CHAPTER
XXIII.
WORTH MEETS A PANTHER.
To find themselves once more in their canoes, and
to be gliding over unknown waters, with new scenes
unfolding at every turn, was so exhilarating to the
boys that they started up the river at racing speed,
shouting and laughing as they went. They were about to
disappear from the sight of the others around a bend
of the stream when they were checked by a shout from
Lieutenant Carey. As he joined them he said:
"We must keep together, boys, and regulate our
speed by that of the cruiser, for, in case of
unforeseen difficulties or dangers, it won't do for us
to be separated. I wouldn't make any more noise than
is necessary either. There is no knowing what the
Indians, whose country we are entering, may take it
into their heads to do. While I do not anticipate any
serious trouble from them, I would rather avoid them
as much as possible, and by proceeding quietly we may
escape their notice-at least for the present."
For the first mile or two the river-banks were
hidden beneath a dense growth of mangroves, though
above these they could catch occasional glimpses of
the tops of pines and tall palmettoes. The mangroves
grew smaller and thinner, until finally they
disappeared entirely, and on tasting the water over
which they floated our voyagers found it to be fresh
and sweet.
"There is no danger of our suffering from thirst on
this trip whatever may happen," said Sumner.
They were close to one of the banks as he spoke,
and from it there suddenly came a rushing sound,
followed by the floundering splash of some huge body
in the water, so close at hand that their canoes were
violently rocked by the waves that immediately
followed. The suddenness of the whole proceeding drew
a startled cry from Worth.
"What could it have been?" he asked in a low tone,
and with a very white face. "Was it a hippopotamus, do
you think?" He had seen the "hippos" splash into their
tank in Central Park.
"Not exactly," laughed Sumner, who, after a slight
start, had quickly regained his composure. "It was a
big alligator, and he went so close under my canoe
that I could have touched him with the paddle."
"Suppose he had upset us?"
"There wasn't any danger of that; he was more
scared than we were, but he knew enough to dive clear
of us."
"But if he should take it into his head to attack
us?"
"lie won't, though. Mr. Alligator is a great
coward. If he is disturbed while taking a sunbath on
shore, he makes a blind rush for the water in spite of
all obstacles, but it is only because he is too
frightened to do anything else. Once safely in the
water, he is glad enough to sink quietly to the bottom
without seeking the further acquaintance of his
enemies. That has always been my experience with them,
but then I have only known them where they were hunted
a good deal. The fellows where we are going may be
bolder, but I have never heard of alligators being
anything but awful cowards."
Partly reassured by this, Worth regarded the next
alligator that he saw with greater composure, and
before the day was over he hardly minded them at all.
He certainly had an opportunity of becoming familiar
with them, for they fairly swarmed in the river.
Nearly every sandspit showed from one to a dozen of
them, of all sizes, lying motionless in the warm
sunlight.
Worth declared that some of them were twenty feet
long; but Sumner laughed at him, and said that twelve
or thirteen feet at most would be nearer the mark. In
this statement he was supported by Lieutenant Carey,
who said that even a fifteen-foot alligator would be a
monster, and he doubted if one of that length had ever
been seen.
Most of the scaly brutes, after finding themselves
safely in the water, would rise to the surface for one
more look at the cause of their fright. In thus
rising, they only displayed the tops of their heads,
and as the canoes approached these would imperceptibly
sink until only four black spots, indicating the eyes
and nostrils, were visible. Then these, too, would
disappear without leaving the faintest ripple to mark
the place where they had been. Often a quick spurt
would take the canoes to the spot in time for the boys
to look down through the clear water and see the great
black body lying motionless on the bottom, or darting
swiftly away towards some safer hiding place.
Sometimes they saw tiny fellows, brightly marked
with yellow, and but recently hatched, Sunning
themselves on broad lily pads. These were never found
in company with their elders, which, Lieutenant Carey
said, was because their papas were too fond of eating
them.
When Sumner spoke of alligators' eggs and nests,
Worth asked, innocently, if the mother alligators sat
on their eggs like hens.
At the mental picture thus presented Sumner laughed
so heartily that he could hardly wield his paddle, but
Lieutenant Carey explained that an alligator's nest is
built of sticks, leaves, and grass, very like a
muskrat's house. "In the middle of this," he said,
"are laid from twenty to forty thick-shelled, pure
white eggs, about the size of the largest goose eggs.
