Wakulla: a story of adventure in Florida

the scene of what sounded like a terrible struggle. The screams for help told him that at least one of the contestants was a human being in sore distress, and in thus rushing to his assistance

y takes place even in the wilder regions of the Sou

a boy of about Mark's own age. His arms were nearly torn from their sockets by some terrible strain, and his eyes s

e animal, whatever it was, was hidden in a thicket of bushes which were violently agitated. He could see the protru

and pain. As it fell it disappeared in the bushes, which were b

He waited a moment after the struggles ceased, and finding that no further attack was made, turned his attention to the boy, who lay motionless a

making another attack. Holding his rifle in one hand, and cautiously parting the bushes with the other, he peered, with a loudly beating heart, into the thicket. There, stretched out stiff and motio

of consciousness. Then the closed eyes were slowly opened, and fixed for an instant upon Mark, with the same look

ich to bathe it. After he had washed off the blood, and bound the wounded foot as well as he could with his handkerchief and one of his

l better?"

oy. "I can sit up now

k against the tree to which he had clung when the all

. I'll get you into it, and take you home, for your f

ound the point, very close to where the boy was sitting, and pul

th arms around my neck, I'll carry yo

ceeded in doing as Mark directed, and in a few minutes more was seated in th

companion was too weak to talk. He noticed that the boy was barefooted and bareheaded, that his clothes were very old and ragged, and that he had a bag and a powder-horn slung over his shoulders. He also noticed that his hair was long and matted,

g-place the boy opened his eyes, and Mark, no

lligator happe

as he grabbed my foot and began pulling me to the water. He would have had me in anothe

, "he won't catch anybody else. He's a

ried explanation of what had happened. The captain said they would carry the boy to the house,

human life, but had escaped unharmed himself. At the same time she made ready to receive the boy, and when the men brought h

h one or two gasps of pain escaped him. When the captain said that, though he could not feel any fractured bones, the ankle-joint was dislocated, and must be pulled back into place at once, he clinched his

it, and in a few days you will be as good as you were before you met Mr. 'Gator. If not

possible, Mark and the two men went out, leavi

d get that alligator. I guess Miss Ruth would like to see him

d Jan said he would go if

our," said the captain, "if it's

et and four inches in length, and Captain Johnson, who claimed to be an authority concerning alligators, said that was very large for

zzle-loading shot-gun and a pair of much-worn boots, that had heretofore escaped their notice. Bo

do with only a charge of powder?" ask

captain; "perhaps he forgot t

came out to look at it, and Mrs. Elmer and Ruth shuddered when they

h, "just think if you had

!" said Mrs. Elmer. "I don't suppose we could keep it for

in; "but we can cut off the head and bury it, and in two or

ll you do wi

he river, I suppose,"

be better to

imed Aunt Chloe, who had by this time become a fixture in the Elm

" asked Mrs. Elm

e Tukky Buzzard gwine git um? Can't nebber hab no

n Johnson. "They believe that if you bury any dead animal so that

o' fac', dat's what!" muttered Aunt Chloe,

body disappeared, though whether it was buried or served to

ter, saying that he could always be found at St. Mark's when wanted,

had a long and earnest conversation with his mother and Ruth. At its close Mrs. Elmer said, "Well, my son,

night, and was roused several times before morning to give him water, for he was very feverish. H

y powder; it won't hurt h