ON THE MOUND-BUILDERS' ISLAND.
His high spirits considerably dashed by his misadventure, Quatty sat
soberly enough on the transom till Frank ordered him forward to give the
young captain sailing directions. They were now racing through the air
above the Everglades themselves. Everywhere below them spread the
yellowish brown expanse of saw-grass and water-course with here and
there a clump of cabbage-palms marking an occasional dry spot. Far on
the horizon, like a blue cloud, rested the nearest of the islets on one
of which lay their goal. Beyond it like other cloud fragments, lay dim
in the distance other patches of elevated land.
Save for the bird-life they could see about them there was no signs of
animate existence beneath the aeroplane. Not even a canoe threaded any
of the numerous water-courses that spread like a net over the 'glades. A
more doleful scene could hardly be imagined.
"How did these men ever find their way to the interior?" wondered Frank.
"Dey must have had a guide, massa," replied Quatty promptly, "nobody dat
don' know de 'glades can find him way in dem."
"Where could they get such a guide?" questioned Frank.
"Plenty ob dem," replied Quatty, "plenty ob Injuns take 'em whereber dey
want."
"But you said your tribe was opposed to them?" objected Harry.
"Don' know nuffin' 'bout 'suppose to dem,' Massa Harry; but dere ubber
tribes in de 'glades dan ours. Some ob dem don' lak us neider."
"Then you think they secured guides from some other tribe?" asked Frank.
"Mus' ab," rejoined Quatty, "none of my fren's would guide dem."
The nearest island rapidly assumed shape and resolved itself into a
charming bower of tropical vegetation rising at its highest point about
forty or fifty feet above the monotonous level of the 'glades As it grew
nearer the boys were astonished to see that its summit was bare of trees
and formed a plateau of some area which was flat as the top of a table.
It was as if some giant had lopped off the top of it with a huge knife.
"That's very extraordinary," said Frank, as they gazed at it, "one would
almost say that it had been formed artificially."
The air-ship circled about the islet under Frank's skilled control while
the youthful aerial navigators scanned it with eager eyes. They could
now plainly perceive that in the center of the flat top a sort of altar,
about seven feet long by four feet high, had been erected.
"A sacrificial altar of some ancient tribe," cried Harry.
"I'm not so sure," replied Frank as the _Golden Eagle II_ heeling over,
circled slowly about the object of their mystification. "What do you
know about this, Quatty?" he asked.
"Quatty thinks him used by Injuns to make smoke signals," said the old
negro scanning the altar narrowly. "When an Injun he wants to signal he
builds a fire on dere and den makes de smoke rise or fade away by
covering it wid a green branch," he further explained.
"That is undoubtedly the correct explanation," said Frank, "of course
there was an ancient race of mound-builders in Florida and this may be
one of their mounds, but I have never read that they had any sacrificial
rites. As Quatty says, the Seminoles must have used this old
mound-builders' hill, which the aborigines may have utilized as a fort,
or as a convenient place for signaling from."
He headed the aeroplane on her course again after this explanation and
the adventurers had proceeded perhaps a mile through the air when Quatty
who, with his hand shading his eyes, had been searching the horizon,
suddenly cried:
"Hol' on der, Massa Frank."
"What's the matter?" asked the boy.
"See dar. Ef dat ain't smoke 'way off dere call me an ignerent sabage!"
He pointed to a small islet a couple of points to the southward of the
course on which they were heading. The boys' gaze followed his pointing
finger. Their eyes, not so keen as the wilderness dweller's, however,
could perceive nothing but a small blue eminence of land not in any way
different from several other similar ones dotted along the horizon.
"Don' you see smoke ober dere?" asked Quatty, wonderingly.
"No," cried both boys.
"Lordy, lordy, you eyes are dim as bats' fo' sho'." cried the negro
shaking his head.
Frank reached into the pocket in which the glasses were kept. With their
powerful lenses he swept the horizon. He confirmed the correctness of
Quatty's eyesight the next minute.
From the nebulous mass,--which seen through the glasses proved to be an
islet very like the one over which they had just passed--a column of
smoke was certainly rising.
"It may be Indians," said Harry, after he too had taken a long look.
"Injuns," snorted old Quatty, "dems no Injuns. Dat ain't de color ob
Injuns' smoke. Ah knows whar ah is now ah do--dat's de place where dose
men you come all dis way ter look foh makes de debbil stuff dat blows de
holes in de ground."
A hasty consultation between the boys followed. At the distance they
then were from the islet it was unlikely that their presence in the air
had been noted. It would be useless to keep on in broad daylight as
their usefulness might end as soon as the plotters discovered their
presence and knew their plant had been discovered. On all accounts it
seemed best to camp on the mound-builders' island for the night and
wireless to Camp Walrus their views.
