ream, gave
a sudden cry.

"Joe! Joe!" he shouted. "I'm taken with a cramp, and there is an
alligator after me. Help!"

CHAPTER XV

IN CULEBRA CUT

Joe sprang to his feet at the sound of his chum's voice. He had
come ashore, after splashing around in the water, and, for the
moment, Blake was alone in the river.

As Joe looked he saw a black, ugly snout, and back of it a
glistening, black and knobby body, moving along after Blake, who
was making frantic efforts to get out of the way.

"I'm coming, Blake! I'm coming!" cried Joe, as he ran to the edge
of the stream, with the intention of plunging in.

"You will be too late," declared Mr. Alcando. "The alligator will
have him before you reach him. Oh, that I was a good swimmer, or
that I had a weapon."

But Joe did not stay to hear what he said. But one idea was in his
mind, that of rescuing his chum from peril. That he might not be
in time never occurred to him.

Blake gave a gurgling cry, threw up his hands, and disappeared
from sight as Joe plunged in to go to his rescue.

"It's got him--the beast has him!" cried the Spaniard, excitedly.

"No, not yet. I guess maybe he sank: to fool the alligator," said
the guide, an educated Indian named Ramo. "I wonder if I can stop
him with one shot?" he went on, taking up a powerful rifle that
had been brought with the camp equipment.

Joe was swimming out with all his power, Blake was nowhere to be
seen, and the alligator was in plain sight, heading for the spot
where Blake had last been observed.

"It's my only chance!" muttered Ramo. "I hope the boy stays under
water."

As he spoke the guide raised the rifle, took quick but careful
aim, and fired. There was no puff of smoke, for the new
high-powered, smokeless powder was used. Following the shot, there
was a commotion in the water. Amid a smother of foam, bright red
showed.

"You hit him, Ramo!" cried the Spaniard. "You hit him!"

"I guess I did," the Indian answered. "But where is Blake?"

That was what Joe was asking himself as he plunged on through the
stream, using the Australian crawl stroke, which takes one through
the water at such speed. Just what Joe could do when he reached
his chum he did not stop to think. Certainly the two would have
been no match for the big alligator.

But the monster had met his match in the steel-jacketed
mushrooming bullet. It had struck true and after a death struggle
the horrid creature sank beneath the surface