Beadle's Dime Library No. 247 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ * Joaded. ae tt —- — eee Old Joe, the coolest member of the party, was quietly engaged in cleaning and loading the ns of the others, dirty from their recent con- ict, with a grim, resolute look on his face that showed he was worked up to fighting-pitch, and on his mettle to prove if. Stevens began in a low voice, ‘Joe knows all about the rest of the story. Where was I when those fellows interrupted me? Ob, yes, lremember, Iwas a prisoner to that incarnate devil who commands them all. i; Yes, you might not believe it, but it’s not a difficult thing to keep oy long war for an in- definite time in the Everglades of Florida, There were only three or four hundred Indians in ’388 under Osceola, but they managed to. defy the whole power of the United States for eight ears and massacre a battalion of our regular roops. The few hostile Seminoles might have kept up the war to this day had they not been taken by treachery at last. ** When the Florida war was over'the coast was abandoned, as every one knows.’ There used to be a fort here, another’ on Indian river; now the nearest is away off ‘on the Dry Tortugas, atthe very extremity of the chain of islands that we call Florida Keys. As far as white men are concerned, the Florida Everglades are to-day as lonely as the middle of the Sahara Desert. But they have in their swampy depths a population of their own, and a dangerous one to any ‘one who ventures in there, All the Seminoles did not go to Indian Territory. There are several families left in the interior, and besides these, there are more or less discon- tented spirits left from the men who were on the losing side in the late war, of whom this Alliga- tor Ike is the leader. ‘* But you said that he seized ae by the wrist when he got you to the side of his boat,” said Julian, ‘* What did you do then?” ‘Do? What could I do? I was surprised, amazed, confounded. I admit that I knew not what todo. This man had the advantage over me. He had been watching all the time, while I was fighting the panther, entirely unseen, He had shot the beast, and so possibly saved my life, but there he sat, in full Confederate uni- form, with my pistol, which he had just wrung out of my hand by main strength, in his grasp. For several minutes I was much surprised to know what to do, and then I asked him: ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’ He laughed in a sneering manner as he an- swered: ‘I’m the Boss of the oe | toat’s wholam, Yank. They call me Alliga- tor Ike, in your Yankee settlements on the St. John’s. Now, who are you, and whar d’you come from?” ; ‘*‘ And what did you tell him?’ asked Julian, as Stevens paused. ‘*T told him I was the keeper of the light-house at Jupiter Inlet, and asked him in turn what be was doing with a Confederate uniform on. He sneered more scornfully than before, and told me it was none of my business. I was his prisoner anyhow, and had no call to ask any questions. Then he let go my wrist, and told me to take my oe oar and go ahead where he told me. Naturally I demurred, and drew my small pistol, which I still had in my belt, warning him to keep off at his peril. I began to think I bad to do with a madman. Some- what to my surprise, the fact of my having a second pistol seemed to disconcert h m; and he hastily cried, ‘Don’t shoot, Yank; don’t shoot. Tse gwine, I’se gwine.’ He talked the broadest kind of cracker dialect, and pulled bis dug-out away, with every sign of being terrified. No sooner had he got about a hundred yards off, however, than he turned round in bis boat, ceased rowing, and cried out to me: ‘ Yank, try a shot with that’ere pop of yourn. Shoot away. I give ye leave.’ Of course I did no such rash thing. He was at the extreme range of my large pistol, and beyond the reach of the little one. Ishook my head, and then he picked up a rifle, leveled it at me over the gunnel of his boat, and sung out: ‘Chuck the pop into the water. Quick, durn ye, or I'll put a hole in ye.’ My only reply was to pick up my oar, and begin to scull away, when bang went his gun, and a bullet struck the loom of the oar, knock- ing it out of my hand, and barely escaping my body, as it splintered the wood. Then he yelled out, ‘Got any more POPs, Yank? If ye have, trot’em out. Pitch that thing into the river and be pretty darned quick about it.’ Up wen his rifle, and ifseemed to me to be a repeater, for he seemed to have no trouble as to its being ‘Will ye me the pop into the water or not? he asked. ‘I'll send the next ball into your gizzard, Yank, if ye don’t.’ I had no re- source but to obey.’ I could not even run away. I tossed the pistol into the water, where an alligator snapped at it my it food no acavt and then Alligator Ike roare out: ‘Got any more pops, Yank? ‘No,’ Itold him. ‘I’m unarmed now.’ Then he rowed SS to where I stood in the stern of my skiff, too held of the boat’s painter, tied it to bis own craft, and began ‘to row away. Presently we where my broken oar lay in the water, and he told me to pick it up and scull the best I could, to help him, Of course I could only a aad s ' C= Alligator Ike. The oar was not much damaged, a hole having | been bored through the thickest part of the loom, and it was still fit for service, so I helped him as requested, the labor requiring me to turn my back on him. ‘This brought my face toward the belt of Cedar Swamp, and | perceived what I had not known before, that we had come near an opening in the barrier and that a large sheet of water lay beyond, out of which I saw the dense black smoke rising plainly. I began to feel ex- cited, I was turning away from the very place I had come to see, and instinctively I turned to Alligator Ike and asked: ‘ What is that?” ‘And did he answer?” exclaimed Julian. ‘‘Answer? Yes, after a singular fashion of his own, however. He stopped rowing, picked up his rifle, which I now saw to be a good Win- chester, of the latest pattern, and told me with a savage oath to ‘go on sculling and hold my cussed tongue.’ He cocked his rifle as he yke, and looked so wicked that again | had no choice, but to obey orders, and I sculled away, very soon losing sight altogether of the opening in the cedar swamp, and the smoke I had come so far to investigate. ‘* Pretty soon I notived that we were coming toastream in the Everglade, from the black- bess of the water and the abundance of alliga- tors. The current was one of unusual swift ness for that part of the country, flowing at nearly three miles an hour and here my conduc- tor drew in his oars and said to me, ‘ Looka byar Yank, I don’t hunger arter killin’ you, but i reckon the best thing I kin dois to make you jamp in hyar and let the alligators eat ye.’ tried my best to smile, and told bim ere I fm rt eee didn’t propose to P care! in, for any one. to be killed,’ I said, * a full-fledged cowardly murderer. You shall not lay it on the alligators.’ He gaveme a grim sort of a smile, and told me be didn’t mind that a bit. ‘IV’d jest as lieve done shoot ye, Yank. I’m only a-thinkin’ of the light-house.’ ‘ Yes, the light-house,’ I said starting, for [bad nearly forgotten it.. ‘Joe won’t know what's become of me all this time, and the light may go out. For God’s sake, man, remember that my death may cause the wreck of many a ship.’ He nodded. ‘ Ay, ay,’ he told me; ‘ that’s what Pm thinking of. I don’t want the pore cusses to go ashore. Look a hyar, Yank, what brought you byar? What did ye come fur? I told him curiosity to find the origin of the black smoke tobe seen from Jupiter Light. He scowled at me. ‘I thought so,’ he said. ‘I thought as much, and I reckon I'd better shoot ye now, so ye won’t come nosin’ round no more arter other folks’ biz.’ ‘Very well,’ I said. ‘ You bave my lifein your hands. Shoot away and God forgive you for murder.’ The idea seemed to strike him unfa- vorably, for he lowered his gun. ‘I told yel don’t want to kill ye,’ he said to me; ‘ but I don’t want ye hyar nomore,’ ‘ You needn’t be afraid Vll come,’ I retorted bitterly. ‘I’m a cripple but not a fool.’ Then he seemed to hesitate and finally asked me if I’d swear to keep my adven- tures bo myself and come no more to bunt for the mystery of thesmoke. He gave mea choice finally to swear or die, and I swore, to save my life. All this time we bad been floating down the current of the black river, and when he had finished swearing me I found we had drifted down into the midst of a dense cedar swamp in which the stream became visible between low banks that showed the ground was slowly ris- ing toward the sea. As soon as I had sworn never to enter the Everglades again on my quest, Alligator Ike took everything out of my boat but the steering-oar, and told me togo along, and, when I got to the sea, to make my way to the east til] I saw the light. Then he took to bis oars and rowed away from’ me up-stream. He had a very sharply modeled boat of the canoe shape, hollowed out of a single log and polished till it shone again and he rowed rapidly till be turned a bend of the stream and was out of sight: As for me, I had todo my best scull- ing down the black stream and make all the noise I could, on account of the alligators, which fairly swarmed in the water, as the stream advanced into the depths of the swamp, Finally, when it grew near sunset and I was just about tired out, I met the tide: rolling up the black stream, and knew that I was safe from alligators. They all darted away as soon us the first wave of salt water neared them, and I tied up to a branch of a tree till the tide slackened a bit. To cut a long story short, I reached the coast next morning, and finally made my way back to Jupiter Light, where I have remained ever since, cured of my passion for roaming alone,” “‘ And have you never discovered the mystery of the smoke?’ asked Julian eagerly. ‘*No more than I have told you. Isawitrise directly out of the bosom of some great lake inland, and I saw that it rose from a low black rae like the cone of a volcano, but that was all. ‘‘ And have you never seen anything of this Alligator Ike till to-day?” Stevens shook his head. ‘I wish I could say I had not. 1 would bea happy man to-day if I had not. . But»since that time I have never been free from his presence and he has never come but to harm me.” —EE ee —_—_—_—_— ee TC- YOO OO ~ ————e Well, | propose to make you into | ea ere ae eee. .”0_C00€vw COO SS a ee ee 11 A REIGN OF TERROR. “Tren hecame again, after you had returned to the light-house?” asked Julian. ‘* He did, the very next day after I was back. I bad not dreamed he would. I was telling Joe what had happened to me, and we were sitting in the cabin, when I saw him coming up the path from the creek, no longer in the Confeder- ate general’s dress, but clad in butternut-brown and carrying a long, old-fashioned rifle. In those days) we were quite unarmed, Joe and I, We had had no reason to fear any one, and no occasion to use arms except my two pistols. Joe used to be sergeant in my company, when | was in the colored troops; but he was no better off than IL. He bad brought along his old Spring- field muzzle-loading rifle when he was dis- charged; but it bad stood in a corner £o long that it was not fit for use, and we were perfect- ly defenseless when Alligator [ke walked up to our door and bailed Joe: ‘ Hello, you nigger, come byar.’. He’spoke in the bullying tone of the old slave-drivers, and Joe, who had outlived his old terror of the lash, retorted: ‘ You come hyar, you’self. I ain’t no nigger, sab.’ I thought the answer seemed rather to please the white man, for he laughed without any ill- nature and swore he ‘liked the nigger’s spunk.’ But at the same time he put a whistle to his lips and sounded three sharp puffs, when out of the busbes from the creek beyond came nearly a score of men in the old butternut-brown I bad not seen for nearly twenty years, and they shoved out a scow and poled their way over to Jupiter Island, while Aligator Ike stood there leaning on his old rifle, a very different weapon from tbat he had used in the swamps, I did not know what was coming. I was quite powerless to prevent it if I bad. The light-house was not fortified in any way. The end of it was that these men came up to me, and then I discovered that they were ali disguised so that it was im- oe ow to recognize any one of them. Then, or the first time, i began to suspect what was coming. I had beard distant rumors of kuklux- ing, but hed never seen any of its effects in Florida. These men were disguised, and every one bad a brace of revolvers in bis belt anda rifle or shot-gun.” ‘*And what did they do?’ asked Julian, as a paused, seemingly unwilling to con- nue. The face of the light- keeper darkened. ‘*They took poor Joe there, withcut a word of warning, tied him upand beat him severely, as Alligator Ike told us, ‘to teach him to civil to a white man in future.’ Joe never ut- tered a cry. It was useless to resist. They then took me and told me I should have the same dose if ever I tried to penetrate the secret of the swamp smoke. Furthermore, they made us swear never to complain of our treatment, and todo our best to keep away all visitors from the light-house. I promised readily enougb, but of course with a mental protest that iv was done under compulsion, and in no sense obliga- tory. When they bad secured that prom ra went away, and Joe and I were left alone to digest our treatment as best we could.” “* And did you not write to head-quarters and report all this?’ asked Julian. tevens shook bis bead. **T thought of that, but we had no means of sending aletter. Jupiter Light’ is only visited once a year by thesupply-sbip, and it/was eleven months to the time when we expected it again. Vessels never stop here. It is to keep them cff the coast that the light is kept burn- ing. We could only wait. If I had a letter to send I must take \it myself, and the nearest place where there was :a ost-office was &t Augustine. Finally I etermined to leave the light-bouse and goto St. Augustine alone to report what bad +P pened. I stole offin my skiff one night, and the next morning I was stopped on Indian river by a scout, who fired a shot across the bow of my boat and ordered me back. When TI sculled on,* trying to escape, he disappeared in the bushes, and I thought he bad given itup. Half an hour later a dug-out made its appearance, with three men in it, and I was headed back and forced to return here. Then they came down on me and took away my skiff, so that Joe and I werekept here for the rest of the year, unable to get away. A week before: the coming of the cu ply-sbip 1 was visited again, this time by Alli- gator ike and three men, who brought back my skiff and told me I bad my liberty on condition I reported nothing of what had bappened. Of course I promised anything, and of course when the supply-ship came I broke my word and made a full report of all that bad been done to us two, hoping for protection from the Govern- ment, and the clearing out of this nest of des- peradoes.” } ** And what was the result?” asked Julian. Stevens ground his teeth. ‘* Alligator Ike is no common man. Who or what he is I know not, but he seems to have in- fluence at head quarters, and to have told his story before [told mine. You may remember I said that I had received a wound in the head during the war. .When I reported to the cow- mander of the supply-ship the existence of thia COME OOO KS, — es %