Rustling and splash, for now he awoke plainly enough to the fact that he was sinking ankle deep at every step, and he roused himself fully once more.
“Giving up,” he panted, “just when I had won the day! Hurrah! There’s the river!” And making a tremendous effort he struggled on, for there was the alligator floundering through mud and water now where the growth was getting more open, and at the end of some dozen yards there was light—golden-looking light—coming down from above. Then there was a loud flopping, followed by a heavy splash, and the lad snatched at and seized the boughs that closed him in, and just saved himself from following the reptile he pursued by clinging with hands and legs to a stout cypress, to which he held on as he indistinctly made out the sobbing sound of the wave that the reptile had raised as it plunged into what seemed to be the edge of a swampy lake.
“He won’t come back, will he?” thought Murray, and he obeyed the natural instinct which prompted him to drag himself up amongst the evergreen boughs of the tree, which slowly rocked to and fro with his weight.
But the water beneath him gradually settled down, the cypress in which he clung ceased to bend, as he got his feet settled better to support his weight, where he could look along a dark green verdant tunnel to a spot of golden light where the subdued sunshine fell upon a glistening level of amber-hued water so beautiful that for a time the lad could not withdraw his eyes.
“It’s no river,” he said, “but the edge of a lagoon, and it would be madness to go any farther. Let’s have a rest. Might have been worse off after all, and it’s no use to get despairing and tiring oneself out. I should have liked this adventure if my two lads had been with me, and—and—Yes, that’s it,” he groaned—“if I hadn’t been sent on such a tremendous task! There, it’s of no use to despair. I’ve done my duty, and no matter what happens now I can say that. Who knows what may come next? I mustn’t think I can hang here till it grows dark. I could climb up higher, but this is a swamp, and though I might save myself from alligators and snakes—Ugh!” he shuddered. “This is the sort of place where they live!—I couldn’t escape from fever. There, I must hail now till some one hears me and answers, even if it’s the enemy. But it may be one of my fellows, or if not it’s sure to be one of the slaves, for there must be plenty about here.”
But Frank Murray did not shout for help. Perhaps it was due to exhaustion, that the place seemed to have a strange restful fascination, as he hung there in the thick growth of the cypress, gazing along the soft green tunnel at the little glistening lake, which he now saw was full of living things, for every now and then the surface was stirred by creatures which he made out to be tiny terrapins—water tortoise-like creatures which just thrust out their heads and drew them beneath again. Then water beetles skimmed about, forming glistening geometric figures for a time before they disappeared.
Then the lad shuddered, for from the side of the bright verdure-framed lagoon a snake writhed itself in horizontal waves across the surface and began to climb up the foliage, to glisten as it reached where the light fell strongest and the burnished scales flashed with bronze, silver grey and gold.
“I wonder whether it’s a poisonous snake,” thought Murray; and then he made an effort to awaken himself from the pleasant feeling of restfulness, for he knew that he must exert himself if he intended to find a way back to where he had been separated from his companions—those whom he must urge on to the fulfilment of his task.
“And I have not done what I felt that I must do at all risks,” he said, as he once more made an effort to rouse himself from the drowsy inertia which was holding him in something resembling a trance.
Drawing a deep breath, he took more tightly hold of the cypress boughs, and was about to hail at any risk and with all his might, when he uttered a loud sob of relief, for suddenly from somewhere far away, came, strangely softened and subdued, though prolonged, the words—