CHAPTER VI.
THE START FOR THE 'GLADES.
The incident related in the last chapter determined Frank to abandon hishalf-arrived at intention to enter the Everglades from the Atlanticside. The appearance of the dark man in Washington--he was now certaintheir plans had been overheard--the episode of the tramp and the attemptto blow up the aerodrome all combined to convince him that his originalscheme of invasion of the little known wastes of Southern Florida was asan open book to the men who had only too evidently their destruction atheart.
A hasty trip to Washington resulted, and a consultation with theSecretary of the Navy. The result was that arrangements were madewhereby the boys' expedition was to gather at Miami as openly aspossible, and then under cover of night run down Biscayne Bay andeventually double Cape Sable by the inland passage. Then they were tobeat up through the Ten Thousand Island Archipelago to the mouth ofeither Shark or Harney River and thence into the trackless wastes ofunmapped swamp and saw-grass known as the Everglades.
The _Tarantula_ was to cruise off and on around the coast and in case ofdire need was to be signaled by wireless. These details completed, Frankand Harry returned to New York and a week later, the _Golden Eagle II_being completed, and loaded in small cases marked "Glass, Fragile," andother misleading labels, the Boy Aviators bade farewell to their motherand friends and started by the Southern Limited for Miami. With themthey carried in ordinary trunks their mess and camp kit outfits, riflesand medical supplies as well as two of the Government's field wirelessoutfits. The rest of the party was to follow a week later in a privatecar with all the other baggage, including the boxed sections of the_Golden Eagle II_. The canoes and boats for the trips were to bepurchased at Miami or along the coast in the vicinity, as the boysdeemed fit. In the meantime the _Tarantula_ had been dispatched fromHampton Roads for Southern waters under sealed orders. Not till hercommander opened his instructions at sea did he know the real nature ofhis errand.
At this point it may not be amiss to give a brief description of thelittle known country to which the boys were bound. Everyone has heard ofthe Everglades, few have any accurate idea of them beyond a sort of hazyconception of a vast tract of morass, overgrown with giant forests andrank growth of all kinds. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is without doubt the peculiar, even extraordinary, character of thisgreat stretch of country that has caused its geography to remainobscure. Even recent maps are extremely inaccurate. It seems remarkablein these days of African and Polar discovery that here in our owncountry is a vast waste, 130 miles long and 70 wide, that is as littleknown to the white man as the heart of the Sahara. The Everglades arebounded on the north by Lake Okeechobee, on the east by a belt of scrubpine-land about six miles wide facing the Atlantic, on the south by thegreat mangrove swamps facing the Bay of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico,and on the west by the Big Cypress Swamp which runs right up to theuninhabited region verging on the west coast of the peninsula.
The prevailing idea that the Everglades are unhealthy is about as far asit is possible to get from the truth. So far as the few expeditions thathave penetrated the great mystery have reported, the water is fine andthe air healthful. The saw-grass, the Seminoles and the snakes--rattlersand cotton-mouth moccasins--are the worst enemies the explorerordinarily encounters, with an occasional panther.
Over the watery wastes of the Everglades which are not tree grown, buton the contrary great expanses of saw-grass grown prairie, the Seminolepoles his cypress dug-out defying the government which wishes to placehim on a reservation but has no means of "smoking him out" of theimpassable wilds he has chosen for his refuge. The Seminoles also hauntthe Big Cypress Swamp and observe numerous tribal rites and legends ofwhich we know little. They are dignified, trustworthy people--but thebad treatment they have received from the government has made them theimplacable foe of the white man for whom their word is the same as"liar"--such has been their impression of civilization.
The boys had familiarized themselves with the nature of the country by aclose study of all the available works on the subject--which were notmany. The government had placed the latest maps and charts of the regionat their disposal. Even these, however, showed them little. In fact theparting words of the Secretary of the Navy to them were:
"Boys, you'll have to blaze your own trail."
Of course in selecting an equipment for such a region the boys had madelightness the prime essential.
They knew that on much of the journey in search for a spot for apermanent camp they would have to pole over shoal water, in some placesnot more than two feet deep. An overloaded canoe might therefore cause alot of trouble and delay. Like true old campaigners they had preparedelaborate lists and then gone through them again and again till nothingappeared on them but the barest necessities.
