AMONG THE PUZZLING SWAMP WATER TRAILS.
“Alligator!” shrieked Smithy; and as this was the very first saurian he
had ever set eyes on, not in confinement, his excitement was hardly to
be wondered at.
“Lookout, Giraffe, he’s after you!” cried Bumpus, from the other boat,
close by.
There was no need of spurring the lanky scout on to any further
exertions; for he had comprehended that the living log was a scaly
reptile, even before he took that involuntary bath; and the instant that
his head came above the surface again he made frantic haste to clamber
back into the boat.
Allan had instantly stooped, and possessed himself of a repeating Marlin
rifle, which he kept handy at all times now; and had that ’gator
attempted anything like hostile action, the chances were that he must
speedily have made the acquaintance of a soft-nosed bullet that would
probably have finished his earthly career in a hurry.
No doubt the denizen of the swamp was even more badly frightened than
Giraffe, for after that one whirl and splash nobody ever saw him more.
But then, how was the lanky scout to know that? Imagination peopled that
dark waters with a myriad of twelve-foot ’gators, all plunging toward
the spot where he was struggling to drag himself back into the boat,
though his soaked garments seemed to weigh very nearly a whole ton.
“Lookout, Giraffe, or you’ll upset us all!” shouted Bob White, who
probably did not see any great reason for all this haste, because
conditions always color such things differently.
“Help me in, somebody, can’t you?” gasped the clinging boy. “Want to see
me bit in half, do you? Thad, you lend me a hand, since these other
fellows won’t? Oh! what was that?” as a great splash was heard; but of
course it was only Bumpus playfully striking at the water with the flat
of his paddle, on pretense of “shooing” away the sportive and hungry
alligator, though no doubt he had also in mind the idea of hastening
Giraffe’s getting over the gunwale on wings of fear.
They managed to pull him aboard, where he stood looking all around, as
though in the end a trifle disappointed not to see a few monsters
showing their keen regret at being cheated out of a meal; for that would
have always added flavor to the story when he came to tell it.
“Guess he’s gone down to the bottom!” suggested Giraffe; “I kicked with
all my might all the time I was in the water, and that’s the only way to
scare a ’gator, a coon told me. But you can laugh all you’ve a mind to,
Step Hen and Bumpus, I reckon you’d a done as much as I did if it’d been
you fell in. Why, I saw him open his jaws, and I declare to goodness, he
had a mouth big enough to swallow a sugar barrel, and that’s the honest
truth, fellows.”
“I see plain enough that we’re due for some rattling lively times while
we’re down in old Louisiana,“ remarked Smithy. “But if you don’t mind,
Thad, please paddle your craft a little more to the left, because the
breeze is blowing straight from you to us, and, well, you know what I
mean.”
Bumpus was feeling so hilarious over seeing that great splash taken by
his persecutor, Giraffe, that he did not pay the slightest attention to
what Smithy said.
“You know, fellows,” the fat scout went on to remark, “up to now it’s
been poor old Bumpus who’s generally gone overboard, or got in trouble
like that; but seems as if times have changed, and now Giraffe, he wants
to take his turn. If I’d been close enough, and had a boat-hook handy,
sure I’d a got it fast in the collar of your jacket, Giraffe. And I’d a
considered it a pleasure, too.”
“That’s right, I reckon you would, Bumpus; you’re an _aw_ful
accommodating chum, ain’t you?” the tall scout sneered. “But see here,
whatever am I to do now, Thad?”
“Sit in the sun, and let your duds dry on you!” suggested one comrade.
“The only trouble is, we have to bail out the boat, because he’s nearly
flooded us right now,” Bob White asserted, beginning to get busy with a
big sponge.
“Had I ought to make a change, Thad?” demanded Giraffe, ignoring these
side thrusts, and appealing to the fountain head.
“Just suit yourself,” replied the scout-master.
“That’s what I mean to do, only this is my new suit, and I kinder hate
to put it up to dry, for fear it’ll shrink on me, and I can’t get out of
it again,” the lanky one went on to say.
