"Phwat ye goin' to do me b'y—shtand out there th' rist av th' doay? Whoy don't yez come in, Oi dunno?"
"Come in, Frank—come in," cried Professor Scotch. "We have been worried to death over you. Thought you were lost in the Everglades, or had fallen into the hands of the enemy."
"Your second thought was correct," smiled Frank, as he entered the hut, with Elsie at his side.
"Phwat's thot?" shouted the Irish boy, in astonishment. "Ye don't mane to say thim spalpanes caught yez?"
"That's what they did, and they came near cooking me, too."
Frank then related the adventures that had befallen him since he started out on his own hook to give Leslie Gage a surprise. He told how Gage had made love to him in the boat, and Barney shrieked with laughter. Then he related what followed, and how his life had been saved by the locket he carried, and the professor groaned with dismay. Following this, he related his capture by Gage and how the young desperado flung him, with his hands bound, into the clutch of the serpent vine.
The narrative first amused and then thrilled his listeners. Finally they were horrified and appalled by the peril through which he had passed.
"It's Satan's own scum thot Gage is!" grated Barney, fiercely. "Iver let me get a crack at th' loike av him and see phwat will happen to th' whilp!"
"I hate and despise him!" declared Elsie. "He is a monster!"
Then Frank explained how he had been saved by Socato, and the Seminole found himself the hero of the hour.