CHAPTER VI
FIRE!
The other schoolboys found Lee in the private room that had been setapart for him, propped up with pillows in a big easy chair and wrappedsnugly in a bathrobe. His face was pale from his illness, but it lightedup when he saw his visitors.
“I was just wishing you fellows would drop in,” he said, as they shookhands with him and pulled their chairs up close.
“It must get awful poky cooped up in the room so long,” said Bobbysympathetically.
“It sure does,” rejoined the boy from the South. “Of course I have booksto read that help to pass away the time, but that isn’t like being withthe fellows. Not that I’ve read very much this afternoon,” he went on,“because I’ve been too busy looking at the snow. Do you know that thisis the first real snow storm I have ever seen?”
“Is that so?” queried Fred in astonishment. “We see so much of it everyyear that it gets to be an old story with us.”
“You’ve got an awful lot of fun coming to you,” put in Sparrow. “There’sskating and ice sailing and coasting and snowballing and lots ofthings.”
“Not forgetting muskratting and fishing through the ice,” added Fred.“Maybe we didn’t have a lot of fun the winter we spent up in SnowtopCamp, eh, fellows?”
“You bet we did,” agreed Sparrow, and launched into a long descriptionof that memorable winter holiday in the Big Woods, not forgetting thebear and the wildcat and the snowslide that buried the house, and otheradventures, to all of which Lee Cartier listened with the most raptattention and interest.
“It must have been great,” he murmured with a sigh of envy. “I can seethat I’ve got a lot of fun waiting for me as soon as I can get outdoorsagain. And I hope it won’t be long till then. The doctor said to-daythat I could probably be outdoors in a week.”
“That’s bully,” said Bobby. “But do you really mean, Lee, that you’venever seen snow before?”
“Oh, I’ve seen little flurries of it once or twice,” replied Lee, “butit’s never amounted to anything, and it’s melted just as soon as itstruck the ground. Down in Louisiana, where I come from, it’spractically summer all the year round. While it’s been snowing hereto-day, people have been going in swimming down there. The darkeys aregoing round barefooted, women are fanning themselves, and men are goinground on the shady side of the street.”
“Nobody getting sunstruck, is there?” queried Fred with a grin.
“Well, perhaps not as bad as that,” smiled Lee, “but take it altogetherit’s almost as different there from what it is here as day is fromnight.”
“I saw a picture the other day of some boys shinning up cocoanut treessomewhere in the middle of January,” remarked Sparrow. “It seems funnyto think there should be such differences in the same country.”
“I’d like to spend some time down South,” said Bobby. “I’ve been outWest and almost everywhere else in the country except the South. Ofcourse we had a taste of what it was like when we went to Porto Rico.But I’d like to be somewhere in the South for weeks at a time, and learnjust how different things are from what they are here up North.”
“You’d enjoy it all right,” affirmed Lee. “You can fairly live outdoorsall the year round, and you’d find lots of things that would be strangeand interesting. I’d like to have you on my place where I could go roundwith you and show you the sights.”
“That would be fine,” agreed Bobby. “What town in Louisiana do you livein, Lee?”
“I don’t live in any town,” replied Lee. “The nearest town is Raneleigh,and that isn’t much more than a store and a railroad station. Mother andI live on a plantation. My folks have lived there for generations. Mygreat-grandfather had the property in the old days when Louisianabelonged to France.”
“I guessed you were French or of French descent because of the name,”said Bobby. “Let’s see, wasn’t there a Cartier who had something to dowith the discovery of America?”
“There was a Cartier who discovered parts of America in 1534,” repliedLee, “and he, I believe, was an ancestor of mine. That’s one bit ofhistory that’s been pretty well dinned into me,” he added with a smile.“Our people, you know, put a lot of value on their ancestry, though Inever cared much for it. My mother too was of French descent, as one cantell from her first name, Celeste.”
“Is the plantation a big one?” asked Bobby.
“Pretty big,” replied Lee, “though not as big as it was before the CivilWar. That was in the days when people kept slaves, and our folk had alot of them and thousands of acres of land. But after the war was over,a lot of the land was sold, and now we have only a few hundred acres.And I don’t know how long we’ll have that,” he added, a shadow comingover his brow.
“What do you mean?” asked Fred with ready sympathy.
“Oh, we’re having trouble about the boundary lines of the property,”explained Lee. “Some of the stones that mark the lines are missing, andthere’s a neighbor of ours named Boolus who’s claiming part of theproperty. We’re sure he is wrong, but we’re not able to prove it, andhe’s making us lots of trouble. He’s one of the meanest men in theparish and everybody hates and despises him. But he’s got lots of moneyand tricky lawyers, and it looks as though he were going to get the bestof us. But I don’t want to bother you about my troubles,” Lee added,brightening up. “I only wish I had you fellows down with me on theplantation while we still own it. I think I might be able to show youlots of things that would make you open your eyes, such as alligatorsand—”
“Alligators!” exclaimed Fred. “Do you have them down there?”
