Beadle's Dime Library No. 247 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

<2 +> ee = 14 in flocks from the west, and realized that they had taken shelter from the storm behind the cypress belt. As he neared this, he perceived that all the wildeats and panthers in Iilorida seemed to have t:ken refuge among the branches, while the black bears lookedas common as sheep, and be felt. impelled to give the forest a wide berth instead of going through it as he had meant to do at first. The floods: had driven every creature that could climb tothe trees, but what had become of the deer and hares and such like? They could not climb trees, yet he had seen no dead bodies. Revolving the matter in bis mind, he kept on skirting the edge of the timber, keeping a sharp lookout all the time, He felt' that he was coming to the very place where Alligator Ike had surprised Stevens, and he knew enough of the danger he incurred in running into the secret haunts of the pirates, to make him very cautious. He paddled in, close to the edge of «the cypress. belt, and stole cautiously along, watching every suspicious movement, till he became convinced that he was the only occupant of the solitude except the wild beasts of the forest. The panthers and bears came down and stared at him asif they had never seen a white canoe before, and he could see far back in the swamp some ground rising out of the water, that seemed to be full of deer. On he went, hour after hour, finding by the compass that he was traveling due south, when he saw, ahead of him, what he judged to be an a the cypress s‘vamp. ‘‘ Perhaps it is the same through which Ste- vens saw the smoke,” be thought, and with that his heart beat high with excitement, and he stole onward more slowly, glancing round bim as he proceeded, his rifle ready for immediate use, t last he came to the gap and looked through. There lay a broad sheet of water glit- tering in the rays of the afternoon sun, and a reat black column of smoke rose out of its som in great puffs. But that was not all. Awan in a dug-out was fishing; not fifty feet from Julian Grey. “ CHAPTER XVIII. THE SECRET LAKE, THE man in the dug-out had his back to Ju- lian Grey, and he was lying in the stern of his little vessel, with a long rod tilted in the air, a broad palmetto hat drawn over his eyes, while the muzzle of a gun stuck out over the stern of the dug-out, behind his back, Very softly Julian dipped in his paddle and receded behind a screen of cypress- wood, before he ventured to look any closer. The man had the appearance of an ordinary Florida “eracker,” in butternut-brown cloth- ing; but Julian suspected bim at once for a foe. at was the man doing there, in the midst of the only opening in the cedar-bush for miles, in an anchored dug-out? His fishing was a mere pretense to while away the time, for Julian was convinced from his attitude that he was very nearly asleep, if not entirely so. The explorer glanced in every direction, but saw no other sign of life, outside of the forest. A brown panther, was eying him hungrily from the limb of a tree, as if the beast were waiting for bim to come under the branch, but he had no inclination that way. He had caught a glimpse of the black smoke in ee but that was all. e hesitated as to how to proceed. Sbould he boldly arouse the sleeping man or not? It de- pended on whether he was asleep. Softly he paddled past the tree where the panther lay crouching on the branch, and the creature followed from tree to tree, in a man- ner that showed it was not in the least fear of man. The panther’s boldness set Julian to thinking. Tt was not in the habit of being fired at, or it would have been more cautious. The inhabi- tants of the Everglade, whoever they were, en- couraged the beasts of prey. The alligators on the other hand, as he had ascertained during the day,.were very wary and timid. He had come across several, and they all shot away at great speed at sight of the canoe. He recalled the name of the chief of the band, as he believed him to be—Alligator Ike—and wondered whether this might not have a con- nection with the scarcity of the saurians in the Evergiade, They at least were hunted viseauny, and he knew enough of Florida to be aware that their skins were an article of commerce of considera- ble value. It might be that these men, whoever they were, were only peaceable alligator-hunters, jealous of their preserves of game, and driving away every intruder. Itmight be that Stevens, after alJ, was unsound in his mind, and had om abe much of what he asserted to be the piratical practices of Alligator Ike and his band. Anyway, suddenly Julian made up his mind that he would go