CHAPTER VII.
A NIGHT ATTACK.
Most of that day they dropped leisurely down Hawk Channel and at nightanchored off a small key covered with a luxuriant tropical growth andtopped by the feathery crowns of a group of stately royal palms. It wasearly afternoon when they let go the anchor and the boys lost no time ingetting into the Squeegee and rowing ashore. They carried with them the_Carrier Dove's_ water keg which held ten gallons and which had beendiscovered by them to be half empty the first time they went forward fora drink. What water there was in it was so stale as to be almostundrinkable. Pork Chops was summarily sent for and arraigned on the"quarter deck."
"I done declar I clean forgit all about deh watah," he gasped, as Frankread him a lecture on his carelessness. Indeed everything about the_Carrier Dove_ bore witness to Pork Chops' shiftless ways. Her riggingwas spliced in innumerable places and her halyards badly frayed so thatthey wedged in the blocks sometimes. Her paint was peeled off her sidesin large flakes and altogether she was quite as disreputable aproposition as her owner; but in her, Pork Chops had navigated thewaters about Miami for many years and was accounted a skilful mariner.
The boys uttered a cry of delight as the Squeegee's nose grated on abeach of white sand and they sprang out. The key was a veritablefairyland. Lime, lemon and guava trees grew almost down to the water'sedge and further back were several wild banana plants with their yellowfruit hanging temptingly for the boys to pluck. And pluck it they didand declared they had never known what real bananas were likebefore,--which is hardly surprising as the fruit is picked for thenorthern market long before it is ripe and shipped in a green state.
After they had fairly gorged themselves on fruit, they set out to lookfor a spring. They were not long in finding it and Billy Barnes, dipperin hand, started in to fill the keg. He had ladled out a few dipperfulswhen he started back with a yell. The others, who had been roaming aboutin the vicinity, hurried back and found the reporter gazing petrified ata huge cotton mouth moccassin. Frank, who had one of the sixteen gaugeguns with him, quickly despatched the creature, which was about threefeet long.
"Ugh, what a monster," exclaimed Lathrop, as he gazed at the ugly,dirty-brown colored body.
"He is a pretty sizeable reptile and that's a fact," remarked Frank,"But what would you say to a serpent twenty feet long?"
The others looked at him incredulously.
"Twenty feet long--Oh come, Frank," laughed Billy. "That sounds like thefish that got away."
"Lieutenant Willoughby, who explored the Everglades in 1897, reportsthat he heard from Indians and believed himself that in the southernportions of the Everglades there are snakes bigger than any knownspecies," replied Frank, "his guide killed a reptile marked withlongitudinal stripes,--but otherwise like a rattlesnake,--which measurednine feet from tip to tip."
"Well, I don't want to be around when any such creatures as that areabout," said Lathrop.
"I'm with you there," cried Billy, "snake stories are all right in printbut I don't want to figure in any of them."
"Come on, boys,--volunteers to get supper," cried Frank, after the grouphad strolled back to the boat landing,--all hands taking turn at packingthe water keg.
"Supper?" cried the others.
"Yes," replied Frank, "we can row the keg off to the _Carrier Dove_, getsome duffle ashore and camp here in the jungle for a night. There's nouse trying to navigate this coast in the dark. Who says--yes?"
Of course they all did,--hailing his suggestion with acclamation,--and,after Frank and Harry had rowed off to the sloop, Lathrop and BillyBarnes set about getting in a supply of firewood and laying a firebetween two green logs set parallel, in a manner that did credit toBill's training as a woodsman in Nicaragua.
Frank and Harry were too tender-hearted to resist Ben Stubbs' pleadingsto be made one of the party--moreover he promised to cook them what hecalled a bush supper if allowed to come ashore, so that when the boysshoved off in the placid water on their return trip to the Island Benmade one of the Squeegee's load.
As soon as they got ashore Ben approvingly commended Billy's camp-firearrangements, at which the reporter glowed with pleasure. Somehow in thewilderness a small tribute to a boy's handiness will send him into theseventh heaven of gratified pride. Under Ben Stubbs' orders the partyhad soon secured several bunches of oysters from the mangroves,--whichwere laden with the bivalves where they dipped into the water at lowtide,--as well as half a dozen turtles, small fellows which Ben declaredmade as good eating as the terrapin of the northern restaurant andbanquet. To crown the feast, Frank, who had been scouting about with oneof the shot-guns, brought down a couple of small ducks.
