Part 6 (1/2)
The castaways camped on their second night at the mouth of Lossman's River, where they had a famous clam-roast. They found a fisherman's house where they got fresh water and a can to hold it, also some cornmeal, with which Johnny made an ash-cake, or, as d.i.c.k called it, Johnny-cake. The captain said it was the best thing he had ever eaten, and d.i.c.k engaged him on the spot as a camping companion on his hunt for his chum.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”A SILVERY, TWISTING BODY SHOT TEN FEET IN THE AIR”]
The next morning the boys slept till the sun had risen and the captain awoke them to look upon a gorgeous picture seldom to be seen. The unclouded sun was s.h.i.+ning brilliantly and the eastern sky clear and bright, but in the west a storm was gathering. There were snow-clad peaks brilliant with suns.h.i.+ne, thunder-heads black as midnight from which lightning was playing, while above and beneath them all shone a perfect double rainbow and an equally perfect reflection of it from the mirror-like surface of the Gulf. So perfect a double-circled rainbow the captain had never before seen, and, though he lived near the coast, Johnny had never seen one at all. By the time they had finished their breakfast of roast clams and ash-cake the rainbow had melted away and the storm-clouds were nearer, but d.i.c.k wanted to start on up the coast. The captain shook his head and Johnny recited:
”Rainbow in the mornin', sailors take warnin'.”
Half an hour later all hands were glad to run to the fisherman's house, from the doorway of which they looked out upon storm-driven sheets of rain that shut out the Gulf and fell in hissing ma.s.ses upon the palmetto roof that covered them, while the continuous blaze of lightning and crash of thunder gave d.i.c.k his first taste of a tropical thunderstorm. Half an hour later the sky was cloudless, the sun more brilliant than ever, and the only reminder of the storm that had pa.s.sed was the sullen roar of the surf as the big waves broke on the beach.
When Johnny proposed to renew their voyage and the captain a.s.sented, it was d.i.c.k who held back.
”What can we do out there?” said he, waving his hand toward the white-capped waves that were sweeping in and sending their foam high up the beach. Johnny only laughed in reply, but the captain and he dragged the dingy, in which two poles had been placed, out into the surf until the waves rolled waist deep past them.
”Tumble aboard, both of you,” ordered the captain, as he stood by the stern of the craft, holding its bow squarely against the incoming waves. The boys climbed aboard, and d.i.c.k, following Johnny's example, seized a pole and together they held the boat against the sweep of the surf until the captain was aboard with the oar in his hands. It was exciting work and as they pushed on and out, with each new wave tossing the bow of the boat in the air and spilling its crest of water and foam over the gunwales, d.i.c.k exclaimed:
”Isn't it glorious? I never had such fun,” and even the captain smiled a.s.sent.
They pushed on until outside of the breakers and among the smooth-rolling waves, where the deepening water made poling difficult and they resumed their sculling. The captain took the first trick, while Johnny bailed out, with his cap, the water that the waves had spilled aboard.
Everything went smoothly and there was no more excitement on the trip until in the afternoon, when d.i.c.k was working the sculling oar.
He was swinging it slowly, as he looked down into the water, when there appeared suddenly, just under the dingy, a great black creature, broader than the boat was long. As it rose nearer to the surface, almost touching the craft, he saw a great open mouth, three feet across, with a heavy black horn on each side of it, which looked quite equal to disposing of d.i.c.k and his boat at a single bite. The sight was so frightful that d.i.c.k impulsively thrust his oar against the creature, and was instantly thrown from his feet as the stern of the dingy was tossed in the air and a column of water fell upon and around him. When the commotion was over and Johnny had crawled back into the submerged boat and was rocking it dry, d.i.c.k said to Captain Tom, who was swimming beside him:
”I believe I'll swim the rest of the way. I'm getting tired of being pitched overboard every few minutes.”
After they were all aboard and d.i.c.k had resumed his work with the oar, he asked the captain:
”What was that thing that looked like a devil, that I hit and that hit back?”
”That was a devil-fish. They are perfectly harmless,” said the captain, adding, reflectively, ”unless you punch 'em.”
The tide favored the castaways at Sand-Fly Pa.s.s and they reached Chokoloskee Bay without further adventure, but then came the painful part of the trip: telling the owner of the _Etta_ of its destruction by a waterspout. All the comment Mr. Streeter made was:
”Glad none of you went down with the boat.”
The captain and Johnny went to their homes, while d.i.c.k accepted Mr.
Streeter's invitation to stay with him.
CHAPTER V
OUTFITTING FOR THE HUNT
The Streeter home was on the bank of a little river that emptied into Chokoloskee Bay, and d.i.c.k, for the first time, saw oranges and grape-fruit growing and tasted the delicious alligator pear and the guava.
After supper Mr. Streeter said to d.i.c.k:
”Johnny tells me you have got a friend lying around loose somewhere in the Big Cypress Swamp, or the Everglades, and that you and he are going to take a day off to look him up.”
”That's about the size of it, only of course I don't expect to find him in a day or a week. I had some hope that a month would do. I suppose it all seems very silly to you?”
”Not a bit, not a bit. The Big Swamp isn't a bad place, if you've sand and sense, and I reckon you have both or you wouldn't have got as far as you have. I suppose it's Ned Barstow you're looking for?”