CHAPTER III.
DOWN THE INDIAN RIVER.
"Now, what d'ye know about that?" exclaimed Nick, scrambling to his feetafter his usual clumsy way; for when the fat boy happened to becomeexcited he generally "fell all over himself," as Josh put it.
"What ails you, Josh?" demanded Herb.
No sooner had the lengthy one reached a spot near the fire than he threwhimself down, and commenced frantically to pull up the left leg of histrousers.
"Gosh! looky there, will you, fellers?" he bellowed, as if in a panic."He sure got me that time; I guess I'm a goner. Won't one of you getdown and suck the poison out for me? You know, I'd do it in your case.Oh! please hurry up. My leg's beginning to swell right now, and in a fewminutes it'll be too late!"
"Poison!" echoed Herb, who seemed to be in utter ignorance of the entirematter, and could only stare at the little speck of blood showing on thewhite skin as if horribly fascinated.
"Yes, oh! didn't you hear the terrible buzz he gave when he stuck hisfangs in me?" groaned poor Josh.
Jack had thrown himself down alongside the wounded one, and wasminutely examining the hurt. He looked up at this juncture, and tothe astonishment of Herb and George, was apparently grinning.
"Brace up, Josh," he said, cheerfully; "you're not going to kick thebucket yet awhile, I reckon."
"Oh! how kind of you to tell me so, Jack; but how do you know? Pleasetell me why you say that," pleaded the cook, beginning to look relieved;for he had fallen long ago into placing the utmost confidence inwhatever Jack believed.
"Well, in the first place, there's only one tiny puncture, you see; andif this was a snake bite there'd be the plain marks of _two_ fangs,"Jack announced.
"Sounds all right, Jack; but perhaps this critter only had one fang.Didn't you hear the angry shake of his old rattle-box when he struck?It gave me a cold chill, because, right at the same second, I feltsomething stick me. I'll never forget the awful sensation, even if I dolive through it," and Josh rubbed his leg vigorously, as though hopingthat by inducing a circulation he might avert the threatened direcatastrophe.
"Well, if you only look around right now, perhaps you'll discover thesource of that same buzz," Jack went on, soberly.
"Why, whatever can you mean?" Josh stammered, staring his amazement.
"Notice how Nick, for instance, is trying the best he knows how to keephis face straight, even while he's just shaking all over with the laughthat's in him. Stand up, Nick; and hold out that hand you've got behindyour back."
Jack pointed rather sternly at the culprit while speaking.
"Oh, well, I s'pose I'll have to 'fess," mumbled the fat boy, as hewhipped the hand in question around, so that all could see what he washolding.
"Why, it's that boozy little rattle he picked up in Jacksonville, andbroke on the first trial!" exclaimed George. "He's been dabbling at itever since, trying to mend the old thing."
"Yes," said Jack, "and just succeeded in getting it to working. Here,give it to me, Nick, and I'll show them how it whirrs when you turn itaround rapidly."
Taking the little wooden contrivance, Jack gave it a series of quickturns, with the result that a loud angry buzzing was produced, notunlike the warning rattle of an enraged snake.
"Oh! that was it, Jack!" cried the relieved Josh. "Thank you for showingme, too. It sure takes a big load off my mind, because you'll never knowwhat a nasty feeling I had at the time. It was a mean dodge, Nick, andI can't forget it in a hurry, either. But Jack, that don't explaineverything."
"Now you're thinking of that sudden little pain you had in the leg?"suggested the other, nodding his head understandingly.
"You bet I am!" Josh declared. "It took me at the identical second Iheard that whirr. If it wasn't a snake bit me, what did, Jack?"
"Let's find out right away, so's to relieve your mind," Jack went on."Lead the way to the very spot where you were when you heard the sound,and felt that sudden pain."
"That's dead easy," remarked the tall boy; and as he said this hescrambled to his feet, his trousers still rolled up to his knee, andlimped across the camp.
Jack noticed, however, that he approached the place cautiously, asthough not yet wholly convinced that there might not be a dreadfuldiamond-back rattler lying in ambush, waiting for another chance topuncture him.
"There it is, right in front of you, Jack!" Josh cried, pointing; "Ihappened to want a handful of dry timber to hurry up the fire, andstepped over here, because I'd noticed just the thing under this lonepalmetto. Just as I banged into that little bunch of brush it happened."
Jack laughed.
"Look here, fellows, and you'll see what he ran against!" he announced,taking hold of the long, narrow, dark green leaf of a plant that wasgrowing there.
"What is it?" asked George.
"A plant they call Spanish Bayonet," replied Jack, seriously now. "Yousee, like lots of semi-tropical plants, such as the yucca, century plantor Mexican aloe, and others, it's got a sharp point, almost like aneedle. Well, just as luck would have it, Josh banged into one of theseleaves at the very second Nick began to rattle his alarm box. No wonderhe got a shock! It was enough to stagger the bravest."
"Then it was what you might call a coincidence?" suggested Herb.
"Huh! a mighty tough one, too," grunted Josh, as he rubbed his injuredlimb ere turning down his trouser leg.
"But see here, fellows, are we going to let our funny man try that stuntevery little while?" demanded George, frowning at his shipmate.
"I vote for one against such a thing," declared Herb. "That nasty littlebox has too suggestive a rattle to please me. If I was going through thesaw palmetto scrub, and he happened to amuse himself with it, I justknow I'd jump ten feet. It would make life miserable for me rightalong."
"Jimmy, what do you say?" demanded Jack.
"Me too!" piped up the Irish lad. "Sure it do be giving me the crapesjust to listen to that thing go whirring around."
