Boy Chums in the Forest; Or, Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades

by John Henry Goldfrap

  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  PREPARATIONS.

  "Sit down, Charley," said the captain sternly, "are you crazy, lad?You can do nothing in your present state, and if you go and makeyourself sick, you will cause us all a deal of trouble and worry."

  Charley sank back upon his couch. "But there is so much to be done,Captain," he protested.

  "Now look here, lad," said the old sailor, "say those fellows have gottheir boat finished and start for that island we left this morning, itwill take them quite a while to get there and I expect they will lookit over a bit before following us. Take the time spent there and thetime it will take them to reach here, an' I reckon it will be late inthe afternoon before we see anything of them."

  "It won't do to take any chances, Captain. We had ought to be readynow."

  "Go ahead and say what you want done and we will do it while yousleep," said the captain. "But if you persist in getting up, I'll behanged if I'll do a stroke of work, outlaws or no outlaws."

  "Me neither," chimed in Chris.

  "Better go to sleep, Charley," advised his chum. "I am going to get anap, myself. I know I'll be able to work better for it."

  Charley gave in with an unwilling sigh. "All right, I suppose I'llhave to do as you all say."

  "Tell us your plans and we will see that they are carried out," thecaptain said.

  "We cannot keep those fellows from landing on the island," said theyoung leader, thoughtfully. "There are so many places where they cancome ashore, and we are too few to guard the entire coast. I do notthink we can even hold the walls against so many. There are more gapsin them than we could defend. I have thought it all over and I believethat all we can do is to confine the defense to this house. We oughtto be able to hold this place until the Indians come."

  "My ideas exactly," approved the captain.

  "It's the only sensible thing to do," Walter agreed.

  "To be successful, it is necessary for us to have a good supply of foodand water. I intended to dry the venison, but there is not time to dothat, you will have to cut it into thin strips and smoke it, that willnot take long and it will keep for several days. That big copper andall the gourds should be filled with water and brought inside. Whenthat is all done, we will have food and drink to last us a week withcare."

  "Chris and I will see to it all," said the captain arising. "Is thatall, lad?"

  "We had ought to keep a lookout at the landing so as to know when theycome and be ready for them."

  "We'll 'tend to that when we get the other chores done. It's too earlyto expect them yet, anyway. Now you lie down and get a nap, lads, anddon't worry, Chris and I will look out for everything."

  Charley laid back and closed his eyes, obediently, while Chris and thecaptain passed out of the hut to attend to the tasks set them.

  The two boys were soon fast asleep.

  It was noon before Walter awoke, sat up, and looked around him. Henoted that the workers had already completed their tasks; long stringsof smoked venison strips were hung down from the roof, gourds andcopper kettle were brimming full of sweet, clean water, and all of theguns had been freshly cleaned and oiled.

  Treading softly so as not to awaken his chum, Walter passed out of thehut.

  The captain and Chris were busily engaged in trying to dispatch a potof venison stewed with yams, and Walter lost no time in joining them.

  "Well, we are all through," observed the captain as he took a secondhelping of stew. "We would have called you to dinner, but I reckonedthe sleep would do you more good. How do you feel now?"

  "All right," Walter answered. "You should have left some of that workfor us to do, Captain."

  "I reckon you will have enough to do before we get a chance to leavethis island," said the old sailor with a sigh. "If you are through,Chris, take your gun and go down to the landing and keep a sharplookout. Those fellows had ought to be here this afternoon, some time.I will come down and spell you in a couple of hours."

  "You had better go in and get a nap yourself, Captain, while there isnothing doing," said Walter. "It may be all hands on deck to-night."

  "I reckon I'll take your advice, lad. I was awake all last nightworrying about you boys and I can't stand loss of sleep now like youyoung fellows. I will just take forty winks. Call me when it is timeto spell Chris."

  Walter sat waiting until the old sailor's loud snoring proclaimed hewas asleep. Then filling a small gourd with water from the spring, hemade his way into the fort, where he righted one of the overturnedcanoes and fished out a large package from under the stern and undidits fastenings. "I wonder they did not notice it when they carried thecanoe up," he muttered.

  For a long time he was busily engaged with the contents of the packageand the gourd of water. At last he gave a sigh of triumphantsatisfaction which died away as he heard Charley's voice calling hisname from the hut.

  With an exclamation of impatience, he emptied out the water, quicklybound up the package again, and thrust it back in its old place underthe canoe's stern deck, then turning the canoe again bottom up, hepassed out of the fort whistling, carelessly.

  Charley in the door of the hut eyed him curiously as he approached."What has happened to you?" he exclaimed, "you look as happy as if youhad discovered a gold mine."

