CHAPTER VII
DODGING THE OLDEST INHABITANTS OF THE EVERGLADES
JUST in the instant that he halted young Halstead thrust out his leftarm, sweeping Ida Silsbee behind him.
“Don’t treat me as though you believed me a coward,” she remonstrated,speaking in a low voice.
“You’ll make me less of a coward if you don’t expose yourselfneedlessly to danger,” Tom retorted, in an equally low voice.
Though the alligator is a cumbersome looking animal on land, both knewfrom their reading that this four-legged reptile will sometimes showunlooked-for speed on its short legs.
Both alligators were now fully on land, their scaled bodies glisteningin the soft sunlight. One had opened its great jaws as though to yawn,and the other at once followed the example.
Both stood within half a dozen feet of the launch’s bow, which meantthat a sudden dash for the boat was out of the question.
“With this stick in my hand I feel like an amateur fireman tryingto put out the San Francisco fire with a watering-pot,” Halsteadwhispered, dryly.
Ida Silsbee laughed low and nervously.
“Do alligators climb trees?” she asked.
“I never heard of one that could do it.”
“Then, at the worst, we might climb a tree. I—I suppose you could helpme.”
“I’d sooner be in that launch, with the engine started, than up anytree on the island,” the boy answered.
“What would you do, if you were alone?” the girl asked.
“I don’t know. I might take to the water, swim to the stern of thelaunch, climb in and try to shove off.”
“Then why don’t you do it?”
“And leave you alone, Miss Silsbee, even for a few moments?”
“I could run across the island if those ugly-looking beasts started inmy direction. You could pick me up at some other point of the shore.”
“Have you forgotten the snakes?” demanded Tom.
“Ugh! Don’t make me more afraid.”
“I don’t want to, Miss Silsbee. But neither do I want to see you forgetany of the risks of our position.”
One of the big alligators, after eyeing them for some moments, startedup the rise of ground toward them. From the slowness of its movementsit looked as though the huge thing was bent mainly on securing a goodpoint at which to sun itself, but Halstead and the girl retreatedslowly.
“See,” whispered Halstead, “the other ’gator is moving a bit east alongthe shore. Let’s run down to the west shore. There we may be in aposition to reach the launch bye and bye.”
As they stole along cautiously, in the direction Tom had indicated,each had to be careful in picking footing on the soft, springy ground,else it was impossible to tell when they might step upon a hiddenrattler. Yet they gained the shore, at last, Tom in the lead. Herethey halted, a hundred feet from the launch. By this time the firstalligator had halted near the crest of the rise. Turning slowly, thebeast was eyeing the fugitives blinkingly. The second alligator wasnow some thirty feet from the further side of the launch, though stillquite close to the water.
“I wonder——” began Tom, hesitatingly.
“What?”
“Whether I could sprint along the shore like a streak, push the launchoff, jump in, and then have time to start the engine and get down herefor you?”
The ’Gator Started Up the Rise Toward Them.]
“Would you do that if you were here all alone?”
“In a second!”
“Then do it anyway,” begged Ida Silsbee. “I’m not brave, but I can takea fighting chance and follow orders.”
“I’m thinking of the risk, if——” began Halstead again, musingly and ina low voice.
“If what?”
“Well, what if the ’gator, seeing me coming, should turn and charge me,just miss me, and keep coming right on for you?”
“I’d run into the water, Mr. Halstead, for you to pick me up.”
“Good heavens! In the water that ’gator could go a hundred feet,almost, to your one!”
“Then I’d dash along the shore as fast as I could, until you could runthe boat down and pick me up.”
“I’m going to try it,” decided Halstead, coolly. “It seems to promisethe greatest safety for you.”
“But yourself?”
“Oh, confound me! I’m a boy.”
“You’re a man, Tom Halstead, and a splendid one at that!”
“I shall get my head turned, at this rate,” replied Tom, smiling dryly.“I’d better run at once.”
Grasping Ida Silsbee’s right hand, he thrust the tiller stick into it.
“Hold onto this. Don’t drop the stick, no matter what happens,” hedirected. “Use it against ’gators—or snakes.”
Then, without loss of an instant’s time, he turned and sprinteddesperately. A hundred feet is a short distance when one is travelingas though on air.
Seeing the boy coming, the alligator wheeled clumsily about. By thistime, however, Tom Halstead’s hands rested against the bow of the boat.At the start of the run he had opened his sailor’s clasp knife. At onestout slash the boy cut the line holding the boat. Then he shoved offwith his hands, and made a flying vault into the boat. Nor did he losea second, as the boat drifted out from the shore, in starting the motor.
After the first moment’s hesitation the big ’gator started for theboat, as if scenting an enemy that might be vanquished. Seeing the highbow of the launch slip away, the ’gator kept on, lumberingly, towardMiss Silsbee.
