JIMMY REFUSES TO GIVE UP THE GAME.
They were now fully in the great Gulf of Mexico, and headed for Tampa.
Nick had been able to enjoy bear steak to his heart's content. The
others pronounced the meat pretty dry, and poor eating; but when served
in the shape of a stew, or hash, it answered the purpose. There was a
whole lot, they decided, in knowing that it _was_ the genuine article.
Otherwise most of them would have declined to eat it, just as they would
tough beef.
"Jack, is it true that there are ten thousand of these mangrove
islands?"
"Well, you've got me there, Josh," laughed the leader of the little
expedition, as, several days after the adventure with the bear, the
three motor boats glided in and out among the queer collection of islets
that marks the southwestern coast of Florida.
"But that's what they're called on the map," insisted Josh.
"Oh! you don't suppose for a minute anybody in the wide world could ever
count these mud flats, covered with the everlasting mangrove, do you?"
Jack went on. "A few hundred, or even thousand more or less, wouldn't
matter."
"For my part," spoke up George, "there are just nine thousand, nine
hundred and ninety-nine too many. I could be satisfied with one island.
Why, for two days now, we've been going in and out of these bally old
bunches of mangroves, dodging storms, and fighting skeeters to beat the
band."
"You'd better be thankful," declared Herb, "that after you led us in a
trap, Jack took us out again, George. Only for him we might be lost
right now, miles deep in these everlasting tangles. You notice that now
we never get far away from a sight of the big water, don't you? It seems
a dangerous business for a small boat cruiser to wander into this nest
down here. He's apt to lose his head, and never come out again."
"Do we pull up soon, Jack?" asked Jimmy, beseechingly.
"Why, yes, as the afternoon is going," Jack replied; and then, as if
noticing the eagerness plainly marked upon his shipmate's freckled face,
he went on: "But what's in the wind with you, Jimmy? I can see that
you're thinking of some stunt."
Jimmy laughed at that. The three boats were moving slowly on, close
together, and he could easily send a significant look toward the
complacent Nick.
"Oh, I know what ails him, all right!" cried the fat boy.
"Then suppose you tell us, Nick?" George demanded.
"Jimmy's got an idea in his head that he's going to knock my record for
big fish all hollow, and this place strikes him as likely to pan out
well. Haven't I seen him watching those big tarpon jumping this very
afternoon? I just bet you he means to make a try for one of them, as
soon as we anchor for the night," and Nick completed his assertion with
a chuckle.
"And have ye any objection to my makin' a thry, tell me that?" Jimmy
demanded.
"Sure not," Nick immediately replied; "only you're bound to have all the
trouble for your pains, Jimmy boy."
"Ye think that way?" asked the other, suspiciously.
"Oh, for a lot of reasons!" came from the complacent Nick, ready to rest
upon his honors. "First off, you'd have to fish in one of our little
dinkies; and a tarpon is such a powerful fish, it'd drag you miles and
miles before giving up. Remember, you're not allowed the least help to
land the game."
Jimmy shook his head, and watched his rival from under his heavy
eyebrows.
"Secondly," continued the fat boy, airily, "the biggest tarpon ever
captured never weighed as much as two hundred pounds, remember that,
Jimmy. Jack, would you mind stating what we decided the weight of my
jewfish was?"
"We agreed on two hundred and thirty as about the right thing," came the
reply.
"There you are, Jimmy," mocked Nick. "Better forget all about tarpon,
and turn your attention to, say, whales."
"But, by the same token, they towld me whales never come this far south,
and so I'll never get square with ye that way," grumbled Jimmy. "But
never mind, me bhoy, sooner or later you'll meet up with defate. I'm
still studying the way I'm bound to bring ye to a Waterloo. The
Brannigans never gave up, rimimber. When ye laste expect it ye'll be
overwhelmed."
"Oh, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. And while you're worrying
that poor head of yours, Jimmy, about the ways and means of capturing a
three hundred pounder, I'm just going to keep on feasting on these fine
oysters we've been picking up right along. Yum! yum! how I do love 'em,
though!"
"Yes, we happen to know that," remarked Josh. "Fact is, we've heard you
make the same remark ever since we set out from Philadelphia on this
cruise."
"And if a fellow could see the piles of oysters Nick's gobbled since
that day, he'd be just staggered, that's what!" George put in,
sarcastically; for, as the fat boy sailed in his company, the skipper of
the _Wireless_ doubtless grew very weary of hearing constant reminders
concerning feasts, past and to come.
