CHAPTER XXVII

OTTIBY TO THE RESCUE

For a moment following Jerry’s announcement the girls did not know what to say. The news startled them.

“Do you mean to tell us that the passage by which we entered here from Lake Okeechobee is closed?” asked Nellie.

“It seems to be,” replied Jerry.

“And the houseboat is gone?” asked Rose.

“Where is it?” asked Ned. “You left it here and now it has disappeared!”

“Poor father!” exclaimed Olivia. “What can have happened to him?” and she looked at the startled countenances of her sisters.

The girls were very much frightened, not only at the disappearance of their houseboat but because of the strange happening that had closed the passage, and they were alarmed on account of their father.

“What shall we do?” asked Rose. “Perhaps those wicked colored men or some Seminole Indians have captured father.”

“Don’t talk of such horrid things!” exclaimed Nellie. “We never should have left him alone!”

“The best thing you can do is to come to our camp,” suggested Ned. “We can tell the professor what has happened and perhaps he can suggest a way out of it. Maybe the passage has become blocked by a mass of floating vegetation, or an island such as we are on.”

“Are you on a floating island?” asked Olivia.

“Yes, a regular floating forest,” answered Jerry. “I think you had better come with us.”

There was nothing else to do, and the girls got into the motor boat while their small craft was towed by the _Dartaway_. In a short time they arrived at the camp. The professor met them at the shore. He look worried, and Ned asked:

“Is anything the matter?”

“Bob is out of his mind again,” replied the scientist. “He seems much worse. Did you bring a list of medicines? I find I shall need several kinds.”

“The houseboat is gone,” said Jerry.

“Gone?” and the professor’s face looked blank.

“And poor, dear papa is gone with her,” put in Rose.

Jerry quickly explained what had happened and Ned spoke of his theory.

“I believe you’re right,” agreed Uriah Snodgrass. “We are in strange waters and things have happened that I never would dream of. But, girls, don’t worry. I’m sure your father is all right. I wish I could find him, as I am worried about Bob, and I’m sure he would have the very medicine I need to make the boy well.”

“Let me assist in nursing him,” said Olivia. “It will help to take my mind off our troubles.”

“We’ll aid you,” added Rose and Nellie, and the three young ladies went into the tent where Bob was tossing in the delirium of fever. The professor was glad enough of their help and they at once bathed Bob’s head, face and arms in witch hazel which gave him some relief. They also kept wet cloths on his brow to reduce the fever.

“Now, boys, we’ve got a serious problem ahead of us,” said Mr. Snodgrass as he beckoned Ned and Jerry to follow him out of earshot of the tent. “It seems that we are caught in a sort of trap. We’re on a lake from which there appears to be no outlet, and it is constantly falling. In a little while there’ll be no water in it and if we want to get back home we’ll have to walk.”

“But there must be an outlet or how does the water get out?” asked Ned.

“I’m afraid the outlet is one that we can’t use,” replied the scientist. “I mean an underground one.”

“What’s to be done?” inquired Jerry.

“I have thought of a plan,” Uriah Snodgrass continued, “but it is going to be difficult for we have no tools for working.”

“What is it?” asked Jerry.

“We might cut a channel through the obstruction that is blocking the passage through which the girls came.”

“Or we might haul the boat overland,” added Ned.

“Providing the floating island which blocks the passage is not too great in extent,” put in Jerry.

This was a new phase of the matter. Clearly they could not dig a canal of any great length, with the primitive tools at their command. Nor could they haul the _Dartaway_ overland any long distance.

“It looks as if we were up against it,” said Jerry with a doleful sigh. “We’ll have to think of another plan.”

At that moment there was a cry from the tent and the professor hurried to it, to find that Bob was struggling to leave his cot because of a fever delusion that there was a big snake near him. The girls were frightened and it required all Mr. Snodgrass’s strength to hold Bob down until the spell passed. After that Ned, Jerry or the professor remained on duty with one of the girls, caring for the patient.

The camp was anything but a cheerful place. The girls wore anxious looks, and the two boys, in spite of their past experience in getting out of serious difficulties, had lost some of their good spirits. The professor did not give way to gloomy thoughts, but it was clear that he was worried.

In this way two days passed. Ned and Jerry took turns in cruising about in the _Dartaway_, looking for some means of egress from the lake, but none was to be seen. It was at the close of the second day that Jerry, returning in the motor boat, saw a small craft approaching their island, which was still drifting slowly.

“It’s a canoe,” he said, as he made the _Dartaway_ fast and waded ashore to camp. “I hope it doesn’t contain an advance guard of ugly negroes or Indians.”

Thinking it best to be on the safe side, Jerry quietly summoned the professor and Ned. They got their guns and waited on shore. The canoe continued to approach. The three girls were in the tent with Bob.

“There are two men in it,” said Jerry.

“Then I guess we can take care of them,” remarked the professor.

“If there aren’t a lot more to follow,” added Ned.

On came the canoe. The two paddlers sent it forward at a swift pace.

“They’re Indians,” observed Jerry a little later. “One of ’em looks just like Ottiby.”

“It is Ottiby!” exclaimed the professor.

This was confirmed a few minutes later, when the Seminole chief stepped ashore, followed by another bronze-skinned individual.

“Ugh!” grunted the chief. “Glad to see. This my son, Skamore.”

“We’re glad to see you,” replied the professor. “We’re in a bad fix and perhaps you can help us, as you know a lot about these queer lakes.”

“Me help. Yo’ help Ottiby, Ottiby help yo’,” and with that the Indian squatted down and began to smoke a pipe, which example his son followed.

Waiting until the red-men had recovered from the exertion of their paddling, the professor told them of the plight of the party, and also of Bob’s illness. He asked if Ottiby did not know of something that was good for fevers. The chief grunted and spoke to his son who, without a word, glided off into the woods.

Then Ottiby began to talk. He said his son would search for a certain plant that the Indians used when they had fevers. As for the blocking of the passage, that was another matter. Ottiby said he and his son had come to the lake to fish. He knew of no outlet from it other than the two already described. One was impassable as it was blocked by the falling of the water and the other was closed by a mass of land--a veritable floating island. The Indian said he had reached the lake by an overland route; he and his son carrying their canoe.

“But me help yo’,” finished the Indian. “We go look at place in mornin’.”

Hardly had he spoken than his son came hurrying back through the bushes. His hands were empty, showing that his search for the plant had been unsuccessful. But there was a queer look on his face. He spoke some words to his father, at which the old chief started.

“What is the matter?” asked the professor.

“Hurricane coming,” was the answer. “Look out, or all blow ’way.”

As he spoke there sounded a deep moaning sound through the trees of the floating forest.