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They flew over the trees, eastward to the prairie land, and then on through the coastal plain to the Atlantic Ocean. Whether they were crossing Florida or Georgia, Linda did not know, and for once she was not interested in the country. The sun rose as they came to the water, but that beautiful sight, too, made no impression upon the unhappy girl. Nothing but the sight of a plane or a boat – the promise of rescue – could have any meaning for her.
On and on she went, leaving the land behind them, until finally they sighted an island possibly five miles out. The man behind her shouted to her to land, and she circled about, finally coming down on the beach.
As she brought her autogiro to earth, she was once more impressed by the loneliness, the barrenness of it all. No habitation of any kind, not even a tent! Motionless she sat in the cock-pit, wondering whether she couldn't get away while this thief was unloading his treasure.
Slats, however, was too wise for any such trick; he commanded Linda to get out of the plane, and help him carry a heavy box across the island where a growth of bushes concealed a hole in the ground, which was evidently the pre-arranged hiding-place. In silence they buried the treasure and returned to the autogiro.
Retracing their course under his direction, Linda flew back to the encampment. Here they found the others finishing their lunch, and Susie was sitting with them, apparently much brighter and better, for she was laughing and talking to her companions.
As Linda and her captor finished their meal, a stranger put in his stealthy appearance at the door of the tent. He was well-dressed, in riding-breeches, and clean-shaven. Linda's heart gave a wild bound of hope. Was it possible that this man was an officer of the law, and the criminals were caught?
But Beefy's greeting to the visitor instantly dispelled her hopes.
"Hello, Jake!" he exclaimed. "What's new?"
"Everything ripe for tonight," announced the new-comer, briefly. "Ready to start now?"
Slats stood up. "O.K. with me," he said. "Want some grub first, Jake?"
"No – I just ate." The stranger turned smilingly to Linda. "And how's the most famous girl-pilot in the world?"
Linda recoiled in horror. So he too knew all about the plot to catch her! Another member of this terrible gang!
As she did not answer, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Got the lines out about her yet?" he inquired, of the other men.
"No," replied Slats. "We had a smash-up – wrecked Susie and the Jenny, so we'll need Linda to fly her plane for us till this job's over tonight. I'll give you the high sign when I'm ready to let her old man know."
The four men stood together at the door of the tent.
"We're leaving for a day – maybe two," Slats informed Linda. "But Susie's watching you, with a gun. And your plane's dry, so I wouldn't advise to try any get-away. There's swamps everywhere…
"So long…"
A moment later the girls heard the men tramp away to the boat that the new-comer had brought to the edge of the island.
Chapter V
Escape
It was with a sigh of relief that Linda watched her captors disappear. Not that she had any hope of getting free – without gasoline – but at least she would not see those dreadful men for a few hours. Susie was not nearly so bad.
"I hope you can cook," remarked the latter, surveying her bandaged ankle.
"Oh, yes," replied Linda. "I've often camped out before."
"Then we can enjoy ourselves for a while. I'm glad to get rid of that gang… And, Linda – how 'bout if we be friends? No use making things worse by getting mad at me."
"True," admitted Linda, though she wondered what she could possibly find in common with the other girl that might inspire friendship.
Seeing a kettle of water steaming on the oilstove, she set herself to the task of washing the dishes.
"Wish I could help," remarked Susie, in a friendly tone. "But after this there won't be so many dishes – for just the two of us."
"When do you expect them back?" inquired her prisoner.
"Tomorrow morning, probably. If they get their loot."
"Suppose they get caught?" suggested Linda.
"They won't. Don't worry! They've been planning this crack for months, and you can bet everything's all set just right. They never get caught."
Linda sighed. It wasn't very promising.
"Tell me how you got into a gang like this?" she asked, suddenly.
"I fell for Slats," replied the other girl. "Thought he was a rich guy – he spent so much money on me. I was working as a clerk at an airport, and learning to fly. We ran off and got married."
"But when you discovered that he wasn't straight, why didn't you leave him?"
"Couldn't. He said he'd hunt me down, and 'bump me off,' if I did. And he meant it, too. Slats isn't afraid of anything… I saw right away that he didn't want a wife, but a pilot, who'd do what he said… The only fun I get out of it is in the winter, when we go to Europe or South America, and live like swells. Then he lets me spend all the money I want."
"But doesn't it make you feel dreadful – at night, sometimes, or when you're alone – to think of leading such a wicked life?"
"Now, Linda, be yourself!" answered Susie, flippantly. "No preaching! From you, or anybody else!"
Linda turned away and completed her task in silence. What was the use of talking to a person like that? She knew now what was meant by the term "hard-boiled." If ever a word described anyone, that word described Susie.
She wondered, as she worked, whether it would be worth-while to repeat her suggestion of the night before. Susie's ankle was so much better today that she would not be so eager to get to a real doctor. Still, there could be no harm in trying.
