IN FLORIDA BAY
After the _Irene_ had sailed twenty miles down the coast and was
about opposite East Cape (Sable) Captain Hull asked for his orders.
"Isn't Madeira Hammock on the coast, about thirty miles from here?"
inquired Ned.
"Yes, but you will have to go seventy to get there. You've got to go
way round by the keys."
"Isn't there water enough for the _Irene_ along the coast?"
"Isn't enough to float the skiff. You can go about ten miles. After
that there's an inch of water and I reckon a mile of blue, soft,
sticky mud. I've been a few feet down in it and the farther I went
the softer and stickier it got."
"Suppose we go the ten miles you talk about what will we find?"
"Tarpon, sharks, porpoises, lots of fish, birds and enough sawfish
to make a picket fence of their saws all around the coast."
"That's us, Captain," said Ned.
And the _Irene's_ mud hook went to the bottom that night in eight
feet of water off Joe Kemp's Key.
In the shoal water over the broad banks which lay to the south and
east of the _Irene_ the bayonet fins of many tarpon rose high above
the surface as the fish beneath them pursued their prey. Often the
two fins shown by a wandering shark swept swiftly across a bank, or
three big reddish fins moving in a straight line slowly behind a
great, swaying, four-foot weapon marked the course of a fifteen-foot
sawfish. There was water to float the power boat in the channels
between the banks, and families of porpoises or dolphins were always
ready to serve as pilots and point the path through these
labyrinthine waterways. A school of porpoises, rolling in the water
and leaping in the air, passed the motor boat as if they had been
telephoned for in the greatest haste. Two minutes later, a quarter
of a mile away, a great splashing could be seen and huge bodies
hurled in the air, which seemed to be filled with flying fragments.
The power boat, with Molly at the wheel, started for the fray at its
best speed and when it reached the battlefield its occupants saw a
little band of porpoises in the midst of a great school of silver
mullet. Each blow of a porpoise tail sent several mullet flying in
the air, each blow that was struck was followed by a quick turn or
leap of the agile animal for the victim which it caught before it
fell. Ned and Dick were in the skiff which had been towed by the
power boat, hoping to harpoon a sawfish or a shark. They had not
before thought of the swift and wary porpoise. They called to the
captain to cast them loose, and soon Ned was poling the skiff toward
the busy porpoises while Dick stood in the bow of the skiff with his
harpoon handy. Quick as a flash the porpoises separated and
scattered in every direction and the boys followed several in vain.
Then Molly took a hand in the game and sent the power boat at one
after another of them until the captain called to her:
"If you'll stick to one you'll run him down."
Then Molly kept steadily after a single porpoise, until the animal
came to understand that it was the chosen victim, and quickly put
half a mile between it and its pursuer. In a few minutes the half
mile between them had vanished and the creature made another frantic
dash. After that it swam back and forth as if confused, and traveled
in narrowing circles, wasting its strength, while the wheel of the
pursuing boat rolled back and forth without ceasing as it followed
the course of the animal or took short cuts to head it off. The boys
came near with the skiff, but the worried quarry paid so little heed
to them that soon Dick sunk his harpoon in the tail of the porpoise.
All the life and strength of the creature seemed to come back and it
threw a column of water in the air which nearly swamped the skiff,
while Dick's hands were torn and blistered by the outgoing harpoon
line, before way could be had on the skiff. The frantic creature
tore back and forth, sometimes striking the skiff a powerful blow
with its tremendous tail as it passed, sometimes towing it at high
speed until Dick, who was not yet strong, was more tired than the
porpoise. He changed places with Ned and the two were nearly worn
out when the porpoise surrendered.
They took the harpoon from the animal's tail and tried to drag the
creature over the gunwale of the skiff, but found it too heavy for
them. At length they lifted and dragged the porpoise up on the
gunwale of the skiff which they pressed down until the water was
beginning to flow over it. Half of the animal was now over the side
of the skiff and the boys threw their weight backward expecting to
roll the porpoise into the bottom of the craft. This would have
happened if the porpoise had kept still, which it neglected to do.
