PREPARATIONS.
At dawn Charley arose, feeling unrefreshed after his broken rest, lit
the camp-fire, started breakfast, and then awakened the others.
"We had better divide the duties for the day," he said, as they
dispatched their light breakfast. "The two things most pressing, are
to secure more food and make our windows and door bullet-proof. I
suggest that we divide into two parties for the day, one to hunt, and
the other to keep camp and work on our building. Suppose we call for
volunteers for each party."
"I stay an' do de cookin', an' maybe catch some fish for supper," said
Chris, promptly.
"I reckon I had better stay with Chris," decided the captain, who had
in a measure recovered from his scare of the night. "You lads are
nimbler an' better shots, an' consequently, likely to have better luck
in the hunting."
This arrangement delighted Charley and Walter who were eager to explore
the island. Pistols were oiled, cleaned and carefully examined. Their
own guns being at the bottom of the river, the boys had to borrow arms
of Chris and the captain.
Walter took Chris' light shotgun while Charley shouldered the heavy
rifle belonging to the captain. Thus equipped they were prepared for
either small or big game.
Leaving the clearing, the boys plunged into the forest and headed for
the interior of the island. Their progress was at first very slow, the
forest being almost as tangled and thickly grown as that which they had
encountered near the water. As they advanced, however, the trees
gradually grew fewer and further apart until, after a half hour's slow
traveling, they emerged from the forest into a kind of prairie country,
consisting of stretches of flat grassy land broken by clumps of timber.
"This is just the place for game," declared Charley, "this grass seems
to be a kind of wild rice, there had ought to be birds here without
number."
As he spoke there was a whirl of wings, Walter's shotgun spoke twice,
and a brace of plump partridges struck the ground with a thud.
The report of the firearm woke the prairie into life. Hundreds of
birds rose from amongst the tall grass. For the next few minutes,
Walter was busy with his gun, while Charley with his heavy rifle could
only stand idle watching.
"Never mind, my turn will come," he declared. "That little popgun you
have will not be any good against big game."
When the frightened birds had at last passed beyond range, the boys
gathered up those that had fallen victims; four partridges, three
doves, and a full dozen of black and red rice-birds.
"Good," approved Charley, as he surveyed the feathered heap. "Those
are all fine eating and will provide us with a couple of dandy meals.
The only fault I have to find is that they use up too much ammunition.
If we use it up at this rate, we will have none when the outlaws come."
"We can make traps for the birds," Walter suggested. "I know how to
rig up a figure-four trap that will fool the wisest of them."
"Well, we will not bother with traps this trip," Charley said. "We
have got enough birds for the present. We can come again to-morrow and
fix up for them."
"What shall we do with these?" Walter inquired. "We don't want to turn
back yet, and they are too heavy to carry with comfort."
"Leave them tied up in the first tree we come to and get them on our
way back," his chum answered.
With this object in view, the two boys turned their steps towards the
nearest clump of timber. At their first step amongst its dry twigs and
branches, there was a crash amongst the bushes and a form of yellowish
brown shot past them like an arrow.
Charley's rifle flew to his shoulder and its sharp crack woke the
echoes in the little wood. "It's a deer and I have got it," he
exclaimed, dashing off after the animal which was staggering and
wavering as it ran.
Walter paused only to hang his birds high up in the crotch of a big
tree, and followed after his chum.
But the deer, though wounded and losing blood at every step, was really
running faster than either of the boys calculated. It soon became
evident to both that they would have to work hard to overhaul the
wounded creature before it entered the main forest on the other side of
the prairie. Once amongst the dense growth, it would soon lose its
pursuers.
Walter was only a few feet in the rear of his chum and running at the
top of his speed when Charley stopped so short and unexpectedly that he
collided with him with such force as to bring both to the ground.
"Look," exclaimed Charley breathlessly, as he pointed ahead, "did you
ever see such a repulsive sight?"
Charley had stopped just in time, not fifteen feet from where the two
had fallen, was a deep, saucer-like depression in the ground. In its
center, where the ground was soft, and muddy, was a writhing, twisting,
tangled mass of snakes of dozens of kinds, though the dirty,
sickening-looking, stump-tailed moccasin predominated. There must have
been thousands of serpents in the mass which covered a space twenty by
thirty feet, from which came the sibilant hiss of puff adders, and a
strong, nauseating odor.
"It's an awful sight," shuddered Walter after one glance, "and just
think how close you were to running into that mass. You would never
have got out alive."
"I would never know what struck me," Charley agreed. "I expect there's
a full quart of the deadliest of poisons distributed among those
beauties."
"Ugh," said Walter, "the sight of them makes me sick. Come away,
Charley."
