the afternoon, when Dick was working the sculling oar.
He was swinging it slowly, as he looked down into the water, when
there appeared suddenly, just under the dingy, a great black
creature, broader than the boat was long. As it rose nearer to the
surface, almost touching the craft, he saw a great open mouth, three
feet across, with a heavy black horn on each side of it, which
looked quite equal to disposing of Dick and his boat at a single
bite. The sight was so frightful that Dick impulsively thrust his
oar against the creature, and was instantly thrown from his feet as
the stern of the dingy was tossed in the air and a column of water
fell upon and around him. When the commotion was over and Johnny had
crawled back into the submerged boat and was rocking it dry, Dick
said to Captain Tom, who was swimming beside him:

"I believe I'll swim the rest of the way. I'm getting tired of being
pitched overboard every few minutes."

After they were all aboard and Dick had resumed his work with the
oar, he asked the captain:

"What was that thing that looked like a devil, that I hit and that
hit back?"

"That was a devil-fish. They are perfectly harmless," said the
captain, adding, reflectively, "unless you punch 'em."

The tide favored the castaways at Sand-Fly Pass and they reached
Chokoloskee Bay without further adventure, but then came the painful
part of the trip: telling the owner of the _Etta_ of its destruction
by a waterspout. All the comment Mr. Streeter made was:

"Glad none of you went down with the boat."

The captain and Johnny went to their homes, while Dick accepted Mr.
Streeter's invitation to stay with him.

CHAPTER V

OUTFITTING FOR THE HUNT

The Streeter home was on the bank of a little river that emptied
into Chokoloskee Bay, and Dick, for the first time, saw oranges and
grape-fruit growing and tasted the delicious alligator pear and the
guava.

After supper Mr. Streeter said to Dick:

"Johnny tells me you have got a friend lying around loose somewhere
in the Big Cypress Swamp, or the Everglades, and that you and he are
going to take a day off to look him up."

"That's about the size of it, only of course I don't expect to find
him in a day or a week. I had some hope that a month would do. I
suppose it all seems very silly to you?"

"Not a bit, not a bit. The Big Swamp isn't a bad place, if you've
sand and sense, and I reckon you have both or you wouldn't have got
as far as you