These are left to be hatched by the heat of the sun
and of the decomposing mass surrounding them. When
they break their shells, the little fellows
immediately scramble for the nearest water, where they
are left to care for themselves without a suggestion
of parental guidance or advice. In fact, they are wise
enough from the very first to keep out of the way of
their elders, whose only love for them seems to be
that of an epicure for a dainty dish."
"Aren't there crocodiles, too, in Florida ?" asked
Sumner.
"Yes. Professor Hornaday mentions genuine
crocodiles as being found in Biscayne Bay, on the east
coast, where I hope we shall get a look at them. They
are described as differing from alligators in the
head, that of the crocodile being narrower and longer.
The snout is sharper than that of an alligator, and at
the end of the lower jaw are two long canine teeth or
tusks that project through holes in the upper
lip."
"Him big fighter, too," remarked Quorum from the
cruiser. "Him heap mo' wicked dan de 'gator. De Injun
call him 'Allapatta hajo,' an' say hit mean mad
'gator."
As tile party advanced up the stream the current
became so much stronger that the boys began to feel
the effects of their steady paddling against it, and
were no longer inclined to shoot ahead of the others.
The foliage of the banks changed with each mile, and
by noon the pines had given place to clumps of
palmetto, bay, water oak, wild fig, mastic, and other
timber. Here and there were grassy glades, in more
than one of which they caught tantalizing glimpses of
vanishing white-tailed deer.
The water began to assume an amber tint, and was so
brilliantly clear that in looking down through it they
could see great masses of coral rocks that often
overshadowed the yawning mouths of dark chasms. Above
these, whole meadows of the most beautiful grasses --
red, green, purple, and yellow -- streamed and waved
with the ceaseless motion of the current. Schools of
bright-hued fish darted through and over these, and
turtles, plumping into the water from stranded logs or
sunny sandspits, could be seen scuttling away to their
hiding places among them.
The noontide heat of the sun was intense as the
signal for a halt was given. The boats were turned in
towards a bank where a grass plot, shaded by a clump
of rustling palmettoes, offered a tempting resting
place.
As they landed, Worth was certain that he saw a
flock of turkeys disappear in a small hammock back of
the clearing. With his new-born hunting instinct
strong within him, he seized his gun and crossed the
glade, in the hope of getting a shot. He had practised
constantly on the call given him by his instructor,
and now felt competent to deceive even the most
experienced gobbler. Advancing cautiously within cover
of the hammock, and seating himself on a log that was
completely concealed by a screen of bushes, he began
to call, "Keouk, keouk, keouk." For ten minutes or so
he repeated the Sounds at short intervals without
getting a reply. Suddenly, a slight rustle in the
bushes behind him caused Worth to turn his head.
Within a yard of him glared a pair of cruel green
eyes.
With a yell of terror the boy dropped his gun,
Sprang to his feet, burst from the bushes, and fled
wildly towards camp. Reaching it in safety, but
hatless and breathless, he declared that a tiger had
been crouched, and just about to spring at him.
"Perhaps it was a 'coon," suggested Sumner.
"'Coon, indeed ?" cried Worth, hotly. "If you had
seen the size of its eyes, you would have thought it
was an elephant!"
"What has become of your gun?" inquired the
Lieutenant.
"I haven't the slightest idea," replied the boy;
"and I don't care. I wouldn't face those eyes again
for a thousand guns."
Finally, however, he was persuaded to return with
Lieutenant Carey and Sumner, both well armed, and
point out the scene of his fright. They found his hat,
the gun, and the log on which he had been sitting.
Then in the soft earth close behind it they also found
a double set of huge panther tracks -- one made while
cautiously approaching the supposed turkey, and the
other while bounding away in fright at Worth's
yell.
"I don't wonder that you were both frightened,"
said the Lieutenant, with a smile; "but now that your
skill as a turkey-caller is established, I wouldn't go
out on a hunting expedition alone again if I were
you."
"Indeed I won't, sir. I'd rather never see another
turkey than risk being stared at by such a pair of
eyes as that panther carries round with him."
CHAPTER XXIV.
RATTLESNAKES AND RIFLE SHOTS
WHILE they were returning through the grassy glade,
the Lieutenant, who was a few steps in advance,
suddenly stopped and sprang back. The boys barely
caught a glimpse of a fiat, wicked looking head, from
which a forked tongue was viciously thrusting, and
heard a sound like the whir-r-r-r of an immense
locust, when Lieutenant Carey fired, and the head
disappeared in the tall grass.