Ben Stubbs had put in several days making a number of light but strongchests twenty-two inches by thirteen and nine inches deep. Thesecontained, among other necessities, an aluminum cooking outfit weighingnine pounds. There were two pots, a frying pan and four plates nestinginto each other. And then there was a coffee pot in which was stowedaway four cups (nested) pepper and salt castors, knives, spoons andforks, the frying-pan and coffee-pot had detachable handles for liftingon and off the campfire with ease and comfort, no matter how the windmight be blowing the flames about.
The grocery chest contained flour, sugar, salt, cornmeal, pepper, slicedbacon, beef extracts, soup-tablets (three varieties), root-beer,lemonade and sarsaparilla tablets, oatmeal and evaporated fruits ofvarious kinds. These were all put in glass jars with screw tops andrubber gaskets so that even in case of an upset the contents wouldremain dry. There was also a blue-flame double burner kerosene stove ofthe marine type, lanterns, and a supply of candles and matches inwaterproof jars. The medical outfit consisted of some antiseptics,pills, several tablets of permanganate of potassium for the same purposeand a hypodermic outfit, bandages and lotions.
Each boy carried an automatic rifle for big game or defense, the kindchosen being a weapon carrying .49-50 nickeled steel cartridges. Thisgun was heavy enough for alligators; or the more savage crocodile,pumas, leopards, gray wolves or any human enemy. They also purchased twothree-barreled guns having two parallel barrels, twelve gauge, forshotted shells, and another rifled barrel underneath of .35-55 caliber.Two 16-gauge shot-guns for duck and small game were also stowed away inthe "armory" chest. In addition each boy had his magazine revolver of.38 caliber, and a six-inch bladed hunting-knife with a heavy back sothat it might even be used for chopping.
Shovels, axes, picks, etc., were back with the heavy baggage to bebrought on by Ben Stubbs and Billy. Frank, of course, carried hisnautical instruments. A sextant, a compass, two tested watches of thefinest split-second make and an artificial horizon.
Their clothes were stout hunting boots, khaki trousers and Norfolkjackets of the same material and flannel shirts with campaign hats. Eachcarried a change of underwear and socks in his toilet bag which alsoheld two towels, toothbrush, cake of soap and brush and comb.
For transportation into the Everglades the boys soon managed with littledifficulty to secure canoes and a lighter draught "cruiser," similar toa Barnegat duck-boat. The flotilla was to be taken down the coast by anauxiliary sloop also chartered at Miami.
On the appointed day the boys were at the railroad station of theFlorida East Coast railroad to meet the arrivals from New York, and warmwere the greetings as Billy Barnes and Stubbs stepped from the privatecar which had been attached for them when they left the north. The carwas sidetracked at Miami and the train kept on its way to Key West alongthe wonderful chain of cement bridges constructed over the numberlesskeys that run out from the "leg" of Florida. The boys and Ben werebusily engaged getting the various bales and crates in some sort oforder for transfer to the trucks by which they were to be taken to theflotilla of canoes when they were startled at being hailed by a voicethat sounded familiar.
r /> The boys hastened to the door of one end of the car and were amazed tosee standing on the steps, looking rather embarrassed and doubtful,Lathrop Beasley. He wore a well cut suit of white serge and a straw hatwith a light blue ribbon. In addition he sported snowy canvas shoes,topped off with light purple socks and a pale pink tie. Altogether helooked as if he had just stepped from a clothing ad. Even in theirastonishment at seeing him there the boys could not help laughing at thecontrast they presented to him.
In their rough working garb, and all begrimed with dust as they werefrom handling the kit in the car, two more unpresentable youths from asartorial standpoint, could not well be imagined. The three boys gazedat each other in silence for a few seconds and then Lathrop said rathershamefacedly:
"Hello, fellows."
"Well, Lathrop, what on earth are you doing here?" naturally demandedFrank.
"I guess I came on a wild impulse," began Lathrop, and then stopped.
"Well?" questioned Harry.
"When I heard of your trip, from hanging around the aerodrome after youleft--oh, it wasn't Ben Stubbs or Barnes that told me, they were closeas clams,"--he hurried on, "but when old Schultz told me that you weregoing to cross the Everglades I thought that maybe you'd need an extrahand so I got permission from my folks and here I am.
