"But, by the same token, they towld me whales never come this far south, and so I"ll never get square with ye that way," grumbled Jimmy. "But never mind, me bhoy, sooner or later you"ll meet up with defate. I"m still studying the way I"m bound to bring ye to a Waterloo. The Brannigans never gave up, rimimber. When ye laste expect it ye"ll be overwhelmed."

"Oh, I"m not going to lose any sleep over it. And while you"re worrying that poor head of yours, Jimmy, about the ways and means of capturing a three hundred pounder, I"m just going to keep on feasting on these fine oysters we"ve been picking up right along. Yum! yum! how I do love "em, though!"

"Yes, we happen to know that," remarked Josh. "Fact is, we"ve heard you make the same remark ever since we set out from Philadelphia on this cruise."

"And if a fellow could see the piles of oysters Nick"s gobbled since that day, he"d be just staggered, that"s what!" George put in, sarcastically; for, as the fat boy sailed in his company, the skipper of the _Wireless_ doubtless grew very weary of hearing constant reminders concerning feasts, past and to come.

"Well," sang out Jack just then, "I don"t see any reason why we shouldn"t pull up here as well as anywhere. Good anchorage, with a chance for a breath of wind off the gulf tonight, that may keep the savage little key mosquitoes fairly quiet. What say, fellows?"

As they were all of a mind, the halt was quickly brought about. They anch.o.r.ed in the open; but in case of a sudden high wind arising that threatened to make things unpleasant for the small craft, it would be the easiest thing in the world to push around in the lee of the nearest mangrove island, which would serve as a barrier against the storm.

Jimmy was soon seen paddling away in the d.i.n.ky belonging to the speed boat.

"Now what did he take your rifle for, Jack, if he expects to go fishing?" asked George, while Nick c.o.c.ked up his ears, and listened as though interested.

"I asked him, and he only grinned at me," Jack replied. "But I made him promise not to go beyond that big island you can see up the channel a ways."

A short time later they heard a shot, followed by several others, that made them sit up and take notice.

"Say, he got a crack at something!" Nick remarked, uneasily, for he remembered how Jimmy had looked so queerly at him when departing, as though he had something in his mind.

"Well, we"ll soon know; and I can see him moving around in his boat up yonder right now. Seems to me he"s trying to get at something in among the mangroves. He must have made a kill of it," Herb declared.

Ten minutes later and Jimmy was seen approaching, rowing steadily.

"Look at him, would you?" called out the anxious Nick; "he"s dragging something behind the boat, as sure as anything!"

Jack watched the performance for a minute or so, and then remarked:

"Looks to me like a big "gator; and that"s what it is, boys."

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Nick, bouncing up; "I wonder now does the silly believe an alligator would count against my fish? Jack, I appeal to you to give him the law as she"s written in our compact."

But Jack refused to say anything prematurely.

"Wait till he makes his claim," he replied, with a laugh, as he watched the st.u.r.dy labors of the Irish lad to rejoin them.

When Jimmy did arrive they saw that he had indeed managed to shoot an unusually large mossback "gator, which he had possibly discovered sunning itself among the mangroves. As a rule the creatures prefer the fresh water, but may on occasion be found where there is a commingling of salt and fresh.

The exultant captor was grinning, as if hugely pleased. He nodded his head in the direction of the staring Nick, as he finally came alongside.

Then they saw that he had been wise enough to take a rope along with him, which had been hitched around the body of the slain monster, just back of the short forelegs. Nevertheless, it had taken considerable of an effort to drag the saurian all the way from the place of the tragedy to where the three motor boats were anch.o.r.ed.

Jimmy wiped the perspiration from his red face, as he exultantly cried out:

"By the powers, can ye bate that, I"d loike to know, so I would? Two hundred and thirty, did ye till me; sure this one must weight all of twict that. I lave it to the umpire here to decide, contint to rest on me laurels."

Nick began to show signs of tremendous excitement at once.

"How about that, Jack?" he pleaded. "He went and shot it with the rifle, don"t you know? I don"t call that fishing, now, do you?"

"I"ve heard of people who shoot fish with a rifle, lots of times,"

commented Herb, just to excite Nick a little more.

"Yes, but don"t tell me an alligator is a fish!" exclaimed Nick, in great disgust. "Why, when I was in the lower grade in school they taught us to call it just a _rep-tile_!"

At that a shout went up from the balance of the voyagers.

"You"ll have to settle this right on the spot, Jack," declared George.

"Get out the articles of war and read what it says; that"s the only fair way," remarked Herb.

So Jack deliberately took out his notebook, and in a sing-song tone, a.s.sumed for the purpose, read as he had done once before at Jimmy"s request:

""Each contestant shall have the liberty of fishing as often as he pleases, and the fish may be taken in any sort of manner--the one stipulation being that the capture shall be undertaken by the contestant alone and unaided; and that he must have possession of the fish long enough to show the same, and have its weight either estimated or proven.""

"Well, here it is before ye, and riddy to be weighed!" said Jimmy, stoutly.

"But Jack, what do you say, _is_ an alligator a fish in the true sense of the word?" demanded Nick, stubbornly.

"As the umpire in this dispute," said Jack, solemnly, "I am forced to disallow the claim Jimmy makes. No matter how he got his prize, we can"t swallow what he says about an alligator being a fish, even if it does swim under water; for it couldn"t live there at all, but has to come up on sh.o.r.e. So Jimmy, you"ll have to try again; and better luck to you next time!"

CHAPTER XIV.

WHEN THE COMFORT WAS HUNG UP.

Evidently Jimmy was not at all dismayed by his present setback. As he said, he sprang from stock that would never acknowledge defeat.

"Just wait, me laddybuck," he declared, as he shook his finger at the grinning Nick; "the day is long yit, and by the powers, they be other ways of beating that record ye"ve hung up. I"ll kape me eyes about me, to say if another jewfish wouldn"t be afther stranding himself for me "special benefit. And who knows but what this toime it may be a three hundred pounder I"ll be lugging into camp."

"Oh, that"s all right, Jimmy," remarked the fat boy, apparently not very much worried over the possibility of losing his laurels; "but make sure of one thing before you claim the earth."

"And what moight that be?" demanded Jimmy, innocently.

"Why, don"t shout till you see whether it"s a fish--_or a log_!" and Nick lay back on the soft cushions he had brought on deck for his own comfort, to laugh uproariously at his remark.

Jimmy turned a bit red, but joined in the general hilarity; for he was able to enjoy a joke, even at his own expense.

Some days before, while Jimmy was fishing very industriously, he had given a yell, and was seen to be pulling at a tremendous rate at something to which his hook had evidently become attached.

Of course his rival had shown great interest in his actions, for it looked as if the Irish lad must have hooked a monster of a fish. But when finally Jimmy was able, alone and unaided, to bring the thing to the surface, he discovered, much to his chagrin, that it was only a sunken and waterlogged log. His own frantic labor had given it all the wonderful movements which he believed were the struggles of a captured fish.

"But I say, Jack, darlint," went on the Irish boy, "before I make another thry, plase tell me this: Suppose now, ye should say me comin"

back, and ridin" on a manatee that they do be havin" around here--would ye call that a fish, becase it lives, so they tell me, under the wather all the toime?"