Chug! chug! chug! sounded the motor’s exhaust, firing like pistolshots. The clumsy beast stopped an instant, as though wondering whatnew style of attack this could be on man’s part. Then, finding thatno harm came, the big saurian reptile eyed Ida Silsbee’s flutteringskirts, and kept on lumbering toward her.
“Stay where you are!” called Tom Halstead, in a cool, low voice. Itwas typical of him that, the greater the danger, the more intense hiscoolness. His right hand on the wheel, the other ready to shift themotor control, he darted in to where Miss Silsbee stood bravely eyeingthe oncoming alligator.
As the bow grated, Tom Halstead sprang up.
“Your hand!” he cried. “Like lightning!”
As she sprang, then half-stumbled, the alligator’s head was hardly morethan twenty feet away. With a quick out-shoot of its breath the bigcreature hastened forward.
Tom half lifted, half dragged Ida into the boat, at the same timetaking the tiller stick from her. Almost at the instant when her heelscleared the gunwale a huge pair of jaws loomed up close beside the bow.
Not really pausing to think what he did, Halstead let out a yellthat would have done credit to one of the Seminole aborigines of theEverglades. In the same flashing instant he rammed the tiller stick fardown into the mouth of the alligator.
His left hand caught the reverse gear. The propeller churned andthe launch glided out, stern foremost, into deeper water, while thealligator, bringing its jaws down with a crunching snap on the bar ofwood, went through some absurd antics in trying to expel the tillerstick from its mouth. Then Tom Halstead laughed.
“Not such bad sport, eh, Miss Silsbee?”
He had backed far enough out, now, to turn on the speed ahead and swingaround, heading north.
Though she trembled a bit from excitement, Ida Silsbee leaned forward,catching the boy’s disengaged right hand and holding it in friendlypressure for a moment.
“Tom Halstead, it’s more than a pleasure to know one like you!”
The young captain laughed quietly as he thanked her.
“I reckon we’ll have some appetite for lunch, now, Miss Silsbee. Yet Ialmost feel that I owe you an apology.”
“For what, pray?”
“For not having been clever enough to find some way of killing thatlumbering beast and presenting you with its hide. What a novel suitcaseit would have made for you.”
Ida Silsbee laughed merrily. There was so much clear grit in hermake-up that she had now
recovered her composure fully.
“You’re not easily pleased, are you?” she challenged, whimsically.
“Well, we’ll have to admit we made a bungle of the affair all around,”teased Tom. “For you see, after all we left the moss behind on theisland.”
“Oh, that moss!” cried the girl, pouting. “I’m glad I did drop it, forI shall always hate that particular species of moss whenever I think ofthe fate it so nearly brought upon us.”
The launch was now slipping over the water at its full speed, so it wasnot long ere these young travelers came in sight of the Tremaine winterbungalow once more.
Henry Tremaine and his wife were alone on the porch as the boat’swhistle sounded just before the landing was made.
Oliver Dixon had stolen away by himself, consuming himself with rageover the fact that Ida should have chosen to slip away without invitinghim. Dixon came outside, however, as the young people came up theboardwalk together.
“Oh, Mrs. Tremaine, you have missed such a stirring time,” hailed MissSilsbee, gayly.
Tom Halstead laughed, quietly. Hearing their arrival, Joe also cameout. Miss Silsbee, of course, had to describe their adventure, in whichTom Halstead’s share lost nothing by her telling.
“I hope you’ll take a sufficient warning from this, child,” said Mr.Tremaine, presently. “Never venture onto any of the islands, or in anyof these woods hereabouts, unless beaters go ahead of you to rouse upand despatch whatever snakes there may be lurking under the bushes.”
“Beaters?” inquired the girl.
“Yes; any of the negroes, like Ham, for instance. They don’t mindsnakes. They hunt them for sport.”
Ham Mockus made his presence in the background noted.
“Men of your color don’t mind hunting snakes, do you, Ham?” asked thehost.
“No, sah. Ah reckons not much, sah.”
“In fact, none of the natives here stand much in dread of reptiles,”continued Tremaine. “They’re used to hunting them, and seem to developa special instinct for knowing where the snakes are. Young Randolphand Ham, I venture to believe, would go through a twenty-acre field,finding and killing all the snakes there happened to be there.”
“This talk is becoming rather annoying, my dear,” shivered Mrs.Tremaine.
“I beg your pardon, then,” responded her husband, quickly. “We’llconsider something more cheerful.”
“Dat’s w’ut Ah gwine come to tell yo’ ’bout,” declared Ham, gravely.“Ladies an’ gemmen, luncheon’s done served. Yassuh!”
The Motor Boat Club in Florida; or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp Page 7