up to the sleeping fisherman and <n ene_————————— ———— ssssss —eS Ss Alligator Ike, penetrate the mystery. He had decoyed the pan- ther some distance away from the opening, and he resolved on a bold stroke. Keeping his eye fixed on the beast, he vad et his. canoe close to the ‘tree on which it lay crouched, As he came closer the panther quivered all over, aud at last, as he had expected, sprung for the canoe. An active twist of the paddle, and the crea- ture fell into the water, just missing the canoe, when Julian swept away his light craft, keep- ing out of the animal’s reach, but decoying it on into deep water, and keeping his eye on the forest meanwhile, He had noticed a stream some little way off full of alligators, and for this be made his way, the panther following with a grim persistence that amazed him. Once in the stream, which he knew by the dark water, he saw the great lizards shooting off in fear at the white canoe, but noticed that they hesitated at sight of the panther, and swam round bebind the canoe, following the beast, The great cat very soon seemed to recognize the fact that the hunter was being hunted, turned round in the water, and began to swim back toward the cedars. As soon as this happened Julian increased his distance rapidly, and very soon what he had ex- pected happened. He saw the water suddenly lashed into a great commotion; the heads of four or five alligators made their appearance close to the panther, and in less than a minute it was seized and torn to pee before his eyes, when the alligators sunk ack into the deep water and not one could be seen any more, The same creatures that deyoured beasts of prey were afraid of a canvas canoe that they could have destroyed in a moment, ‘They have been hunted in canoes,” he said to bimself, ‘‘ and they think I’m after them.” He paddled back toward .the belt of cedar swamp, coasted rapidly to the end, keeping a wary lookout for more panthers, and finally ran kis. canoe into the midst of the trees, in per- fect silence, and had the pleasure of seeing the slumbering fisherman, still in the same place. He watched him and bis boat attentively, and then looked beyond the fisherman. He saw a broad, placid sheet of water that did not seem to have any bound to the west- ward, where the sun was rapidly nearing the horizon. To the north and south it seemed to be quite shut in with belts of cedar swamp, but to the west the borizon was clear, And in the midst of this lake he saw a low, dark, rounded cone, from the top of which is- sued the black smoke which had brought him there. Tt rose in intermittent puffs of enormous vol- ume, straight up in the air to a great hight, and then spread out into a cloud in all direc- tions, showing that a dead calm prevailed. But that was all he could see of it. Whether it was a voleano or not he could not at that dis- tance determine. It looked like one, but he could not be sure. He urged his canoe through the cedar belt, be- tween the trees, till he came to the other side and had a clearer view. Then he noticed, what he had not seen before, that thelake before bim was studded with islands of a character different from anything he had seen in the Everglades. They were generally bluffs of coquina rock, standing thirty or forty feet from the level of the water, and not mere mud-banks, Orange trees and palms crowned most of them, while oaks and maples grew on others, While he was thinking over what could be the cause of this difference of formation, he was struck by the sight of acanoe moving round the base of one of the islands, and immediately drew back under a cedar, where he was completel sheltered by the drooping curtain of Spanis moss from observation. From his covert he watched the canoe come up, and saw that it wasa dug-out, hewn froma single log. The bow was pointed, the stern square, like a ducking-skiff, and altogether it was a rude sort of craft, and a slow traveler. It was propelled by a single man, dressed in the universal butternut-brown, with a broad palmetto hat on bis head. Julian lay still, for he saw that the He, We was nearing the fisherman, and hoped to hear some conversation between the two men, He was not disappointed, for as the further boat rowed up, with a great rumbling of oars in the row-locks, th fisherman yawned, stretched himself, and sat » in bis boat, saying audibly: ‘Wal, I sw’a IL b'’lieve I war snoozin’, It’s right lucky the in’ral ain’t raound.” e rubbed hi ayes, settled his hat, and pulled up his line as tie other man came up. “Hello, Jak:,” called out the new-comer; “what luck to-day?” mes bite,” responded Jake, gravely. “I b’lieve that cussed barrykin’s druv all the fish out