CHAPTER XX

THE ALLIGATOR’S JAWS

“Thank Heaven,” gasped Lee, as the three boys threw themselves down and lay panting in the grateful shade of a big tree. “I’m all in. I couldn’t possibly have gone half a mile more.”

“I guess we’re about as bad,” said Fred. “I’m willing to admit that I was never so near the end of my rope. Any one would have thought you knew this island was here, Bobby, from the way you headed for it.”

“It was just a guess,” declared Bobby. “I figured that probably if we got further away from the river the ground might be less swampy and it would pay us to go in that direction even if we were getting farther from home.”

“We wouldn’t have got there very fast the way I was heading you anyway,” said Lee. “Poor mother will be terribly worried about us.”

“Yes,” agreed Bobby soberly, “that’s the trouble; when, we fellows get into trouble of any kind, our mothers suffer more over it than we do.”

In a short time they had recovered a good deal from their strenuous exertions, and now all three found themselves ravenously hungry. But to feel hungry and to satisfy that hunger were two very different things, as they soon discovered. They had read of people marooned on islands in the ocean, but in every such case there had seemed to be a convenient flock of goats or a handy beach strewn with shellfish. But after the boys had thoroughly ransacked their island, they found no such convenient supply. The place was only about a quarter of a mile across, hemmed in on every side with brown water and black mud.

Luckily, however, they had hung onto their fishing rods, and they had no difficulty in digging up a plentiful supply of worms in the rich earth. Fred was the first to get a bite, and he reeled in the fish as fast as he could, being much too eager to see the fish toasting over a fire to make any attempt to “play” him. It was not long before they had four small fish, and these they proceeded to clean and kill without wasting any time over it.

“Scubbity-yow!” exclaimed Fred, as he bit into the delicious morsel, “I never knew a fish could taste so good. These fellows are only samples. We’ll have to get busy and catch about a hundred more before I’ll feel satisfied.”

“If you’ll eat a hundred, I’ll catch them for you,” laughed Bobby.

“And I’ll clean them and cook them for you,” seconded Lee.

“All right, go ahead and start in,” said Fred, but the others were not to be taken in so easily.

“No, you don’t,” laughed Bobby. “You get busy and catch some yourself. I’ll bet you couldn’t eat two more to save your life.”

“Well, I’d have a lot of fun trying, anyway,” said Fred, regretfully. “But if you fellows are too lazy to catch fish for me, I suppose I’ll have to do it myself.”

“Looks a lot that way,” agreed Lee, as he cast his line into the water. “You’d better hurry, too, before Bobby and I have them all out.”

They caught and ate fish until they could eat no more, and then lay down in the shade to rest.

“This might be worse, I suppose,” said Bobby, chewing reflectively on a long blade of grass. “A couple of hours ago it would have seemed like Heaven to us.”

“It isn’t so bad here,” said Lee, “but we can’t stay here forever, and after we leave we’ll be as badly off as we were before.”

“Likely,” admitted Bobby, “but then, on the other hand, it doesn’t seem possible we’ll strike anything worse than we went through this morning, anyway.”

“Oh, cut out worrying about the future,” broke in Fred. “For my part, I’ve had enough to eat—although I’ll admit a steady fish diet is beginning to get tiresome—and I’ve got a soft and shady place to lie where I can hear the little birdies singing. So why worry, say I.”

“Yes,” said Lee, scornfully, “and you can hear the pretty alligators singing, too, if you listen hard. Not to mention the mosquitoes and bull-frogs.”

“Better let him be cheerful while he can, Lee,” said Bobby. “He’ll soon forget how happy he is after we get started again.”

“Well, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for, anyway,” contended Fred. “Suppose we’d all been as fat as Pee Wee, and had to go hopping through this everlasting swamp like—like—”

“Like turkeys on a hot stove?” suggested Lee.

“That seems to about cover it.” said Fred, with a laugh, “even if it isn’t very complimentary to us. But as I was saying, if we’d all been as fat as Pee Wee, we’d never have got here at all. This swamp was never intended for heavyweights.”

“I don’t think it was ever intended for any kind of human being,” said Lee.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Bobby. “It strikes me that this would be an ideal place to put Ap Plunkit and Ben Tompkins, for instance.”

“Wow!” yelled Fred, delightedly. “You certainly had an idea that time, Bobby. And while we’re at it, why not Sandy Jackson and his friend, Snath? Seems to me they’d fit in pretty well, too.”

“Come to think of it, though,” said Bobby, with a serious air, “don’t you think it would be playing it rather low down on the poor alligators! What have they ever done to us that we should wish that bunch on them?”

“Perhaps you’re right,” conceded Fred. “I hadn’t thought of that before. But I guess some of those big fellows we saw this morning are able to take care of themselves.”

“I don’t know who those fellows are you’re talking about, except Snath,” said Lee, “but if they’re any meaner than alligators, I don’t want to know anything about them. They’re the meanest things alive, I think.”

“Speaking of ’gators reminds me,” said Bobby, “why not try and locate some of those eggs you were telling us about, Lee? A little change of diet wouldn’t do us any harm.”

“All right, let’s look for some,” said Lee, springing to his feet, “that is, if Fred isn’t having too good a time doing nothing to be disturbed.”

“No rest for the wicked,” groaned Fred, scrambling to his feet. “Lead on, Lee, I’m with you.”

The three boys followed around the shore, looking for a sandy beach, which, as Lee told them, was the most likely place to find the eggs. Lee had cut himself a sharp stick, and when they had at last found a sandy place, he stuck this into the sand at intervals, afterwards examining the end to see if it had found a nest. After quite a time spent in fruitless proddings, he at last met with success. The end of the stick came up dripping yellow.

“Here’s a nest!” he shouted. “Dig in, fellows and we’ll soon have all we want.”

Suiting the action to the word, he began scooping up the sand with his hands, and Bobby and Fred followed suit. In a short time they had uncovered a small heap of alligator eggs, each one about the size of a goose’s egg. Absorbed in their find, they had no thought of danger, until suddenly Bobby, chancing to glance up, gave a wild yell of warning. Springing to their feet, Fred and Lee saw a huge alligator, measuring a good fifteen feet, almost on top of them, great jaws gaping and small, vicious eyes snapping wickedly!