CHAPTER XIX.
ON THE MOUND-BUILDERS' ISLAND.
His high spirits considerably dashed by his misadventure, Quatty satsoberly enough on the transom till Frank ordered him forward to give theyoung captain sailing directions. They were now racing through the airabove the Everglades themselves. Everywhere below them spread theyellowish brown expanse of saw-grass and water-course with here andthere a clump of cabbage-palms marking an occasional dry spot. Far onthe horizon, like a blue cloud, rested the nearest of the islets on oneof which lay their goal. Beyond it like other cloud fragments, lay dimin the distance other patches of elevated land.
Save for the bird-life they could see about them there was no signs ofanimate existence beneath the aeroplane. Not even a canoe threaded anyof the numerous water-courses that spread like a net over the 'glades. Amore doleful scene could hardly be imagined.
"How did these men ever find their way to the interior?" wondered Frank.
"Dey must have had a guide, massa," replied Quatty promptly, "nobody datdon' know de 'glades can find him way in dem."
"Where could they get such a guide?" questioned Frank.
"Plenty ob dem," replied Quatty, "plenty ob Injuns take 'em whereber deywant."
"But you said your tribe was opposed to them?" objected Harry.
"Don' know nuffin' 'bout 'suppose to dem,' Massa Harry; but dere ubbertribes in de 'glades dan ours. Some ob dem don' lak us neider."
"Then you think they secured guides from some other tribe?" asked Frank.
"Mus' ab," rejoined Quatty, "none of my fren's would guide dem."
The nearest island rapidly assumed shape and resolved itself into acharming bower of tropical vegetation rising at its highest point aboutforty or fifty feet above the monotonous level of the 'glades As it grewnearer the boys were astonished to see that its summit was bare of treesand formed a plateau of some area which was flat as the top of a table.It was as if some giant had lopped off the top of it with a huge knife.
"That's very extraordinary," said Frank, as they gazed at it, "one wouldalmost say that it had been formed artificially."
The air-ship circled about the islet under Frank's skilled control whilethe youthful aerial navigators scanned it with eager eyes. They couldnow plainly perceive that in the center of the flat top a sort of altar,about seven feet long by four feet high, had been erected.
"A sacrificial altar of some ancient tribe," cried Harry.
"I'm not so sure," replied Frank as the _Golden Eagle II_ heeling over,circled slowly about the object of their mystification. "What do youknow about this, Quatty?" he asked.
"Quatty thinks him used by Injuns to make smoke signals," said the oldnegro scanning the altar narrowly. "When an Injun he wants to signal hebuilds a fire on dere and den makes de smoke rise or fade away bycovering it wid a green branch," he further explained.
"That is undoubtedly the correct explanation," said Frank, "of coursethere was an ancient race of mound-builders in Florida and this may beone of their mounds, but I have never read that they had any sacrificialrites. As Quatty says, the Seminoles must have used this oldmound-builders' hill, which the aborigines may have utilized as a fort,or as a convenient place for signaling from."
He headed the aeroplane on her course again after this explanation andthe adventurers had proceeded perhaps a mile through the air when Quattywho, with his hand shading his eyes, had been searching the horizon,suddenly cried:
"Hol' on der, Massa Frank."
"What's the matter?" asked the boy.
"See dar. Ef dat ain't smoke 'way off dere call me an ignerent sabage!"
He pointed to a small islet a couple of points to the southward of thecourse on which they were heading. The boys' gaze followed his pointingfinger. Their eyes, not so keen as the wilderness dweller's, however,could perceive nothing but a small blue eminence of land not in any waydifferent from several other similar ones dotted along the horizon.
"Don' you see smoke ober dere?" asked Quatty, wonderingly.
"No," cried both boys.
"Lordy, lordy, you eyes are dim as bats' fo' sho'." cried the negroshaking his head.
Frank reached into the pocket in which the glasses were kept. With theirpowerful lenses he swept the horizon. He confirmed the correctness ofQuatty's eyesight the next minute.
From the nebulous mass,--which seen through the glasses proved to be anislet very like the one over which they had just passed--a column ofsmoke was certainly rising.
"It may be Indians," said Harry, after he too had taken a long look.
"Injuns," snorted old Quatty, "dems no Injuns. Dat ain't de color obInjuns' smoke. Ah knows whar ah is now ah do--dat's de place where dosemen you come all dis way ter look foh makes de debbil stuff dat blows deholes in de ground."
A hasty consultation between the boys followed. At the distance theythen were from the islet it was unlikely that their presence in the airhad been noted. It would be useless to keep on in broad daylight astheir usefulness might end as soon as the plotters discovered theirpresence and knew their plant had been discovered. On all accounts itseemed best to camp on the mound-builders' island for the night andwireless to Camp Walrus their views.
