“I’m afraid we were a little scared,” said Chap, “and that we’ll be laughed at when we get back without having fired a shot.”
“Let them laugh,” said Phœnix. “It won’t hurt half as much as to have an alligator chewing at your legs.”
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE MAGGIE COMES TO TOWN.
Had Adam Guy been at the helm of The Rolling Stone, it would probably have reached the pier at Titusville a couple of hours sooner than it did under the guidance of the three boys. But it reached there finally, and our young friends were too glad to have made a safe passage to grumble about the slowness of it.
When the story about the alligators and the desertion of Coot was told at the hotel, it created a good deal of merriment and also some hearty condemnation of Brewer, who had not yet arrived in town.
Adam came up to the hotel, having seen the boat come in, and when he heard the story he was very indignant.
“I never oughter let you go with such a miserable good-for-nothin’ feller. He thought of nothin’ but savin’ his own wretched skin, and I’ve a great mind to thrash it all off of him as soon as I ketch sight of him.”
“Don’t do that,” shouted the colonel, “for then he can’t get away, and we don’t want him here. This is the last time Coot Brewer ever takes anybody in a boat from this town.”
Adam was just about to leave the house, being anxious to finish that day the job of work he had undertaken, when he stopped on the piazza, and called out,—