"Well, anyhow, we can look," said Bunny, hoping against hope that there would be some of the scaly lizards in the water.
So, having been cautioned not to fall in, a promise the children readily gave, Bunny and Sue started off down through an orange grove near the house to go to Squaw River. They paused only a little while to watch the men picking oranges, and then hastened on. Soon they were at the edge of a slow-moving stream which flowed this way and that between banks of overhanging palm trees, some of which were festooned with Spanish moss that hung down in clusters like the ragged beard of a very old man.
It was very quiet and still beside the river. It was shady and cool, too, after the hot sun of the open places and the orange groves, and Bunny and Sue rather liked it.
Bunny picked up a stone and tossed it into the river. It fell with a splash.
"What you doing?" Sue wanted to know.
"Maybe I can scare up an alligator," Bunny answered.
"Mr. Halliday said there wasn't any," Sue responded.
Bunny tossed in another stone, and hardly had it sunk beneath the surface than Sue grasped her brother's arm, and, pointing to the river, whispered:
"Look! There's an alligator!"
Something like the long, black snout, as Bunny remembered once to have seen it on an alligator in a zoological park tank, rose into view. And there was a swirl of the water as though the reptile had switched its tail.