Beadle's Dime Library No. 247 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

: 2 Alligator Ike. ee Siiaiteatsdtieenoret 2 en Alli t Tk é length: and in a moment, with trembling fin- iga or e 9 gers, he had unslung his gun, leveled at the ead of the great reptile, and let drive both OR, mg She together, or nearly so. ‘ eh 1e next moment, through the smoke, be saw The Secret of the Everglade. YS bellow of rage, and jumped bebind a tree as the alligator shot past it, faster than a man could run, He was congratulating himself on its having missed him when he saw the great head coming round toward him, the whole body bent like a bow, the tail waving to and fro in a singular manner, the alligator seeming to have great dif- ficulty in turning to look his way. The next moment the great tail gave a tre- mendous lash, coming against the root of the cypress in front of Julian’s foot with a force that cracked the solid wood, causing the young man to jump like a harlequin out of the way of that terrible tail, with its sweep of destruction. Then down came the reptile with another A Tale of the Outlaws of Okeechobee, BY CAPT. FRED WHITTAKER, AUTHOR OF “THE FUYING DUTCHMAN OF 1880.” CHAPTER I. IN THE SWAMP. On the last day of December, at four o’clock in the afternoon, the thermometer stood at three degrees below zero in New York city, with a fierce gale howling over the bay from the northwest; the spray freezing on the bows of ships at anchor; the snow whirling in wreaths in the streets; beggars cowering in cor- ners; policemen sneaking into bar-rooms by the | straight dart, and Julian Grey found himself side-doors; men hurrying home with their col- | jumping for his life again, and just managing lars turned up to keep their ears from frost- | to get round the tree in time. bites; the ‘wind seeming to pierce one’s very Then too, just as before, the alligator, having marrow, missed its straight rush, gave another vicious At the same hour, down in Florida, a young | slap of its tail at Julian, and this time the tail man had just burst out of the recesses of a | struck the butt of the young man’s gun, and cypress swamp into which he had rasbly ven-,| knocked it flying out of Julian’s hand into the tured, and stood wiping his face and fanning | mud, himself with his hat, completely overcome with | Too excited now to remember what he was the heat. | doing, the young man turned and ran for bis He wore a natty sporting suit which showed | life into the dark swamp, to be stuck up to his him to be from the North, and carried a very | knees in the black mud in another instant, and handsomely-finished double-barreled gun with | see the great reptile rushing for him in a way fine mountings, slung round him with a baldric. | that showed the eagerness of famine. He was a good-looking young fellow enough, Julian Grey struggled violently in the deep but he looked decidedly uneasy, for he had lost | black ooze, but could not escape; and he drew his friends and was all alone in a strange froma fancy belt that encircled his waist a place. bran-new bowie-knife, whose bright, shining He had left the steam yacht in which his | blade showed how seldom it had been used, with party were ascending the St. John’s river and | a vague idea of thrusting it into the monster’s had gone up a side stream in a little skiff, | eye, when he heard the sharp crack of a rifle a from which be had landed to pursue a rare | little distance off, and the alligator drop ed sud- heron that had flown into a cypress swamp. | denly, sprawling out on the surface of the mud, Now he bad come out on the borders of another | quite still. stream on which he bad never been before, and Julian looked round, but could see no one in realized that he was lost, the swamp, and addressed himself to the task of Yet the scene in which he stood was one in | extricating his feet from the mud in which they which a man might well be content to be | werestuck fast. dost. But this proved a more difficult job than he All was as wild as when the Indians were the | had anticipated, for, as fast as he raised one sole inhabitants of the land. The huge palmet- | foot, the other went in deeper, and he found to leaves swayed and glistened in the wind, | that he was going in gradually, up to his waist, cypress trees fringed the edge of the swamp he | with the prospect of soon being quite swallowed had just Jeft, and the trailing vines huvg from up in the mire, when he heard a voice behind their lofty tops to the dense underbrush be- | him, calling to him: neath. In many places the india-rubber vines | “Say, young feller, don’t wrastle about so. had killed the trees and covered the