"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, d.i.c.k, 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 d.i.c.k 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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k. "Let"s paddle round the edge of this pond and see where the bushes are thinnest."
They paddled along the sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sed. 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 d.i.c.k. "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 d.i.c.k called out.
"Come here, Ned, it"s muddy, but it"s fresh. Oh, isn"t it good!"
As Ned approached the pool d.i.c.k, 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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 gra.s.s too light to trouble them. They sheered off and avoided all bands of saw-gra.s.s 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 sh.e.l.ls, 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 d.i.c.k 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 sa.s.safras 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 d.i.c.k.
"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-gra.s.s 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 n.o.body 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 d.i.c.k 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.