The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast Part 15

Harold was about to mend the fire for Mary, who said she wanted to drink something hot, as the best means of warming her chilled limbs, when Robert, glancing at the tremendous tide in the river, called to her quickly--"Do not waste one drop of this water in the bucket; there is only a quart left, and no one can tell when the tide will be down enough for us to obtain more." He ran to the bluff, and the others observed him make a gesture of surprise, look hastily around, and finally leap down the bank. He was absent only two or three minutes, and then returned with a pale face and hurrying step.

"Harold!" said he, scarcely able to articulate, "OUR BOAT IS GONE!

Burst from her moorings!"

At this terrible announcement, every face whitened, and there was a general rush for the landing. It was even so. The boat was nowhere to be seen. The stake which had confined it had also disappeared. Far as the eye could reach nothing was visible but water--water, with here and there a patch of mangrove, higher than the rest, and bowing reluctantly to the rush of the waves. They looked anxiously over the watery waste, and then into each other's agitated faces. It was clear that their prospect of speedily returning home was hopeless.

"But perhaps," said Mary, who was the first to recover speech, "it is not lost. It may have only drifted up the river; or it may have sunk at the landing."

Robert mournfully looked, where he had already looked more than once, and said, "Well, we can try. But what is the use? something has been against us ever since we left home. Harold, shall we search the river?"

Harold seemed lost in thought. His keen eye had glanced in every direction, where it was possible the boat could have been driven; then lessening in its fire, it gave evidence of deep abstraction. Robert's question recalled him, and he slowly answered, "Yes; but it is my opinion we shall not find it. You know I have all along had the idea that we ought not to leave this island. It has seemed to me, ever since the fish let go our anchor, that the hand of G.o.d was in this accident, and that we are not yet at the end of it. I am troubled, like the rest of you; but I have also been questioning whether it is meant for our harm or for our good. I do not think it is for harm, or we might have been left to perish at sea; and if it is for good, I think we ought to submit with cheerfulness."

They conversed awhile upon the bluff, in view of the dismal waters, then slowly turned towards the tent, which was now the only place on earth they could call their home.

CHAPTER XVI

A SAD BREAKFAST--SAGACITY OF DOGS--SEARCH FOR THE BOAT--EXCITING ADVENTURE--A PRETTY PET--UNEXPECTED INTELLIGENCE

Once more the young people a.s.sembled in their tent; once more they read the Scriptures, and knelt together in prayer. Their tones were humble and subdued. They felt more deeply than ever their dependence upon an arm that is stronger and farther reaching than man's.

Their simple meal was soon ready, consisting of the most tempting bits that Mary could select, as an enticement to their reluctant appet.i.tes.

They sat down, and endeavoured to appear cheerful, but little was said, and less was eaten. Harold's face was towards the marsh. Robert observed him fix his eye steadily upon a distant point of land, where the opposite bluff of the river terminated on the sea. He looked as if he saw something unusual, but after a scrutinizing gaze of half a minute, turned away his eye, and relapsed into thought.

"Did you observe anything across the marsh?" inquired Robert, willing to relieve the silence.

"I thought I saw a little curl of smoke upon the point," he returned; "but now suppose it was the steam from the bluff, drawn up by the sun.

"Robert," he continued, "it is possible after all that we may find our boat. If not sunk at the landing, it is certainly somewhere up the river, in the direction of the wind. The tide has not yet begun to ebb.

If it has lodged in the marsh, we can best see it while the water is high, and if it has not lodged, it may float back with the tide.

Suppose we set off at once to search."

Mary's reluctance to be left alone yielded to the necessity of the case, and begging them to be careful of themselves, and to return as soon as possible, she a.s.sumed a cheerful air, and tried to prepare them for their departure.

The boys promised to return by midday, unless delayed by finding the boat; and taking their guns and hatchet, together with a luncheon in case of delay, they set out, accompanied by Mum. Ere proceeding more than a few steps, however, Robert stopped to say, "Harold, we shall not need the dogs. Let us leave them for protectors to Mary and Frank.

True, there is no danger; but they will feel safer for having them at hand. Frank, bring me Mum's chain. Here, Mum! Here, Mum!"

Mum came rather reluctantly; for dog though he was, he appeared to apprehend the state of the case. Mary observing this, exclaimed, "Cousin, I do believe that Mum understands what brother says. Only see how disappointed he looks!"

"O, yes," returned Harold; "dogs understand more than most people suspect. He probably heard Robert use the word 'chain'; and he has heard it often enough to know what it means. But they gather more from the eye and tone than from words. Mum, poor fellow, I am sorry to leave you; for I know you love hunting better than staying at home. But you know nothing of hunting boats, Mum; so we want you to stay and help Fidelle to guard your young mistress and master against the squirrels and opossums. If any of them come you must bite them well; do you hear, Mum?"

The poor dog wagged his short tail mournfully, as much as to say he would do his best; but at the same time cast a wistful look at the guns.

With a charge to Mary not to let Mum loose without necessity, and to Frank not to approach the bluff except in the company of his sister, the boys were once more on the move, when Mary inquired, "But what shall we do if we see the boat coming down the river, or if we need you for any other reason?"

"True, true," said Robert; "I am glad you suggested it. We will load William's gun for you, and you must fire it for your signal. We shall probably be within hearing."

Robert well knew that Mary was able to do what he proposed, for her father had made it a part of his duty to instruct her, or cause her to be instructed, in every art necessary to preserve and enjoy life. For this purpose she had learned how to load and use the several varieties of firearms--to manage a horse in harness and under the saddle--and even to swim. Compared with most other girls she was qualified to be quite a heroine.