of Okeecuobee or killed ’em dead.” The otber man grinned, ‘“ Reckon you done gone to sleep, Jake, Look at yer hook, The fish has ate it all as clean as a whistle,” Jake ins d his hook with the same gravity’ that characterizes all the proceedings of a Southerner and responded solemnly: “You think you knows a heap, Jackson Gardner. Hit warn’t no fish at all did that. Hit were a ’gator, jist to spite me, I reck’n.” Jackson Gardner uttered a whistle. ** A ’gator! Who ever heern of gators taking a bait off a catfish hook? You was asleep, Jake, and I knows it, and ef the gineral onst ketches you at it, it’s good-by Jake,” Jake began to wind up his line. ‘‘He hain’t done it yet, Jackson. Anyway it’s all flummery, this guardin’ the openin’. No one ain’t be’n here for years and no one ain’t at all likely to come.” “ Reck’n yer right,” responded Jackson, ‘* but we ain’t got no call to dispute. Orders is orders, and we-uns hev got to bey ’em.” Jake cast a cautious glance round him. ‘*Say, Jackson,” he whispered, “’twixt me and you, we hain’t got to do no sich thing.” Jackson Gardner started up in the boat in which he had been lounging, so that Juliam could see his face plainly. He was a heavy-featured, placid-faced man, with gray eyes and sandy hair and beard, sprinkled with gray. His usual expression was that of sleepy good-nature and laziness, Now, however, his gray eyes were bloodshot with anger, and his whole face changed to a look of wild ferocity that showed what a dan- gerous man he might be if fully roused, as he said fiercely: ‘“ Hain’t got to "bey orders? Who sez so? Air you gwine to turn traitor, Jake Harden- berg?” And as he spoke, he cocked a rifle and covered Jake menacingly, CHAPTER XIX. JULIAN’S DISCOVERIES, To Julian the situation grew exciting, and not without ludicrous features. The two men he realized to be enemies, but who they were he could not tell. And they seemed to be bent on ridding him of their pres- ence by killing each other; for Jackson Gardner was in dead earnest, and Jake Hardenberg seemed to be equally angry as he caught up his own gun, calling out defiantly: ‘‘Give a man a squar’ chance, You call you’- self a Southern gemman? Hold up, till I get my ole shootin’-iron in order,” Jackson Gardner instantly elevated the end of his gun, a proceecing that rather relieved Julian, who was exactly behind Jake, and in range of Gardner’s piece. * We-’uns is both gemmen, I hope, Mr. Jake,” he said stiffly, ‘and [ ain’t the man to take no foul on no other man—no, siree. But I ain’t no man, nuther, to hear no ’fluxions on de glorious Confederacy, sah—no, sah. "What you mean by ApyiD we hain’t got no call to ’bey ordahs, sah Jake bad got bis “old shooting-iron,” as he called it, into position by this time, and Julian saw that he carried an old Spencer rifle of a by- gone pattern, which he cocked as he answered. fierce 3 ‘* 1 didn’t say no sich thing, sah; and I don’t want no words putin my mouf, sah, dat don’t b’long dere, sah.” ‘‘Then what did you say, sah?’ asked Jack- son in the same sharp, menacing way, but with an affectation of deferential politeness that seemed very funny in both men with their rude dress and dialect. ‘“‘ l understood you to say, sah, when I made de remark that we-’uns hasto *bey orders, dat we don’ hev to do no sich thing. Is dat so, sah, or is it not. sah? I scorn to take any advantage of a gemman, sab, and I puts it to you—did you use dem words, sah?” “ No, sah J” vociferated Jake, with a loudness intended to emphasize the denial, ‘‘ You ears is mistook you, sah. I said no sich t’ing.” Jackson Gardner’s face cleared up instantly, and he replied, affably: ‘‘ Dat settles it, sah. A Southern gentleman’s word is good at all times, sab. I will presume to ax, sah, what you did say, sah?” “‘T said this, sah, You said, sah, that we~uns has got to ’bey ordahs, sar, wedder we like it or not, sah. Didn’t you say so, sah?” **T did, sab.” ‘“*Zackly so, sab, and I said, sah, dat between. you and me, sah, don’t you see, sah, we don’t have to do no sich thing.” Jackson’s face lowered again. ‘* Ain’t dat the same thing, sah?’ ‘No, sah,” responded Jake, boldly; “hit am a very different thing, as I'll show you, sah.” Julian caught a glimpse of his face as he spoke, and saw that he was a very different person from Gardner, with a long, narrow face and pointed black beard. Intellectually he was Gardner’s superior, and as he spoke he laid down his Spencer rifle and began to pat one forefinger on the other man, argumentative fashion. You see, sah,” he pursued, “‘we’uns both belongs to the same regiment in the sahvice, doesn’t we?” Yes,” responded Jackson, slowly, laying EGomic | | ‘ JOOKS.cOomM —