[Illustration: THE CREATURE WAS LASHING ABOUT IN A DEATH STRUGGLE]
THE MOTOR BOYS IN
STRANGE WATERS
Or
Lost in a Floating Forest
BY
CLARENCE YOUNG
Author of
“The Racer Boys Series” and “The Jack Ranger Series.”
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
BOOKS BY CLARENCE YOUNG
=THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES=
(_=Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.=_)
12mo. Illustrated
THE MOTOR BOYS
Or Chums Through Thick and Thin
THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND
Or A Long Trip for Fun and Fortune
THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO
Or The Secret of the Buried City
THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS
Or The Hermit of Lost Lake
THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT
Or The Stirring Cruise of the Dartaway
THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC
Or The Mystery of the Lighthouse
THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS
Or Lost in a Floating Forest
THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC
Or The Young Derelict Hunters
THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS
Or A Trip for Fame and Fortune
=THE JACK RANGER SERIES=
12mo. Finely Illustrated
JACK RANGER’S SCHOOLDAYS
Or The Rivals of Washington Hall
JACK RANGER’S WESTERN TRIP
Or From Boarding School to Ranch and Range
JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL VICTORIES
Or Track, Gridiron and Diamond
JACK RANGER’S OCEAN CRUISE
Or The Wreck of the Polly Ann
JACK RANGER’S GUN CLUB
Or From Schoolroom to Camp and Trail
Copyright, 1909, by
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. NODDY’S COCOANUT PLANTATION 1
II. PROFESSOR SNODGRASS ARRIVES 9
III. OFF FOR FLORIDA 22
IV. THE GIANT TURTLE 35
V. THE PROFESSOR’S TRICK 43
VI. BOB GETS A SCARE 50
VII. KILLING A MANATEE 59
VIII. A MISFORTUNE 69
IX. NEWS OF NODDY 77
X. AFLOAT ONCE MORE 84
XI. THE HOUSEBOAT 92
XII. JERRY IS HURT 100
XIII. THE SEMINOLE CHIEF 109
XIV. CAUGHT IN SAW GRASS 118
XV. THE BIG SNAKE 126
XVI. AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER 134
XVII. INTO A STRANGE LAKE 142
XVIII. THE WANDERER AGAIN 152
XIX. A PLOT FOILED 159
XX. BOB TAKEN ILL 168
XXI. JERRY SEEKS AID 175
XXII. THE RECEDING WATER 183
XXIII. THE PROFESSOR RETURNS 191
XXIV. IN THE FLOATING FOREST 199
XXV. A CRY FOR HELP 207
XXVI. THE PLIGHT OF THE GIRLS 215
XXVII. OTTIBY TO THE RESCUE 221
XXVIII. THE HURRICANE 229
XXIX. NODDY’S DANGER 234
XXX. THE BUTTERFLIES--CONCLUSION 242
THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS
CHAPTER I
NODDY’S COCOANUT PLANTATION
“Shut your eyes,” called Bob Baker to his friend Jerry Hopkins, as the
two boys sat in the library of Bob’s home.
“What for?”
“Never mind. Just shut ’em; that’s all.”
“No tricks now. I don’t want a mouthful of salt, or find that I’m all
tangled up in a folding chair.”
“No, this is something on my own account. Shut your eyes.”
“All right. Here goes.”
Jerry accommodatingly closed his eyelids. He opened them almost
immediately as he heard a loud thump in the room.
“What was that?” he asked.
“That was yours truly,” explained Bob.
“What doing?”
“I threw my Latin grammar and my algebra over there behind the
bookcase.”
“What in the world did you do that for?”
“Because I don’t want to see ’em again until after vacation, and I
didn’t want to see where they fell for fear I’d be tempted to do some
studying to work off my conditions. And I didn’t want you to see where
they went to for fear you’d tell me. So I just shut my eyes and let
’em go. They’re safe, and when they clean house in the fall they’ll
find ’em. It’ll be time enough then to begin studying. Vacation’s here!
Hurrah for a good time with nothing to do but have fun!”
“That’s so; to-day is the last one for school for more than two
months,” remarked Jerry.
“As if you’d forgotten it!”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking of it, though I’m glad we don’t have to do any
more studying for a while. There’ll only be the closing exercises this
afternoon and then--”
“Yes, then what?” asked Bob. “What are we going to do with ourselves
this vacation?”
“Go somewhere in our motor boat I guess,” replied Jerry. “But isn’t
that a Latin grammar I see sticking out under the edge of the
bookcase?” and he pretended to start to pull forth the volume.
“Don’t you dare touch it!” cried Bob. “Shut your eyes so you can’t see
it!”
Jerry, however, dodging Bob’s outstretched arms, reached for the book.
“It’s a sea story!” he exclaimed. “Looks like a good one, too, from the
pictures.”
“Give it to me! I was looking all over for that. Guess I must have
dislodged it when I threw my school books back there. It is a corking
good yarn.”
“Well, Chunky,” went on Jerry (giving Bob the nickname fastened on him
because of his overabundance of flesh), “are the adventures in that
anything like those we had last summer down at Harmon Beach?”
“Couldn’t touch ’em! Those were ‘adventures as were adventures,’ as
Salt-Water Sam would say,” remarked Bob, giving his trousers a nautical
hitch in memory of the odd character to which he referred. “I only hope
we are as lucky in striking a good time this summer as we were on the
Atlantic coast.”
