"What's that?" said Dick as a lizard-like creature scuttled through the grass some fifty yards in front of him.
"'Gator! Shoot quick, 'fore he gits t' that pond!"
Dick fired, and his bullet spattered the mud over the reptile's back as it slid into the water.
Dick was very much chagrined at missing his quarry, but Johnny consoled him.
"I'll git ye another shot at him. I'll call him out o' the water, and if he don't come I'll take a stick an' go in there an' run him out."
Johnny stood beside the pond and grunted in imitation of a young alligator. In a few minutes two black dots appeared on the surface of the water, and, slowly rising, disclosed the eyes and the point of the nose of an alligator. Johnny grunted again, and the big mouth opened wide to take in the baby 'gator which the reptile thought he heard. Then the horny ridges of the back began to appear, and soon the whole body of the reptile lay on the surface. Johnny whispered to Dick:
"Shoot him in that hump behind his eyes." Dick took careful aim and fired. The alligator rolled slowly over, with its yellow belly on top and its four paws uplifted. Johnny waded into the pond and dragged out the body of the reptile, which Dick helped him skin. When this had been done Johnny cut from the creature a round strip of white flesh, about a foot long, beginning at the hind leg and running toward the tail.
"What's that for?" said Dick.
"Fur dinner. I told ye we'd find 'nuff t' eat."
"Do yon s'pose I'm going to eat that?"