MADEIRA HAMMOCK AND--THE END
[Illustration: "THEY SAW A CROCODILE SWIMMING UNDER WATER NEAR
THEM"]
Mr. Barstow wanted to explore Deer Key which was nearby and Ned took
him there in the power boat. The captain took Molly and Dick out in
the skiff to show them a crocodile and Dick stood in the bow with
the harpoon while Molly sat amidship and the captain poled. Almost
as they left the _Irene_ they saw a crocodile swimming under water
near them, but failed to get another sight of him. They cruised
vainly in open water, beside banks and in narrow channels. Finally
while going through a narrow creek a wave rolling high ahead of the
skiff showed that some big creature was fleeing before them. The
next moment a four-foot weapon of a hand's breadth, armed with a
double row of teeth, was lifted for a second above the surface and
was followed by the three fins, tandem, that proved the presence of
a sawfish. Dick fairly quivered with excitement as he held his
harpoon at ready.
"Captain," said he sharply, "will there be the least bit of danger
to Miss Barstow if I strike that fish now?"
"There'll be some, of course. If he turns round and comes back at
us in this narrow creek the only safe place will be in the bottom of
the boat."
"Dick Williams, don't you stop for me. I'm not a bit afraid. If you
don't harpoon that sawfish and give me his saw, I won't speak to you
for a week," said the excited girl.
"No use, Molly, I wouldn't do it if it meant that you'd never speak
to me."
"If Miss Barstow will wait on the bank for half an hour you can
bring her the saw, all right," said the captain, who seemed anxious
to oblige both of the passengers.
"Put me ashore quick, then."
The girl was soon standing on the bank and the chase was renewed. A
hundred yards farther up the narrow stream the great sawfish was
found swimming slowly across a bank where the water was shoal, with
his two fins and tail showing in line above the water. As the
harpoon pole was lifted and Dick's every muscle strained for the
throw, the captain shouted:
"Throw three feet ahead of that forward fin. That's where his back
is."
The harpoon struck the fish in the middle of his wide back and as
the freed pole splashed in the water the sawfish made a mighty swirl
and was off at express speed. The line was strong, the barb of the
harpoon was under the tough leather of the creature's back, and the
skiff seemed to fly through the water as Dick gave the line a turn
around his hand and the captain fended the skiff from the banks when
sharp turns were made by the flying fish as it followed the channels
of the crooked creeks. Sometimes the stream broadened, often it
narrowed; once the sawfish dashed through an overgrown waterway
where Dick and the captain crouched to the gunwale to avoid the
arching branches that swept over and tore at the sides of the skiff.
There was half an hour of this work. Dick's hands were blistered and
numb and his brain dizzy with the quick turns and changing courses
of the fish, when suddenly he became panic-stricken and called to
his companion:
"Captain! Are you perfectly _sure_ you know where you are? _Sure_
you can find Miss Barstow?"
The captain laughed.
"Find her? Why she's here within a hundred feet of you now."
And, sure enough, the next turn in the creek showed the girl
standing on the bank by the water's edge.
"Can't I get aboard?" she called out as the skiff swept past, and
Dick would have said "Yes," but the captain shook his head.
"There's trouble ahead. That fish is just getting ready to fight."
Before they had passed out of sight of the girl, the sawfish turned
around and for the first time headed for the skiff.
"Down, quick!" yelled the captain and both Dick and he crouched low
in the skiff as a great broad sword, swung with all the power of the
tremendous fish, swept over their heads. As the angry creature
passed them, a second blow which fell upon the skiff and threatened
to wreck it was echoed by a cry from the girl. The attack on the
skiff was the last great effort of the fish, and though he still
swam strongly he could be controlled. The captain ran the skiff on a
shallow bank and helped Dick with the line until sixteen feet of
fierceness lay stranded on the bank. As the sawfish is a species of
shark, Dick had no hesitancy about killing it, but wanted Molly to
first see his captive and have a look at her saw, before it left the
place where it grew. The captain brought the girl, and then a rope
was made fast to the saw of the fish and tied to a tree, after which
the brute's brain was explored with an axe and the saw cut off as a
trophy.
