“Yeah. Where are we going to get milk? A seacow, maybe? Wish we’d kept some of them. We could have had an oyster roast.”
“Wrong again, Biff,” Charlie said. “Pearl oysters aren’t edible. These would make you so sick, you wouldn’t be any good for ten days.”
“What a waste!” Biff said, and stretched out on the sand. Every muscle, every bone in his body ached.
All three went to bed that night right after supper.
Biff, having slept heavily, awoke just as dawn broke. He thought he had been awakened by the sound of a boat’s motor. He listened intently. No sound. Biff turned over on his narrow cot, determined to get back to sleep. He was just drifting off when he heard a sound outside the tent, just beyond where his cot touched the inside of the tent wall.
He waited tensely. The sound was only a faint rustle. He saw the side of the tent stretch as if something was crawling underneath it. Biff raised himself on one elbow, ready to sound the alarm.
As he watched, in the faint dawn light, a thick, snake-shaped object slithered up between his cot and the tent’s side.
CHAPTER XX
Enemy Invasion
Biff moved quickly, noiselessly out of his cot. In the increasing daylight, he could see that the strange object slithering over his bed was a huge arm. He went over to his uncle, shook him gently, and when Charlie Keene roused, Biff cautioned silence, pressing a finger to his lips. Biff pointed to his cot.
Charlie Keene saw the arm and was up in a flash. From under his pillow he took a gun. This action startled Biff even more than the mysterious arm. He had no idea that his uncle thought they were in such danger that there was reason for keeping a gun close at hand.