The oysters Ben roasted in their shells, laying them when finished onplantain leaves on previously heated rocks. The turtles he prepared byscalding them and then, after cutting down the center of the lowershell, the meat was easily got at. Salted and peppered inside and outand the meat removed from the shell after a half-an-hour's boiling withonions and the young campers had a meal fit for a president, who, asBilly observed, "is a heap more particular than a king."
The ducks were incased by Ben in a sort of matrix of clay--feathers andall,--having first been cleaned. Thus enclosed they were placed in theglowing embers and more hot coals raked over on top of them. When inhalf an hour Ben drew out the hard-baked clay casings and cracked themfree with a hatchet,--which automatically skinned the birds and pluckedthem at the same time,--the boys were ready to acclaim him a very princeof chefs. The meal was eaten with pilot bread and washed down withlemonade made from spring water and lemonade tablets. For dessert theyhad bananas and wild oranges. Many times after that when they wereplunged in hardships and difficulties the boys talked over that firstmeal on the lone Florida Key.
After supper there was no washing up to do; big plantain leaves havingserved as plates and hunting-knives as table utensils. The little partysat round the big camp-fire and sang songs and talked and laughed tillPork Chops out on the _Carrier Dove_ muttered to himself as he tried tosleep.
"Dem white boys done bein' as clean crazy as loons,--yas, sah."
However, at last even the boys' spirits began to flag and they tuckedthemselves up in their blankets and lulled by the croaking and snoringof a big tree lizard in a near-by custard apple-tree, sank into dreamswhich were more or less tinctured by the happenings of the last fewdays.
Frank, more wakeful than the others, lay awake perhaps half an hourafter Ben Stubbs' nasal performances had begun to rival those of thetree-lizard; who was himself no mean performer. The boy-leader's brainwas busy turning over their momentous expedition. In a few days now theywould be in the Archipelago and the plunge into the unknown would haveto be taken. As he gazed about him at the sleeping party--Harry andBilly, light and careless, Lathrop, apparently made of far better metalthan Frank had believed, and at old grizzled Ben Stubbs sleeping, likemost woodsmen, as soundly as an infant, he felt a sensation of heavyresponsibility steal over him.
Was the expedition well advised? It might all end in nothing or even indisaster. These thoughts flitted through Frank's brain as he lay awakeand pondered the situation. Of one thing he was determined, as soon asthe wireless could be put in operation and a permanent camp establishedin the 'glades he would establish communication with the _Tarantula_.That at least would put them in touch with powerful allies whatever foesand evil influences they might encounter in the great fastnesses theywere about to penetrate. Satisfied with this last resolve Frank fellasleep; but his was a troubled slumber. It seemed to him but a fewminutes after he had dropped off that he awakened with a start:
The fire had died low and there was only a dull red glow to indicatewhere its cheerful blaze had been. As his eyes opened, however, Frankhad a queer sensation that his awakening had been directly caused bysome outside action that had affected him. In a second he sensed what itwas.
There was a hand poking about under his pillow where he had tucked hi
srevolver!
At the same instant there came a loud agonized hail from over themoonlit water where the _Carrier Dove_ swung at anchor.
It was Pork Chops' voice, and Frank sprang to his feet as he heard it,reckless of injury from the unseen intruder. He need not have been underany apprehension, however, for whoever the prowler was he had vanished.At the same moment Pork Chops' yells awakened the others and Ben Stubbsroared out with stentorian lungs:
"Ahoy, there aboard the sloop--What's up?"
For reply came a wail from Pork Chops, which was stifled as suddenly asif a hand had been placed on his throat:
"Help! murder! Dey's----"
Then all was silent.
Like a flash the boys and Ben piled into the Squeegee and Ben manned theoars. As they fairly flew over the water under his powerful strokes along, low dark body,--almost reptilian in its swift movement,--glidedfrom the opposite side of the _Carrier Dove_. At the same instant thesharp staccato sound of an engine exhaust came to the boys' ears and astrong odor of gasolene.
"A motor-boat," shouted Frank, as the low body, gathering speedmomentarily, tore off across the moonlit water and vanished in the darkshadows off the end of the island.