  "Well, I haven't," laughed his chum, "how's your leg now?"

  "Stiff as a ramrod, and, whew, how it hurts," Charley said with agrimace of pain. "I can't bear my weight on it."

  "You don't want to try to," said Walter, severely. "Just go back toyour bunk and keep still. All the work is done, now, and I am goingdown to the landing right off to relieve Chris so that he can get alittle sleep."

  Charley obeyed and Walter made his way down to the landing where hefound Chris sitting on a log watching intently.

  Walter took the gun from the tired little darky and sent him up to thehut to rest.

  The hours passed swiftly by without any signs of the outlaws. Whendarkness fell, Walter abandoned his now useless post and made his wayup to the hut where he found his three companions gathered around thecamp-fire outside.

  "Have you seen anything of them?" Charley inquired anxiously as he camein sight. "Not a sign," Walter answered. "I think you have done wrongin lighting that fire," he continued gravely. "There was a bare chancethat they would have given up the chase after not finding us at thechief's island. If they are anywhere near, though, that fire will giveus dead away."

  "They would not have given up the chance of getting the plumes theyhave worked so hard to obtain as easily as all that," said his chumdecidedly. "Remember, they believe that Big Tiger and his son arestill with us and that the rest of the Indians are far away. No, theywould not have given up so easily after the trouble they have been to."

  Walter said no more but helped himself to an ear of corn and a piece offish and fell to eating.

  The silence that had fallen upon the party was broken by an exclamationfrom Chris.

  "Golly, dar dey is," he cried.

  Far off in the direction of the chief's island, a tiny shaft of lightpierced the darkness.

  "They are on the island we left," exclaimed Charley, "that's theircamp-fire."

  "No, no," said Walter. "See, it is getting bigger, I bet they havefired the wigwam."

  In a few minutes all the party agreed with Walter, there was nomistaking the cause of the pillar of flame that rose high in the air onthe distant island.

  They watched it in silence until it died down and nothing remained buta faint glare.

  "Let's go to bed," said Charley at last. "If they are on the chief'sisland, they will not bother us to-night."

  But after a short discussion, it was decided to stand guard and watch,Charley and Walter to stand on guard until midnight, and then to berelieved by Chris and the captain.

  The two sentinels climbed up on a portion of the wall that lay in theshadow of a big tree and from which they could command a good view ofthe rest of the wall and inclosure
itself.

  "I have been thinking that the unsavory reputation of this island maykeep those fellows from coming here," Walter observed in an undertone.

  "It will likely keep Indian Charley away, and I am more afraid of himthan all the balance. I do not think it will stop the rest though,"Charley answered, and they lapsed again into cautious silence.

  The minutes had lengthened into an hour when there fell upon their earsthe now familiar tolling of the bell.

  "I am going to have another look in that chapel," declared Walter, ashe slipped down from his perch.

  "I'd like to go with you," said Charley, wistfully, "but my game legwon't carry me that far." He watched his chum until he disappeared inthe shadow of the church.

  Walter hesitated for a moment at the chapel doorway. It required morecourage to enter that gloomy, black, mysterious interior, alone, thanit had when he and Charley were together. Summoning up all hisresolution he passed through the gaping doorway into the blacknessbeyond. All was dark and still inside, the bright moonlight shiningthrough the high little windows threw patches of ghostly light upon thewhite, ghastly walls. Walter felt his flesh creep as he made his waythrough the darkness up towards the bell.

  He stumbled often and bruised his knees against the stone seats but atlast he reached the little platform and stood beneath the little tower.He could not see up into its gloomy interior, but the great bell abovehim tolled mournfully on.

  For a space Walter stood silent, a superstitious dread creeping overhim. "Dreaming, dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." Ahorror grew upon him, a feeling that something, some beingantagonistic, repugnant to his very nature was sharing the darknesswith him. The strokes of the bell above him seemed to grow horriblymenacing to his feverish fancy. He struggled with himself to throw offthe mantle of terror descending upon him but the feeling grew and grew.With a rush of unreasoning anger he flung up his gun and fired at theswaying bell.

  A shrill, human-like cry rang out, the bell ceased tolling, and a heavybody crashed down at the terrified lad's feet.

  Throwing out his arms Walter sank to the floor in a dead faint.

  He opened his eyes again to see Charley bending over, examining him bythe light of a flaring torch.

  "What, what was it?" he whispered.

  Charley shifted the torch and held it close to a dark figure stretchedout on the stone floor.

  Its glare lit up a face strangely human, and bearing the apparent markof centuries in its furrowed features and wrinkled skin.

  "A big monkey," gasped Walter in astonishment.

  "Yes," said Charley gently, "an old man monkey, old, old, very, veryold."