With many adieus and kind wishes from both sides, the boys finally set off. They struck directly through the woods for their old fishing point, at the junction of the creek with the river. Standing on the most commanding part of the bluff, they looked in every direction, but no sign of the boat appeared. Then they turned their steps to the southeast, following, as closely as they could, the bank of the creek, though compelled oftentimes to make large circuits in order to avoid the short creeks and bay-galls that set in from the marsh. These bay-galls are wet spongy bottoms, shaded with loblolly bays, and tangled with briers, and the edges are usually fringed with the gall-berry bush--a shrub closely resembling the whortleberry, and bearing a black fruit of the same size, but nauseously bitter. Compelled to make great circuits around these miry bottoms, and interrupted by a close growth of vines and trees, the boys advanced scarcely a mile and a half to the hour.

They left not a foot of the sh.o.r.e unexplored; still no vestige of the boat appeared.

About eleven o'clock they approached the tongue of land on which they had discovered the orange trees, and where they proposed to quench their thirst with the pleasant acid of the fruit, and afterwards to return to the tent. They had just headed a short bay-gall, and were enjoying the first glimpses of the south river, when they were startled by a trampling in the bushes before them; and a herd of six deer rushed past and disappeared in the dark bottom. Soon after a half grown fawn, white as milk, and bleating piteously, was seen staggering through the bushes, having a large wildcat seated upon its shoulders, and tearing furiously at its neck. Robert's gun had been levelled, when the herd appeared, but they pa.s.sed too quickly for a shot; he was therefore all ready when the fawn approached, and aiming not at it, but at the fierce creature upon its back, both animals rolled together upon the ground. He would have rushed immediately upon them, had he not been restrained by the grasp of Harold.

"Not yet!" said he, "not yet! keep your other barrel ready, a wildcat is hard to kill, and will fight until he begins to gasp."

It was fortunate for Robert that he was thus arrested, for the cat was only wounded, and soon recovered sufficiently to limp away. "Now give him your second barrel, Robert; give it to him in his shoulder." Before he could do so, however, the cat slipped into the hollow of a neighbouring tree.

"He is safe now," said Harold; "we can kill him at our leisure. But keep your eye on the hole, and be ready to shoot, while I attend to this fawn."

When Harold took hold of the beautiful little creature, he discovered that the wounds were very slight. The ball had penetrated the back of the head and stunned it, without touching any vital part, and it was beginning to recover; the wounds made by the wildcat were only skin deep, and could easily be healed.

"Shall I bleed it for venison?" asked Harold, "or save it as a pet for Mary and Frank?"

"O, save it by all means," replied Robert, whose sympathies had been from the first excited by the piteous, childlike tones of the fawn.

"Save it for sister, and let us make haste to finish this beast."

"Then lend me your handkerchief," said Harold; "mine alone is not sufficient for both collar and cord."

Robert approached him for the purpose, when he observed the cat creep slyly from his hole, and hobble away with all haste. "Quick, Harold,"

cried Robert, tossing him the handkerchief, "tie the fawn, and follow me," then dashed through the bushes in pursuit.

"Take care, you may get too near," Harold shouted; but Robert was already lost to sight behind the underwood. By the time the fawn was secured, Harold heard him hallooing about one hundred paces away, and going rapidly in that direction, saw him watching the convulsive throes of the wild creature as it lay gasping on the ground.

Harold looked on and pleasantly remarked, "You will soon get your name up for a hunter, if you keep improving at this rate. That is a splendid cat! What claws and teeth! Let us see how long he is." Putting his hands together at the thumbs, and spreading them out to span a foot, he ascertained that it measured two feet nine inches from the nose to the root of the short tail; and that, standing with its head erect, it must have been fully two and a half feet high. Its teeth and nails were savage looking things.

"I am glad he did not fasten those ugly looking things in my leg," said Robert; "but I was so excited by the pursuit, that I rushed at one time almost upon him. He had stopped behind a bush; all at once he sprang at me with a growl, showing his white teeth, bristling his hair, and glaring at me with his large fierce eyes. He dodged behind another bush, and when I next saw him he was gasping and convulsed as when you came up."

"It would have been a desperate fight, if he had seized you," remarked Harold; "you would have borne the marks to the end of your life."

Returning to the fawn, which struggled violently on their approach, they soon succeeded in allaying its terror by gentle tones and kind treatment. It yielded pa.s.sively to its fate, and consented to be led wherever they chose.

The oranges were delicious after their long walk, and now excessive thirst. A few minutes served to rest their weary limbs, and they had just begun to discuss the propriety of returning to the tent, when the fawn p.r.i.c.ked up its ears with the signs of renewed alarm, a neighbouring bush was agitated, and ere they could fully grasp their guns and spring to their feet, Mum came dashing up at full speed.

The boys were much surprised, and were afraid some accident had happened. Mum, however, showed no signs of anything wrong; he came up wagging his cropped tail, and looking exceedingly pleased. He cast a hungry look at the fawn, as though his mouth watered for a taste, but he offered no interference. On close inspection, Harold observed a string tied round his neck, to which was fastened a little roll of paper. He hastily took it off, and calling to Robert, they read these lines in pencil:

"Come home quickly. I see some one across the river; he is waving a flag. Mary."

CHAPTER XVII

MARY AND FRANK--EXAMINATION OF THE TENT--SMOKE SIGNALS--DEVICES--BRUTE MESSENGER--RAPT--BLAZING THE TREES--VOYAGE--DISASTROUS EXPEDITION--NEWS FROM HOME--RETURN TO THE TENT