Accordingly the aeroplane was put about and a short time after was
resting on the summit of the mound-builders' hill. The boys were far
from satisfied with the location but there was no other available
landing-place and they decided to run the risk of being sighted before
dark.
The wireless apparatus was at once put in order for the transmission of
messages and Frank started to call Camp Walrus. Again and again the
spark leaped crackling across the gap,--transmitting the call of C-W,
C-W, C-W,--before an answer came.
Everything, it seemed, was going on well at the camp and they had heard
that morning from the _Tarantula_. The destroyer was cruising about the
archipelago awaiting news of the success or failure of the boys'
expedition and Frank, as he was doubtful of being able to "pick up" the
vessel at the distance inland they then were, asked Lathrop to transmit
to Lieutenant Selby the news that they had discovered the hiding-place
of the plotters and would inform him of their next move when they made
it. The instrument was then cut out and the usual preparations for
making camp gone about, with Quatty's assistance.
This done the boys, guns in hand, started to explore the mound on which
they found themselves. A steep path, apparently well trodden once but
now overgrown with creepers and weeds, led to its base. There was
nothing else remarkable about it, except, as has been said, its bald
summit. It swarmed with game, however, and several doves, quail and
rabbits fell to the boys' guns during the afternoon. Quatty cooked the
game deliciously in an oven of his own invention. He first dug a hole
which he lined with stones, heated almost red hot in a fire previously
prepared. This done he lined it again with green stuff and covered the
whole with leaves and branches. Then he covered in the entire oven with
more leaves and tapped them off with earth at the top to enable it to
retain the heat.
"Now we leab ole Muvver Erf to do our cookin'," he remarked when he had
completed these preparations.
The next task to occupy the boys' attention was the setting up of the
canvas boat. The craft was a large pea-pod shaped pocket of the
strongest grade of brown duck, which was stretched into boat form by
steel spreaders and held rigidly in shape by locking clamps. It was a
boat eminently fitted to navigate the Everglades, where there are no
sharp rocks or rapid waters to be encountered, though hardly suited for
more strenuous work. It was about twenty feet in length and capable of
carrying five hundred pounds. The boys carried the compact bundle in
which it was packed to the water's edge and put it together there. When
afloat on the water it looked not unlike a big, brown pumpkin seed.
"Now where's de poles?" asked Quatty, looking about him.
"Poles? What for? We've got paddles for it," said Harry.
"Paddles not much good in de 'glades, Massa Harry," replied Quatty, "we
need poles to git ober de groun'."
After some hunting among the dense undergrowth Quatty finally found two
straight sticks of tough second growth timber, about fifteen feet long,
that satisfied him. He cut these off with his heavy sailor's knife with
the remark:
"Soon we hab two berry good canoe poles."
He whittled both sticks to a sharp point at one end and then cut two
triangular bits of wood from another tree which he affixed with vine
lashings to the poles about six inches from the bottom. The contrivance
was exactly like the steps that are affixed to stilts but there were two
of them.
"What are you putting those on for?" asked the boys.
"Plenty ob mud in de 'glades sometimes," replied Quatty, "dese lilly
steps keeps de poles from diggin' in too deep."
"Well, Quatty, you are a genius," exclaimed Frank.
"Oh dese not my inwention, Massa Frank," modestly confessed Quatty.
"Seminoles use him many, many years befo' Quatty come here."
The boys had decided on a daring plan. It was nothing less than, as soon
as the night fell, to pole and paddle their way through the
water-courses till they reached a spot near the camp of the kidnappers
of Lieutenant Chapin and there reconnoiter and, if possible, overhear
enough to give them a clue to the lieutenant's whereabouts. Their first
object being of course to rescue him. The recovery of the formula of his
invention was--though important in the extreme--a secondary
consideration.
After a hasty supper everything about the camp was put in order and with
their revolvers freshly oiled and plenty of ammunition in their pockets
the adventurers descended by the mound-builders' path to where they had
moored the canvas boat. Quatty accompanied them. He put on a great
assumption of bravery but inwardly he was quaking till his teeth
chattered. Still he decided in his own mind he would rather a thousand
times accompany the boys--however dangerous their errand--than spend the
night alone in a spot which he firmly believed was haunted by the ghosts
of the ancient tribesmen who had erected it.
The last thing Frank did before leaving was to call up Camp Walrus on
the wireless. He bade his young friends and companions there a hearty
"good-bye" and received their aerial "good-luck."
As the night noises of the jungle began to arise, and the evening chill
of the 'glades crept over the lower levels like a cold pall, the boys
shoved off and under Quatty's guidance began to pole toward the
southeast.