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.
d.i.c.k"s mother read Ned"s letter and was quiet and sad all the rest of the day. After d.i.c.k had gone to bed she went into his room, sat down on the bed beside him, kissed him and said:
"d.i.c.ky 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."
d.i.c.k 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."
d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k--"
"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
d.i.c.k GOES TO SEA
Three days after d.i.c.k"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 pa.s.sengers. This somewhat rea.s.sured 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 pa.s.sage 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 d.i.c.k:
"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."
d.i.c.k 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."
d.i.c.k 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 pa.s.sed between engine and fire rooms, while overworked men grew sullen and threatened to throw down their shovels.
d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k, 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 "pa.s.sengers 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 bra.s.s 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 pa.s.senger to come into this room."
"But the captain told me I could come."