“We generally have been pretty fortunate in that respect,” said Jerry.
“I haven’t thought much about it this year. I studied rather hard to
win the prize scholarship.”
“Yes, and you got it, which is more to the point, Jerry. As for me, the
harder I bone away the less I seem to know. I don’t want to hear school
mentioned again for three months. What do you say to having something
to eat?”
“Just had my breakfast. Besides it’s most time to go to--Oh, I forgot,
you don’t want me to mention school. Well, I’ll call it the place of
learning.”
“Nobody will be on time this last day,” responded Bob. “I had breakfast
myself, but it was an early one, and I can eat again.”
“Never saw the time when you couldn’t,” observed Jerry, taking care to
get beyond the reach of Bob’s fist.
“Have a glass of milk, Jerry.”
“Well, I don’t mind that.”
“I’m going to have some and a bit of bread and jam,” went on Bob, as he
disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.
He came back presently with what looked like enough for a substantial
meal for two hungry boys. Jerry said nothing, as he was familiar with
the eating capacity of his chum.
“Here comes Ned!” exclaimed Jerry as he finished his glass of milk.
“Better get some more jam, Bob.”
“I will,” and before Jerry could stop him Bob had hurried off again. He
returned with more refreshments just as Ned Slade came in.
“Are you fellows going to school to-day?” asked the newcomer. “It’s
almost nine o’clock.”
“Breakfast is now being served in the dining car!” cried Jerry,
imitating the porters on the Pullman coaches. “It’s Bob’s second
attempt,” he explained.
“You did your share,” retorted Bob. “Have some, Ned?”
“No, thanks. Three meals a day are enough for me,” and Ned sat down in
a chair to watch Bob eat.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jerry. “You look excited.”
“I met Noddy Nixon, on my way here.”
“You don’t mean it! So he’s back in town again. Did you have a quarrel
with him?”
“Not exactly,--but we had a discussion. I can’t stand him. He makes me
mad every time I meet him, and when I thought of how he and Bill Berry
tried to wreck that vessel down on the coast,--though I guess Noddy
didn’t realize what a game Bill was playing--why I feel as though I
wanted to thrash Noddy.”
“Don’t blame you,” said Bob, finishing the last of the jam and bread
and butter. “What did he have to say?”
“Oh, a lot of things, but principally that he was going down to Florida
to take possession of a cocoanut plantation he’s purchased, or which he
thinks he’s bought. I think it’s all in his mind.”
“Cocoanut plantation!” exclaimed Bob.
“Down in Florida?” inquired Jerry.
“Yes. This is how he happened to mention it,” went on Ned. “I was going
past him on the street without speaking, though I was so surprised at
seeing him that I wanted to ask where he came from. However, he saved
me the trouble. He hailed me and, in that sneering way of his, he
said he had something that was better than the gold mine in which we
own shares. I didn’t ask him what it was, but he told me. Said he had
bought a cocoanut grove or farm, or whatever they call ’em, and was
going to get rich. He said he was going down in a week or so to live on
the land and be a wealthy man.”
“Do you s’pose he meant it?” asked Bob. “I’m very fond of cocoanut pie.”
“Go ahead,” remarked Jerry with a laugh. “You’ve got Chunky interested,
Ned, as soon as you mention something good to eat.”
“I guess Noddy was in earnest all right,” went on Ned. “He insisted
on showing me a lot of papers. It appears he bought the land through
seeing an advertisement in a magazine. You pay so much down and so
much a month, and the advertisement says you can make enough raising
cocoanuts to meet all your monthly installments. Noddy said he had
secured a big tract down there.”
“Where’d he get the money?” asked Bob.
“From his father, I s’pose. Mr. Nixon is rich, and Noddy is the only
child. That’s what makes him spoiled.”
“When’s he going down to the land of the everglades?” inquired Jerry.
“He starts in a week.”
“In what part of Florida is his cocoanut plantation located?” asked Bob.
“Near Lake Okeechobee.”
“I’d like to go to Florida,” observed Bob. “It’s a nice place to read
about. Lovely climate, nothing to do but gather oranges, bananas and
cocoanuts, watch the manatees and turtles, lie in the shade and--and--”
“Get eaten up with sand fleas,” put in Jerry. “They have ’em down there
as big as sparrows.”
“I guess if we’re going anywhere we’d better be starting for school!”
exclaimed Ned. “It’s after nine o’clock.”
The three chums left Bob’s house and strolled along the street in the
direction of the academy they attended. Ned continued his recital
of his encounter with Noddy, the town bully who, on more than one
occasion, had proved himself the enemy of the three friends.
“Oh, he talked a lot about how rich he was going to be,” went on Ned.
“He thinks his cocoanut grove is going to put our gold mine in the
shade. Says he’ll buy us out in a few months. He was so excited that I
guess he forgot all about how he acted down at Harmon Beach last summer
until I asked him if he calculated to wreck any steamers on the Florida
coast. That made him mad and we had quite a discussion. That’s what
ruffled me up. I left him spouting about what he expected to do with
his cocoanuts.”
“I guess all the cocoanuts he’ll raise wouldn’t make enough pies to
satisfy Bob’s appetite,” remarked Jerry. “But we’d better hurry, if we
want to get to school before noon.”
None of the chums realized what a part Noddy and his cocoanut
plantation were to play in their experiences that summer, nor in what
an unexpected manner they were to render the bully a service.