Swamp Island by Mildred A. Wirt

Author:Mildred A. Wirt [Wirt, Mildred A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Detective, Young Adult, Fiction
Published: 2011-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

15

BEYOND THE BOARDWALK

“Steady! Steady!” warned the old swamper as Louise shrank back in horror from the big snake. “Don’t move or he’ll strike!”

Digging his paddle into the slimy bed of the narrow run, Trapper Joe inched the skiff backwards. Should the boat jar against the tree root, he knew the snake almost certainly would strike its poisonous fangs into Louise’s face.

“Hurry!” she whispered.

Slowly the skiff moved backwards through the still water, until at last it lay at a safe distance. The snake had not moved from its resting place.

Now that the danger was over, Louise collapsed with a shudder.

“You saved me!” she declared gratefully.

“It weren’t nothin’,” he replied as he sought another run. “There’s thousands o’ varmints like him in this swamp.”

[114]

“And to think Penny and I dared come here by ourselves the other day! We didn’t realize how dangerous it was!”

The incident had so unnerved both of the girls, that some minutes elapsed before they recalled the strange pounding sound which had previously held their attention.

“I don’t hear it now,” Penny said, listening intently. “Just before we ran into that snake, you were about to say something, Joe.”

The guide stopped paddling a moment. “Was I now?” he asked. “I don’t recollect.”

“We were talking about the strange noise. You said you never had heard anything like it before in the swamp. Then you added—‘I wonder—’”

“Jest a-thinkin’,” Joe said, picking up the paddle once more. “One does a lot o’ that in the swamp.”

“And not much talking,” rejoined Penny, slightly annoyed. “What do you think made the noise?”

“Couldn’t rightly say.”

Realizing it was useless to question the old man further, Penny dropped the subject. However, she was convinced that Joe had at least a theory as to the cause of the strange pounding sound.

“He knows a lot he isn’t telling,” she thought. “But I’ll never get a word out of him by asking.”

[115]

If Joe were unwilling to discuss the signal-like tappings, he showed no reluctance in telling the girls about the swamp itself.

Wild turkey, one of the wariest fowls in the area, could be found only on the islands far interior, they learned. Although there were more than a dozen species of snakes, only three needed to be feared, the rattlers, the coral snake, and the cottonmouth.

“Ye have to be keerful when yer passin’ under tunnels o’ overhanging limbs,” Old Joe explained. “Sometimes they’ll be hangin’ solid with little snakes.”

“Don’t tell us any more,” Louise pleaded. “I’m rapidly losing enthusiasm for this place!”

“Snakes mostly minds their own business ’less a feller goes botherin’ ’em,” Trapper Joe remarked. “Too bad more folks ain’t that way.”

The boat floated on, and the heat rising from the water became increasingly unpleasant. Penny mopped her face with a handkerchief and considered asking the old man to turn back.

Before she could speak, Joe who had been peering intently at the shore, veered the skiff in that direction.

“Are the orchids here?” Louise asked in surprise.

Old Joe shook his head. “Jest want to look at something,” he remarked.

He brought the skiff to shore, and looking carefully about for snakes, stepped out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.