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Dick in the Everglades written by A. W. Dimock

A >> A. W. Dimock >> Dick in the Everglades



Dick
In the Everglades

BY

A.W. DIMOCK

Author of "Florida Enchantments"

WITH THIRTY-TWO HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY
J.A. DIMOCK


NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1909.


[Illustration: author's handwritten note.]


PREFACE


Dick in the Everglades is a true story. All that imagination had to
do with it was to find names for the boys and arrange a sequence of
events. Other characters, white and Indian, appear under names
similar to, or identical with their own. Any old alligator hunter,
familiar with the swamps and the Ten Thousand Islands, can follow
the course of the explorers from the text of the story. It would be
possible for two fearless boys, imbued with a love of Nature and the
wilderness, to repeat, incident by incident, the feats of the
explorers in the identical places mentioned in the story.

Many of the stories are understatements, seldom is one exaggerated.
I have been asked if it were possible for a boy to handle a manatee
in the water as one of the boys was represented as doing. I have
done it myself three times with manatees three times the size of
these in the story. In the story the manatees escaped. Two of those
which I captured were sent to the New York Aquarium, where one of
them lived for twenty months. The crocodiles which the boys sent to
the Zoological Park may be seen to-day, alive and well in the
reptile house. The frequent swamping of canoes and skiffs by
porpoises, or dolphins, tarpon and manatees are all experiences of
my own.

Aside from the Government charts which give the coast line only, the
existing maps of the scene of the story are worse than useless. In
them a hundred square miles are given to Ponce de Leon Bay, which
doesn't exist, unless the little depression in the coast which is
called Shark River Bight is accounted a bay. Rivers are omitted; one
with a mouth fifty feet wide is represented as a mile broad. A
little stream four miles long is sent wandering over a hundred and
forty miles of imaginary territory. I have sailed and paddled for
days at a time over the watercourses of South Florida, with a
compass before me and a pad at hand on which every change of course
was noted and distances estimated, and although no attempt at
accurate charting has ever been made, I am quite sure that none of
the natural features or products of the country traversed by the
young explorers have been misrepresented in the book.

The pictures are from photographs taken on the scene of the
incidents they illustrate. They show more conclusively than can any
words of mine, how beautiful is the region traversed by the boy
explorers and what interesting and exciting adventures they enjoyed.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER


I THE CHUMS

II DICK GOES TO SEA

III LIFE ON A SPONGER

IV CAUGHT IN A WATERSPOUT

V OUTFITTING FOR THE HUNT

VI DICK'S HUNT FOR HIS CHUM

VII THE MEETING IN THE GLADES

VIII OLD DREAMS REALIZED

IX THE CAPTURE OF THE MANATEE

X HARPOONING FROM A CANOE

XI GHOSTS AND ALLIGATORS

XII HUNTING IN HARNEY'S RIVER

XIII EDUCATING AN ALLIGATOR

XIV ENCOUNTER WITH OUTLAWS

XV DICK AND THE BEAR

XVI IN THE CROCODILE COUNTRY

XVII AMONG THE SEMINOLES

XVIII DICK'S WILDCAT AND OTHER WILD THINGS

XIX A PRAIRIE ON FIRE

XX DICK'S FIGHT WITH A PANTHER

XXI CONVALESCENCE AND CATASTROPHE

XXII THE RESCUE

XXIII MOLLY AND THE MANATEE

XXIV TO THE GLADES IN THE "IRENE"

XXV IN FLORIDA BAY

XXVI MADEIRA HAMMOCK AND--THE END




ILLUSTRATIONS


"THERE GOES YOUR PET. THAT'S THE LAST OF HIM,"

"DICK HUNTED ALL THE TURTLES HE SAW"

"A SILVERY, TWISTING BODY SHOT TEN FEET IN THE AIR"

"THE EVERGLADES AT LAST"

"WE'VE GOTTER HAVE ONE OF THEM YOUNG TURKS IF IT TAKES ALL NIGHT"