"They have done us considerable damage anyway," Charley said, as they
pressed on giving the snake-hole a wide berth. "I cannot see anything
of the deer, can you?"
"No, I expect he got safe into the forest while we were delayed. We
might as well follow up his tracks for a ways although I guess it's but
little use."
The fugitive had left a thread of scarlet blood behind him so the boys
had no trouble in following the trail.
At the very edge of the forest, the boys stopped with a cry of delight.
A motionless heap of yellowish brown lay half in half out of the fringe
of trees, the shelter of which the poor creature had striven so
gallantly to gain.
The boys wasted no time in rejoicing but at once fell to work with
their hunting-knives to remove the skin. This done, they cut off the
valuable parts of the carcass and bound them up in the hide for
transportation back to camp. When the task was completed the noon hour
had been reached and the boys kindled a fire and broiled some of the
venison.
"That was a lucky kill for us," observed Charley as he attacked another
juicy steak. "It will give us fresh meat for several days. What we
cannot use before it spoils, we can cut thin and dry. The hide
properly prepared will furnish us with a couple of stout fishing lines
and a shirt for one of us."
After a brief rest the boys resumed their exploration. They had no
present need for more game and were loath to waste any more ammunition.
The wild folks of the forest seemed to be aware of the fact and showed
themselves fearlessly.
"We won't starve for lack of game," declared Walter, "in the last half
mile, I have seen coons, possums, deer, and a wild-cat, to say nothing
of the thousands of birds."
"Yes, it's a sportsman's paradise," agreed Charley, "it has probably
not been hunted since the Spaniards' time. Likely these wild creatures
have never seen a human being before."
The boys had been pushing onward into the forest as they talked. By
the growing denseness of the jungle they surmised that they were
approaching the island's shore. This surmise proved correct, for about
a quarter of an hour after leaving their lunching place, they came out
on the bank directly opposite where they had landed on the island.
This shore was very much like the other and the boys soon began to
retrace their steps.
As they neared the place where they had left their venison hung in a
tree, their ears were greeted with a curious sound of mingled grunt and
growl.
With their guns ready for instant use, the boys crept cautiously
forward. An exclamation burst from them as they came in sight of the
tree. Squatted round it in an angry, eager circle was a drove of at
least twenty wild boars; great, fierce-looking animals with dangerous
looking tusks. They were sniffing longingly, and looking up at the
suspended meat.
"Don't shoot, Walt," cried Charley, but his warning came too late.
Without pausing to think, Walter had discharged both barrels of his
shotgun at the huddled animals.
The effect was not what he had anticipated. The shot glanced
harmlessly off their thick hides, and with grunts of rage, the whole
drove charged for the smoke and sound.
"Get up a tree," shouted Charley, as he noted the effects of the shot.
Walter did not wait for a second bidding but swung himself up the
nearest tree which happened to be a huge spreading live oak. Charley
swarmed up after him in such haste that he dropped his rifle at the
foot of the tree. He was not a moment too soon for a large boar made a
lunge for his legs just as he drew them up.
"Now we are in for it," he exclaimed in disgust as he found a
comfortable seat in the fork of a limb.
"Oh, I guess they'll soon get tired and go away," Walter said
cheerfully.
But the boars seemed to have no such intention. They ranged themselves
around the foot of the tree as they had around the venison and sat
looking longingly up among the branches.
"I am going to try a shot at that big fellow that seems to be the boss
of the gang," said Walter after an hour had dragged away without the
animals showing any signs of leaving.
"Don't do it," Charley advised, "you can't kill him with that small
calibered revolver, and it will only make them madder than ever."
Walter put back his revolver with a sigh. "I guess you're right," he
admitted, "but, I declare, it makes me mad the way that big brute is
leering up at me."
Wearily the hours dragged away, the boys getting cramped and weary in
the tree, and the besiegers showing no sign of abatement in their
interest.
The darkness found two, very tired, hungry boys seated in the tree
while the boars still grunted in a circle around them.
With the rising of the moon came the distant tolling of the chapel bell
and the boys looked worriedly at each other.
"The captain and Chris will be frightened to death with that thing
tolling and we absent," Walter said.
"Yes, the captain will be sure to believe that we are all dead,"
Charley agreed. "There is something unearthly about that ringing, but
of course there is a natural cause for it if we could only discover it."
"After our experience last night I am almost ready to agree with the
captain and Chris," said Walter.
"Except for its worrying those two, I would not mind it in the least,"
Charley declared. "I am more upset by our position here. I guess we
will have to stay all night, those fellows below show no signs of
leaving."
"What's that?" cried Walter, excitedly.