Part 59 (2/2)
He swayed his body, he tried to move his feet, but he seemed rooted to the ground. He did not have the strength to drag himself from that fatal spot and from the grasp of the vine.
It seemed that hours pa.s.sed. His senses were in a maze, and the whole world was reeling and romping around him. The trees became a band of giant demons, winking, blinking, grinning at him, flouris.h.i.+ng their arms in the air, and dancing gleefully on every side to the sound of wild music that came from far away in the sky.
Then a smaller demon darted out from amid the trees, rushed at him, clutched him, slashed, slashed, slashed on every side of him, dragged at his collar, and panted in his ear:
”White boy fight--try to git away! His hands are free.”
Was it a dream--was it an hallucination? No! his hands were free! He tore at the clinging vines, he fought with all his remaining strength, he struggled to get away from those clinging things.
All the while that other figure was slas.h.i.+ng and cutting with something bright, while the vine writhed and hissed like serpents in agony.
How it was accomplished Frank could never tell, but he felt himself dragged free of the serpent vine, dragged beyond its deadly touch, and he knew it was no dream that he was free!
A black mist hung before his eyes, but he looked through it and faintly murmured:
”Socato, you have saved me!”
”Yes, white boy,” replied the voice of the Seminole, ”I found you just in time. A few moments more and you be a dead one.”
”That is true, Socato--that is true! I owe you my very life! I can never pay you for what you have done!”
In truth the Indian had appeared barely in time to rescue Frank from the vine, and it had been a desperate and exhausting battle. In another minute the vine would have accomplished its work.
”I hear white boy cry out, and I see him run from this way,” explained the Seminole. ”He look scared very much. Sailor men follow, and then I come to see what scare them so. I find you.”
”It was Providence, Socato. You knew how to fight the vine--how to cut it with your knife, and so you saved me.”
”We must git 'way from here soon as can,” declared the Indian. ”Bad white men may not come back, and they may come back. They may want to see what has happen to white boy.”
Frank knew this was true, but for some time he was not able to get upon his feet and walk. At length the Indian a.s.sisted him, and, leaning on Socato's shoulder, he made his way along.
Avoiding the place where the sailors were camped, the Seminole proceeded directly to the spot where his canoe was hidden. Frank got in, and Socato took the paddle, sending the light craft skimming over the water.
Straight to the strange hut where Frank and his companions had stopped the previous night they made their way.
The sun was s.h.i.+ning into the heart of the great Dismal Swamp, and Elsie Bellwood was at the door to greet Frank Merriwell.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI.
RIGHT OR WRONG.
Elsie held out both hands, and there was a welcome light in her eyes. It seemed to Frank that she was far prettier than when he had last seen her in Fardale.
”Frank, I am so glad to see you!”
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