"THE SEMINOLE WAS STANDING IN HIS CANOE, LOOKING FIXEDLY AT US"

"HE FOUND DICK STANDING IN WATER SHOULDER DEEP, HANGING ON TO THE
FLIPPER OF THE MANATEE"

"THE STRICKEN TARPON LEAPED SIX FEET IN THE AIR"

"THE TARPON BEGAN A SERIES OF LEAPS"

"GROUPS OF TALL PALMETTOES, OR MAGNIFICENT TALL PALMS"

"HE HELD THE JAWS OF THE 'GATOR SHUT WHILE DICK SEIZED THE HIND LEGS
OF THE REPTILE"

"THE TARPON LEAPED AGAINST NED WITH FURY"

"OUT CAME THE REPTILE'S HEAD FROM THE CAVE"

"SEE THE BABY 'GATOR SIT UP, NED!"

"A FEW OF THE HOMELESS BEES LIT ON THE COMB"

"ALL BEYOND THE DARK MEADOW WAS A LIVID MASS"

"THE BARB CAUGHT IN THE REPTILE'S LOWER JAW"

"THE COON SCRAMBLED TO THE TOP OF A LITTLE TREE"

"HE SAW THE GENTLY SWAYING HEAD AND THE LIGHTNING PLAY OF THE FORKED
TONGUE"

"NED FOUND A GOOD CAMPING SITE MARKED BY A FREAK PALMETTO"

"THE LYNX SPRANG INTO THE CANOE AND SEIZED ONE OF THE FISH"

"PORPOISES ROLLED THEIR BACKS OUT OF THE WATER"

"THE HARD, POINTED HEAD OF THE BIG TARPON TORE THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF
THE FRAGILE CANOE"

"THE INDIGNANT BIRD PUNCHED HOLES THROUGH HIS HAT"

"THE LIGHT FROM THE BULL'S-EYE SHOWED THE HEAD AND BODY OF THE
REPTILE"

"SLOWLY LIFTING HIS HUGE HEAD OVER THE SIDE OF THE SKIFF"

"YOUNG HERONS SPREAD WINGS AND STRETCHED LONG LEGS AS THEY FLED"

"THEY SAW A CROCODILE SWIMMING UNDER WATER NEAR THEM"

"THE HARPOON STRUCK THE FISH IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS BROAD BACK"

"SIXTEEN FEET OF FIERCENESS LAY STRANDED ON THE BANK"

"THEY HAULED THE HEAD OF THE BRUTE OVER THE SIDE OF THE BOAT"

"HE TOOK THE BABY CROCODILE IN HIS ARMS"




DICK IN THE EVERGLADES

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING DICK'S CRUISE IN A CANOE]




DICK IN THE EVERGLADES




CHAPTER I

THE CHUMS


"Come in!"

The doctor's voice had a note of sternness which was not lost on the
two boys waiting outside his study door. The taller of the two, Ned
Barstow, turned the handle and stepped into the study, followed
immediately by Dick Williams. The doctor, sitting behind his desk,
looked decidedly uncompromising as he said:

"Now, Barstow and Williams, you were absent from your room last
night. Where were you?"

"Camping in Farmer Field's woods, sir," replied Ned Barstow.

"How often has this happened before?"

"Twice, sir."

"Was any one else with you?"

"Only last night, sir. Another boy was with us then," said Ned.

"Who was he?"

"I can't tell you, sir."

"Williams, you may go now. I will see you later."

After the door had closed on Williams, the doctor turned again to
Barstow, and said:

"Barstow, I have always felt that I could rely upon your influence
with the younger boys being for good. Now, I find you aiding to
upset the whole discipline of the school by this camping affair. I
hope there has been nothing worse. You know I never insist on
tale-bearing regarding mere boyish escapades, but I would like to
know if there was any other reason for your refusing to give up your
companion's name."

"Yes, sir, there was. We had a chicken for supper, that was taken
from Farmer Field's poultry-house."

"Did you or Williams steal that chicken, Barstow?"

"No, sir, but we knew about it and helped eat it, and are just as
much to blame as the boy who took it."

