There was little more sleep for the boys that night and when at daybreak half-a-dozen of the moonshiners appeared with the canoe it may be imagined that the boys lost little time in getting aboard the Carrier Dove where their inky navigator was so delighted to see them that he danced a sort of double shuffle of joy from one end of his disreputable craft to the other.

The story of how the Carrier Dove had come to weather the storm was soon told. After the two men, who had not harmed him, had set him ashore from the motor-boat at the other end of the island the black, with the instinct of locality common to his race, had easily made his way to the camp. To his amazement it was deserted and he was filled with fear that some disaster had happened to the boys and Ben. He had not much time for speculation however, for hardly had he looked about him when the rapid approach of the black squall that had caused such havoc on the other side of the island made him bestir himself to get his beloved Carrier Dove to a safer place than her present anchorage. He therefore jumped into the Squeegee and rowed out to his craft. He had just time to set her sails and up anchor when the squall struck down in all its fury. Pork Chops told his story with a wealth of gesture and dramatic effect and the boys could hardly refrain from bursting into roars of laughter as he described “de mon’surious wabe what had rised up out of the sea like yeast bread an’ et up de po’ li’l Squeegee.”

“How high was the wave. Pork Chops?” asked Frank.

“’Bout as high as de highes’ mountain you ever see, Marse Frank, and dat am a solemn gospel fact,” averred Pork Chops. “He ris’ so high above de ol’ Carrier Dobe’s mas’ dat it ’peared lak I could’n see no sky.”

“Oh, come, Pork Chops,” laughed Harry, “you’ll have to take a little off the top of that wave.”

“Won’ tak off not a single solingtary inch, Marse Harry,” indignantly replied the skipper of the sloop. “I wish ah may nevah see Miami again ef dat dar wabe weren’t jus’ as I done describe him to you.”

“Well, it was pretty big and that’s a fact,” said Billy Barnes with a wink at the others, “but you must have magnifying eyes to see it as big as you describe it.”

“Hoi’ on dar a minute, Marse Barnes,” earnestly said the old negro, “ah don’ know jus’ what you mean by dat dar magnaminous eye, but tell me didn’ you all see dat dar wabe from de udder side ob de island?”

“Certainly,” said Lathrop, “what’s that got to do with it?”

“Wall, it mus’ jus’ naturally have growed by de time it got round here; das all ah got to say,” triumphantly concluded the old darky.

Continuing his narrative Pork Chops told how the little sloop had driven through the water “faster than de fastest ex-press you eber seen.” He didn’t forget either to pay himself a high tribute to his own skill as a mariner.

“Reckon dat ol’ man Noah didn’t have nothin’ on Cap’n Pok Chops when it come to sailin’ roun’ wid skill and duxturity,” he remarked.

“Well,” commented Frank, “we don’t want to spoil you by too much praise, Pork Chops, but that certainly was an A No. 1 feat of yours, and I never heard a more welcome sound than that croak of yours when you dropped anchor.”

After despatching huge quantities of fried bacon and coffee, cooked on the battered sea stove the Carrier Dove’s cabin boasted, and which Pork Chops proudly referred to as “de galley,” the adventurers up anchored and with their little engine chugging merrily away stood on toward the south. The canoes in a long tandem-like line were towed astern, as there was every prospect of smooth water for the rest of the day.

As the Carrier Dove bore past the southern end of the island a canoe shot round the point. In it were two figures. One was the moonshiner who had been so anxious to despatch the unfortunate Nego, the other was a younger man whom the boys recollected to have seen in the camp the day before. They waved and shouted something that the boys could not catch but, as they evidently had some important object in paddling out, the young commander ordered the engine stopped and the Carrier Dove lay to, rising and falling on the long swells over which the canoe rode as gracefully as a sea-bird.

A few moments later the canoe ran alongside and the elder of the two men addressing Frank said:

“Wall, the bodies of them two came ashore this morning and on the one you wouldn’t let us string up we found this.”

He fumbled in his homespun shirt a minute and then produced a tiny carved figure of green jade. It was the image of a squatting Buddha and evidently of great antiquity.

“Was this all you found?” said Frank, examining the quaint figure with interest.

“Sure,” replied the other unblushingly, “ain’t it worth something to you ’uns for we ’uns to hev fetched it to you?”

Frank knew that the man lied when he said that the little jade god had been the only thing found on the dead man but he did not deem it worth while to contradict. He had little doubt that the dead man’s watch and diamond rings were at that moment in the possession of the individual who had addressed him, or some other of the moonshiners. He, however, took the hint conveyed in the man’s last words and handed him over a bill. The fellow took it without a word and shoved off.

“You ’uns may get out of the ’glades alive but I don’t believe it,” were his parting words.

“He’s got what you might call a nice sweet disposition that feller,” remarked Ben, as the canoe was rapidly paddled away and the adventurers got under way once more, “he’d make a good shipmate, he would, with that sunny nature of hisn.”

Frank examined the little jade god with close attention while the others leaned over his shoulders. The figure was not much more than two inches high and of beautiful workmanship. It was evidently of great antiquity and seemed to have been venerated as a charm by successive generations, for it was worn quite smooth in parts as if from constant rubbing against the clothing of the person wearing it.

At the top of the head there was a small opening, round the edges of which were inscribed characters that were meaningless to the boys.

