Buttons couldn’t help it. She groaned. Not another warning. She slumped onto her hip and took a deep breath.
Ms. Lucie would have corrected Buttons’s posture, but she had other matters that needed immediate attention. She simply reaffirmed Rarebit’s message.
“Just remember, there is something strange and mysterious going on in the swamp. You, both of you, will pay attention. Do you understand?” She was frowning quite hard by now as she too stared at the two below her.
“Yes, ma’am,” they replied, “we’ll be very careful. Thank you.”
“Hmmmm,” Ms. Lucie was not so certain, but she must be off. With one last warning, she took flight and was almost immediately out of sight.
Sally sighed. “Wow, she’s really odd today.”
Buttons just snorted. “Probably mislaid an egg.”
That broke Sally up and their peals of laughter could be heard with ease at a great distance. And, it was at a distance that something decided to investigate the sounds further. Sounded good enough to eat was the only thought as it quietly submerged into the dark depths of the swamp.
Buttons rushed to Sally who easily evaded the attempt at her tail. Off they raced, splashing down the muddy margin of the marsh. They finally slowed. The heat was building and they sought the shade of tree where they collapsed, panting at their sudden exercise. But shortly, Buttons was up and exploring the area, her nose to the ground. Sally watched as she lay on her side, then she, too, rose and moved to the swamp’s edge for a drink. She then began to sniff.
Metal, rusty metal, could be faintly detected in the water. That meant only one thing—another trap. But where? Buttons looked at her friend who was standing quite still as she sampled the air. It might be anywhere along the shore, but typically the stake had to be in good, solid earth. Without hesitation, both moved toward the edge of the sand and began to slowly move along it, being very careful with each step.
Buttons suddenly grunted, and then pawed the soil very carefully. Sally moved alongside, casting about for any evidence of the chain. Then, she, too, began to dig. Very slowly, gently sweeping dirt and sand aside. In a moment, they had uncovered a length of chain, very rusty and obviously very old.
Sally and Buttons both sat, momentarily just looking at one another. Then Sally spoke up, “Boy, just how many times have we come this way? Gives me the shivers.”
“Me, too,” added Buttons. “We could have run right over it, must have. Come on, let’s get it out.”
Both set to work, working in opposite directions. The chain was indeed fastened to a stake, now sunk quite deep in the dirt and very near the shade of the tree where they had dozed on more than one occasion. Buttons found the trap and they both set to work, digging the sand away from it. As they had thought, it was deeper than usual, and soon both had their heads down in the hole as they busily dug the sand away.
As they worked, the surface of the water offshore roiled to an unseen disturbance within the dark depths. Then, with no sound whatsoever, two round and bulbous eyes appeared. Small droplets of water ran down their brows, but there was no other movement. Nearby, several turtles dozing in the sun on a partially rotten limb that protruded above the surface paid no attention. So quietly had the eyes appeared. Two nostrils as quietly appeared above the water. Only the four protuberances gave evidence that more, much more, lay below. The eyes slowly turned their attention toward the two small dogs digging in the soft sand on the shore.
“Hmmmm,” thought their owner, “a very nice morsel indeed.”
Nostrils and eyes smoothly glided forward, the water barely disturbed by their passage. As land was touched, the creature burst out of the water, sand churned and was tossed in all directions, and a huge spray of water covered the shore. The creature bellowed as he rushed across the narrow strip of sand that lay between him and his prey. He was upon them in a fraction of a second.
Young they might be, and small, even for their ages. But slow? Never! With the yawning gap of the jaws rushing toward her, Sally leaped up and away. Buttons spun on her tail as the jaws clashed together in a thunderous chomp.
The alligator, for that was what their attacker was, in turn spun after Sally. As he turned toward Sally, he swiped at Buttons with his tail. He missed, but not by much. His teeth clashed just behind Sally as his tail missed by a scant inch of battering Buttons. Sally raced in twisting circles. The great creature kept himself between her and the sheltering trees. Buttons could do nothing but bark furiously. Her attempt to distract their attacker failed. His eyes were fixed on Sally. Buttons was ignored. For the moment. One quick chomp and he would be after the black one next.