Accordingly the aeroplane was put about and a short time after wasresting on the summit of the mound-builders' hill. The boys were farfrom satisfied with the location but there was no other availablelanding-place and they decided to run the risk of being sighted beforedark.
The wireless apparatus was at once put in order for the transmission ofmessages and Frank started to call Camp Walrus. Again and again thespark leaped crackling across the gap,--transmitting the call of C-W,C-W, C-W,--before an answer came.
Everything, it seemed, was going on well at the camp and they had heardthat morning from the _Tarantula_. The destroyer was cruising about thearchipelago awaiting news of the success or failure of the boys'expedition and Frank, as he was doubtful of being able to "pick up" thevessel at the distance inland they then were, asked Lathrop to transmitto Lieutenant Selby the news that they had discovered the hiding-placeof the plotters and would inform him of their next move when they madeit. The instrument was then cut out and the usual preparations formaking camp gone about, with Quatty's assistance.
This done the boys, guns in hand, started to explore the mound on whichthey found themselves. A steep path, apparently well trodden once butnow overgrown with creepers and weeds, led to its base. There wasnothing else remarkable about it, except, as has been said, its baldsummit. It swarmed with game, however, and several doves, quail andrabbits fell to the boys' guns during the afternoon. Quatty cooked thegame deliciously in an oven of his own invention. He first dug a holewhich he lined with stones, heated almost red hot in a fire previouslyprepared. This done he lined it again with green stuff and covered thewhole with leaves and branches. Then he covered in the entire oven withmore leaves and tapped them off with earth at the top to enable it toretain the heat.
"Now we leab ole Muvver Erf to do our cookin'," he remarked when he hadcompleted these preparations.
The next task to occupy the boys' attention was the setting up of thecanvas boat. The craft was a large pea-pod shaped pocket of thestrongest grade of brown duck, which was stretched into boat form bysteel spreaders and held rigidly in shape by locking clamps. It was aboat eminently fitted to navigate the Everglades, where there are nosharp rocks or rapid waters to be encountered, though hardly suited formore strenuous work. It was about twenty feet in length and capable ofcarrying five hundred pounds. The boys carried the compact bundle inwhich it was packed to the water's edge and put it together there. Whenafloat on the water it looked not unlike a big, brown pumpkin seed.
"Now where's de poles?" asked Quatty, looking about him.
"Poles? What for? We've got paddles for it," said Harry.
"Paddles not much good in de 'glades, Massa Harry," replied Quatty, "weneed poles to git ober de groun'."
After some huntin
g among the dense undergrowth Quatty finally found twostraight sticks of tough second growth timber, about fifteen feet long,that satisfied him. He cut these off with his heavy sailor's knife withthe remark:
"Soon we hab two berry good canoe poles."
He whittled both sticks to a sharp point at one end and then cut twotriangular bits of wood from another tree which he affixed with vinelashings to the poles about six inches from the bottom. The contrivancewas exactly like the steps that are affixed to stilts but there were twoof them.
"What are you putting those on for?" asked the boys.
"Plenty ob mud in de 'glades sometimes," replied Quatty, "dese lillysteps keeps de poles from diggin' in too deep."
"Well, Quatty, you are a genius," exclaimed Frank.
"Oh dese not my inwention, Massa Frank," modestly confessed Quatty."Seminoles use him many, many years befo' Quatty come here."
The boys had decided on a daring plan. It was nothing less than, as soonas the night fell, to pole and paddle their way through thewater-courses till they reached a spot near the camp of the kidnappersof Lieutenant Chapin and there reconnoiter and, if possible, overhearenough to give them a clue to the lieutenant's whereabouts. Their firstobject being of course to rescue him. The recovery of the formula of hisinvention was--though important in the extreme--a secondaryconsideration.
After a hasty supper everything about the camp was put in order and withtheir revolvers freshly oiled and plenty of ammunition in their pocketsthe adventurers descended by the mound-builders' path to where they hadmoored the canvas boat. Quatty accompanied them. He put on a greatassumption of bravery but inwardly he was quaking till his teethchattered. Still he decided in his own mind he would rather a thousandtimes accompany the boys--however dangerous their errand--than spend thenight alone in a spot which he firmly believed was haunted by the ghostsof the ancient tribesmen who had erected it.
The last thing Frank did before leaving was to call up Camp Walrus onthe wireless. He bade his young friends and companions there a hearty"good-bye" and received their aerial "good-luck."
As the night noises of the jungle began to arise, and the evening chillof the 'glades crept over the lower levels like a cold pall, the boysshoved off and under Quatty's guidance began to pole toward thesoutheast.