"Well," sang out Jack just then, "I don't see any reason why we
shouldn't pull up here as well as anywhere. Good anchorage, with a
chance for a breath of wind off the gulf tonight, that may keep the
savage little key mosquitoes fairly quiet. What say, fellows?"
As they were all of a mind, the halt was quickly brought about. They
anchored in the open; but in case of a sudden high wind arising that
threatened to make things unpleasant for the small craft, it would be
the easiest thing in the world to push around in the lee of the nearest
mangrove island, which would serve as a barrier against the storm.
Jimmy was soon seen paddling away in the dinky belonging to the speed
boat.
"Now what did he take your rifle for, Jack, if he expects to go
fishing?" asked George, while Nick cocked up his ears, and listened as
though interested.
"I asked him, and he only grinned at me," Jack replied. "But I made him
promise not to go beyond that big island you can see up the channel a
ways."
A short time later they heard a shot, followed by several others, that
made them sit up and take notice.
"Say, he got a crack at something!" Nick remarked, uneasily, for he
remembered how Jimmy had looked so queerly at him when departing, as
though he had something in his mind.
"Well, we'll soon know; and I can see him moving around in his boat up
yonder right now. Seems to me he's trying to get at something in among
the mangroves. He must have made a kill of it," Herb declared.
Ten minutes later and Jimmy was seen approaching, rowing steadily.
"Look at him, would you?" called out the anxious Nick; "he's dragging
something behind the boat, as sure as anything!"
Jack watched the performance for a minute or so, and then remarked:
"Looks to me like a big 'gator; and that's what it is, boys."
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Nick, bouncing up; "I wonder now does the silly
believe an alligator would count against my fish? Jack, I appeal to you
to give him the law as she's written in our compact."
But Jack refused to say anything prematurely.
"Wait till he makes his claim," he replied, with a laugh, as he watched
the sturdy labors of the Irish lad to rejoin them.
When Jimmy did arrive they saw that he had indeed managed to shoot an
unusually large mossback 'gator, which he had possibly discovered
sunning itself among the mangroves. As a rule the creatures prefer the
fresh water, but may on occasion be found where there is a commingling
of salt and fresh.
The exultant captor was grinning, as if hugely pleased. He nodded his
head in the direction of the staring Nick, as he finally came alongside.
Then they saw that he had been wise enough to take a rope along with
him, which had been hitched around the body of the slain monster, just
back of the short forelegs. Nevertheless, it had taken considerable of
an effort to drag the saurian all the way from the place of the tragedy
to where the three motor boats were anchored.
Jimmy wiped the perspiration from his red face, as he exultantly cried
out:
"By the powers, can ye bate that, I'd loike to know, so I would? Two
hundred and thirty, did ye till me; sure this one must weight all of
twict that. I lave it to the umpire here to decide, contint to rest on
me laurels."
Nick began to show signs of tremendous excitement at once.
"How about that, Jack?" he pleaded. "He went and shot it with the rifle,
don't you know? I don't call that fishing, now, do you?"
"I've heard of people who shoot fish with a rifle, lots of times,"
commented Herb, just to excite Nick a little more.
"Yes, but don't tell me an alligator is a fish!" exclaimed Nick, in
great disgust. "Why, when I was in the lower grade in school they taught
us to call it just a _rep-tile_!"
At that a shout went up from the balance of the voyagers.
"You'll have to settle this right on the spot, Jack," declared George.
"Get out the articles of war and read what it says; that's the only fair
way," remarked Herb.
So Jack deliberately took out his notebook, and in a sing-song tone,
assumed for the purpose, read as he had done once before at Jimmy's
request:
"'Each contestant shall have the liberty of fishing as often as he
pleases, and the fish may be taken in any sort of manner--the one
stipulation being that the capture shall be undertaken by the contestant
alone and unaided; and that he must have possession of the fish long
enough to show the same, and have its weight either estimated or
proven.'"
"Well, here it is before ye, and riddy to be weighed!" said Jimmy,
stoutly.
"But Jack, what do you say, _is_ an alligator a fish in the true sense
of the word?" demanded Nick, stubbornly.
"As the umpire in this dispute," said Jack, solemnly, "I am forced to
disallow the claim Jimmy makes. No matter how he got his prize, we can't
swallow what he says about an alligator being a fish, even if it does
swim under water; for it couldn't live there at all, but has to come up
on shore. So Jimmy, you'll have to try again; and better luck to you
next time!"