"And, now, you mean to protect the thief?"

"Well, you see, Doctor, a good many fellows don't look at hooking
apples, or nuts, or chickens as real stealing."

"What do you think about it?" asked the doctor.

"I think it was wrong and I am very sorry it happened. It won't
occur again."

"I have no fear that it will. But it is too serious an offence to
be lightly passed over. In the first place you and Williams must see
Farmer Field, tell him what you have done and pay for the chicken
that was--taken. After that I will talk with you. Now send Williams
to me."

When Dick Williams came in the doctor began:

"Williams, how much do you love your mother?"

"Why, more than anyone else in the world, sir."

"She is keeping you here at considerable expense. Don't you think
you owe it to her to pay more attention to your studies?"

"Yes, Doctor, and I am going to do better hereafter."

"How will your mother feel when she hears of this chicken-stealing
episode?"

"Oh! Doctor; she mustn't hear of it that way. We didn't think of it
as stealing last night, but this morning Ned and I talked about it
and we are going to see Farmer Field and tell him what we did and
pay for the chicken."

"Do you mean, Dick," and the good doctor's voice shook a little as
he asked the question, "that you and Ned decided to tell Farmer
Field about the taking of his chicken, before you knew that I had
heard of your camping out?"

"Why, yes, sir. I supposed Ned had told you."

"Your friend Ned is rather a curious boy, but when you are in doubt
about the right and wrong of anything, you might do worse than ask
his advice."

"Oh! I get enough of that without asking for it," said Dick.

And the doctor laughed, but he soon looked pretty serious again, and
said:

"Dick, I think no one will tell your mother and she need never know,
but I hope you will tell her all about it of your own accord."

"Sure!" said Dick, "I couldn't keep that or anythink else away from
Mumsey for five minutes after I saw her."

There was a significant pause, during which the doctor stroked his
chin meditatively before asking:

"Now, what in the world made you two boys go on that camping
escapade? I want you to tell me that, Dick."

The boy hesitated a moment and then said:

"Why, I really don't know, Doctor--we just wanted to. You see, there
are so many things to see and listen to at night that way. Birds and
animals, I mean. Ned and I are going to be explorers some day, you
know."

"Hum!" said the doctor.

"Well, that will do for the present, Williams. I hope you understand
that you are escaping serious trouble very easily and that you mean
to be as good as you can for the rest of the time you are at the
school."

Fanner Field received Ned and Dick with an air of gruffness that was
belied by twinkling blue eyes and, when Ned had finished telling
his story and offered to pay for the chicken, said:

"Did you take that chicken out of my poultry-house?"

"Not exactly, but it's the same thing. We knew about it and helped
eat it."

"Was it tender?" asked the farmer.

"No, sir, it was the toughest thing I ever put in my mouth."

"I thought so. Why, that rooster was a regular antique. He must have
been a hundred years old. Next time you want a chicken for a late
supper, better let me choose it for you. Who helped you eat that
rooster?"

"Please don't ask us that. We'll tell you anything about ourselves,
but we can't give him away."

"Wouldn't think much of you if you did. No need of it anyhow. I know
who it was."

"He must have told you then, for we haven't told anybody."

"Do you remember that while you were cooking that rooster out in my
woods, Steve Daly, your companion, said he heard somebody in the
bushes and you said it was only a dog?"

"Yes, I remember it. I did say that."

"Well, I was that dog!"

"And you never told on us?" asked Dick. "Then you've been mighty
kind and I'm ashamed to look you in the face."

"Never be ashamed to look anyone in the face, my boy. It isn't good
to take even a little thing that doesn't belong to you, but that
won't happen again to you. But weren't you playing truant when you
had that tough supper in my woods? Doesn't your conscience trouble
you at all about that?"

"Not a bit," said Dick; "that wasn't mean."

It was fortunate for Dick's peace of mind that his conscience wasn't
troubled by mischief, for he was never out of it and was at the root
of about all the purely mischievous happenings at the school.

Even the lesson of the camping incident and the doctor's kindly talk
wore off in a fortnight. Yet he was popular with teachers as well as
pupils. His head was crowned with a mass of sandy hair and his
impertinent face plastered with freckles. The boy was quick and full
of grace as a wildcat and so well built and lithe that he was a
terror on the football team.

Dick was often too busy to attend to his studies and fell behind in
his lessons, until the good doctor sent for him and gave him an
earnest but understanding talk which sent the boy back to his books,
filled with remorse and determined to get to the head of his class
in a hurry. One of these resolves was usually effective for about a
week. After which Dick generally suffered a severe relapse.

During his last winter at school, he frequently took long tramps in
the woods in the hours when he should have been at his books, and
was finally taken to task by his chum for the bad example he was
setting the younger boys by playing truant.

"But, Ned," said Dick, "I just can't keep away from the woods, and
they do me good, I know they do. I am a whole lot better every way
after a good long tramp by myself through the thickest woods I can
find. I'd like to camp out in them to-night and I believe I will."

"That's all right, Dick. I'll camp with you; only we've got to have
Doc's permission. He trusts us a lot, and we can't go back on him."

"Nice chance we've got of getting that. Maybe he'd camp with us!"
said Dick satirically.

"Shouldn't wonder if he would. You don't understand Doc. Did you
ever know him to refuse a fellow anything he squarely asked for,
unless he simply had to do it? Come along."

And the boys walked together to the study.

"Doctor," said Ned, "Dick and I want to camp out to-night in Farmer
Field's woods, if you have no objection."

"Want to camp out? Well, so do I, only I am afraid I might be needed
here. Do you know how to camp? What do you expect to take with you
and how will you keep warm?"

"We thought of taking a hatchet, a blanket for each of us and some
potatoes to roast. Then we will make a bed of hemlock boughs, build
a fire near it and roll up in our blankets."

"Well, you may go, and I will help out your commissariat with a
loaf of bread and a chicken. But be sure you have plenty of fuel
ready before dark. It will be a cold night and you will have to
replenish your fire three or four times before morning."

"Thank you, Doctor. You don't know how much obliged we are to you
for your kindness."

"And you don't know how much trouble I am in for, when the rest of
the boys hear of this escapade of yours."

But after the study door closed the doctor smiled quietly to himself
and said under his breath:

"Just like myself at their age--have the woods instinct."

Ned and Dick slept little that night. There was about a foot of snow
on the ground and they scraped bare a place for their camp-fire
beside a big stump and gathered enough fuel from windfalls for the
night. Then they rolled a log beside the fire for a seat and built a
soft bed with fragrant branches of hemlock and spruce. They roasted
the chicken over a thick bed of glowing coals and baked potatoes in
the ashes of the fire. The chicken was carved with their pocket
knives and they got along without forks or plates. By using bark
gathered from a birch and softening it over their fire they made
cups with which they brought water from a nearby brook. When supper
was finished the boys rolled up in their blankets and lying on the
bed they had built on the snow, inhaled its fragrance as they
watched the eddying smoke of their camp-fire and the stars that
shone through the spreading branches above them and listened to the
voices of the night, from the distant cry of an owl to the whish of
falling snow, shaken from evergreen boughs by the breeze. They had
visions of camps, scattered from the equator to the poles, some of
which were destined to be realized. Ned formed a plan that night, of
which he wrote to his father, but of which he said nothing at the
time to his chum.

But as Dick stood beside Ned in their last hour at Belleville, and
the sadness of parting was in the face and eyes from which fun
usually bubbled, Ned said:

"My father owns a tract of land in the Big Cypress Swamp of Florida.
There is a lot of fine timber on it and he intends to set up a
lumber mill in the swamp and perhaps build a railroad from Fort
Myers to some part of it. A surveyor with a guide is going into the
swamp this fall to locate the best timber and I'm going with them.
You know how we have planned to do real camping and exploring
together. Well, here's our chance. I've written to Dad and he
invites you to go with me. We can start any time. When can you be
ready, Dick?"

"Ned, I'd give all I have in the world to go with you, but I
can't--I can't. Mother has spent more than she could afford to keep
me at this school and sometimes I'm ashamed when I think how I've
wasted my time. Now I don't mean to be an expense to her or anyone
else hereafter. I won't take a penny that I don't earn, from
anybody, and I won't go on any trip, even with you, until I can pay
my own way, every cent of it."

"But, Dick, your companionship and the work you can do will be worth
all it costs, twice over, to me and to Dad and he will feel just
that way about it."

"It's like you, Ned, to say all that, but it's no use and you know
it. You've been mighty good to me ever since I came to this school
and I'm going to keep your good opinion by not accepting your offer
to go with you now. Some time, when I can keep up my end, I'll be
with you bigger than an Injun. If you ever find strange footprints
down in those Everglades, better foller 'em up. They'll likely be
mine. Good-bye, Ned."

The boys clasped hands and as Dick walked away tears rolled down his
freckled cheeks.

Four months after the parting of the two friends, at Belleville,
Dick received a letter postmarked "Immokalee, Florida," which was
headed:

/#
Big Cypress Swamp, 20 miles from anywhere,

October 10th.

DEAR CHUM:

Here I am! on a prairie inside the Big Cypress Swamp, about
which we used to talk and where we planned to camp some day.
Well, it's bigger than anything we ever dreamed of and every
foot of it is alive. Sometimes I sleep in a tent, but more
often under the stars. Last night I heard the scream of a
panther, so near that it made me shiver, and the next minute
a frog dropped from the branch of a tree over my head and
fell on my face. I must have screamed louder than the
panther, for I scared Chris Meyer, the surveyor, who is
camping with me, pretty badly. The guide we expected didn't
come, so we are guiding for ourselves. I hope Chris knows
where we are, for I am sure I don't. We measure the big
cypress trees with a tape line and Chris calculates the
number of feet of lumber in each tree. Then we estimate the
trees in an acre and guess at the number of acres. At least
that's the way the business looks to me. Sometimes the
walking is easy, but to-day we had to wade through mud
waist-deep and the moccasins were pretty thick. I watched out
for the ugly things and it kept me on the jump, but Chris
marched straight ahead and paid no attention to them,
excepting once when a big cotton-mouth that was coiled on top
of a stump struck at him. Then he fell over backward into the
mud, and I had a good laugh at him--afterwards. Chris killed
that snake. It was a short, thick snake and about as pretty
as a Bologna sausage, but its mouth opened five inches and
its long, needle-like fangs were dripping with venom. I am
hungry all the time and enjoy our bill of fare very much,
although it is only bacon, grits and coffee, morning, noon
and night. We are traveling light, for we carry all our
baggage on our backs. We see deer and wild turkey every day
and it's pretty hard to keep my hands off my rifle, but I
promised Dad not to shoot anything out of season. In three
weeks the law will be off and then it will be bad for the
first buck I meet. Chris says it's good for me to see a lot
of deer before I shoot at any. He says I won't be so likely
to miss or only wound them when I really hunt them. I guess
he's about right, for when I first saw a deer--it was a big
buck and only twenty yards away--I had a regular attack of
buck ague and I couldn't have hit the side of a house even if
I'd been inside it. Now I can look at one, point a stick at
him and say _bang_, with my nerves just as quiet as if it
were a cow. I have seen a few bears, but they are very shy.
We'll turn loose on them, too, when we get round to hunting,
but in the mean time we are sticking to our timber job for
all there is in it.

An old alligator hunter is camping beside us to-night. He is
bound for Boat Landing, with a lot of alligator hides and
otter skins, and I am finishing up this letter to send by
him. Just as soon as this surveying business is over I am
going to have a glorious hunt. If only you were here we would
start out by our lonesomes and have all the adventures we
ever talked about. Probably Chris will go with me. I haven't
quite the pluck to try it alone, as I know you would do in my
place. I may brace up to it, though. Dad has given me
permission to do just as I please. He says he trusts me not
to be foolish or foolhardy and to keep him informed of my
plans. Isn't he a good Dad? Come if you can. Come when you
can.

Always and forever your chum,

NED.
#/

Dick's mother read Ned's letter and was quiet and sad all the rest
of the day. After Dick had gone to bed she went into his room, sat
down on the bed beside him, kissed him and said:

"Dicky boy, mother wants you to take a good, long vacation. You've
worked hard and been a great comfort to her since you left school
and now she's going to send you to your chum Ned, down in Florida
where she knows your heart is. Now--don't speak yet--mother knows
what you want to say. dear, but she can perfectly well afford to
send you and you will hurt her feelings if you don't let her."

Dick put his arms around his mothers' neck and as soon as he could
speak, half sobbed out:

"Oh, Mumsey, I can't take your money. You've got so little."

"But mother wants you to, so much."

Dick held his mother's face close to his own for a minute and then
said, very slowly:

"Mumsey, I'll go--and it's really and truly because you want me
to--but I won't take any of your money. Hush, now! Don't you say a
word, or I'll--disown you. I've got a ten-dollar bill of my own and
I'll keep that in my pocket just so you won't worry for fear I'm
hungry; and I will bet you ten dollars I'll bring that same bill
back to you and I won't go hungry one day either."

"But, Dick--"

"Not one word, Mumsey, except to say you'll take that bet. I can get
a ride to New York on a boat, any day. Then I'll go to the Mallory
Line and work my way to Key West on one of their boats; and from Key
West I can find a fishing boat that will land me on the west coast
of Florida somewhere within a hundred miles of Ned, and I'd walk
that far just for the fun of surprising him."




CHAPTER II

DICK GOES TO SEA


Three days after Dick's talk with his mother, he boarded a Key West
steamer just as it was leaving its New York pier. He sat on the deck
and watched busy ferry-boats in the river, fussy tugs and
chug-chugging launches in the harbor, and the white-winged yachts
and great ocean steamers in the lower bay. He looked back from the
Narrows upon the receding city, to the east upon Coney Island with
its pleasure palaces, and to the southwest upon the great curve of
Sandy Hook. Every step upon the deck near him brought his heart into
his mouth in dread of what he knew he had to face. When the steamer
was opposite Long Branch and there was small chance that he could be
sent back, he inquired for the captain, whom he found talking to
some young girls among the passengers. This somewhat reassured
Billy, for he felt that the captain wouldn't eat him up in the
presence of the young ladies, and he stood waiting with his cap in
his hand until the captain spoke to him.

"Do you want to see me, my boy?"

"If you are Captain Anderson, I do, sir."

"All right, go ahead."

"I want you to set me to work, sir."

"Why should I set you to work? Do you belong on the boat?"

"Not yet, but you see it's this way. I had to get to Key West and I
thought I'd work my passage with you."

"Why didn't you ask me before we left the dock?"

"Because I was afraid you wouldn't take me, if you could help it,
and I had to go."

"You cheeky little devil, I believe I'll chuck you overboard."

"Oh!" said a brown-eyed girl who stood beside the captain, "you
mustn't do that!"

The captain laughed and said to Dick:

"I hope you understand that you owe your life to this young lady.
Now, go and report yourself to the cook and tell him to put you on
the worst job he's got."

"Thank you very much, Captain, but couldn't you make it the engineer
instead of the cook? I'd rather work than wash dishes."

"I'd like to oblige so modest a boy. Report to the chief engineer,
give him my compliments and tell him you are to have the hottest
berth on the boat. He'll probably set you to shoveling coal."

Dick thanked him again; then looking into the face of the girl, he
said:

"Thank you, Miss Brown-Eyes, for saving my life," and, bowing low,
turned away.

"Captain, couldn't you see that he was a gentleman? What made you
give him such hard work?" asked the girl.

"Because he was such a cheeky gentleman that if I let him stay on
deck he would take command of the boat by to-morrow and all you
young ladies who helped him would be guilty of mutiny and would have
to be executed."