"Drop the squirmin" bog-trotter back into the wather, Jack, me bhoy; for "tis us as don"t want too close an acquaintance with him. He"d make it too warrm for us, by the same token," Jimmy declared; and Jack complied only too willingly.

"I guess we"ve had about enough of this, so let"s go ash.o.r.e," he suggested.

Nick awaited them, eager to ascertain the amount of their captures. He whiffed on discovering only one fish aboard the d.i.n.ky.

"Huh! could eat that all by myself, and then not half try," he remarked.

"All right, then; if you do the needful to it, you"re welcome, Nick,"

laughed the one who had captured the sea trout.

Of course, Nick became suddenly suspicious.

"You wouldn"t play any trick on me, now, I hope, Jack, and get me to eat a fish that wasn"t fit for the human stomach?" he questioned, uneasily.

"That"s what they call a sea trout down here; but up North it"s the weakfish, and said to be as toothsome as almost anything that swims,"

Jack remarked.

"Oh! all right, then I accept your kind offer. I"ll get busy right now, and have him ready for the morning. Wish you had got one apiece, I hate to seem greedy, you know, fellows," he went on to say, as if thinking he ought to excuse himself.

When the morning came Nick was astir before anybody else, for he had a duty on his mind. He bothered Josh so much that finally the cook made him start a blaze of his own, over which he could prepare his breakfast; and Nick managed pretty well, considering that he had never made a study of the art of cookery.

They started off at a booming pace. The run down Indian River that day would always remain a pleasant memory with the young cruisers. Fort Pierce was reached on schedule time, after pa.s.sing through the Narrows, and securing a mess of oysters from a boat engaged in dredging there.

Again one of the voyagers went after mail and supplies. There was always something lacking, besides the necessary gasoline. Six growing boys can develop enormous appet.i.tes when living a life in the open, and upon salt water. Besides, there was Nick, capable of downing any two of his chums when it came to devouring stuff. No wonder, then, that the question of supplies was always uppermost on their minds.

Once more they headed across to the eastern sh.o.r.e, where they would be more apt to find a quiet nook for the next night"s camp. One more day"s run, if all went well, would take them to Lake Worth; and after serious consultation it had been decided that they would, when the right chance came, put to sea through that inlet, to make the run south to Miami.

Once again had both Nick and Jimmy been seized with the fever of rivalry. During the day they had been busily engaged preparing set lines, which they expected to put out over night, in the hope of making a big haul.

Nick had bought a lot of material in Jacksonville. This in the main consisted of large hooks, with snells made of bra.s.s wire, which latter he manufactured himself, Jack having shown him how; and a large swivel at the end of the foot length. Then he had secured a large quant.i.ty of very strong cotton cord, made waterproof by some tarring process, after the manner of the rigging aboard sailing vessels.

One thing Jack had bought in Fort Pierce, which they understood would be pretty much of a necessity during the many weeks they expected to spend among the keys that dotted the whole coast line of Florida.

This was called a cast-net, and was some eight feet in length, though when fully extended it would cover a circle twice that in diameter.

There were leads along the outer edges, and a series of drawing strings running up through a ring in the center.

"You see," said Jack, that evening, when they were ash.o.r.e, "I watched a fellow use one up above, and even took a few lessons, so I"ve kind of got the hang on it."

"Then please show us?" asked Nick, eagerly.

"Listen to him, would you?" exclaimed Herb; "to hear him talk you"d think Nick had a sneaking idea he might some day haul in a big giant of a fish in this flimsy net."

"No, but it"s good to get mullet for bait," the fat boy remonstrated; "and as I expect to do lots of fishing on this trip--and it may not always be convenient for Jack to haul the net--why, I thought I had ought to know the ropes."

"Good boy, Nick!" laughed Jack; "and I"ll be only too glad to show every fellow all I know, which isn"t any too much. Now, here"s the way you gather up the line, so as to let go suddenly. Then you hold the net like this."

"Sure do ye ate some of the leads?" questioned Jimmy, seeing Jack take several between his teeth.

"Oh! not any! but this is one of the times when a fellow wishes he had been born with three hands. As I haven"t, I must hold these leads by my teeth. The next thing is to swing the whole net around this way, and let fly with a rotary motion, at the same time letting go with your teeth.

That is a very important thing to remember, for you might stand to lose a few out of your jaw if you held on."