[Illustration: "THE HARPOON STRUCK THE FISH IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS
BROAD BACK"]
"Better wake up," shouted the captain the next morning, before the
boys were stirring. "There's a shark outside waiting for you, and
I've wired your harpoon line."
The boys omitted their ablutions that morning and must have hurried
their devotions, for three minutes after they were called found them
aboard the skiff which they drove toward a big fin and a swaying
tail, which was cutting the water a hundred yards from the _Irene_.
As they neared the shark, Dick took the harpoon pole and made ready
with the harpoon, while Ned sculled quietly in the wake of the ugly
fish. Twice the shark heard them and darted away, but on the third
approach Dick drove the iron deep in the back of the brute. The
shark lashed out with its tail, sending the water flying as the
harpoon struck, and then made a straight-away dash for a hundred
yards while the boys rode in triumph behind it. Then the maddened
creature turned, and rolling up on the line, bit it savagely but
vainly.
Again and again the brute dashed away and again and again it turned,
biting at the line and attacking the boat with its teeth. Dick held
the skiff close to the shark, which lifted its head and seized the
gunwale in its huge mouth, when Ned struck the furious creature a
powerful blow on its nose with the axe. For a moment the brute
seemed paralyzed, but soon returned to the attack, when the boy
drove the point of the big gaff through the tough hide of the tiger
of the sea.
Ned held on to the handle of the gaff, although almost dragged
overboard during the first wild struggles of his captive, and then
hauled the head of the brute over the gunwale, where a few blows
with the axe ended the trouble.
When the boys got back to the _Irene_, Ned was happily surprised to
find ready a dainty breakfast which his assistant had graciously
prepared for all hands and which drew from him the unusual praise:
"A girl on a cruise is a mighty nice thing--sometimes."
The day was to be devoted to crocodile hunting and Dick went in the
skiff with the captain, while Molly was put in command of the power
boat with Ned as engineer and Mr. Barstow as passenger.
Several crocodile caves were found, but none of the inhabitants were
at home. One large crocodile showed itself for an instant, but the
river was deep, the overhanging banks offered good hiding places,
and the reptile escaped. It was after they had given the hunt up for
the day and were on their way to the _Irene_ that Dick, who had
stood faithfully at his post in the bow, with his harpoon ready,
threw hastily at something he saw crawling on the bottom and found
on the end of his line a squirming baby crocodile, scarcely four
feet long. The harpoon had barely touched the side of the little
reptile and the barb held by a thread-like bit of skin. When the boy
saw how lightly the iron was held he dropped the line and grabbed
the baby with both hands. His arms were scratched and his clothing
torn by the needle-like teeth before he could tie the jaws of the
creature, after which he took the baby crocodile in his arms and
tucked it away in the bow of the skiff. Before he had time to tie
the little reptile in its crib Ned shouted from the power boat:
"There's one under that bank, a big fellow."
The captain sculled the skiff slowly toward the crocodile, which was
lying on the water, just under the bank. As they approached, the
creature slowly sank beneath the surface of the water, which was
shallow, and beneath it a bottom of mud in which the fleeing reptile
had left his trail. The captain followed the trail by the
furrow-like track of the tail, the spoor of the paws and the roiled
water, until Dick got a shot with his harpoon. Then the crocodile
towed the skiff into the deeper channels of the river, among logs
and snags and under banks, sometimes rolling up on the line and
biting at the skiff while Dick vainly tried to get a bight of the
harpoon line around the creature's jaw. The reptile was too wary for
him, until finally the captain threatened the crocodile with a pole,
while Dick got a line around its jaws and took it in the skiff.
There was so little room in the skiff that Dick sat on the back of
his captive until they reached the _Irene_. If he had tried this
with an alligator he would have gone overboard, _pronto_, but when a
crocodile's jaws are tied he is gentler than most lambs.
