick, then."
+
+The girl was soon standing on the bank and the chase was renewed. A
+hundred yards farther up the narrow stream the great sawfish was
+found swimming slowly across a bank where the water was shoal, with
+his two fins and tail showing in line above the water. As the
+harpoon pole was lifted and Dick's every muscle strained for the
+throw, the captain shouted:
+
+"Throw three feet ahead of that forward fin. That's where his back
+is."
+
+The harpoon struck the fish in the middle of his wide back and as
+the freed pole splashed in the water the sawfish made a mighty swirl
+and was off at express speed. The line was strong, the barb of the
+harpoon was under the tough leather of the creature's back, and the
+skiff seemed to fly through the water as Dick gave the line a turn
+around his hand and the captain fended the skiff from the banks when
+sharp turns were made by the flying fish as it followed the channels
+of the crooked creeks. Sometimes the stream broadened, often it
+narrowed; once the sawfish dashed through an overgrown waterway
+where Dick and the captain crouched to the gunwale to avoid the
+arching branches that swept over and tore at the sides of the skiff.
+There was half an hour of this work. Dick's hands were blistered and
+numb and his brain dizzy with the quick turns and changing courses
+of the fish, when suddenly he became panic-stricken and called to
+his companion:
+
+"Captain! Are you perfectly _sure_ you know where you are? _Sure_
+you can find Miss Barstow?"
+
+The captain laughed.
+
+"Find her? Why she's here within a hundred feet of you now."
+
+And, sure enough, the next turn in the creek showed the girl
+standing on the bank by the water's edge.
+
+"Can't I get aboard?" she called out as the skiff swept past, and
+Dick would have said "Yes," but the captain shook his head.
+
+"There's trouble ahead. That fish is just getting ready to fight."
+
+Before they had passed out of sight of the girl, the sawfish turned
+around and for the first time headed for the skiff.
+
+"Down, quick!" yelled the captain and both Dick and he crouched low
+in the skiff as a great broad sword, swung with all the power of the
+tremendous fish, swept over their heads. As the angry creature
+passed them, a second blow which fell upon the skiff and threatened
+to wreck it was echoed by a cry from the girl. The attack on the
+skiff was the last great effort of the fish, and though he still
+swam strongly he could be controlled. The captain ran the skiff on a
+shallow bank and helped Dick with the line until sixteen feet of
+fierceness lay stranded on the bank. As the sawfish is a species of
+shark, Dick had no hesitancy about killing it, but wanted Molly to
+first see his captive and have a look at her saw, before it left the
+place where it grew. The captain brought the girl, and then a rope
+was made fast to the saw of the fish and tied to a tree, after which
+the brute's brain was explored with an axe and the saw cut off as a
+trophy.
+
+[Illustration: "THE HARPOON STRUCK THE FISH IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS
+BROAD BACK"]
+
+"Better wake up," shouted the captain the next morning, before the
+boys were stirring. "There's a shark outside waiting for you, and
+I've wired your harpoon line."
+
+The boys omitted their ablutions that morning and must have hurried
+their devotions, for three minutes after they were called found them
+aboard the skiff which they drove toward a big fin and a swaying
+tail, which was cutting the water a hundred yards from the _Irene_.
+As they neared the shark, Dick took the harpoon pole and made ready
+with the harpoon, while Ned sculled quietly in the wake of the ugly
+fish. Twice the shark heard them and darted away, but on the third
+approach Dick drove the iron deep in the back of the brute. The
+shark lashed out with its tail, sending the water flying as the
+harpoon struck, and then made a straight-away dash for a hundred
+yards while the boys rode in triumph behind it. Then the maddened
+creature turned, and rolling up on the line, bit it savagely but
+vainly.
+
+Again and again the brute dashed away and again and again it turned,
+biting at the line and attacking the boat with its teeth. Dick held
+the skiff close to the shark, which lifted its head and seized the
+gunwale in its huge mouth, when Ned struck the furious creature a
+powerful blow on its nose with the axe. For a moment the brute
+seemed paralyzed, but soon returned to the attack, when the boy
+drove the point of the big gaff through the tough hide of the tiger
+of the sea.
+
+Ned held on to the handle of the gaff, although almost dragged
+overboard during the first wild struggles of his captive, and then
+hauled the head of the brute over the gunwale, where a few blows
+with the axe ended the trouble.
+
+When the boys got back to the _Irene_, Ned was happily surprised to
+find ready a dainty breakfast which his assistant had graciously
+prepared for all hands and which drew from him the unusual praise:
+
+"A girl on a cruise is a mighty nice thing--sometimes."
+
+The day was to be devoted to crocodile hunting and Dick went in the
+skiff with the captain, while Molly was put in command of the power
+boat with Ned as engineer and Mr. Barstow as passenger.
+
+Several crocodile caves were found, but none of the inhabitants were
+at home. One large crocodile showed itself for an instant, but the
+river was deep, the overhanging banks offered good hiding places,
+and the reptile escaped. It was after they had given the hunt up for
+the day and were on their way to the _Irene_ that Dick, who had
+stood faithfully at his post in the bow, with his harpoon ready,
+threw hastily at something he saw crawling on the bottom and found
+on the end of his line a squirming baby crocodile, scarcely four
+feet long. The harpoon had barely touched the side of the little
+reptile and the barb held by a thread-like bit of skin. When the boy
+saw how lightly the iron was held he dropped the line and grabbed
+the baby with both hands. His arms were scratched and his clothing
+torn by the needle-like teeth before he could tie the jaws of the
+creature, after which he took the baby crocodile in his arms and
+tucked it away in the bow of the skiff. Before he had time to tie
+the little reptile in its crib Ned shouted from the power boat:
+
+"There's one under that bank, a big fellow."
