THE ANIMATED LOGS
For a moment Alice and Ruth were almost paralyzed with fear. They stood
spellbound, and could only gaze horrifiedly at the tawny beast stretched
out on the limb of the tree.
"What--what shall we do?" asked Alice.
"What can we do?" Ruth returned. "If we move toward them, or call out,
the beast may spring on them. What is it--a tiger?"
"I don't know. Of course it's not a tiger, for there are none in this
country except in circuses. Maybe it's a wildcat."
"Oh, they are terrible. But this doesn't look like the wildcat Flaming
Arrow shot in the backwoods."
"No, it doesn't," agreed Alice. "But we must do something to save those
children!"
Tommy and Nellie, all unconscious of their peril, were still sorting
their blossoms beneath the tree.
"If we could only get them out of the way--somehow," urged Alice. "Then
we might hurry off before the beast could spring."
"But it might chase after us--and them."
"That's so. One of us had better go for help. You--you go, Alice. I--I'll
stay here," faltered Ruth.
"What! Leave you alone with that beast? I will not!"
"But what can we do?"
Alice thought for a moment. The animal in the tree had apparently not
seen them--its attention was fixed on the two children. Then, as the
girls watched, they saw it move slightly, while its tail twitched faster.
"It's getting ready to spring!" whispered Alice.
"Oh, don't say that!" begged Ruth, clasping her hands.
They really did not know what to do. They were some distance from the
others of the moving picture company, and to go to them, and summon help,
might mean the death or injury of the children.
On the other hand, to call out suddenly, or to rush toward the little
ones, might precipitate the attack of the beast.
And then fate, or luck, stepped in and changed the situation of affairs.
Tommy spied another blossom--a brighter one than any he had yet gathered
and he cried out:
"Oh, look at that pretty flower! I'm going to get it!"
"No, let me!" exclaimed his sister, and the two got up with that
suddenness which seems so natural to children, and sped across a little
glade, out from under the tree, with its dangerous beast toward a clump
of ferns and flowers.
It was the best, and perhaps the only thing, they could have done.
"Oh--oh!" gasped Ruth. It was all she could say.
"Now they are safe," Alice ventured.
But not yet.
The beast had been about to spring and now, with a snarl of disappointed
rage, it bounded lightly from the limb of the tree to the ground, and
began a slinking advance upon the children.
"Oh!" screamed Ruth, and her cry of alarm was echoed by her sister. Both
girls instinctively started forward, but an instant later they were
halted by a voice.
"Stand where ye are, young ladies. I'll attend to that critter!"
Before they had a chance to look and see who it was that had called, a
shot rang out and the beast, which had been running along, crouched low
like a cat after a bird, seemed to crumple up. Then it turned a complete
somersault, and a moment later lay motionless.
Tommy and Nellie, hearing the report of the gun, paused in their rush
after the bright flowers, and then, as they saw the big animal not far
from them, they uttered cries of fear, and clung to each other.
"It's all right, dears! There's no danger now!" called Ruth, as she sped
toward them.
Alice paused but a moment to look at the individual who had in such
timely and effective fashion come to the rescue. She saw a tall, gaunt
man, attired in ragged clothes, bending forward with ready rifle, to be
prepared to take a second shot if necessary.
"I don't reckon he'll bother any one no more," said this man, with a
satisfied chuckle, as he leaned on his gun, the butt of which he dropped
to the ground. "I got him right in the head."
"Oh--we--we can't thank you enough!" gasped Alice. "The--the children--"
but her voice choked, and she could not speak.
"Wa'al, I reckon he _might_ have clawed 'em a bit," admitted the man with
the gun. "And perhaps it's jest as well I come along when I did. You
folks live around here? Don't seem like I've met you befo'."
"We're a company of moving picture actresses and actors," explained
Alice, while Ruth, making a detour to avoid the dead body of the animal,
went to Tommy and Nellie, who were still holding on to each other.
"Picture-players; eh?" mused the hunter, for such he evidently was. "I
seen a movin' picture once, and it looked as real as anything. Be you
folks on that steamer?"
"The _Magnolia_--yes," answered Alice, as her sister led the children up
to her.
"You're all right now, dearies," said Ruth. "The nice man killed the bad
bear."
"Excuse me, Miss; but that ain't a bear," said the hunter, with a pull at
his ragged cap that was meant for a bow. "It's a bobcat--mountain lion
some folks calls 'em--and I don't know as I ever saw one around this
neighborhood before. Mostly they're farther to the no'th. This must be a
stray one."
"Oh, but it might have killed us all if you had not been here," Ruth went
on.
"Oh, no, Miss, beggin' your pardon. It wouldn't have been as bad as that.
Most-ways these bobcats would rather run than fight. I reckon if it had
seen you young ladies it would have run."