“Sally,” Buttons yelled, “The trap . . . remember?” Her words came in broken fragments as mud and water flew. Sally was panting with great effort. Her lungs burned with the effort of evading the alligator. Buttons raced to and fro. Nothing distracted their adversary.
Buttons frantically rushed forward. She must do something. Sally could not hold out much longer. With all of her strength, Buttons grabbed the tail of the alligator. Her answer was a bellow from the creature who snapped his tail, sending her flying. She landed with a splash of muck and mud. She hurtled herself once again upon the creature, yapping furiously as she did so. The reptile ignored Buttons’s frantic efforts. She was too fast for him, but the other was tiring rapidly. He assailed the beagle once more.
Bellowing lustily, he charged at Sally, his large eyes gleaming with hunger and anger.
However, Buttons’s brief attack had given Sally the breath she needed. This time, instead of running in circles, Sally raced in ever-widening spirals, twisting and turning so that her tail was ever before the gator, but just out of reach, leading him to the trap.
Buttons’s voice came to her over the heated attack. “More to the right. Almost. A little more. Now, be careful. Jump. Jump, give it all you got!”
Sally did as she as ordered, leaping blindly into the air with the last gasp of air in her throbbing lungs. She hit the dirt with a thud, and rolling over, came to her feet just as the alligator once again snapped at her.
There was a loud grating sound as the jaws of the trap closed. Rusty with age, the trap’s teeth still could bite. And hard. They snapped together, holding the gator’s foreleg in their unrelenting grasp.
He flopped forward on his nose, short of Sally by a hair’s breadth. Sand flew in all directions, covering both dogs and alligator. The alligator began bawling in pain and fright. He thrashed to and fro in a frenzy of fear. Dirt, sand, and leaves flew with each thrashing movement. He hurtled himself side to side. When that was to no avail, he rolled back and forth. But each time, he was firmly held to the one spot by his right forepaw which was firmly grasped in the jaws of the old, rusted trap.
The alligator was stretched out to his limit. His wide, dark eyes glared with hurt and confusion. Sally stood just in front of his snout, crouched and snarling, the hair on her back raised in a stiff ridge of anger. Buttons, too, stood at the opposite side, her large fangs bared. Both dogs were frozen, waiting to see which way the saurian would move. Sally was about to say something nasty, when she noted his evident pain. Suddenly, she sat, totally mystified by what she was seeing.
The great, limpid eyes of the alligator were wet and tears could be seen welling in their suffering depths. He whimpered. Sally blinked and motioned Buttons, who cautiously worked her way around his tail which lay curled to his side. The alligator moaned. Buttons and Sally blinked together as the reptile curled up around his forepaw and begin to cry, broken by loud, shuddering moans.
“Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” Sally said.
Buttons sat down with a plop. “Good gosh,” was all she could manage.
Sally took a deep breath and approached the sobbing creature. “I’ll be damned. I’ve heard of weeping willows, cri-de-coeur, and a weeping vagabond. That’s you. That’s you. Would you stop it? Sounds pretty silly for a creature of your size to be sniveling like that.”
&nb
sp; One large, lucent eye opened slowly and gazed at her with hurt. Between sobs, he answered, all the while gurgling deeply in his throat, “It hurts, it hurts soooo bad.” He tugged at the large chain which securely fastened his leg to the stake sunk firmly in the ground. “Oh,” he groaned, “it hurts my leg soooo bad.”
Buttons stepped forward, until her nose touched his very much larger snout. She was still angry at the sudden attack. “Go ahead, brown eyes, snivel. It’s not going to do you any good.”
Then, she suddenly remembered Rarebit’s and Ms. Lucie’s warning. Not once, but three times. She turned to Sally and then back to the alligator’s large, round eyes. Sally sighed, “Blew it again, didn’t we?”
“Big time, I think. Just look at those eyes. Just like Rarebit said when he left us.”
Buttons’s voice was softer and her tone somewhat kinder when she addressed him again. “Look, buddy, who are you. Why’d you try to bite me?”