"If you want to say the word I'll go back," he concluded rather lamelybut with a longing look in his face that told of his eager desire to beallowed to join the expedition.
"Well, you certainly have an impetuous way of doing things," commentedFrank. "Did you come on this train?"
"Yes," replied the boy. "I've just been up to the hotel and engagedrooms and tidied up a bit and then hurried right down here."
Frank and Harry exchanged glances of amusement, the cause of whichLathrop was at a loss to fathom.
"Well," began Frank, after a brief whispered conversation with hisbrother, "you are here now and I suppose you'll have to stay. We canfind some work I dare say for you to do and there are a lot of ways youcan be useful."
"I'll start right in at anything you tell me," began the boy eagerly."It's mighty good of you----"
"Not much you won't. Not in that fancy rig," burst out Harry, "if youare coming with us you'd better go up to the village store and get anoutfit as much like ours as possible and forget you ever patronized atailor."
Lathrop gladly agreed and hurried off to get himself a working outfit.As he hastened down the tracks, Frank turned to Harry with a grin.
"Well, we have gone and done it now," he said. "But we really have usefor another hand, and I think that we can make something out of Lathrop,besides we owe him a debt of gratitude for helping us out at WhitePlains. If it hadn't been for him we might have lost the _Golden EagleII_ and all our work."
"That's so," assented Harry. "I guess he will work out all right. Butthose fancy duds he had on----"
And the boy burst out laughing at the recollection.
By sundown most of the "duffle" in the car had been transferred totrucks and carted down to the wharf, where the boys, with considerablepride, exhibited to Ben Stubbs, Billy, and the newly overalled Lathrop,the light draught thirty-foot sloop, with an auxiliary five-horseengine, the four canoes and the light draught "sneak-box," they hadsecured for their transportation round the Cape and into the ThousandIsland Archipelago. The canoes were of the "Ontario" type, fitted withnarrow decks round the edges and canvas covered. The sneak-box was ofthe spoon-bowed variety familiar to duckers in Barnegat Bay. It drewonly a few inches of water and afforded a lot of space in its sixteenfeet of length for the stowage of the heavier baggage. It rejoiced inthe name of _Squeegee_.
Ben Stubbs was delighted with the "fleet" as he called it, and declaredthat the sloop was a "witch." After a dinner at the quiet boarding houseat which the boys had been stopping the adventurers that night finishedthe stowage of their impedimenta aboard the sloop and piled the canoeson the top of the canvas enclosed "summer cabin." The "sneak-box" wastowed astern.
The owner of the sloop, a coal-black negro called Pork Chops--the boyscould never discover that he had any other name--was to take them roundthe cape as far as the Thousand Island Archipelago where they were to beleft. From there on their course would lie up the Shark River into theheart of the little known Everglades.
Of course the wharf loungers were full of curiosity as the work oftransferring the boys' belongings and outfit to the sloop proceeded, butFrank and Harry had allowed it to become widely circulated that theywere a hunting party bound for some of the keys to the east of CapeSable, and "Pork Chops" also was of this belief, so that the boys werepretty sure that none but the members of their own immediate party knewof the real goal of their journey.
By midnight everything was in readiness and the tide served for start.With her big mainsail flapping lazily in the breath of wind that wasstirring Pork Chops' sloop, which held the poetic name of _Carrier Dove_dropped down Biscayne Bay with her "kicker" going and dawn found herwell on her journey south with a spanking breeze out of the northeast tofill her canvas. As she skimmed along over the sparkling blue of thetropical waters in whose crystalline depths hosts of fish of all kindscould be easily seen and on the surface of which floated great masses ofyellow gulf weed, the boys rejoiced that their momentous expedition hadstarted so auspiciously. As for Lathrop he acted like a boy out of hishead with joy at his unexpected good fortune. Ben Stubbs and the inkyPork Chops relieved each other at the wheel, and Frank and Harry, at thetable in the stuffy little cabin, worked at plans and lists trying todevise ways of still further cutting down their outfit without impairingits usefulness. Billy Barnes, with a knowing air, scrutinized the sailsand from time to time admonished Ben Stubbs to "keep her up a bit," towhich suggestion Ben with an air of ineffable contempt replied:
"I never knowed they taught navigation on a newspaper but it's a goodschool for nerve."