Part 24 (2/2)

Although the boys turned on the power--a thing they should have done long before--as soon as the crest of water came in sight, the _Rambler_ was pitched down toward the swamp like a chip.

If the boys had been able to direct her course, they might have held her in the current, and so kept out of the muck hole into which she was swept when the water cut around a bend, driving straight on the sh.o.r.e. But just as the craft was getting under control a ma.s.s of limbs and cane-brake tangled her propellers, and she went down with the flood, striking, as has been said, in a swamp where the head of the bayou had been, and into which the water still poured.

It was pitch dark out on the river and in the swamp, but the lights of the _Rambler_ cast a circle of illumination about the spot where she lay, so that the black, bubbling water, with all the unclean reptiles it was forcing forth from their haunts, was in full view. It was carrying wreckage now, and this was piling up between the current and the boat, shutting off all chances of backing out, even if the current would have permitted it. It was indeed a desperate situation.

The motor boat had come to a stop against two monster cypress trees, between which she had wedged her nose. Only for this she might have been carried farther into the swamp, the water being deep for some distance ahead.

During the whirling pa.s.sage down the bayou, while the boat was b.u.mping against tree trunks and bounding off with a jar and a swish to go swinging around again, like a foolish dancer doing the time limit, Mose had clung tightly to one of Clay's legs. At the very beginning of that mad race he had caught sight of a couple of alligators, and was in deadly fear that they would climb on board and make a meal of him!

When the boat finally lodged between the giant trees, the little negro boy bounded from the deck and, seizing hold of a ma.s.s of vines, clambered up the tree to the west like a young monkey! Believing that he would have to help the others up, he carried a rope with him!

Finally, sitting astride of a limb, he called down what he considered very good advice to the boys on the boat.

”Dey done get yo', sho'!” he warned. ”Catch on de rope an' s.h.i.+n up!”

Serious as the situation was, with the water trinkling in over the stern of the motor boat, the boys grinned at each other at the fright of the boy.

”Come on down!” Alex. called. ”If the boat should break away from the trees, you would be left alone in the swamp. Come on down and help get the boat out of this blessed swamp! You may get out with your rope and tow her if you want to!” he added, with a chuckle.

”Fo' de Lawd!” cried Mose, shuddering at the idea of getting into water inhabited by monsters who would leave a fat pig to feast off a black boy!

At least that was what one of the boys had said to him!

Attracted by the strange lights, walking and creeping things now began gathering in the shadows at the rim of the circle of light. Once Clay caught sight of the soft, appealing eyes of a deer, and now and then the howls of a swamp cat came to their ears above the roaring of the flood. Great water snakes struck their heads above the surface and looked, red-eyed, and hostile, at the boys.

Swamp creatures with soft fur and frightened eyes crouched on fallen trees and scanned the deck as a possible refuge. To make the scene more desolate still, if possible, two round-eyed owls answered each other's cries from a near-by cypress.

”Say,” Jule whispered to Clay, during a little lull in the rain, ”there's a man by that tree. I've been watching him a long time. Look at him!”

Clay followed the line of the pointing finger and laughed.

”Why, that's a bear!” he shouted. ”A swamp bear--one of the kind Teddy Roosevelt came down here to shoot when he was president! Let him alone and he'll let us alone. They fight like devils when wounded or molested.”

The boys all agreed to let the bear alone, but Captain Joe and Teddy seemed to have notions of hospitality. The dog barked invitingly, and Teddy did a stunt of bear talk which brought the wanderer one tree nearer to the boat. He was now in the circle of light, and could get no nearer without swimming.

”He sees Teddy and wants to ask his advice!” Jule laughed.

At that moment Mose, noting that the boys were gazing fixedly in one direction, turned his eyes that way and saw the bear. The shriek he let out might, it seemed, have been heard in New Orleans, if the wind had been blowing in that direction!

”Ah's a gone c.o.o.n!” he wailed, after that one yell. ”Ah's a goin' whar de good n.i.g.g.e.rs go! Good bear! Good bear!” he added coaxingly.

The bear looked upon the scene for a moment longer with disapproving eyes and then turned away. For a moment he was seen walking on jammed logs, alternately wading through shallow places, and then he was lost in the darkness.

”There!” Alex. called out to Mose, ”you've frightened our bear off!”

”Dat yo' bear?” asked Mose. ”Den yo' keep yo' animile out our ya'd!”

Although frequently invited to return to the boat, Mose insisted on keeping his place in the tree. Now and then he called out that a bear or a deer was about to board the _Rambler_, but for the most part he sat still, looking about for more things to be frightened at!

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