“Phew! That would be an unpleasant place to stay with a fire burning in the tower inside and a lot of savages looking for your gore hanging ’round waiting for you to drop off.”
“But they didn’t drop off,” Kenneth went on to say. “They stuck to the little balcony till the Indians got tired waiting and began shooting at them with their bows and arrows. The men lay flat on the boards, as close to the bricks as they could get, but before long the assistant got an arrow through his heart and the keeper himself was shot in the shoulder. The Indians, thinking that both were done for, went away, leaving the wounded man with the dead one, high up on a lonely tower, the only means of reaching the ground burned away, without food, and entirely without shelter.”
“Did he die up there?” both of the other boys inquired at once.
“Almost, but not quite. Some of the settlers near, fearing trouble, followed the Indians in force, and a daring chap climbed up the charred stumps of the supports inside the tower, and lowered the body of the negro and the almost lifeless keeper to the ground.”
“What a story!” Frank shuddered as he looked at the tall shaft.
“But it’s true. The place has never been used since. See, there’s no sign of life there.”
The boys watched the tower till it sank below the curve of the earth, and for a long time sat silent, thinking of the keeper’s awful plight.
Rounding Cape Florida, the yacht sailed north along the treacherous East Coast of Florida. With scarcely any harbor and a strong sea beating steadily on shore, the boys watched with dread for the “glistening calm,” when the wind dies out suddenly, leaving a heavy sea setting in to shore. But luck was with them, and three days after leaving Biscayne Bay they had reached St. Lucie’s inlet to Indian River, and were standing off and on before the thundering breakers that guarded the pass to the calm water beyond.
On the chart, laid out in beautiful lines, clear figures, and delicate shadings, the course through those raging billows was plain enough to the haven beyond; but the real look of the place was very different.
“Well, boys, shall we do it?” Kenneth’s mind was already made up, but he wanted the confirmation of his friends. “It’s win out or bust, you know.”