Presently, as the air under the trees was not so warm as if they had had
more sunshine, and Giraffe commenced to shiver, Thad told him he had
better make the change.
“You can wear your old suit right along, if you have to,” he remarked;
“and even if you have to throw away the other, better do that than get a
heavy cold from trying to let it dry on you. That’s all very well in hot
August weather; but there’s a little tang in the air, even away down
South here, along in December. So strip to the skin, and make yourself
comfortable.”
Giraffe concluded that after all this was the best policy; and so he set
to work, paying little heed to the jests of his chums, who, like all
boys, could never let so good a chance to joke an unlucky companion pass
by.
“Next time you see a log, Giraffe,” Bumpus told him, “take a second look
before you go to punch it with your paddle. They say logs down here have
got _teeth_, and can take a big bite right out of an oar. We don’t want
to lose any of our paddles; and let me warn you that it’s risky jumping
overboard after one when you do drop it in the drink. We’d hate to see
you make a meal for a hungry ’gator; though for that matter it’d be a
pretty slim dinner he’d get!”
“Well, one thing sure,” retorted the tall scout, who was now fully
dressed, and feeling in readiness to do battle again; “I wouldn’t blame
any old ’gator if he declined to gobble _you_ for a relish right now,
and that’s what.”
“There you go again, but on account of your recent trouble I’ll let it
pass. A fellow that has just been nearly scared to death ain’t
responsible for half he says,” and the fat boy waved his hand toward the
other as though he really meant it.
“From the way you’ve been pestering us lately about that stuff you
forgot to take home to your mother from the drug store, I’d think you
had troubles of your own to bother about,” retorted Giraffe. “I never
saw such a fellow to keep thinking of little things that don’t amount to
a row of beans. Why, you admit it only cost five cents, and yet to hear
you let out a howl about it every little while, you’d think it was worth
a whole dollar.”
“It ain’t that,” said Bumpus, with dignity, “but I’m so built that when
anything gets on my nerves like that has, I just can’t sleep till I’ve
solved the puzzle. Did I take that little package home and give it to my
mother, or did I leave it anywhere on the way? That’s the question I’d
like to have solved; and I mean it shall be, if I have to write to three
separate boys whose houses I stopped in on my way home, to tell ’em what
a ge-lorious time I expected to have down here.”
“But you did write to your mother from Memphis, to ask her about it; and
when we got letters back at that last town you nearly took a fit because
there wasn’t any for you,” Davy Jones went on to say, taking a hand in
the affair, though he was as far away from Bumpus in the other end of
the boat as he could possibly get.
“That’s all very true,” replied the fat scout, composedly; “and now I’ve
got to just hold in, and wait a long time till we get more mail. It
bothers me more’n words can tell you. A scout should never fail in his
duty; and my mother said she wanted what she wrote on that paper the
worst kind. What if it was only five cents; I’m not thinking of the
amount, but the fulfilling of my duty. Thad always says that’s the main
thing to consider. Faithful in little things, is my motto.”
“Hear! hear!” cheered Bob White, from the other boat.
“Good boy, Bumpus! them’s our sentiments, too!” declared Step Hen,
hilariously.
“Huh! little things, hey?” sniffed Giraffe; “please get busy fellows,
and draw ahead of our friends in the other boat once more. Seems to me
the air is better up ahead.”
“But make him beware of the logs, mind you,” called Bumpus, as a parting
shot.
They proceeded carefully along for some time. The channel they were
following seemed to be very winding, and yet there could be no
reasonable doubt but that it was constantly taking the expedition deeper
into the great Alligator Swamp all the time.
Thad had tried to get all the information possible about the strange
place he intended to visit, but few people could assist him. One man
gladly allowed him to have a very rude chart that he said “Alligator”
Smith, who made a practice of hunting the denizens of the swamp for
their skins, had once drawn for him, with a bit of charcoal, and a piece
of wrapping paper. This was when the “cracker” had lost a heifer which
he suspected had either strayed into the fastnesses of the swamp; or
else been killed, and eaten by some “hideout” escaped convicts, who
found a refuge from pursuit within the almost impenetrable depths of the
extensive morass.
