the boys did not start for lowper’s creek and the alligators as soon as they expected. they found that a good deal of talk, and a good many preparations were necessary before they could get off.
the colonel did not altogether approve of the plan, but when he was assured that the boys could all swim, he said he reckoned no harm would come to them, and that they might as well be off on a trip of this kind as lounging around the hotel.
he called bob, and gave orders than an abundance of provisions, enough to last the party till the following afternoon, should be immediately got ready. he also furnished them with a little oil-stove, on which to boil their coffee on board the boat.
[220]“you see i’m not going to lose anything by your going up the creek,” he said. “i’ll keep your rooms for you, and furnish your meals. it’ll cost you just as much, whether you sleep among the ’gators or among christians.”
the boys assured him that they had not the slightest idea of his making any reduction on account of the trip.
“i expect you fellows laugh,” he said, “at my keeping you straight up to terms when i’m going to let you go away without paying me a red, but i do my business on a business basis. i don’t give you anything, and i expect to get back all that’s owing to me. do you understand that?”
the boys understood it perfectly.
in the matter of hiring rifles, there was some little trouble. the colonel had but one, and there was no other rifle in the town at that time to be had excepting the weapon which, with a small shot-gun, had been captured from the men on board of the maggie, and given to the colonel.
the latter had heard the story of the theft of the rolling stone, and had made no remark whatever on the subject, except that he would take charge of the guns, and keep them till they were called for.
chap proposed that they should take this rifle, and pay the young men for the use of it, but this the colonel positively refused to allow. the gun[221] had been hired in the town, and he would keep it until the persons who had taken it should appear.
so they were obliged to be content with but one rifle, although brewer said that his brother’s shot-gun, loaded with buckshot, would do as well for a ’gator as a bear, if they could only get near enough.
“what are you going to do with the ’gators you kill?” asked the colonel, when the boys were about to start.
“oh, mr. brewer is going to prepare the skins and teeth of some of them, and send them on to us,” said phil.
“do you hear that?” roared the colonel, to some men on the other side of the room. “coot brewer is going to polish the teeth and tan the hides of the ’gators these young men kill, and send them on to them at the north.”
at this announcement there was a general laugh, during which the boys left.
“he thinks we can’t kill alligators,” said chap; “but, then, all these people suppose we’re city boys, just because we come from the north. i believe most folks down here have an idea that the whole north is built up solid with houses, like one great town, and it’s no use telling them we’ve been using guns ever since we were big enough to hold them.”
the rolling stone was found at the end of the pier, with coot brewer in it, and the row-boat which[222] he had borrowed made fast to the stern. adam was also there, having left his work to see them off.
“be careful you don’t shoot each other,” was his parting injunction, “and don’t haul in any ’gator till you’re sure he’s dead.”
the boys agreed to remember these admonitions, and everything having been put aboard, the rolling stone set sail up the river, with a good wind almost directly from the south, which, as they were sailing northward, ought to have carried them rapidly along; but for some reason or other, the boat did not seem to behave as well as when adam was at the helm.
coot brewer put her directly before the wind, and sometimes she would sail on at a good rate, and then she would begin to rock, the end of her boom almost dipping into the water as she went over on that side.
phœnix had just remarked that the boat had never been so much like a rolling stone as now, when the motion became so violent that brewer was a little frightened, and put her about so suddenly that the boom came round with tremendous force, just grazing the top of chap’s head.
“i should think that sort of thing would upset her,” said phil, who did not look upon coot brewer as much of a sailor.
“but it didn’t, you see,” remarked the helmsman, complacently. “she’s a pretty stiff little boat.”
[223]after this, they tacked across the river for a while. then they went before the wind again. then they lay to while mr. brewer took in some reefs of the main-sail, which he said he would have done before had he thought about it.
“it’ll make it easier for your heads,” he said, “if she jibes.”
after a sail which lasted a great deal longer than mr. brewer said it would, the boat arrived at the mouth of the creek.
“you can’t sail up the creek, you know,” said brewer. “we go up there in the dinky. the way to hunt the ’gators here is to row up the creek a good long way, and then haul in oars and float down. that don’t frighten ’em, you see, and you kin easy git near enough to shoot ’em. but it’s too late to go up this evenin’, and so we’d better anchor the boat, git our supper, and go to bed, so’s to be up bright and airly to-morrow mornin’. we kin kill all the ’gators we want before noon, and then we’ll have plenty of time to git back to town before it’s dark.”
this plan was agreed to, although the boys had hoped to begin their sport that afternoon, and the night was spent on the boat at the mouth of the creek.
“do you hear ’em roarin’ over there?” asked mr. brewer, after they had gone to bed. “i tell you we’ll have splendid times to-morrow!”
