THE START FOR THE 'GLADES.
The incident related in the last chapter determined Frank to abandon his
half-arrived at intention to enter the Everglades from the Atlantic
side. The appearance of the dark man in Washington--he was now certain
their plans had been overheard--the episode of the tramp and the attempt
to blow up the aerodrome all combined to convince him that his original
scheme of invasion of the little known wastes of Southern Florida was as
an open book to the men who had only too evidently their destruction at
heart.
A hasty trip to Washington resulted, and a consultation with the
Secretary of the Navy. The result was that arrangements were made
whereby the boys' expedition was to gather at Miami as openly as
possible, and then under cover of night run down Biscayne Bay and
eventually double Cape Sable by the inland passage. Then they were to
beat up through the Ten Thousand Island Archipelago to the mouth of
either Shark or Harney River and thence into the trackless wastes of
unmapped swamp and saw-grass known as the Everglades.
The _Tarantula_ was to cruise off and on around the coast and in case of
dire need was to be signaled by wireless. These details completed, Frank
and Harry returned to New York and a week later, the _Golden Eagle II_
being completed, and loaded in small cases marked "Glass, Fragile," and
other misleading labels, the Boy Aviators bade farewell to their mother
and friends and started by the Southern Limited for Miami. With them
they carried in ordinary trunks their mess and camp kit outfits, rifles
and medical supplies as well as two of the Government's field wireless
outfits. The rest of the party was to follow a week later in a private
car with all the other baggage, including the boxed sections of the
_Golden Eagle II_. The canoes and boats for the trips were to be
purchased at Miami or along the coast in the vicinity, as the boys
deemed fit. In the meantime the _Tarantula_ had been dispatched from
Hampton Roads for Southern waters under sealed orders. Not till her
commander opened his instructions at sea did he know the real nature of
his errand.
At this point it may not be amiss to give a brief description of the
little known country to which the boys were bound. Everyone has heard of
the Everglades, few have any accurate idea of them beyond a sort of hazy
conception of a vast tract of morass, overgrown with giant forests and
rank growth of all kinds. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is without doubt the peculiar, even extraordinary, character of this
great stretch of country that has caused its geography to remain
obscure. Even recent maps are extremely inaccurate. It seems remarkable
in these days of African and Polar discovery that here in our own
country is a vast waste, 130 miles long and 70 wide, that is as little
known to the white man as the heart of the Sahara. The Everglades are
bounded on the north by Lake Okeechobee, on the east by a belt of scrub
pine-land about six miles wide facing the Atlantic, on the south by the
great mangrove swamps facing the Bay of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico,
and on the west by the Big Cypress Swamp which runs right up to the
uninhabited region verging on the west coast of the peninsula.
The prevailing idea that the Everglades are unhealthy is about as far as
it is possible to get from the truth. So far as the few expeditions that
have penetrated the great mystery have reported, the water is fine and
the air healthful. The saw-grass, the Seminoles and the snakes--rattlers
and cotton-mouth moccasins--are the worst enemies the explorer
ordinarily encounters, with an occasional panther.
Over the watery wastes of the Everglades which are not tree grown, but
on the contrary great expanses of saw-grass grown prairie, the Seminole
poles his cypress dug-out defying the government which wishes to place
him on a reservation but has no means of "smoking him out" of the
impassable wilds he has chosen for his refuge. The Seminoles also haunt
the Big Cypress Swamp and observe numerous tribal rites and legends of
which we know little. They are dignified, trustworthy people--but the
bad treatment they have received from the government has made them the
implacable foe of the white man for whom their word is the same as
"liar"--such has been their impression of civilization.
The boys had familiarized themselves with the nature of the country by a
close study of all the available works on the subject--which were not
many. The government had placed the latest maps and charts of the region
at their disposal. Even these, however, showed them little. In fact the
parting words of the Secretary of the Navy to them were:
"Boys, you'll have to blaze your own trail."
Of course in selecting an equipment for such a region the boys had made
lightness the prime essential.
They knew that on much of the journey in search for a spot for a
permanent camp they would have to pole over shoal water, in some places
not more than two feet deep. An overloaded canoe might therefore cause a
lot of trouble and delay. Like true old campaigners they had prepared
elaborate lists and then gone through them again and again till nothing
appeared on them but the barest necessities.