There were things about this chart which none of them could fully grasp.
Thad had some hopes of being fortunate enough to come upon the man who
had drawn it, as he was said to be somewhere about, pursuing his queer
vocation of acquiring a living from securing the skins of alligators he
managed to shoot or trap.
And it was in this way that the eight chums had actually dared to start
into one of the least known places in the whole State of Louisiana. Some
of those with whom they had spoken about their intended trip had warned
them not to attempt such a risky thing without a guide. But Thad was
fairly wild to learn whether there could be any truth in the strange
story that had come to his guardian in that letter; and he just felt
that he could not stand the suspense another day.
Inquiry had developed the fact that inside of the last few months a man
and a little girl had really been seen several times, though nobody knew
where he stayed; and some said they had seen him paddling out of the
swamp in a pirogue, which had evidently been fashioned from the trunk of
a big tree with considerable skill.
As the afternoon advanced, and they found themselves getting deeper and
deeper in the gloomy swamp, the boys began to realize that this singular
expedition might not turn out to be such a pleasant picnic after all.
There was always a peril hovering over them that must not be lightly
treated; and this was the danger of losing themselves in those winding
channels; for they had been told that more than once men had gone into
Alligator Swamp never to be seen again by their fellows.
Thad and Allan had arranged a plan whereby they might mark their way;
and if it came to the worst they would stand a chance of returning over
the same passages that they were following in entering the place.
They did this first by attaching a small white piece of cloth to a bush
while still in sight of the last one that had been marked. When these
finally gave out they proceeded to break a branch, and allow it to hang
in a certain way that was bound to catch their eye, and tell them how to
paddle in order to keep passing along the chain.
This was a well-known method among woodsmen in these great swamps, where
one can be turned around so easily, and all things look so much alike
that even the best of experienced paddlers may make mistakes that are
apt to cost dearly.
The boys fell quiet as the shadows lengthened. To tell the truth all of
them were growing a bit tired from this constant paddling, and twisting
their heads in trying to see so many sights at once; and when Giraffe
hinted broadly that in his opinion he thought it might be high time they
picked out some nice spot for stopping over, so that the fire could be
started, and supper gotten underway, nearly all the rest gave him a
smile of encouragement.
“Just what I was thinking about myself,” said Thad; “and unless I’m
mistaken, right now I glimpse the place we’re looking for; because, you
understand, we ought to have a good high and dry spot for a camp.”
“Do you know whether these here ’gators can climb, Thad?” asked the fat
scout, a little nervously.
“Not a tree, certain sure, Bumpus, so you’re safe, if you only show
enough speed in getting up among the branches; but they just _love_ to
slide down banks, they say, and don’t you go to depending on any such to
keep your scaly friends from sharing your blanket,” Davy remarked,
maliciously.
“Oh! who’s afraid; not me?” sang out Bumpus, puffing out his chest as he
spoke; “besides, haven’t I got a gun along with me this trip; and some
of you happen to know that I can use the same. I’ve got a few crack
shots to my credit, ain’t I, Thad?”
Before the scout-master could either affirm or deny this assertion,
Giraffe gave a loud yell, and was seen to be standing up in his boat,
pointing wildly ahead.
“Looky there, would you, boys!” he cried; “that’s a coon in the boat,
seems like to me, and he’s paddling like everything to get away from us.
What say, shall we give chase, and see if four pair of arms are better
than one? Maybe, now, it’s only a hideout darky, scared nigh to death
athinking we’re the soldiers come hunting after him. And then again, how
d’we know that it mightn’t be Felix himself; because, you remember, they
did say he was burnt as brown as mahogany! Whoop! see him make that
paddle fairly burn the air; and ain’t he flying to beat the band,
though? Thad, why _don’t_ you give the word to chase after him, when you
can see we’re all crazy to let out top-notch speed.”