“What do you suppose is the significance of it?” asked Harry.

“It is evidently some sort of an amulet,” responded Frank.

“I’ve seen ’em in China and Japan,” put in Ben Stubbs, “whistling gods they call ’em there. Lend it here a minute.”

Frank handed it to him and Ben put his lips to the orifice at the top of the figure’s head. He blew hard in it and the figure gave out a clear, penetrating note that evidently traveled a long distance, for the two moonshiners stood up in their now distant canoe and gazed back in astonishment at the sound.

“Them Chinas and Japs set a high value on these,” commented Ben, “some of ’em would give their lives for one.”

“Well, we’ll keep it as a souvenir,” remarked Frank, slipping it in his pocket. “It will be amusing to have it to recall some of our adventures when we get back to New York.”

That afternoon a good brisk breeze from the northwest sprang up and the Carrier Dove with her canvas spread bowled along at a good ten knots before it, heeling over till the foam creamed at her lee scuppers. It was exhilarating sailing. After a long series of alternate calms and favoring breezes the adventurers’ craft finally rounded Cape Sable and shortly afterwards entered the maze of channels, islands, sandbars and treacherous shoals that make up the Ten Thousand Island Archipelago.

The young adventurers had finished the first stage of their daring enterprise. By far the most difficult part lay before them. As Frank put it they had arrived “at the front door of the Everglades,” what lay beyond was only conjecture.

According to the prearranged plan they were to cruise about at the edge of the archipelago till the Tarantula hove in sight and they could make final arrangements for wireless codes and signals and also complete the plan of rescuing Lieutenant Chapin and getting the formula out of the hands of those who had it. After two days of waiting, which sadly irritated the boys, who were keenly impatient to begin their task, one morning the placid waters of the gulf were furrowed by the sharp bow of the Tarantula and the Carrier Dove sailed out to meet her.

On board the destroyer the boys were greeted by a very youthful looking lieutenant, whose name was Selby. He explained that his orders were to keep in constant touch with the expedition, so far as was possible, by wireless and that if they were missing without sending any word for more than a week he was to take a squad of men and penetrate the Everglades in search of them.

He was very anxious for the boys to take several picked men of his crew along with them in their bold dash. But Frank and Harry, after a brief consultation, agreed that the force they had at present formed a good working unit and there was no need of shortening their supplies and overloading the canoes by taking any more. After a dinner aboard the hospitable Tarantula the boys dropped over the side into the Carrier Dove, which had lain sociably alongside the grim war-vessel while they were aboard, and with warm words of farewell from Lieutenant Selby and a cheer from the crew, among whom word of what was on foot had spread in some mysterious way, they started for the maze of islets and channels beyond which lay the mouth of the Shark River. They anchored that night off a small island covered with a dense undergrowth that promised snakes and that there was at least one variety of reptile ready to receive them was evidenced when, as the Carrier Dove’s anchor rattled down into about twelve feet of water, a huge body slipped off the bank and slid into the water with a sullen splash.

“An alligator!” cried the boys.

“No, sah,” rejoined Pork Chops, “dat dar ain’t no ’gator, dat’s a crokindile and where dey are dere’s mischief.”

“Are they more dangerous than alligators?” asked Frank.

“More dangerouser!” scornfully replied Pork Chops. “Ah should jes’ say dey is. ’Gators—huh! they am big cowards, but crokindile he’ll fight yer till his teef drap out—yes, sah, they’s bad critters is crokindiles.”

“I’d like to get that fellow’s skin though,” said Frank.

The old darky scratched his head.

“Wall, sah,” he said; “I ain’t saying that dat’s impossible. ’Spose we try to git him by jacklight.”

“By jacklight?” exclaimed Lathrop wonderingly.

“I’ve read about that,” replied Frank, “it is supposed to be the most effective way of trapping these saurians. Now as there isn’t much to do before tomorrow, after we have unloaded our duffle and got it stowed in the canoes, we might as well have a little pot-hunt after supper.”

The boys enthusiastically agreed and the work of getting the duffle off the Carrier Dove and into the canoes for transportation into the Everglades went ahead with a will. By supper time the canoes which were to be occupied by Frank and Harry were completely loaded and there only remained the stowing of the few additional sections of the Golden Eagle II in the craft that were to be paddled and poled by Billy Barnes, Lathrop and Ben.

Supper over, old Pork Chops rigged a lantern up in the bow of one of the canoes and fitted a strip of canvas over it.

“No use letting Mister Crokindile know what we’re going to do till we git ready,” he remarked as he hooded the light.

As only one of the canoes could be used, the others being loaded down, it was agreed that Frank and Harry should occupy it with old Pork Chops and the others would watch the fun from the deck of the Carrier Dove. The spot where the Carrier Dove lay was a sort of natural basin enclosed by the thickly grown islands all about. Pork Chops paddled almost noiselessly into about the center of the enclosed pool and then stopped. Then came a dead silence for more than half an hour broken only by the occasional nightcry of some bird or creature of the jungle and the sharp clicks of the adventurers’ rifles as they got them ready for action.

Suddenly the quiet was broken by a roar like that of an enraged bull.

“Heah he comes foh shuh,” commented Pork Chops with his hand on the hood of his lantern.