"Are we as scary as all that?" asked Alice, with a nervous little laugh.
"Oh, no, Miss. I didn't mean it that way at all," said the man. "I beg
your pardon, I'm sure. But a bobcat won't hardly ever attack a grown
person, unless it's cornered. I reckon this one must have been riled
about suthin' and thought to claw up the tots a bit. I happened to be
around, so I jest natcherally plunked him--beggin' your pardon for
mentionin' the matter."
"It was awfully good of you," murmured Ruth, who had Tommy's and Nellie's
hands now.
"Won't you tell us who you are?" asked Alice, as she introduced herself
and her sister.
"Who--me? Oh, I'm Jed Moulton," replied the hunter. "I'm an alligator
hunter by callin'. But they're gittin' a bit scarce now, so I'm on the
move."
"I wish you'd come back and meet our friends," suggested Ruth. "Mrs.
Maguire, the children's grandmother, will want to thank you for what you
have done."
"Wa'al, I'm in no special rush, and I reckon I can spare a little time,"
agreed Jed. "But I ain't much used to havin' a fuss made over me."
"You can see how moving pictures are made," suggested Alice.
"Can I, Miss? Then I'll come," and shouldering his gun he set off with
them.
"Are you going to leave the bobcat there?" asked Ruth.
"Yes, Miss. Its skin ain't really no good this time of year, and I don't
want to bother with it. The buzzards'll make short work of it. Leave it
lie."
There was considerable excitement among the other players when the girls
and children came back, accompanied by Jed, and told of their adventure.
Much was made over the alligator hunter, and Mrs. Maguire was profuse in
her thanks. Then, in the next breath, she scolded the tots for wandering
so far away.
"I think they won't do it again," said Ruth, with a smile, as she
recalled their fright.
"No, sir! Never no more!" declared Tommy, earnestly.
Bad as the scare had been, its effects were not lasting, and Ruth and
Alice were able to take their part in the drama that was being filmed.
Jed Moulton looked on, his eyes big with wonder.
"That beats shootin' bobcats!" he declared at the conclusion of the
performance.
Jed at once became a favorite with all, and when Mr. Pertell learned that
he was quite a successful hunter he made him an offer.
"You come along with us," the manager urged. "I want to get a film of
alligator hunting, and I'll make it worth your while to do some of your
stunts before the camera. I'll pay you well, and you can have all the
alligators you shoot."
"Say, that suits me--right down to the ground!" cried Jed, heartily.
"I'll take you up on that."
So Jed became attached to the moving picture outfit, and a cheerful and
valuable addition he proved. For he knew the country like a book, and
offered valuable suggestions as to where new and striking scenic
backgrounds could be obtained.
An uneventful week followed the episode of the bobcat. The _Magnolia_
went up and down sluggish streams and bayous, while the company of
players acted their parts, or rested beneath the palms and under the
graceful Spanish moss.
"But it is getting lonesome and tiresome--being away from civilization so
long," complained Miss Pennington one day. "We can't get any mail, or
anything."
"Who wants mail, when you can sit out on deck and look at such a scene as
that?" asked Alice, pointing to a view down a beautiful river.
"Don't you want to come for a row?" asked Paul of Alice, after luncheon.
"I think so," she answered. "Where is Ruth?"
"We'll all go together," he proposed. "Russ wants to get a few pictures,
and Jed Moulton is going along to show us where there are some likely
spots for novel scenes."
"Of course I'll come!" cried Alice, enthusiastically, as she went to her
stateroom to make ready.
A little later the four young people, with the alligator hunter, set out
in a big rowboat. Russ took with him a small moving picture camera, as he
generally did, even when he had no special object in view.
They rowed up the stream in which the _Magnolia_ was resting, her bow
against a fern bank, and presently the party was in a solitude that was
almost oppressive. There was neither sign nor sound of human being, and
the steamer was lost to sight around a bend in the stream.
"Isn't it wonderful here?" murmured Ruth.
"It certainly is," agreed Russ who, with Paul, was rowing.
"It sure is soothin'," said Jed. "Many a time when I ain't had no luck,
and feel all tuckered out, I sneak off to a place like this and I feel
jest glad to be alive."
He put it crudely enough, but the others understood his homely
philosophy.
They rowed slowly, pausing now and then to gather some odd flower, or to
look at some big tree almost hidden under the mass of Spanish moss.
Alice, who had gone to the bow, was looking ahead, when suddenly she
called out:
"Oh, look at the funny logs! They're bobbing up and down all over. See!"
Jed and the others looked to where she pointed, toward a sand bar in the
stream. Then the old hunter called out:
"Logs! Them ain't logs! Them's alligators! We've run into a regular nest
of 'em! I'm glad I brought my gun along!"
"Oh! Alligators!" gasped Ruth, as one thrust his long and repulsive head
from the water, just ahead of the boat.