“Gee, I’d never really meant to do that. Really, I mean, you know,” he finished lamely, looking away as he did so.
Sally joined her friend and both faced him, squarely looking him in the eyes. “That’s not a truly friendly answer, you know.”
Buttons insisted on knowing more. “What’s your name, dummy?” She began to bounce up and down a bit, a sure sign she was becoming impatient.
Sally broke in, “Look, friends don’t go about trying to eat one another, you know.”
The reptile’s stomach ominously growled in disagreement, but its owner saw the wisdom in ignoring it. “I hurt,” he repeated. “Besides, I’d never hurt you. Really.” Both of his large opulent eyes stared innocently into those opposite him.
Sally coughed as she looked heavenward. “As I recall, your friendship was rather toothy a moment ago.”
The alligator sighed, “Well, you see, sometimes my stomach sort of . . . well . . .” He stopped. Obviously neither really believed him. “I’m always hungry,” he wailed. “I don’t have any friends. I’ve never really been in such a place before, you know.”
“Look,” Buttons said, “if you really don’t have any friends, maybe it’s because they’re not around long enough to be friends. Ever think of that.” She glared at him, making the alligator wince inwardly. She did have a point.
“Well, maybe, you could be . . .” He looked expectantly at the two who stood defiantly before him.
Sally relented, somewhat, as she approached nearer. “Look, friend, I’ll be a friend, if you’re a friend. Get it?”
The alligator slumped against the stake, which only poked him in the ribs, making his decision even more difficult. The pain in his side made his teeth glimmer as his lips rippled in response.
Both dogs immediately backed off, not knowing if they could really trust this very large creature. However, the sound of rustling in the bush behind them froze them momentarily. Their ears went up and they turned toward the sound, ignoring, for the time being, the large alligator in the grasp of the trap.
Buttons smiled as she immediately recognized the sound as it approached. Sally started wagging her tail as a huge rattlesnake slithered into view. At the snake’s appearance, the alligator’s mouth dropped open, for he had never seen a snake so large. The alligator looked in shocked amazement as the dogs were rushing toward the snake with tails wagging.
Buttons leaped against the snake’s broad breast as she addressed him, “Morning, Ssserek. Boy, is it good to see you.”
Ssserek’s pupils expanded slightly as his tongue flitted about her, taking in the many details of the morning’s events. Then he touched Sally’s nose gently, sending ripples of surprise down the alligator’s back.
Ssserek nodded briefly to the two, and looked fixedly at the alligator who tried very hard to become invisible by shrinking himself into the most compact position possible. All to no avail.
Buttons nudged Sally as she watched the great snake, who was both friend and mentor. Of all the creatures in the forest and field, Ssserek was the grandest and the best in their opinion, which they shared with many of their disbelieving friends. Sally looked to heaven again as she recalled the warnings given earlier in the morning.
Ssserek had missed none of the interplay, smiling to himself. Nonetheless, he hissed in their ears as he lowered his head to their level, “Well, Ms. Lucie was correct again, was she not? Hmmm?”
Both Buttons and Sally squirmed beneath his stern visage. “Well, yes, we did sort of forget.” Both sat up, placing a small paw on his chest. Embarrassment, yes, that was there, but so too humor. He couldn’t help it. Ssserek smiled, albeit a bit grimly.
Saying nothing more to the two young scamps at his side, he moved so he could clearly view the alligator’s predicament. The stake was indeed large and deeply sunk. The chain might be rusty with age, but it, too, was large and would hold such a creature for a long time. The trap itself was of an old, but simple, design and had great strength. It presented a unique problem, which even the cunning of his two friends and their lack of strength could not hope to cope. He turned to them as they sat watching him with keen anticipation.
“Well, my young friends, I see you’ve caught yourself a very large fish, indeed.”
A loud groan came from the alligator. “I’m not a fish,” he wailed.
Sally looked to one side as she answered for both Buttons and herself. “Well, it did take some doing, but it wasn’t all that difficult. We simply led him into the trap as he tried to catch us.” She shrugged contemptuously as the alligator groaned once again.
