e than it is now."

The alligator came to life a few times, while they were skinning it,
and had to be killed over again, and the tail did some wiggling even
after the spine had been severed. When the skinning operation was
over the boys went back to camp, where they found an old kettle, in
which they boiled the skull of the alligator and cleaned it of flesh
and brains in preparation for mounting.

[Illustration: "HE HELD THE JAWS OF THE 'GATOR SHUT, WHILE DICK
SEIZED THE HIND LEGS OF THE REPTILE"]

"How did you sleep last night, Dick?" asked Ned, the next morning.

"Didn't sleep at all. This place is sure bad medicine. First the
hoots of the owls and the snarls of the wildcats kept me awake, then
the booming of the big alligators worried me, and after I did get to
sleep, the ghost of that alligator that we killed to-day shook his
white teeth in my face, and I could feel the man in the grave under
me trying to push me off of it. Let's get out of this river this
morning, Ned."

As they paddled down Rodgers River, in the bright sunshine, Dick's
spirits rose and when they were off the mouth of the river, headed
down the coast and bound for Harney's River, two miles distant, he
took in his paddle and, calling to Ned to hold steady, vaulted
lightly from the canoe, without even jarring it, and landed on a
sandbank in water that was but little above his waist. Stooping
under the water he picked up clams of several pounds weight each,
with which the bottom was paved, until clam-roasts for days had been
provided for. Getting back into the canoe was a ticklish operation,
but was accomplished without disaster, although a pailful or two of
water was taken aboard.

CHAPTER XII

HUNTING IN HARNEY'S RIVER

The boys had chosen the last of the ebb tide for the trip down
Rodgers River, which gave them low water for their work on the clam
bar and a flood tide to help them up Harney's River. They made a
false start at the mouth of the river by taking a channel that ran
too far to the east and led them a mile or two out of their course,
before they discovered their mistake and returned. After entering
the channel, the course up the river, which averaged east-northeast,
was plain, there being but a single branch to mislead them, in the
first six miles. At the end of these the lower section of Harney's
unites with a branch of Shark River to form Tussock Bay. This bay is
a labyrinth of channels and keys and opens into creeks