"It was a snake, wasn't it ?" asked Worth.
"Worse than that," replied the Lieutenant. " It was
a diamondback rattler, the most venomous snake known
to this country, and with another step I should have
been on him. I'd rather face your panther unarmed than
to have stepped on that fellow."
"What would you have done if you bad met it without
a gun in your hand?" asked Sumner, curiously.
"Hun," answered the Lieutenant, laconically, as he
grasped the lifeless body of the snake by the tail,
with a view to dragging it into camp.
"B But if he had caught and bitten you?"
"He wouldn't have caught me, because, in the first
place, he would have been content to be let alone, and
wouldn't have chased me. In the second place, the
rattlesnake is such a sluggish reptile that I could
run faster than he, and could easily have kept out of
his way."
"Well, then, what would you do if you were
bitten?"
"If it were on an arm or a leg, I should tie my
handkerchief above the wound, and twist it with a bit
of stick as tightly as possible, so as to impede the
circulation. Then I should enlarge the wound with my
knife, and, if I could reach it with my mouth, I
should suck it for five minutes, frequently spitting
out the blood. After that I should get to camp as
quickly; as possible, put a freshly-chewed tobacco
plaster on the wound every ten minutes for the next
hour, and at the same time drink a tumblerful of
whiskey or other alcoholic liquor. If I could do all
that, and the fangs had not struck an artery, I should
feel reasonably sure of recovery."
" Suppose they had struck an artery, what would you
do?"
"Reconcile myself to death as quickly as possible,
for I should probably be dead inside of three
minutes," was the grim reply.
Worth shuddered as he gazed at the scaly body that,
marked with black and yellow diamonds, trailed for
more than five feet behind the Lieutenant, and
remarked that the sooner they got away from the haunts
of panthers and rattlesnakes, and back among the
good-natured alligators, the better he should like
it.
"I shouldn't think Indians would care to live in
such a rattlesnaky country," he added.
"They don't mind them," laughed the Lieutenant.
"Their keen eyesight generally enables them to
discover a snake as soon as he sees them. Then, too,
they have an infallible antidote for snake bite, the
secret of which they refuse to divulge to white
men."
"How many rattles has this fellow?" asked
Sumner.
"Only seven," answered Lieutenant Carey, counting
them.
"Then he was a young fellow. I thought from his
size that he must be pretty old, and would have twelve
or thirteen rattles and a button at least."
"The number of rattles does not indicate a snake's
age," said the Lieutenant, smiling. "They get broken
off, as do long fingernails. I have seen very large
snakes with fewer rattles than others that were
smaller and evidently younger.
While they were eating lunch Quorum skinned the
snake, rubbed the beautiful skin thoroughly with fine
salt, and rolled it into a compact bundle, in which
condition it would keep for a long time.
After lunch and the hour's rest that followed it
the little fleet was again got under way, and
proceeded up the swift river. About the middle of the
afternoon they entered the broad belt of cypress
timber that borders the Everglades on the west. Here
the serried ranks of tall trees, stretching away as
far as the eye could reach, held out their long
moss-draped arms until they met overhead, and formed a
dim archway for the passage of the rushing current.
The water flowed with strange gurglings against the
gray trunks, and the whole scene was one of such weird
solitude, that on entering it the explorers shivered
as with a chill. Through the semi-twilight fluffy
night herons flitted like gray shadows, and the harsh
scream of an occasional waterfowl, startled by the dip
of paddles, echoed through the gloomy forest like a
cry of human distress.
The atmosphere of the place was so depressing that
no one spoke, but each bent to his paddle or oars with
redoubled energy, the quicker to escape into the
sunshine that they knew must lie somewhere beyond
it.
Quorum, who had been sitting in the stern of the
cruiser while the sailor rowed, was finally made so
nervous by his uncanny surroundings that he begged his
companion to change places with him. He wished to row
that his thoughts might be occupied with the hard
work. The sailor complied, though laughing at the
negro's fears as he did so. While Quorum was working
with desperate energy to catch up with the other
boats, there came an incident of so startling a nature
that in relating it afterwards he said: "I tell yo,
sah, de ole niggah so skeer dat him come de neares' in
he life to tu'nin' plumb white!"
It was a volley of rifle shots that flashed and
roared from the forest on the right bank of the river
like thunder from a clear sky. A second volley
followed almost immediately, and then succeeded such a
din of yells, whoops, and howlings as would have
dismayed the stoutest
heart.