"Oh, I see!" remarked George; "and the net flings open as it whirls through the air, falling on the water that way?"

"Just so, with the leads taking the outer edge rapidly down. Then, by pulling at the line, which is tied, you see, to all these strings, the net is drawn shut like a big purse, enclosing anything that was under it when it struck the water."

One by one they made trials with the net, but all of them proved pretty clumsy. Jimmy was nearly dragged into the shallow water when he made his first attempt.

"Glory be!" he howled, as he put his hand quickly to his mouth; "if I didn"t have the teeth of a horse I do belave I"d have lost the whole set thin. But once bit, twict shy. Nixt toime I"ll let go, rest easy on that. And I"m going to get the hang of that Spanish cast-net, if it takes ivery tooth in me head, so I am."

"And you"ll do it, Jimmy, never fear," laughed Jack. "That do-or-die spirit is going to win the day. Here, Nick, try it again. You seem to have got the knack of it pretty well, only you want to throw harder, or the mullet will get away before the net falls on the water."

Finally the boys tired of the strenuous exertion, and as Josh announced supper ready, they turned their attention to more pleasant duties.

"This is something in which I can shine, anyhow," chuckled Nick, as he sat there, with a pannikin cram-full of various good things, and a cup of steaming coffee on the ground close beside him.

No one disputed the a.s.sertion; in fact, there was a general grin, and a series of nods around the circle, to prove that for once their opinions were unanimous.

Frolicsome "c.o.o.ns seemed numerous at this camp on Hutchinson"s Island.

They attempted to pillage, after the boys had settled down to sleep.

Twice was the quiet of the camp disturbed by the rattle of tin pans, and upon investigation it was found that some prowling little animal had endeavored to devour the hominy Josh had cooked, intending to fry slices of the same for breakfast.

Nick made out to believe that it might have been a wildcat, or possibly a bear, until Jack showed him the plain tracks of long slender feet close to the receptacle of the hominy, and explained that only a racc.o.o.n could have made these.

When the morning came, an early start was made, for they had quite a little run down the river, through Jupiter Narrows, and then by means of the ca.n.a.l into Lake Worth.

Arriving at this latter place early in the afternoon, they spent some time looking about--although it was out of the season for the fashionable crowd that flock to Palm Beach during February and March.

Jack had studied his coast charts most carefully. He knew they would have a dangerous outside pa.s.sage to Miami, that must consume some seven hours, because of the _Comfort"s_ slowness; and as they could not afford to take any chances, it became absolutely necessary that they wait until the weather gave positive signs of remaining fairly decent during the day.

As this meant a combination of favoring breezes and calm waters, it was impossible to tell how long they might have to wait. It might mean one day, and then again they could be kept here at Lake Worth a week.

"You"re wondering why I"m so particular, fellows," Jack had remarked, when they talked over the matter among themselves, "especially when we made a heap of outside runs coming down the coast. But this is really the worst of the bunch, and I reckon much more dangerous than any we"ve got ahead of us. For seventy miles here there isn"t really a decent harbor where a small boat could put in to escape a sudden change in weather. And when things do go crooked down here they beat the band. The nearer you get to the tropics the harder the winds can howl when they want to show their teeth."

"That"s all right, Jack," remarked Herb; "we depend on you to use good judgment in all such matters. And you can see how much we rely on what you decide, when we"re ready to follow you like sheep do the bellwether."

"I wonder, now," remarked George, "if that bally little boat that"s a ringer for the _Tramp_ has gone further south?"

"What makes you ask that?" Jack inquired.

"Well, ever since she pa.s.sed us that evening across from Rockledge I haven"t seen hide nor hair of the mystery. So somehow I reckon she must either be further down the lake, or else gone to Miami by the outside route, like we intend to do."

"That don"t necessarily follow," Jack laughed, for he saw that George actually had the subject on his mind, and was deeply interested. "The boat might have been in any one of twenty little coves we pa.s.sed on the way down. Or, again, she could have been prowling in some of the many pa.s.sages about the Narrows."

"All right," George declared, stubbornly, as though his mind were set, and nothing could move him; "you mark my word, Jack, we"ll set eyes on that sneaker again, before we"re done with this trip."

"Oh, perhaps!" said Jack, turning away, as though the subject did not interest him to any great extent; for he did not happen to be built on the same lines as his chum, who had a little more than his share both of suspicion and also curiosity.