“You see you’ve made Fred open his eyes already,” said Bobby with alaugh.
“There are lots of them,” said Lee, “and big ones too. There’s a bigswamp on the edge of our property that they say is full of them. It’slots of fun hunting them.”
“Have you ever hunted them?” asked Sparrow with intense interest.
“I’ve never gone after them alone,” replied Lee, “but I’ve gone alongwith hunting parties and seen them caught.”
“How do they do it?” asked Fred.
“They dig them out of their holes,” explained Lee, pleased that he couldtell the boys something outside the range of their experience. “You seethe alligators have holes or burrows in the neighborhood of the water,where they crawl in at times. The hunters go along until they spy one ofthese burrows, which are not very deep below the surface of the ground.Then one of them takes a stout rope, makes a noose in it and hangs thisover the entrance to the hole. Others take a sharp spear or stake, andprod into the ground above where they know the alligator is lying. Thatstirs him up and he crawls out of his hole to see what’s the matter. Ashe comes out he sticks his head into the noose, and the man abovetightens it before he can back out. The brute tries to pull back intohis burrow, but all hands get hold of the rope and yank him out. As hisbody appears, other ropes are passed around him, and by the time he’sall out he’s pretty well trussed up. Sometimes though, he puts up anawful fight and breaks the ropes, and then you have to look out. If youever come within reach of his jaws or the swish of his tail, it’s all upwith you.”
“It must be awfully exciting,” exclaimed Fred.
“It is that all right,” agreed Lee. “Then we have lots of other sportsin which there’s plenty of fun. There’s badger hunting, and coon huntingwith the dogs at night, and once in a while a panther comes round, andtake it altogether there isn’t much dullness on the plantation. I onlywish you fellows could share the fun with me.”
“There’s nothing I’d like better,” said Bobby, and his companions noddedassent. “But Louisiana’s a long way off, and I guess we’ll have to takeit out in wishing. I suppose we’ll have to go now,” he added, reachingfor his cap, “though I’d like to stay for hours and hear you tell usthings about the South.”
“It’s done me a lot of good to have you fellows drop in,” said Lee. “Thedays seem mighty long here with no one but the doctor and the nurs
e tosee and talk to. Come in again just as often as you can.”
“We sure will,” replied Bobby, “and you must hurry and get well so as tobe around with us again.”
That night Bobby found it hard to get to sleep. The talk with Lee hadbrought novel ideas into his mind, and he lay awake for a long time,conjuring up visions of what life must be on a plantation.
When at last he did fall asleep, he dreamed that he was pushing aflatboat along a Louisiana lagoon. On the shores about him were a numberof what seemed to be logs of wood. Suddenly one of them moved andslipped into the water, and he saw that it was an alligator. One afterthe other, things that looked like logs did the same. The presence of somany of the ugly brutes made him uneasy, and he made his craft movefaster to get out of the vicinity as soon as possible. Just as he wascongratulating himself that he had gotten out of the danger zone, thewater broke at the side of the boat, and a pair of great jaws appeared,above which were the menacing eyes of a big alligator. The brute made alunge at the boat and nearly overturned it. Bobby tried to beat him offwith the pole, and while he was doing so, another alligator appeared onthe other side of the boat. A moment more and the water was fairly alivewith the fearsome creatures, and Bobby was surrounded by a circle ofopen jaws and frightful teeth and flaming eyes. He struck outdesperately, but to no avail. The circle closed around him, and one ofthe brutes with a blow of his tail stove in the side of the boat. Hefelt himself sinking, saw a terrible pair of jaws reach out to seize himand—woke up to find himself sitting bolt upright in bed while a coldsweat bedewed his forehead.
It was a minute or so before he could realize that it had been only adream, and then with a feeling of immense relief he adjusted his pillowand burrowed his head into its soft folds.
The snow was beating against the windows, and the contrast between thewintry storm and the hot lagoon of his dream brought a smile to hislips.
“Gee!” he said to himself. “If any alligators were up this way they’dfreeze to death sure.”
He lay listening in dreamy content, when he became conscious of anothernoise that was not like that of the snow on the windows. It sounded morelike a crackling. He sat up in bed and listened. The sound became moredistinct. And then to his nostrils came the odor of smoke.
He was out of bed in a twinkling. He opened the door of his room and theodor grew stronger. He traced it along the hall to the door of astoreroom at the end of the corridor.
He flung open the door and fell back appalled. The storeroom was aseething mass of fire!