Ben Stubbs had put in several days making a number of light but strong
chests twenty-two inches by thirteen and nine inches deep. These
contained, among other necessities, an aluminum cooking outfit weighing
nine pounds. There were two pots, a frying pan and four plates nesting
into each other. And then there was a coffee pot in which was stowed
away four cups (nested) pepper and salt castors, knives, spoons and
forks, the frying-pan and coffee-pot had detachable handles for lifting
on and off the campfire with ease and comfort, no matter how the wind
might be blowing the flames about.
The grocery chest contained flour, sugar, salt, cornmeal, pepper, sliced
bacon, beef extracts, soup-tablets (three varieties), root-beer,
lemonade and sarsaparilla tablets, oatmeal and evaporated fruits of
various kinds. These were all put in glass jars with screw tops and
rubber gaskets so that even in case of an upset the contents would
remain dry. There was also a blue-flame double burner kerosene stove of
the marine type, lanterns, and a supply of candles and matches in
waterproof jars. The medical outfit consisted of some antiseptics,
pills, several tablets of permanganate of potassium for the same purpose
and a hypodermic outfit, bandages and lotions.
Each boy carried an automatic rifle for big game or defense, the kind
chosen being a weapon carrying .49-50 nickeled steel cartridges. This
gun was heavy enough for alligators; or the more savage crocodile,
pumas, leopards, gray wolves or any human enemy. They also purchased two
three-barreled guns having two parallel barrels, twelve gauge, for
shotted shells, and another rifled barrel underneath of .35-55 caliber.
Two 16-gauge shot-guns for duck and small game were also stowed away in
the "armory" chest. In addition each boy had his magazine revolver of
.38 caliber, and a six-inch bladed hunting-knife with a heavy back so
that it might even be used for chopping.
Shovels, axes, picks, etc., were back with the heavy baggage to be
brought on by Ben Stubbs and Billy. Frank, of course, carried his
nautical instruments. A sextant, a compass, two tested watches of the
finest split-second make and an artificial horizon.
Their clothes were stout hunting boots, khaki trousers and Norfolk
jackets of the same material and flannel shirts with campaign hats. Each
carried a change of underwear and socks in his toilet bag which also
held two towels, toothbrush, cake of soap and brush and comb.
For transportation into the Everglades the boys soon managed with little
difficulty to secure canoes and a lighter draught "cruiser," similar to
a Barnegat duck-boat. The flotilla was to be taken down the coast by an
auxiliary sloop also chartered at Miami.
On the appointed day the boys were at the railroad station of the
Florida East Coast railroad to meet the arrivals from New York, and warm
were the greetings as Billy Barnes and Stubbs stepped from the private
car which had been attached for them when they left the north. The car
was sidetracked at Miami and the train kept on its way to Key West along
the wonderful chain of cement bridges constructed over the numberless
keys that run out from the "leg" of Florida. The boys and Ben were
busily engaged getting the various bales and crates in some sort of
order for transfer to the trucks by which they were to be taken to the
flotilla of canoes when they were startled at being hailed by a voice
that sounded familiar.
The boys hastened to the door of one end of the car and were amazed to
see standing on the steps, looking rather embarrassed and doubtful,
Lathrop Beasley. He wore a well cut suit of white serge and a straw hat
with a light blue ribbon. In addition he sported snowy canvas shoes,
topped off with light purple socks and a pale pink tie. Altogether he
looked as if he had just stepped from a clothing ad. Even in their
astonishment at seeing him there the boys could not help laughing at the
contrast they presented to him.
In their rough working garb, and all begrimed with dust as they were
from handling the kit in the car, two more unpresentable youths from a
sartorial standpoint, could not well be imagined. The three boys gazed
at each other in silence for a few seconds and then Lathrop said rather
shamefacedly:
"Hello, fellows."
"Well, Lathrop, what on earth are you doing here?" naturally demanded
Frank.
"I guess I came on a wild impulse," began Lathrop, and then stopped.
"Well?" questioned Harry.
"When I heard of your trip, from hanging around the aerodrome after you
left--oh, it wasn't Ben Stubbs or Barnes that told me, they were close
as clams,"--he hurried on, "but when old Schultz told me that you were
going to cross the Everglades I thought that maybe you'd need an extra
hand so I got permission from my folks and here I am.