With a blow of its tail on the water the animal threw its own body
forward and Ned and Dick found assistance instead of resistance as
they pulled, and promptly went over backward into the water with the
porpoise and the capsized skiff on top of them. When they got to the
surface their captive had escaped, but the power boat was beside
them with three highly edified occupants. After the skiff had been
righted and bailed out and the floating poles, oar, hats, and line
tub gathered in, Ned saw the fin and swaying tail of a shark cutting
the surface of the water near them, and calling on Dick to take the
harpoon, began to pole the skiff toward the tiger of the sea.
"Look out," shouted the captain. "That's a shark. You'll lose your
iron if you strike him."
Th captain spoke too late, for the shark was struck and the skiff
was towed at speed for a hundred feet by the angry fish, which then
turned and rolled up on the taut line till it caught the rope in its
mouth and bit it in two as easily as scissors snip thread.
"Told you so," said the captain. "A shark always bites the line and
often rolls up in it. An alligator always rolls up in it, but can't
bite it. I've had an alligator roll up against a skiff and pretty
near come aboard after I'd harpooned it. There's another harpoon on
the _Irene_, and I'll fix it to-night with a few feet of wire for
the next shark to bite on. I reckon it'll give him a surprise."
Molly was in full command of the power boat for the day, and as
harpooning was over, she ran it at her own sweet will. Sometimes the
captain helped her with a hint when he saw her heading for water
that was too shoal. The course she took was southerly and brought
her near Man-o'-war Bush, from which rose hundreds of man-o'-war
hawks, or frigate pelicans, the most graceful bird on the continent,
excepting the fork-tailed kite. These birds soared high overhead,
circling, rising and falling with scarcely a perceptible motion of
their wings. From another key a flock of roseate spoon-bill, or pink
curlew, flew at the approach of the boat, while young herons sat
fearlessly on branches of trees or spread wings and stretched long
legs as they fled in affright.
That night Mr. Barstow called a council on the cabin top.
"Boys, I would like to have you make Miami in four days from now, if
you can manage it."
"That's easy," said Ned. "We can make the trip in a day. That leaves
us one day here and two at Madeira Hammock to find Dick's pet
crocodile."
"If you're going to Miami by way of Madeira Hammock," said the
captain, "you'd better allow two days for the trip. You're likely to
get some tangled up in that country."
"Then we'll cut out our day here. We have had our share of fun out
of this place. What is there in that bay to the east of us,
Captain?"
"There's a creek that leads to the Cuthbert Rookery, but it isn't
the season for that. It's a hard trip anyway, through small
salt-water lakes and little overgrown creeks where you have to drag
your skiff most of the way. And you've got to carry all the water
you drink and you won't find that a joke."
"We have had all we want of that kind of country, Captain, so we'll
hike out of here at daylight and get to Madeira Hammock quick as you
can find the way."
"I can find the way now, anyhow as far as Lignum Vitae Key, and if
the tide doesn't bother me too much in the cut, maybe to Hammer
Point. Beyond that I want daylight and then I ain't sure. Do you
want to make a night run?"
"Sure," said both the boys together.
"If you will excuse me from any share in this night navigation,"
said Mr. Barstow, "I think I will turn in. How is it with you,
Molly?"
"Oh, I'll stay up a while and help Captain Hull navigate the ship."
The moon rose soon after the anchor was broken out, and its light
reflected from the white canvas of the bellying sails and the tops
of the white-capped waves, gave a dream-like beauty to the night.
Captain Molly called to Engineer Dick:
"Stop that noise in the engine room!" and Dick promptly shut off the
gasoline from the motor. Captain Hull made no complaint of this
mutinous interference with his authority, but said:
"That's right, we don't need the engine now and I reckon we ain't
going to need it to-night."
The wind was fair and strong from the north, and every minute its
sweep grew wider and the waves bigger as the _Irene_ drew from under
the shelter of the cape. The captain and Ned stood by the wheel,
while the girl and Dick sat on the front of the cabin in the
moonlight, watching the white water that rose from under the bow of
the clumsy craft, with each heavy blow that it struck upon the
waves.
