INTO THE WILDS
Had there been any convenient mode of running away Ruth and Alice would
certainly have taken advantage of it just then. But they were out in a
boat, in the middle of a wide, sluggish stream, and all about them,
swimming, diving, coming up and crawling over a long sand-bar, were
alligators--alligators on all sides. They were surrounded by them now,
and the girls would no more have gotten out of the boat, even if there
had been a bridge nearby on which to walk to shore, than they would have
dived overboard.
"Oh, isn't it awful!" gasped Ruth, covering her eyes with her hands.
"Can they get at us?" asked Alice, more practically.
"Not if you stay in the boat, I should say," declared Paul. But he was
not altogether sure in his own mind.
As for Russ he said nothing. But he was busy focusing the small moving
picture camera on the unusual scene. True, he had views of the saurians
at the alligator farm near St. Augustine, but this was different. The
views he was now getting showed the big, repulsive creatures in their
natural haunts.
"This sure is a big piece of luck!" cried Jed Moulton, as he brought his
rifle up from the bottom of the boat. "It is a rare bit of luck! I didn't
know there was so many 'gators in this neighborhood!"
"Oh, are you going to shoot?" cried Ruth, as she saw the old hunter
prepare to take aim.
"Well, that's what I was countin' on, Miss," he replied. "I can't exactly
get a 'gator without shootin' him. They won't come when you call 'em, you
know. But if it's goin' to distress you, Miss, why of course I can--"
"Oh, no!" she cried hastily. "Of course I don't want to deprive you of
making a living. That was selfish of me. Only I was afraid if you shot
from the boat it might upset, and if we were thrown into the water with
all those horrid things--ugh!"
She could not finish.
"I guess you're right, Miss," assented Jed. "It will be better not to
shoot from the boat, especially as we've got a pretty good load in, and
my gun is a heavy one, though it don't recoil such an awful lot. Now
we'll take you girls back to the steamer, and then I'll come here and
make a bag--an alligator bag, you might say," he added with grim humor.
"Oh, I want to stay and see you shoot!" cried Alice, impulsively.
"Oh, no, Alice!" cried her sister. "Daddy wouldn't like it, you know."
"Well, perhaps not," admitted the younger girl, more readily than her
sister had hoped. "Shooting alligators is not exactly nice work, I
suppose, however much it needs to be done, for we have to have their
skins for leather."
"Then suppose you take us back," suggested Ruth. "I'm sorry to make so
much trouble--"
"Not at all!" interrupted Paul. "I think it will be best. But if I can
borrow a gun I'm going to get a 'gator myself."
"And get one for me; will you, Paul?" begged Alice. "I'll have my valise
after all!"
"Surely," he answered.
"Just a few minutes more," requested Russ. "There's a big one over there
I want to film. I guess he must be the grandfather of this alligator
roost."
"I never saw such a nest of 'em!" exclaimed Jed. "I can make a pot of
money out of this. None of the other hunters has stumbled on it. I'm in
luck!"
Ruth and Alice had lost much of their first fear, and really the only
danger now was lest one of the big saurians upset the boat, which it
might easily do, by coming up under it. The alligators showed no
disposition to make an attack. Indeed, most of them swam past the boat
without noticing it, though a few of the smaller ones scuttled off when
they came up and eyed the craft and its occupants.
Out on the sand bar, sunning themselves, were nearly a score of the big
creatures. Now and then one would crawl over the others, or plunge into
the sluggish stream with a splash.
"Some fine skins here," commented Jed, with a professional air. "When we
come back, boys, we'll have a lively time."
"Isn't it dangerous?" asked Ruth, with a shudder.
"Alligators ain't half so dangerous as folks think," said Jed. "I've
hunted 'em, boy and man, for years, and I never got much hurt. One I
wounded once nipped me on the leg, and I've got the scar yet."
"I thought it was the tail that was the dangerous part of an alligator,"
said Russ, who now had all the pictures he wanted for the present,
though he intended coming back with the larger camera and filming the
alligator hunt.
"Well, I've read lots of stories to the effect that an alligator or
crocodile could swing his tail around and knock a man or dog into his
mouth with one sweep, but I don't believe it," the hunter said. "Of
course that big tail could do damage if it was properly used, and you
didn't get out of the way in time. In India I reckon the crocodiles are
dangerous, if what you read is true; but I don't reckon a Florida
alligator nor crocodile ever ate a man."
"I thought there were no crocodiles in this country," said Russ, who,
with a skillful movement of the oars, avoided hitting a big alligator.
"That's a mistake," said Jed. "There are both alligators and crocodiles
in Florida, and some of the crocodiles grow to be nearly fifteen feet
long. There ain't so much difference between crocodiles and alligators as
folks think. The main point is that a crocodile's head is more pointed
than an alligator's."
"They're all horrid enough looking," observed Alice.
"Wa'al, I grant you they ain't none of 'em beauties," returned the
hunter, with a chuckle, "though I have heard of some folks takin' home
little alligators for pets. I'd as soon have a pet bumblebee!" and he
laughed heartily.
The two girls were becoming almost indifferent to the alligators now,
though in turning about for the return trip to the steamer they several
times bumped into the clumsy creatures, and once the craft careened
dangerously, causing Alice and Ruth to scream.
And once, when they were almost out of the haunts of the saurians, an
immense specimen reared itself out of the water and thrust its ugly nose
over the bow.
"Oh!" cried Alice, shrinking back.
In an instant Jed fired, aiming, however, along the keel of the boat, and
not broadside across it, so there was no danger from the recoil.
The alligator sank at once.
"I hit him!" cried the hunter, "but it wasn't a mortal wound. I'll come
back and get him."
"Please don't shoot again!" begged Ruth.
"I won't, Miss, and I beg your pardon; but I really couldn't help it," he
apologized.
There was considerable excitement aboard the _Magnolia_ when the party
returned with word about the alligators, and when Paul and Russ went back
with Jed, Russ taking a large camera, another boatload of men with guns
was made up for the hunt.
Even Jed was satisfied later with the day's work, and Russ got a film
that created quite a sensation when shown, for never before had an
alligator hunt been given in moving pictures.
"Well, I can't go on with you folks any longer," said Jed that night, as
Mr. Pertell, aboard the _Magnolia_, was talking of further plans. "I've
got to stay and take care of my alligator skins," he added. "It means big
money to me."
"I wish you could come," said the manager. "For we are going into the
wilds, and we may need your help."
"Into the wilds?" echoed Mr. Sneed. "Do you think it safe?"
"I don't know whether it is or not," responded Mr. Pertell, and he spoke
half seriously. "But we have to go to get the views I want. I hope none
of you refuse to come."
No one did, but there was not a little apprehension.
"Those two girls went into the wilds--and did not come back, you know,"
said Ruth to Alice in a low voice.
"Oh, don't think of it," was the rejoinder. "We are a large party--we
can't get lost."
But neither Ruth nor Alice realized what was before them.