A GREAT DISCOVERY
Now that the snake was certainly beyond the possibility of doing them
further harm, the boys could inspect it at their leisure. But even in
death the venomous reptile inspired them with horror. Fred shuddered as
he looked at him and thought of what might have been if the snake had
struck a little harder or had overtaken him in that desperate chase.
It was about a yard in length, and the body was strong and thick. The
short tail was provided with a row of shields and there was a horny
appendage at the end. The long triangular head had shallow pits on the
nose and the mouth was very wide. The color was a coppery brown and
there were reddish brown bands on the sides that became wider on the
lower end of the body, giving an appearance something like moccasins,
and from these the snake derived its name.
What the boys specially noticed was a white band that ran round the
creature’s mouth.
“That’s what gives it the other name it’s known by,” explained Lee.
“People call it the cotton mouth, because that white streak looks like
cotton.”
“It’s the ugliest thing I ever saw!” exclaimed Fred. “I only hope I
never see another. You bet that I’m going to watch my step for the rest
of the time we’re in this swamp.”
“Once we get out of this, you’re not likely to see one again,” Lee
assured him. “They’re mostly found in wet, marshy places and I’ve never
seen one on dry parts of the plantation. There are plenty of them in the
low-lying rice fields, and the darkeys stand in deadly fear of them.”
“I don’t blame them,” remarked Bobby. “But come now, fellows, let’s get
along. There’s nothing to keep us here any longer, unless,” he added
with a laugh, “Fred wants to take this fellow’s head along as a
souvenir.”
“Not on your life!” declared Fred emphatically. “I’ll see that head
often enough in my dreams as it is. Gee, Bobby,” he continued with a
sigh of relief, “it was a mighty lucky thing you had that hatchet along
with you.”
“And luckier yet that he threw it just right,” put in Lee. “That’s what
comes from being a good ball player. One learns how to throw.”
“Don’t give me any credit for that,” protested Bobby. “I might just as
well have hit him with the handle instead of the blade. Luck sure was
with us.”
They left the loathsome reptile and made their way to higher ground,
picking their steps with exceeding care and avoiding as they would the
plague anything that looked like a thick stick.
Bobby was going ahead as fast as the tangled vines and shrubbery would
let him, when he gave an exclamation and fell to his knees.
“What’s the matter?” asked his companions in alarm, running up to him.
“Stubbed my toe on something hard,” explained Bobby, rising to his feet
and brushing himself off, “and barked my shins in the bargain as I went
down. Kicked against a stone, I imagine.”
“That’s funny,” said Lee. “There are mighty few stones around here. It
must have been a stump.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter much,” replied Bobby. “It brought me down all
right, whether it was wood or stone. But just for curiosity, I’m going
to find out.”
He kicked away the grass and twigs and bent down to look.
“Why, that’s queer!” he exclaimed. “It’s stone, as I thought, but it
isn’t a rock. It’s been shaped with a chisel and it looks as though it
had figures or letters on it.”
“How on earth did a thing like that get here?” asked Fred, in a puzzled
tone.
“I can make out something like the letter C,” said Bobby. “C-A-R-T——why,
Lee, I believe it’s your name!”
The next instant he leaped to his feet, as the full significance of his
discovery flashed upon him.
“Hurrah!” he shouted. “Glory hallelujah! Lee, we’ve found one of the
boundary stones of your mother’s property.”
“What?” cried Lee, all a-tremble with excitement.
“Are you sure?” queried Fred, dropping on hands and knees beside his
friend.
“It sure looks like it,” affirmed Bobby, digging away like mad to
uncover more of the stone.
The others followed his example and made the dirt fly, for all the
world, as Fred said afterward, “like dogs digging out a woodchuck.”
A few minutes of hard work, and enough of the stone was uncovered to
permit them to make out the inscription. It was time-stained and
weatherbeaten, but read as follows:
S.E. _Limit of property of_ N. CARTIER, _Laboulaye Parish, La._
Then followed some surveyor’s signs and symbols, which to the boys were
like so much Greek. Underneath these however was an arrow pointing in a
certain direction, and Bobby studied this for several minutes with great
attention.
“What do you make of it?” asked Fred curiously, as he noted his friend’s
puckered brow.
“This arrow means something,” replied Bobby, “and I think we’d better
follow in the direction in which it points. I tell you what we do. You
stand here, Fred, and Lee and I will follow the line of the arrow. If
you see us getting out of line, you wave to us and set us right.”
This was agreed to, and Bobby and Lee set out. They had gone a distance
of perhaps two hundred yards, when Bobby’s keen eyes saw a rim of stone
just projecting above the ground. They cleared away the moss and rubbish
about it and found that it was another landmark, practically the same as
the first, except that in this case the arrow pointed slightly in
another direction, showing that the boundary line veered at that point.
They shouted to Fred and he quickly rejoined them.
“Now,” said Bobby jubilantly, “the rest will be easy. All we’ve got to
do is to report the location of these two stones and a surveying party
can go from stone to stone and so trace out the whole boundary line of
the property.”
“Look!” exclaimed Fred suddenly, pointing to the right.
They looked and saw a figure just vanishing behind a tree.