"If you want to say the word I'll go back," he concluded rather lamely
but with a longing look in his face that told of his eager desire to be
allowed to join the expedition.
"Well, you certainly have an impetuous way of doing things," commented
Frank. "Did you come on this train?"
"Yes," replied the boy. "I've just been up to the hotel and engaged
rooms and tidied up a bit and then hurried right down here."
Frank and Harry exchanged glances of amusement, the cause of which
Lathrop was at a loss to fathom.
"Well," began Frank, after a brief whispered conversation with his
brother, "you are here now and I suppose you'll have to stay. We can
find some work I dare say for you to do and there are a lot of ways you
can be useful."
"I'll start right in at anything you tell me," began the boy eagerly.
"It's mighty good of you----"
"Not much you won't. Not in that fancy rig," burst out Harry, "if you
are coming with us you'd better go up to the village store and get an
outfit as much like ours as possible and forget you ever patronized a
tailor."
Lathrop gladly agreed and hurried off to get himself a working outfit.
As he hastened down the tracks, Frank turned to Harry with a grin.
"Well, we have gone and done it now," he said. "But we really have use
for another hand, and I think that we can make something out of Lathrop,
besides we owe him a debt of gratitude for helping us out at White
Plains. If it hadn't been for him we might have lost the _Golden Eagle
II_ and all our work."
"That's so," assented Harry. "I guess he will work out all right. But
those fancy duds he had on----"
And the boy burst out laughing at the recollection.
By sundown most of the "duffle" in the car had been transferred to
trucks and carted down to the wharf, where the boys, with considerable
pride, exhibited to Ben Stubbs, Billy, and the newly overalled Lathrop,
the light draught thirty-foot sloop, with an auxiliary five-horse
engine, the four canoes and the light draught "sneak-box," they had
secured for their transportation round the Cape and into the Thousand
Island Archipelago. The canoes were of the "Ontario" type, fitted with
narrow decks round the edges and canvas covered. The sneak-box was of
the spoon-bowed variety familiar to duckers in Barnegat Bay. It drew
only a few inches of water and afforded a lot of space in its sixteen
feet of length for the stowage of the heavier baggage. It rejoiced in
the name of _Squeegee_.
Ben Stubbs was delighted with the "fleet" as he called it, and declared
that the sloop was a "witch." After a dinner at the quiet boarding house
at which the boys had been stopping the adventurers that night finished
the stowage of their impedimenta aboard the sloop and piled the canoes
on the top of the canvas enclosed "summer cabin." The "sneak-box" was
towed astern.
The owner of the sloop, a coal-black negro called Pork Chops--the boys
could never discover that he had any other name--was to take them round
the cape as far as the Thousand Island Archipelago where they were to be
left. From there on their course would lie up the Shark River into the
heart of the little known Everglades.
Of course the wharf loungers were full of curiosity as the work of
transferring the boys' belongings and outfit to the sloop proceeded, but
Frank and Harry had allowed it to become widely circulated that they
were a hunting party bound for some of the keys to the east of Cape
Sable, and "Pork Chops" also was of this belief, so that the boys were
pretty sure that none but the members of their own immediate party knew
of the real goal of their journey.
By midnight everything was in readiness and the tide served for start.
With her big mainsail flapping lazily in the breath of wind that was
stirring Pork Chops' sloop, which held the poetic name of _Carrier Dove_
dropped down Biscayne Bay with her "kicker" going and dawn found her
well on her journey south with a spanking breeze out of the northeast to
fill her canvas. As she skimmed along over the sparkling blue of the
tropical waters in whose crystalline depths hosts of fish of all kinds
could be easily seen and on the surface of which floated great masses of
yellow gulf weed, the boys rejoiced that their momentous expedition had
started so auspiciously. As for Lathrop he acted like a boy out of his
head with joy at his unexpected good fortune. Ben Stubbs and the inky
Pork Chops relieved each other at the wheel, and Frank and Harry, at the
table in the stuffy little cabin, worked at plans and lists trying to
devise ways of still further cutting down their outfit without impairing
its usefulness. Billy Barnes, with a knowing air, scrutinized the sails
and from time to time admonished Ben Stubbs to "keep her up a bit," to
which suggestion Ben with an air of ineffable contempt replied:
"I never knowed they taught navigation on a newspaper but it's a good
school for nerve."