Ssserek’s head snapped down, and before the alligator could move, he found himself staring eye to eye with the father of reptiles. “Not surprising, but then, our Prometheus here obviously has not met you two before. Else he would have known better, I vow.”
When his lungs could once again fill themselves, however little, the alligator could only blink slowly as Ssserek asked, “And, fellow reptile, what do you have to say? What did you say your name was? From which land do you hail? AND, how dare you assault my friends.” This last was hissed at the cringing alligator like a maddened steam pipe.
The alligator began to jitter, “I, I, I . . .” but then catching himself, rose as tall as his short legs allowed. He had spunk.
“My name,” his nose rose as he said it, “is Delphinus. And, I am an alligator, the largest of reptiles.”
His nose dipped toward Ssserek. “I came by way of Murphy’s Marvelous Moving Van of Exotic Creatures.”
Sally broke in, “You mean you escaped from some jerk water sideshow?”
She started to continue when Buttons came to his rescue. “That’s OK, Delph, you’re sort of cute.”
Delph, which became an instant nickname, started to smile, when Buttons added, “But then, I’ve never seen one of you before. Do you all have so many teeth?”
Delph gasped as Buttons stood against him, trying to peer into his mouth, made easier by his actions.
Delph couldn’t help but smile.
“Boy, they are big,” Buttons said.
“But, I am not very old.” He couldn’t help himself. “They are grand, though, aren’t they?” His grin was the largest either Buttons or Sally had ever seen.
“So, do we free you?” Ssserek asked.
Thoroughly deflated, Delph sank once again to the ground. He groaned and eyes filled with tears once again.
“Easy, little one,” Buttons said as she surveyed the trap. “There must be something we can do.”
Her tail wiggled enticingly before Delph’s eyes, and he clamped them shut for fear his thoughts would be apparent to the snake.
“Now, hold on a sec, Buttons,” Sally broke in. She placed herself directly in front of Delph’s nose, making him him cross his eyes as he tried to keep her in focus. “Why should we be friends with you? Tell me that.”
Delph moaned. His leg was beginning to hurt more and more. He really did like these two. They were so different.
He tried to explain. “You see, I was caged all th
e time. And only got fed on occasion. I sometimes eat things I shouldn’t because I was hungry all the time.” He didn’t add that the swamp more than adequately provided for him. That was obvious.
“Besides,” Delph continued, “I am the world’s most ferocious alligator.” He finished lamely. “Well, that’s what the sign said, but golly gee whiz, oh nuts.” He stopped. He wasn’t getting anywhere.
Sally decided to champion Delph. She had taken a liking to the young alligator, although she would never admit it. She glanced at Buttons. “Good cop, bad cop?”
Buttons didn’t bother to nod. The gleam in her eye clearly said, “Go for it.”
“Well, Delph, we would really like to help, but . . .” Sally left her thought hanging as Delph raised up, pulling at the chain in the sudden hope of being released.
“Yeah, but, no more trying to eat us.” Buttons stood on stiff legs, her voice hard and demanding.
Delph wilted. “Look, I wouldn’t ever, ever eat you. You know that.” He began again. Obviously, it hadn’t gone over particularly well.
“Gosh, I’ve never had a friend, anywhere. In my cage, I couldn’t even see who was next to me. And I had to fight for what I got to eat. Hunger has few friends, you know.”
Sally saw the immediate opening. “But, here in the swamp, you need never be hungry again.
Even Buttons had to admit the truth of his last statement, even though she did so grudgingly and slowly.
Buttons glared at Delph. “Look, maybe we can be friends. But how do we know you’ll keep your word?”
Ssserek broke in. It was time to finish the matter. He calmly gazed at the young alligator and his two friends. “I don’t believe he would ever forget his word if he gives it to all three of us. True, my young alligator?”
Delph stared at the great snake. He won’t dare not to keep his word. It would be hard, but he wanted friends. He wanted to be free, free to be able to talk with someone, anyone, yes, even these two, these two who had so neatly trapped him. Yes, he would keep his word.
The Adventures of Button Page 4