[Illustration: "YOUNG HERONS SPREAD WINGS AND STRETCHED LONG LEGS AS
THEY FLED"]
As they sailed the wind grew stronger and at Horse-neck Shoals the
crest of breaking waves covered the deck of the _Irene_ with foam.
Following the swish of each heaving wave as it lifted and swept
past the boat came a heavy jar as the craft struck in the soft mud
beneath her and her headway was checked.
"It's all right," said the captain, in answer to Ned's look of
anxiety. "I expected her to touch, but she'll pull through."
No one else was alarmed, for Mr. Barstow was asleep in his bunk
below, while Molly and Dick were too busy watching the effect of the
moonlight on the breaking waves and the distant keys to notice that
anything unusual was happening. Soon the water became deeper, the
waves ceased breaking and subsided, and the _Irene_ sailed smoothly
on till she was hauled up in the wind to enter the cut in the bank
near Lignum Vitae Key, through which an adverse tide was pouring.
Dick was called from his post near the bow to start the motor, which
was kept running until the boat had made her way through the channel
between the white banks that showed clear under the moon as daylight
could have made them. Then the motor was shut off and Dick returned
to his post and resumed his study of moonlight effects as its rays
fell on the palms of Lignum Vitae, the line of outer keys, the
Matecumbies, and the jewel of an Indian Key, of which he told Molly
the legend. At this Molly jumped up and said:
"It's all too lovely for anything and Daddy has got to come on deck
and see it."
She went below and when she returned had Mr. Barstow in tow, to
whom she pointed out the beauties of sea and sky, of clouds and
light just as Dick had been doing to her. Then she went for Captain
Hull, who turned the wheel over to Ned and came forward, where he
answered the rapid fire of the girl's questions, about Shell,
McGinty and other keys as they passed them and about the channel and
cuts through which their course lay, until he assured her he had
told all he knew and if she remembered it she was as good a pilot as
he. But questions continued until, having passed Tavernier Creek and
neared Hammer Point, the _Irene_ was anchored for the night.
All hands were on deck when the rays of the next morning's sun first
fell on the mirror-like water about them, but Ned spoke sadly as he
said:
"I've shipped as cook and I s'pose I've got to get breakfast, but I
wish my assistant didn't waste so much of her time."
"If you'd let me keep the cook I hired we'd have crawfish for
breakfast," said Captain Hull.
"Where would we get them?" inquired Ned.
"Every one of these coral keys is built on crawfish and Snake Creek
here is full of 'em."
"Then after you've shown us a lot of crawfish and we've caught them
we'll have breakfast."
Captain Hull lashed two tarpon hooks to broomsticks, and getting in
the skiff with Molly and the two boys, poled to the nearest key.
Beneath the water the steep coral banks of the key were filled with
deep holes from out of many of which long feelers projected. Pushing
a hook into one of these holes the captain gave it a quick turn and
brought out a squirming, squeaking imitation of a young lobster.
Then he handed the hooks to the boys. Ned got overboard and began to
haul out crawfish at the rate of two a minute. Dick was less
successful, for Molly had promptly commandeered his hook and left
him nothing to do but watch her when she tried to hook the
shell-fish. They didn't get many fish and when Ned came along with a
bunch of crawfish which he dropped in the skiff, he said:
"Here, you kids, you aren't earning your salt. Just take my hook,
Dick, and catch some crawfish. I'll help Molly do whatever she's
doing."
On the way to the _Irene_ Molly called out:
"Oh, the beautiful, beautiful, bubble!"
"Don't touch it," shouted Dick.
But he was too late, for Molly had picked up a Portuguese man-o'-war
and sat wringing her hands with the pain of its poison. For, while
nothing in nature is more exquisite, few things are more virulent
than this animated, opalescent, iridescent bubble with its long,
delicate, purplish tentacles.
Molly's hand pained her all that day and the next, while Dick's
commiseration was boundless, but was kept in restraint by Ned, who
frequently assured both of them that, although a surgical case, it
was probably not quite hopeless. A run of two hours in directions
that varied, but averaged northwest, brought the _Irene_ to Madeira
Hammock, where the anchor was dropped.