[Illustration: "SIXTEEN FEET OF FIERCENESS LAY STRANDED ON THE
BANK"]
As soon as Dick had his new pets safely on the _Irene_ he examined
them carefully and then shouted to Ned:
"This is my old crocodile, the very one we turned loose when we were
here before. I'd know him in a thousand. Don't you remember the
broken point to the tooth that stuck out through his upper jaw, on
the right side, too? Why, Crocky, old boy, how are you? I'm mighty
glad to see you again."
"Don't you want to set them free to-morrow, Dick?" asked Mr.
Barstow.
"I don't, but I've got to."
"Would you rather send them North to be educated?"
"I surely would. I wish I could."
"I think it can be managed. I know of a zoological collection where
they will be very welcome. If you think they haven't been injured, I
will ship both of them North from Miami."
"They are all right. I know that. I made two bad throws and barely
touched both of them. I don't believe you could find where either of
them was hit, now."
"Then North they go."
The boys made a box for the little crocodile, gathered a lot of
grass for his bed and stowed him away in the hold where he would be
safe from the attentions of Tom. There was not enough lumber on
board to make a box for the big crocodile and the brute was put
overboard to pasture at the end of a hundred-foot line. As soon as
the crocodile was overboard Dick drew it beside the boat and untied
its jaws. At first it tried to get away, but soon gave it up and
thereafter rose to the surface every few minutes and gazed gravely
upon its new friends on the boat. When later the _Irene_ was ready
to sail, Dick drew his pet up to the side of the boat and tied his
jaws without remonstrance from the reptile. It took three of them to
haul the creature aboard, where it was fastened to a ringbolt on
deck for the first stage of its journey to the Zoo.
[Illustration: "THEY HAULED THE HEAD OF THE BRUTE OVER THE SIDE OF
THE BOAT"]
"Captain Hull," said Ned, as the whole party were watching the stars
from the cabin top and waiting for the moon to rise that night, "we
have got back from the Madeira Hammock every thing we lost there, so
we will start for Miami to-morrow."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"You know you said we might lose a day round here, and now we have
got a day to spare."
"You'll be lucky if you don't lose it. There's lots of chances
between here and Miami, or between here and anywhere. There isn't
six inches between the _Irene's_ bottom and the rocks this minute
and we're going to stir the mud a dozen times to-morrow."
"Supposing a storm comes while we are anchored so near the rocks?"
"Anybody who supposes in this country won't ever do anything else."
"Would we make anything by another night run?"
"Make sure to pile up on a bank so high that you'd have time to
homestead a farm before you got off."
The _Irene_ stirred the mud a few times the next day, but passed
through Blackwater, Barnes and Card sounds and all the cuts and
channels to Biscayne Bay without trouble. There a high wind and a
heavy sea held her back, so that it was dusk when the anchor was
dropped just outside of the mouth of Miami River. During this, their
last evening on the cabin roof of the _Irene_, Mr. Barstow said to
Dick:
"Do you feel perfectly well and strong again?"
"Never felt so well before in my life and am getting my strength
back fast."
"Then vacation ends for you and Ned to-day. To-morrow morning you
will take the train for the North, where you will have about two
weeks to spend with your mother. I will wire her from Miami about
our arrangement, which I am sure she will approve, and tell her when
she may expect you. Very soon you will receive your instructions.
You and Ned will be together, work the same, pay the same, and both
of you have my perfect confidence that you will justify every hope I
have of you."
"Mr. Barstow, I haven't any words--"
"Don't say anything, Dick, I understand it all, my boy. Just go
ahead and make good, both for yourself and me."
[Illustration: "HE TOOK THE BABY CROCODILE IN HIS ARMS"]
In the morning Ned and the captain distinguished themselves by
waking up a dealer, buying some lumber, hustling it aboard and
having the two crocodiles boxed up for transportation North in time
for the train of that day. How much of a feat that was requires a
residence in South Florida to appreciate.
The _Irene_ was run up the river to the railroad dock, where the
crocodiles were put on the cars and the boys took their train for
the North. When the good-byes were said, the captain carried Tom
across the dock on his shoulder and Dick's last act before leaving
was to formally present him to Molly.
THE END