+
+The captain sculled the skiff slowly toward the crocodile, which was
+lying on the water, just under the bank. As they approached, the
+creature slowly sank beneath the surface of the water, which was
+shallow, and beneath it a bottom of mud in which the fleeing reptile
+had left his trail. The captain followed the trail by the
+furrow-like track of the tail, the spoor of the paws and the roiled
+water, until Dick got a shot with his harpoon. Then the crocodile
+towed the skiff into the deeper channels of the river, among logs
+and snags and under banks, sometimes rolling up on the line and
+biting at the skiff while Dick vainly tried to get a bight of the
+harpoon line around the creature's jaw. The reptile was too wary for
+him, until finally the captain threatened the crocodile with a pole,
+while Dick got a line around its jaws and took it in the skiff.
+There was so little room in the skiff that Dick sat on the back of
+his captive until they reached the _Irene_. If he had tried this
+with an alligator he would have gone overboard, _pronto_, but when a
+crocodile's jaws are tied he is gentler than most lambs.
+
+[Illustration: "SIXTEEN FEET OF FIERCENESS LAY STRANDED ON THE
+BANK"]
+
+As soon as Dick had his new pets safely on the _Irene_ he examined
+them carefully and then shouted to Ned:
+
+"This is my old crocodile, the very one we turned loose when we were
+here before. I'd know him in a thousand. Don't you remember the
+broken point to the tooth that stuck out through his upper jaw, on
+the right side, too? Why, Crocky, old boy, how are you? I'm mighty
+glad to see you again."
+
+"Don't you want to set them free to-morrow, Dick?" asked Mr.
+Barstow.
+
+"I don't, but I've got to."
+
+"Would you rather send them North to be educated?"
+
+"I surely would. I wish I could."
+
+"I think it can be managed. I know of a zoological collection where
+they will be very welcome. If you think they haven't been injured, I
+will ship both of them North from Miami."
+
+"They are all right. I know that. I made two bad throws and barely
+touched both of them. I don't believe you could find where either of
+them was hit, now."
+
+"Then North they go."
+
+The boys made a box for the little crocodile, gathered a lot of
+grass for his bed and stowed him away in the hold where he would be
+safe from the attentions of Tom. There was not enough lumber on
+board to make a box for the big crocodile and the brute was put
+overboard to pasture at the end of a hundred-foot line. As soon as
+the crocodile was overboard Dick drew it beside the boat and untied
+its jaws. At first it tried to get away, but soon gave it up and
+thereafter rose to the surface every few minutes and gazed gravely
+upon its new friends on the boat. When later the _Irene_ was ready
+to sail, Dick drew his pet up to the side of the boat and tied his
+jaws without remonstrance from the reptile. It took three of them to
+haul the creature aboard, where it was fastened to a ringbolt on
+deck for the first stage of its journey to the Zoo.
+
+[Illustration: "THEY HAULED THE HEAD OF THE BRUTE OVER THE SIDE OF
+THE BOAT"]
+
+"Captain Hull," said Ned, as the whole party were watching the stars
+from the cabin top and waiting for the moon to rise that night, "we
+have got back from the Madeira Hammock every thing we lost there, so
+we will start for Miami to-morrow."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+"You know you said we might lose a day round here, and now we have
+got a day to spare."
+
+"You'll be lucky if you don't lose it. There's lots of chances
+between here and Miami, or between here and anywhere. There isn't
+six inches between the _Irene's_ bottom and the rocks this minute
+and we're going to stir the mud a dozen times to-morrow."
+
+"Supposing a storm comes while we are anchored so near the rocks?"
+
+"Anybody who supposes in this country won't ever do anything else."
+
+"Would we make anything by another night run?"
+
+"Make sure to pile up on a bank so high that you'd have time to
+homestead a farm before you got off."
+
+The _Irene_ stirred the mud a few times the next day, but passed
+through Blackwater, Barnes and Card sounds and all the cuts and
+channels to Biscayne Bay without trouble. There a high wind and a
+heavy sea held her back, so that it was dusk when the anchor was
+dropped just outside of the mouth of Miami River. During this, their
+last evening on the cabin roof of the _Irene_, Mr. Barstow said to
+Dick:
+
+"Do you feel perfectly well and strong again?"
+
+"Never felt so well before in my life and am getting my strength
+back fast."
+
+"Then vacation ends for you and Ned to-day. To-morrow morning you
+will take the train for the North, where you will have about two
+weeks to spend with your mother. I will wire her from Miami about
+our arrangement, which I am sure she will approve, and tell her when
+she may expect you. Very soon you will receive your instructions.
+You and Ned will be together, work the same, pay the same, and both
+of you have my perfect confidence that you will justify every hope I
+have of you."
+
+"Mr. Barstow, I haven't any words--"
+
+"Don't say anything, Dick, I understand it all, my boy. Just go
+ahead and make good, both for yourself and me."
+
+[Illustration: "HE TOOK THE BABY CROCODILE IN HIS ARMS"]
+
+In the morning Ned and the captain distinguished themselves by
+waking up a dealer, buying some lumber, hustling it aboard and
+having the two crocodiles boxed up for transportation North in time
+for the train of that day. How much of a feat that was requires a
+residence in South Florida to appreciate.
+
+The _Irene_ was run up the river to the railroad dock, where the
+crocodiles were put on the cars and the boys took their train for
+the North. When the good-byes were said, the captain carried Tom
+across the dock on his shoulder and Dick's last act before leaving
+was to formally present him to Molly.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dick in the Everglades, by A. W. Dimock
+
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