The Mystery at Number Six | Page 7

breath away and almost bowled them over.
Seated on the edge of a high bank above the pool was the girl, attired in a tattered bathing-suit. With a long pole she was prodding at something down below--something that floundered and splashed and lashed about the shallow water protestingly. Bernice uttered a frightened little cry and clung to Sydney's arm in a panic.
"Do you see what she's doing?" she choked. "Look at that awful--ugh! But, good gracious! Let's run! This is frightfully dangerous!"
Sydney laughed.
"It isn't a bit dangerous. But I confess I never saw a girl with quite nerve enough for that!"
"But, Sydney, an alligator--a huge alligator--and in a pool like this!"
"Why these pools are full of 'em in the season," Sydney reassured her. "They begin to come out of the mud at the bottom about now, for the summer season. They're harmless and they're scared to death of humans and are always trying to get away from them. People bathe and swim in these pools with half a dozen of 'em peacefully occupying the other side." Bernice, however, continued to shiver and shudder and quake.
Just then the girl on the opposite bank stood up, took a flying leap, and dove straight into the pool, not twenty feet from where the old 'gator was trying clumsily to burrow into the mud and sand at the water's edge. With a great shouting and splashing, she drove him back on shore again and then clambered out herself to scramble up the steep bank and continue her teasing and prodding from above. But when she reached the top she caught sight of the two visitors on the opposite bank and hesitated for a visible moment. In this moment the old 'gator clumsily waddled down to the water and was lost to sight in an unbelievably short space of time. But the girl, after another glance across the pool, turned and fled hastily through the grove and into the farm-house and was lost to view.
"Let's go back home, Sydney!" shuddered Bernice. "I'm scared to death to stay around here with that awful creature so near. It can't be safe!"
"Nonsense! It's as safe as a church! This is just your first experience. You'll get so used to seeing 'em you won't even give 'em a second glance after a while. We'll walk around to the house slowly, giving her time to dress, and then make our party call! I'm crazy to see old Jerry. He's been a famous guide in his day. Knows the Everglades like a book, they tell me."
Protesting still, Bernice allowed herself to be reluctantly led along, and presently they stood before the tumble-down veranda on which were now blooming ferns of wonderful luxuriance in old soap-boxes and leaky pails. Sydney advanced boldly up the rickety steps and knocked at the half-open door. A fat, unkempt, and more than middle-aged woman answered his knock. Her hair had obviously not been combed that day, she held in one hand a corn-cob pipe, and there were unmistakable signs that she was addicted to snuff. To Sydney's polite "Good afternoon!" she responded "Hey!" which appeared to be the typical "cracker" greeting of that neighborhood.
"Is--is the young girl who lives here at home to-day?" he stammered, scarcely knowing what to inquire. She stared at him in stolid wonder, but her only reply was to hold the door wider and say: "Come in an' set wun't ye?" They both entered somewhat timidly, to behold a man seated by the empty old chimney-place, rocking silently in a decrepit rocker, smoking as silently a blackened pipe which he removed only long enough to nod to both and resumed without uttering a word. If this was the famous Jerry Saw-Grass, thought Sydney, his appearance was a decided disappointment. His faded cotton shirt, dirty khaki trousers, and heavy boots suggested nothing of his romantic calling; his heavy, bearded face with the long mustache ends falling down to mingle with the unkempt beard was more like the ancient buccaneers of history, to Sydney's mind, than in keeping with a half-breed Indian guide. However, here he was, but there was still no sign of the youngest member of the trio.
In utter silence the four sat for several awful moments, and then Sydney plucked up courage to ask for the unseen girl and tell briefly the reason for their visit.
The only response to the tale was that the woman lifted up her voice and called loudly: "Dell! Dell! Come out! I reckon you're wanted."
After another long interval, a door to an inner room opened and the girl stepped out, clothed as she had been at their first encounter, a half-frightened, half-inquiring expression in her big eyes. Sydney rose courteously, explained again their visit, and presented the box of candy, laying it in her reluctant hands. An