"Don't you think, Dick, it was bad enough to be scared to death by a whopping old alligator that I thought was going to bite me in two, without being scolded by everybody on board for recklessness? First there was Dad, and he uses pretty powerful language when he gets real earnest, then Captain Hull gave it to me like a Dutch uncle, and even Molly lectured me and squeezed out a few tears. I told Dad it wasn't half as bad as your jumping in the way of that panther, but he said that was altogether a different thing and had some sense in it."
CHAPTER XXV
IN FLORIDA BAY
After the Irene had sailed twenty miles down the coast and was about opposite East Cape (Sable) Captain Hull asked for his orders.
"Isn't Madeira Hammock on the coast, about thirty miles from here?" inquired Ned.
"Yes, but you will have to go seventy to get there. You've got to go way round by the keys."
"Isn't there water enough for the Irene along the coast?"
"Isn't enough to float the skiff. You can go about ten miles. After that there's an inch of water and I reckon a mile of blue, soft, sticky mud. I've been a few feet down in it and the farther I went the softer and stickier it got."
"Suppose we go the ten miles you talk about what will we find?"