"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 d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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.
d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k," 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 pa.s.sed 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 anch.o.r.ed 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, d.i.c.k 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 pa.s.sing Tussock Key, d.i.c.k headed up to the northeast.
"Too far north," said the captain. "Course is east-southeast."
"No talking to the man at the wheel," said d.i.c.k, 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 gra.s.s, when d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k nonchalantly, "because the water is deeper and there is less gra.s.s. 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-gra.s.s 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 d.i.c.k"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 d.i.c.k"s bunk and turned in with the captain. d.i.c.k 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 ma.s.s of lily pads, with her bowsprit extending over the border of the Everglades, which stretched out eastward, a great, gra.s.sy, 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 d.i.c.k in the craft, followed it for more than a mile. There was water enough over the light gra.s.s 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 gra.s.sy 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 gra.s.s 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 d.i.c.k, while Ned"s only comment was:
"Don"t you get d.i.c.k to try fool things, sis."
"Captain," said d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k"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 d.i.c.k brought the skiff near the alligator and tried to la.s.so 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 d.i.c.k, 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k"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: