CHAPTER IX. "COMBING" THE SWAMP LABYRINTH.
"Oh! you can't fool me that way, Giraffe!" chuckled Bumpus. "I may lookgreen, but things ain't always what they seem. Thunder, eh? And this ismighty near the end of December, too. Try again, Giraffe."
"Yes, but don't forget, Bumpus, where you are," cautioned Thad. "Thiscountry in winter time can have anything we expect only in summer upNorth, and that stands for thunderstorms any month in the year. There,that was a louder peal; and now you'll understand we're not trying tomake you swallow a tough yarn."
"It sure did sound like it," admitted the fat scout, "but I neverthought we'd run up against a thunderstorm, or I'd have fetched my newraincoat along."
"Goodness knows you did bring more than your share, as it is,"complained Step Hen. "You ought to have a boat all to yourself, becausethe rest of us don't get a chance for our lives. But I say, Thad, do westand for a ducking?"
"If I could see a chance to go ashore I'd say we might get the tents up,and hold over till the storm had passed by," the scout-master replied.
"That's where it's agoing to be hard," ventured Giraffe; "because rightnow there don't seem to be a piece of ground as big as a postage stampin sight; nothing but the fat butts of these here old cypresses, andlow-hanging vines around. Reckon we must just stand for wet jackets,boys."
"Wait, don't give it up so easily," said Thad. "Pull over to where thosevines hang low, and see if you can't manage to fasten your tent up insome sort of style, so that it'll hang over the boat, and keep the rainoff."
"But how about the wind, won't that blow her every which way?" asked BobWhite.
"You'll find precious little wind with this rain," Thad assured him,"because it is so thick in the swamp here that we'll be protected. Youmay hear it humming in the cypress tops, but hardly a ripple below."
"Hurrah! that's the ticket, then!" cried Bumpus, who did dislike to getwet more than almost anything; yet who often managed to stumble, andfall into lakes and duck ponds in a way that was most exasperating."Anyhow, if the worst does come, I've got my old duds on."
"Yes, we know you have, sure we do, Bumpus," Davy made sure to call out,as his face took on an expression of pain that made Giraffe laugh; forjust then the latter being in the other boat, was separated from Thad'scraft by a dozen yards of water, and to windward at the same time.
It was found that the plan proposed by Thad was possible of execution.Happily the vines came down low enough for the boys to secure the tentsin such a way that they could be spread out, and thus cover most all theboats' surface.
"This is what I call a boss scheme," Giraffe was heard to call out, fromunder the dun-colored canvas that was wobbling violently, as the boysmade out to secure the ends the best they could, and in this way holdthe boats steady.
"Did you ever know Thad to think up one that wasn't the best going?"demanded Smithy; who was really the latest recruit in the patrol, thoughhe had learned a great many things since joining, and long ago ceased tomerit the opprobrious title of "greenhorn" or "tenderfoot."
"Listen! I think I hear the rain!" called out Thad, more to break inupon this flattering line of talk than because it was necessary to drawattention to the pattering of the drops upon the canvas covers.
"That's right; and I tell you we didn't get fixed any too soon,fellows!" Bumpus exclaimed, as he snuggled down in comfort, holding onto his share of the tent as though half expecting, despite thereassuring words of Thad, to presently feel the same violently torn fromhis clutch by the gale unless he fastened to it with the tenacity of abull terrier.
Inside of three minutes the rain was coming down heavily, while thethunder proceeded to crash with all the vim of a real summer storm uphome.
"One good thing," declared Giraffe, between outbursts, and when the rainseemed to let up a little, "we don't have to depend on the walking any;and after it's all over we can go right ahead as well as ever."
"Mebbe it'll raise the swamp level some," advanced Step Hen, "and wewon't be apt to run on the mud banks, like we did more'n a few times."
"Getting lighter all the while, boys; and I guess she'll soon quit!"Giraffe went on to remark; and they all agreed with him.
"Did anybody get wet?" asked Allan, when it seemed as though the stormhad passed over, and was rumbling away in the dim distance, having goneto the northeast.
"Nary a drop!" Bumpus triumphantly declared.
"Huh! there might be fellows mean enough to wish somebody _had_ gone andgot soaked through and through; for then he'd have to bring out his newsuit, and wear the same," Davy growled.
Bumpus was seen to be glaring suspiciously at the speaker when the wettent was taken down in the most careful manner possible.
"I really believe you wouldn't care a red cent, Davy Jones," he said,sternly, "if I happened to make a bad step, and walked overboard. Factis, I'm agoing to keep my eye on you after this. Like to have me get myold suit wet, would you, so I'd just _have_ to make the change; well, Iwouldn't put it past you to give me a little shove, or trip me up, soI'd take a header. Better take care, because there's a limit to my goodnature. Some fellows can be coaxed to do nearly anything, but theyobject to being driven."
"Listen to him talk, would you?" cried Davy, pretending to be hurt bythe accusation of the other, though there was a gleam in his eyes thattold he had been given an idea by Bumpus' remark. "You make me think ofthe traveler that the sun and the wind picked out as a victim, to seewhich was the stronger. He had a cloak on, and the one that managed toget it off was to be the victor. So the wind tried as hard as anything,but the traveler only wrapped his cloak tighter around him. Then the sungot hotter'n hotter, till he just couldn't hardly breathe; so what doeshe do but throw away his cloak; and of course the sun won, hands down."
"Chestnut!" gibed Giraffe, from the other boat; "ten to one even sixsuns couldn't force Bumpus to shed his coat when once he'd made up hismind to keep it on. Just like that stubborn will of his, it growsstronger and stronger all the time."
"Yes," added Davy, "and every little while you can see him sitting bythe fire, with his chin held in his hand and a far-away look in hiseyes; and then you know he's cracking his poor brain trying to rememberwhat happened to that five cents' worth of medicine he can't rememberwhat he did with."
"Didn't I tell you again and again that the money part don't enter intothis matter at all?" demanded Bumpus. "It's just because I was sowretchedly careless, that it keeps wearing on my mind. I ought to knowwhat I did with that stuff; and I'm bound to figure it out, or bust aboiler atrying. Didn't Thad tell us that was a good trait in a scout?Ain't being determined what every good scout ought to try'n practice?Didn't he tell us about how the hungry wolf over in Siberia will set outon the track of a deer in the snow, and keep everlastingly after him,even if the chase seems silly to begin with; but nearly every time he'llget his game before he quits, just by his pertinacity. That's what I am,one of the stick-at-it kind."
"You never said truer words, Bumpus!" coughed Davy, toward the stern ofthe boat, "some things are like a rolling snowball, they keep on gettingbigger'n bigger the longer they exist. But every dog has his day, and welive in hopes that something'll happen to make you change your mindabout that same coat."
When the tents had been squeezed as dry as possible, the forwardprogress was resumed, all of them feeling rather light-hearted over theclever way in which they had cheated the storm. It always gives a boy asense of superiority to feel that he has come out first best in a battlewith Nature.
Some of the scouts doubtless began to wonder how they were ever going tolocate the man and the girl, deep in the gloomy recesses of AlligatorSwamp; but those who kept their wits about them, and watched what Thadwas doing, must have ere this come to the conclusion that he had notbeen wandering aimlessly about all this time, but on the contrary hadsome definite plan of campaign in view, which he kept constantlyfollowing.
In fact, Thad was on the alert for any sort of sign that w
ould tell himsome other boat had been in the habit of passing along through thesechannels. Allan at times called his attention to certain indicationsalong those lines. And it was in the hope that this other boat might bethe one containing the man and the girl, whose presence here had drawnhim from his faraway Northern home, that Thad continued to pursue hisset course.
As the afternoon began to wear away, after they had partaken of a lightcold lunch that was not at all satisfactory to Giraffe, who declared atits close he was nearly starved, all of them began to keep a brightlook-out for some decent sort of dry land where they might camp for thecoming night.
"Because," said Smithy, who liked plenty of room, "it would bemanifestly next to impossible for four fellows to stretch outcomfortably in such a narrow craft as this canoe,"--Smithy always likedto use big words, and was moreover very precise in his mode of speech,but a pretty good fellow all the same, a great change having come overhim since he took up being a scout, and ceased to cater to his former"sissy" weaknesses along the line of extreme "dudishness," as Giraffealways called it.
"Well, I should say, yes," burst forth Davy Jones; "if you think you'dhave a bad time, just cast your eye over this way and tell me what'dbecome of us, once Bumpus started stretching himself out all over theboat. When he's sitting up it's bad enough, but lying down would makethe situation er--er----"
"Intolerable, I suppose you mean, Davy," supplemented Smithy, promptly.
"Yes, in more ways than one it would be," declared the Jones boy,darkly.
"Well, don't worry," Bumpus told him, calmly; "because right now I guessThad's got his eye on a real nice camp site, if that grin on his facestands for anything, and I think it does. How about it, Mr.Scout-master; have you struck solid land?"
"I see a place ahead that looks kind of good to me," Thad replied; "butbecause lots of things don't happen to turn out as well as they promise,we'll have to wait till we get there before we'll know for sure. And aswe're all tired of prowling around in this way for one day, I thinkwe'll hold up, providing the chance comes along."
"Even half a chance, Thad," urged Davy, hurriedly; "don't look a gifthorse in the mouth. Beggars shouldn't be choosers, my ma always says,when I begin to hesitate about taking something that's offered. Half aloaf's some better'n no bread. And as for me, I'm fairly _wild_ to getout and stretch my weary limbs, and also mingle with my other pards."
"Other pards, huh!" sniffed Bumpus, who knew very well that this wasintended as another little fling at him, though it failed to make even adent in his resolution not to give in to the requests of thesecomplaining fellows.
They were soon alongside the patch of high ground discovered by Thad;and when they found that it offered a splendid site for a dry camp, allof them were pleased. The way they proceeded to tumble out of the boatstold that their limbs had been more or less cramped by sitting so long,for as many as seven hours had elapsed since they embarked.
In spite of the time that had been spent in pushing along, they couldnot have made as great progress as might be expected; for on numerousoccasions Thad was compelled to admit that he had taken a false channel;after which they had to go back over their course, destroying the marksthat had been left, so they might not later on mislead them again, untila new start could be made.
First of all they jumped up and down on the land, and performed allmanner of gymnastic feats, with the object of getting out the "kinks,"as Giraffe explained it. Davy Jones was up a tree like a flash, andswinging there as jauntily as any Borneo gorilla could have done; infact the Jones boy never seemed so happy as when he could hang with hishead down, and his toes caught on a branch. If he chanced to slip, hewas as agile as a cat, and would clutch some new hold. They say that itis seldom a squirrel misses connections when jumping from one tree toanother; and surely no boy ever came nearer to being a human squirrelthan did Davy Jones.
"Now, if you've got limbered up enough," said Thad presently, "come andhelp me get the duffel ashore, so we can look after the boats, asusual."
Everybody was willing, and many hands make light work, so the tents andall other things came ashore at a lively rate.
Thad had just thrown down a package he had been carrying, when he wasseen to stand and look down at it critically, and then shake his head,as though trying to figure something out.
"What ails you, Thad?" called out Giraffe, who happened to be near by,and noticed this queer action on the part of the scout-master. "I hope,now, we haven't been and lost anything?" for Giraffe was always in fearlest the food supply be cut short.
"No, but perhaps there's a chance we may," replied the other, with agrin.
"You don't say; and what might it be?" demanded Davy, becominginterested.
"Why, a sudden idea struck me, that's all," replied Thad. "To tell youthe truth fellows, perhaps you've been treating our chum Bumpusshamefully all the while, in accusing him as you have of wearing clothesthat are greasy and loud; because I've got a notion that I've locatedthe source of this bad odor we've been suffering from two whole days andnights."