Pete gave the bright hook a swing and cast it half-a-dozen yards from
the boat to where it fell with a splash, which was followed by a curious
movement of the amber-hued water; and then he began to snatch with the
line, so as to make the bright iron play about.
Then there was a sudden check.
"Back water, Master Nic," cried Pete. "I'm fast in zomething."
"Yes," said Nic, obeying his order; "you're caught in a sunken tree.
Mind, or you'll break your line."
"That's what I'm feared on, Master Nic, but it's 'bout the liveliest
tree I ever felt. Look where the line's going. I'm feared it's gone."
The line was cutting the water and gliding through Pete's fingers till
he checked it at the end, when a black tail rose above the surface and
fell with a splash, and the line slackened and was hauled in.
"Hook aren't gone, zir," said Pete as he drew it over the side. "Rum
vishing that there. Why, it were one o' them 'gators, five or six foot
long. Let's try lower down."
They tried as Pete suggested, and there was another boil in the water,
but the hook was drawn in without a touch; and Pete tried again and
again, till he felt the glistening iron seized by something which held
on fast.
"Got him this time, zir," said Pete, with his face lighting up. "It's a
vish now. One o' they pike things, and not zo very big."
"Haul in quick," cried Nic.
It was an unnecessary order, for the line was rapidly drawn close
inboard, and Pete lowered one hand to take a short grip and swing his
captive out of the water. But he put too much vigour into the effort,
and flung his prize right over just as it shook itself clear of the
hook, and fell upon the gunwale before glancing off back into the water.
No fish, but an alligator about thirty inches long.
"Ugh!" ejaculated Pete; "and I thought I'd got a vish. Never mind,
Master Nic. We'll have zomething good yet."
His companion did not feel hopeful. It was evident that the water
swarmed with the reptiles, and in spite of the terribly faint sensation
of hunger that was increasing fast, Nic felt disposed to tell his
companion to give up trying, when suddenly there was a fierce rush after
the glistening hook as it was being dragged through the water, a sudden
check, and the water boiled again as Pete hauled in the line, sea
fishing fashion, to get his captive into the boat before it could
struggle free from the clumsy hook.
This time success attended Pete's efforts. He got hold of the line
close to the iron, and with a vigorous swing threw his prize into the
boat just as the hook came away, leaving the fish to begin leaping
about, till Nic stunned it with a heavy blow from the boat-hook pole.
"I knowed we should do it, Master Nic," said Pete triumphantly. "There
now, aren't it zummat like one of our big pike at home? Now, that's
good to eat; and the next game's tie up to the zhore where there's some
dry wood, and we'll light a fire."
"Yes," said Nic as he bent over their prize. "I suppose it's what they
call the alligator-gar, Pete."
"Dessay it is, zir; but I don't care what they calls it--Ah, would you?"
cried Pete, stamping his bare foot upon the great fish as it made a leap
to escape. Nic too was on the alert, and he thrust the ragged head of
the pole between the teeth-armed, gaping jaws, which closed upon it
fiercely and held on.
But Pete's knife was out next moment, and a well-directed cut put the
savage creature beyond the power to do mischief.
"A twenty-pounder, Master Nic. Wish it were one o' your zalmon. There,
I'll zoon clean him, while you run the boat in at a good place."
"But how are we to get a fire, Pete?" said Nic anxiously, for an intense
feeling of hunger now set in.
"I'll zoon show you that, lad," replied Pete; and he did. In a very
short time after, by means of a little flint he carried in company with
his pocket-knife, the back of the blade, and some dry touchwood from a
rotting tree, he soon had a fire glowing, then blazing, for there was
dead-wood enough to make campfires for an army.
Another quarter of an hour passed, and the big fish was hissing and
spluttering on a wooden spit over the glowing embers; and at last they
were able to fall to and eat of the whitest, juiciest flesh--as it
seemed to them--that they had ever tasted.
"Bit o' zalt'd be worth anything now, Master Nic, and I wouldn't turn up
my nose at a good thick bit o' bread and butter, and a drop o' zyder'd
be better than river water; but, take it all together, I zay as zalmon's
nothing to this here, and we've got enough to last uz for a couple or
three days to come."
"Now for a few big leaves to wrap the rest in," said Nic at last, after
they had thoroughly satisfied their hunger.
"Right, Master Nic; but I must have a good drink o' water first."
"Yes," said Nic, suddenly awakening to the fact that he was extremely
thirsty, and he rose to his feet to utter a cry of horror.
"Pete--Pete! The boat! the boat!"
Pete leaped up and stared aghast, for the action of the running stream
had loosened the thin remnants of the rope with which they had moored
their boat. These had parted, and the craft was gliding rapidly away, a
quarter of a mile down the river.