"You hear the verdict, Nick?" said Jack, pretending to assume the air ofa judge addressing the prisoner in the dock.
"Oh! I ain't saying a word," Nick replied, with a shrug of his fatshoulders. "I c'n see myself that it would be a mean trick to play.Never thought much about it that way. Give her a toss, Jack. And Josh, Ihope you won't hold it against me too hard. You know, you're top-notchyet in that bully contest of ours."
In this way did the contrite joker attempt to buy peace in the camp; andthat he was fairly successful might be judged from the grin that slowlybegan to spread over the thin face of the cook.
"That's all right, Nick; so long as it don't happen again I ain't goin'to think too much about it. Fact is, it's goin' to give me a cold shiverevery time I hear anything like that rattle. And now I'll be gettingback to my work."
"Then you don't want anybody to suck the poison out?" asked Nick.
"Let up on that, now, will you? I guess I'm able to hobble around yet,"and bending down, Josh gathered some of the dry trash that he wanted, tohurry the fire on with.
Jack had tossed the little rattle-box contrivance into the fire, whereit was soon entirely consumed.
Although they ate supper ashore, it was considered wise to sleep aboard.The only one who grumbled at this decision was poor Nick. He had a hardlot to follow, for the narrow speed boat offered but poor sleepingaccommodations for two, and many a time the stout youth was wont tobemoan his sad fate as he rubbed his aching sides in the morning.
They left the camp at Mosquito Inlet an hour after sunrise on thefollowing morning, and started down past New Smyrna, heading for theHaulover Canal that connects Mosquito Lagoon with the famous IndianRiver.
Under Jack's wise guidance they found little trouble in navigating thebroad or narrow waters of the various channels. As steamboats passedthrough daily in the season, there were plenty of "targets" pointing outthe deeper waters; and where the lagoon happened to be very shallow,canals had been dredged.
Taking it leisurely, they arrived at Titusville about two in thea
fternoon. Here one of the boys went for the mail, and also to pick upthe few things they had on the list of "necessities wanted."
As the western shore of the river is pretty thickly settled now, it wasdecided to cross over, and skirt along Merritt's Island until near itsfoot, where they could probably find a spot free from civilization'stouch; and this was what appealed to the motor boat boys at alltimes--wild solitude.
Long before evening overtook them they had come to a halt, and anchoredthe boats close to the eastern shore, just beyond a point that wouldprotect them from any wild norther that might chance to spring up. Allof them had heard so much about these dreaded storms that swoop downupon the pilgrims in small boats when navigating Florida waters thatthey were always on the watch for their coming.
"I say, Jack!" exclaimed George, as they landed in their small dinkies,intending to again have a fire, and be congenial; "look out yonder onthe river, and tell me if that ain't the same strange launch we sawtwice before above."
"You're right, George, that's what," replied the other, as he whirledaround, to shade his eyes with one hand in order to see the better; forthe sun was just going down beyond the wide river, Rockledge way, andshone fiercely.
"If I had the glasses now, I'd like to see who they are," George wenton. "Seems to me the parties on that boat act queer. They dodge out ofsight whenever they think we're watching. I don't just like the way theyact, Jack, do you?"
"Oh! I don't know," replied the other. "That may be only imaginationwith you, George. The only thing that strikes me as queer is that theboat seems to be as near a ringer for the _Tramp_ as anything I everstruck."
"Wow! you're on the job now, when you say that, and funny I hadn'tnoticed it before, Jack," George declared. "Now that you mention it, Ideclare if it isn't just remarkable. I suppose all of our boats havedoubles, somewhere in the country; for the makers have a model theyfollow out heaps of times in a season; but all the same, it strikes afellow as queer to run across a duplicate of the boat he's kind oflooked on as his own especial property."
"Well," grunted Nick, who had been near enough to overhear this talk,"I'm right sorry for somebody then, if there's a ringer for the_Wireless_. They have my sympathy, I tell you that right now."
But George only sniffed, and disdained to notice the slur cast upon hispet. It seemed that the more the others found fault with the actions ofthe _Wireless_, the greater became his attachment for the erratic boat.
"Well, they're ahead of us again, for one thing," he remarked. "It lookslike a game of tag, right along; now we're leading, and then they forgeahead. I'm just going to keep tabs on that boat, for fun; and some fineday perhaps I'll have my curiosity satisfied. I'd give something to knowwho they are, and why they act like they do."
"Oh! they won't keep me awake much, I tell you that," said Nick,loftily. "When I bother my head it's going to be about something worthwhile--understand?"
"Sure," remarked George, quickly. "Something that threatens a calamityin the feeding line, for instance; a running short of supplies. That'sthe subject Nick worries about most."
"Well, is there any more important business known than supplying thehuman engine with plenty of fuel?" demanded the other, sturdily."Perhaps the engineer may be the more important fellow of the two; butthe stoker is just as necessary, if the machine is to be kept going. Butthere's Josh calling me to help him. I'm always Johnny-on-the-spot whenit comes to helping Josh get grub ready"--and he waddled off serenely;for Nick was so happily constituted that no matter what jabs he receivedfrom his chums, they seemed to roll from him like water from a duck'sback.
"Hear the mullet jump?" remarked Jack, as they ate supper after nighthad set in. "D'ye know, fellows, this ought to be a good time to trythat fish spear?--for we'll have an hour of dark before the old moonpeeps up, and there isn't a breath of wind to ruffle the water. Jimmy, Iappoint you to push me around a bit, and see what we can do, though Iwouldn't count too much on any big score."
"I'm on, Jack, darlint," Jimmy immediately responded; "and it's ready Iam now."
Motor Boat Boys Among the Florida Keys; Or, The Struggle for the Leadership Page 3