lifeless | I'll help ye in a minute if ye’ll give me time. trunks with a mazeof green foliage, whileevery | Hold on.’ old live-oak was covered with creepers and air- lants, and the bright-green mistletoe flourished, tv feet from the ground. He stood at the borders of a deep black pool, smooth as glass, and so clear that it was not easy to tell where the scene above and the scene below met together. At either end of this pool it narrowed into a sluggish stream, and the vista stretched away deceptively, every thing looking alike all round, so that the young man muttered to bimself: ‘Confound it all, I do believe I’m lost. I wonder where the deuce [ left the skiff?” He had taken off his broad white hat, and | was fanning himself with it, uneasy, but notas| It needed nothing more to make Julian Grey et alarmed, when he was startled by arustle obey the order, and ‘pull his level best” as qn the underbrush, and saw that a Jarge and par- soon as he could get bold of the creeper. By great exertions he managed to haul his clear of the mud, and swing in to the bank he serpen, he he saw a grim, bearded Julian tried to turn his head to see who was behind him, but could see no one. Presently he heard the sound of a hatchet cutting at some- thing, and the voice called out once more to him: ** Here! ketch that, and pull out.” He saw that one of the long creepers hanging from a cypress that grew over his head, had been cut apart at the root, pulled clear of its tendrils for a long way up, and now dangled over the mud within a few feet of him. “Ketch!” cried the voice. ‘‘ Pull your level | best, and get out afore that ’gator comes to life. He ain’t dead yet.” aaa LLL LL LC, ticularly wicked looking alligator had crawled | up the muddy bank, and was eying him in a/| bod peculiar manner. on Now, to Mr. Julian Grey, alligators had | face peering at him between the creepers, round hitherto been objects of contempt. He had seen | the bole of a huge live-oak, and heard the same them shot from the decks of the big bustling | voice say: river steamers; always scurrying off whenever | ‘“Waita bitnow. That cuss ain’t dead; but human beings came in sight, and imagined they | I ain’t goin’ to let him get to the water. Jest always did so, under all circumstances. you stand out o’ line of the critter, mister.” It was the first time he had been up one of the ‘Mechanically Julian obeyed, and saw a long side streams of the St. John’s, and he did not brown barrel thrust out from the covert of the know the wildness of nature, away from the | creepers. Then camea flash and report. Look- general presence of tourists. ing round he saw the alligator leap up from the Moreover, he had seen the alligators from the | mud, floundering about violently for several safe elevation of the steam yacht’s deck, and | seconds, when it lay still, and the voice cried: they had never been in a position in which they ‘* Hit’s dead at last, cuss it.” could p y climb up to him. The present specimen was only a few feet dis- tant, on the same bank with Julian, and was looking at him with its wicked little eyes in a manner that plainly indicated a confidence on . the part of the reptile of making a meal of Grey, gunandall, | For the first time since he had been in Florida the young man felt afraid of an alligator, and hastily turned round and unslung his gun, with- out thinking that it only contained shot, and, oe a chake-bore, could not be loaded with all. The alligator noted the movement, and the sunken eyes glared, The hideous creature raised itself on its crooked fore-legs, and its jaws opened and shut with a loud clack, while it seemed to be settling for a rush. ; Julian Grey saw that it meant to attack him, and that it was very large. . How large he could not say, but to his excited ion it seemed at least fifty feet in CHAPTER IL. ALLIGATOR IKE. JuLIAN Grey looked in surprise at the a that emerged from the bush at the last words. A tall, Peoad-abouldered man, of gaunt and bony frame, with a mass of matted black hair and beard almost hiding his dark face, save for a pair of piercing eyes that looked out from the forest of locks under the shade of a broad palmetto hat. The dress of the stranger was as singular as his face, for he was entirely ac- coutered in leather of a peculiar kind that Julian recognized as alligator-skin, fastened into a loose, short coat, and boots that came nearly up to his waist. Under the coat the man wore a red flannel shirt and buckskin breeches, and he carried a long, old-fashioned, brown-barreled rifle, which he proceeded to re- load, while he scanned Grey from head to foot in rather a scornfu! way, saying: TS the long body darting toward him, heard a Joud | | } ‘Waal, greeny, whar’d you spring from? You look like’s you jest cum outer yer mammy’s bandbox and got lost, you do. Ho! ho!” And he laughed in a singular, tollow, funereal way, without moving a muscle of bis face, as be went on ramming down the bullet into his rifle, and Julian stood staring at bim spellbound. Such a figure he’d never seen before, but he made shift to answer good-humoredly: * You're quite right as to one thing, I’m lost as much as a man can be that hasn’t the faint- est idea of where he is. Possibly you can tell me?’ The stranger went on loading bis rifle and re- turned the ramrod before speaking. Then he capped the piece and answered slowly: **Reckin Lkin. What's yer name?” ‘*My name? Well, it’s Grey, though I don’t know what that’s got to do with putting me on my way,” returned Julian, rather sharply, he big stranger chuckled in the same way as before, without moving a muscle of his face, ‘Ho! ho! don’t see it, don’t ye? Ye bain’t b’en in Florriddy long, young feller. Whar’d ye come from when ye come bere?” Julian looked round him, puzzled, ** To tell the truth, I couldn’t say just now. I'm all turned round. I came out this morning in a skiff from the steam yacht Lily and went up a little stream. Then I got out to follow a blue heron and lost my way in the swamp. How in the world am I to get back to the | steamer?” The stranger leaned his gun against the bole of a tree before he answered: ‘* Here, you jest lend me a hand while I git that riptyle in hyar.” Julian, in obedience to his gesture, extended his hand, and the stranger grasped it, took a long step into the mire of the swamp, caught hold of the alligator’s tail, and slewed the body round to the firm bank at the foot of the cypress before he said another word. : ae he observed dryly, releasing Julian’s and: ‘‘ You're the greenest cuss I ever see’d. Don’t ye know ‘nuff to foller yer own track back whar ye kem from?” Julian looked round him into the shadows of the gloomy cypress swamp. Usually he was very confident as to his abilities as a sportsman, being a good wing-shot and a member of three or four sporting clubs. But somehow he did not feel so confident now. ‘‘I’m afraid,” he answered, ‘‘I couldn’t be sure. I wandered to and fro after that heron and quite lost my track. Which way lies the river?” The hunter while he spoke had been hauling the alligator up along the surface of the black ooze by its tail and now had it over on its back on the bank. He drew a long butcher-knife from his belt, the blade thin from long sbarpen- ing, and observed as he tried the edge on his thumb: **'You’re a-facin’ the river now. Don’t yesee which way the crick runs? They all runs into the river hereabouts.” Then he laid hold of one of the forelegs of the reptile, and made an incision in the soft skin that covers the lower part of the body, ripping the inside of the limbs and making a clean cut down the belly, with a skill that showed him to be an old hand at the trade of skinning alli- gators. Julian watched him with some interest, aud saw him begin at the tail to tear off the thick heavy mail of the creature, with an ease that astonished him. Positively the alligator’s hide came off like the skin of an orange, with very little more trouble, and the singular hunter rolled it up into a bundle at the foot of the tree, and spoke to Julian in the old way, “ axet oc in pres are ye starin’ at? D’ye want to stay in the swamp all night, or gi home? Which is it?” 7 a ‘Why, get home, of course,” returned Julian, not a little nettled at histone. ‘ lm willing to pay you well if you'll guide me to the river where I can hail the steamer.” _The hunter laughed again as be looked at m, “Pay me well? I should say so. Whar’s yer gun gone, greeny?” Julian colored deeply. The alligator had struck it from his hand, and he had not seen where it went to in his hurry. ‘1 don’t know,” he answered. ‘The alli- gator sent it flying, and I don’t know where it went, The hunter pointed with his bloody knife to- ward a part of the swamp where Julian had not yet looked, and showed him his gun. @ weapon had come muzzle down into the soft black ooze,’and was sticking up in the air; but to Grey’s discomfiture, he saw that the stock was broken half off, and he knew that his beautiful Scott choke-bore was Tuined, even while he went slowly and ruefully toward it and picked it up, hearing the hunter's contemp- tuous laugh: ‘‘ Ho! ho! what'll ye take fur her now! Pll give ye a fip, and durned if 'll do no more,” Grey picked up his broken gun and came back saying to the hunter: ‘1 say, what'll you take to put me on my ——_ Ebooks . i m ys *e ' a »- = - «