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 d.i.c.k followed until they brought up against an impa.s.sable mangrove swamp. Ned looked to the right and the left, and then turning to Billy asked if he knew where camp was.
"No," said d.i.c.k.
"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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k, 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 carca.s.s to the branch of a tree, Ned said to d.i.c.k:
"I was in a blue funk yesterday afternoon. I want you to promise to kick me if I get scared that way again."
d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k 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 gra.s.s.
"Ned," said d.i.c.k, 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:
"d.i.c.k, 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, d.i.c.k, don"t you want to hire out as a scout?"
d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k, 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k, as soon as he got enough breath to speak.
"Course not! Manatees are harmless. Told you so before. But, say, d.i.c.ky 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 d.i.c.k paddled toward the quarry. When the sea-cow lifted its nose out of water, for air, it was. .h.i.t 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k 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-gra.s.s and covered with moss. He soon found one of the paddles, but in getting it became entangled in the long gra.s.s, 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 sh.o.r.e, 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-gra.s.s. It was about an eighth of a mile away and he started for it, swimming along the edge of the field of gra.s.s, 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 gra.s.s.
When Ned got opposite the canoe he found that it was forty feet within the field of gra.s.s. He dreaded to put himself again within that deadly grasp, but the thought of d.i.c.k 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k standing in water shoulder deep, hanging on to the flipper of the manatee, and occasionally patting its nose with his hand.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "HE FOUND d.i.c.k STANDING IN WATER SHOULDER DEEP, HANGING ON TO THE FLIPPER OF THE MANATEE"]
"Oh, Ned! I"m glad to see you," was d.i.c.k"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, d.i.c.k?"
"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 pa.s.sed 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s 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."
d.i.c.k 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. d.i.c.k steadied the canoe while Ned climbed aboard, but when Ned tried to steady it for d.i.c.k to get in it, there was a capsize. d.i.c.k 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.