"Wouldn't you like to go off in my autogiro today?" she inquired, without turning around.
Her companion laughed bitterly.
"Not a chance!" she replied. "Didn't you see Beefy take that big can to the boat with him? That was gas."
"Oh!" exclaimed Linda, her hopes dashed to the ground. "You mean they don't trust you?"
"They don't trust anybody!" announced the other girl, emphatically. "It don't pay – in a game like theirs."
"Would you have gone with me?" inquired Linda. "If they hadn't taken it?"
"I don't know. My ankle's better. But I'm sick and tired of Slats, though I guess I'd miss the cash and the excitement. And I guess I'd be too scared he'd get me in the end if I double-crossed him."
Linda was silent. Now that this hope was frustrated, she must think of something else. Surely this was her chance of escape – with the men away, and her only companion a cripple.
But the swamp – the dreadful swamp was all about her. How far into the depth of the Okefenokee she was, she did not know. It was all a vast unexplored wilderness to her.
"Alive with snakes and wild animals, and alligators, I suppose," she mused. Yet nothing savage could be worse than those three fiends in human flesh who were holding her captive. She determined to face anything rather than them. Yes; she would run away, if it meant swimming the swamp!
There was no use loading herself down with food, she concluded, for most of her trip would be through the water. She would stop at her plane and take out some chocolate, and her knife; thus lightly equipped, she would face the wilderness alone.
"Linda," said Susie, interrupting these thoughts, "will you go to my tent and get me a magazine I have there? I think it's under the cot."
Linda nodded, repressing a smile. She would go, but she would not come back!
Stepping into the smaller tent, she dropped the flap, and picked up her flash-light. Then, raising the wall on the other side, she crept out through the trees to the edge of the island and circled about until she reached the autogiro. This would give her a few minutes extra before Susie should realize that she had gone.
As she stood there beside her plane for a moment, wondering whether she would ever see it again, she had her first real sight of the Okefenokee Swamp from the ground. Cypress and slash pine trees grew in abundance, and heavy moss hung about. In the water all around her, she noticed rushes and water-lilies, and ferns grew everywhere in profusion. Beneath the surface, she could see thick vegetation; would this, she wondered, support her weight if she were to attempt to walk in it?
In the afternoon sunlight the water, the trees, were perfectly still; except for the birds, the silence was profound. How desolate it was! Her wrist-watch informed her that it was already four o'clock. Five hours more, and darkness would come on, enveloping everything in a blackness such as a city-dweller never sees. Even the sky might be hidden by the trees, and the wild animals would be prowling stealthily about in search of food. She shuddered and hesitated.
"But I have an even chance with the animals," she thought. "And with those thieves, I am sure to lose!" So valiantly, she stepped out into the water.
The depth was not great at this point, and she discovered that, though the soft muck sunk beneath her feet, she could still make progress. The hard rains of July and August had not yet set in, and the "bays," as the stretches of shallow water were called, had not risen to any great height.
Laboriously she waded onward, choosing a thick growth of trees in the distance as her goal. Surely, she thought, where the trees could grow there must be some dry land. If she could make that spot by nightfall, she could hide in their depths and sleep. Then tomorrow she could press on to the westward, and perhaps reach the end of the swamp.
It was a slow, weary progress that she accomplished, and she had to pick her way carefully, measuring the depth of the water with a stick which she had cut from a pine on Black Jack Island, but she kept resolutely on until her watch registered seven o'clock. Then, all of a sudden, the stick sunk so deeply into the muck that she knew she would have to swim, and she hastily ate the chocolate which was to be her evening meal, and plunged forward to swim.
As the time slowly passed, she watched Black Jack Island fading in the distance, and hope swelled in her heart. She was nearing land at last – perhaps only an island – but even if she were not out of the swamp, at least she would be away from her enemies. She smiled when she pictured the consternation and anger of the men at finding her gone.
She swam on for some distance, now and then pausing to cut the grasses that became entangled about her legs. Her shoes were heavy, but she hated to take them off, for they were a help in the shallow water.
After an hour of this exercise, she was utterly exhausted, and she looked about her in dismay. What if she should drown now, in the midst of her own country – after she had conquered the Atlantic Ocean successfully? The thought was absurd; she steeled herself to press forward, for she was coming nearer to that bank of trees. Surely, there lay safety!
Had she but known it, she was now entering one of the so-called "Gator Roads" of the swamp – channels of water which the alligators followed. But it looked promising to the tired, hungry girl.
The foliage was growing thicker now, and the water-way narrowing. Some distance on, the trees met overhead, and beautiful moss hung from their branches, shutting out the setting sunlight, and forming a lovely green bower. But Linda was scarcely conscious of this beauty, for she was breathing with difficulty, panting with fatigue. If she could only make that bank – where the land seemed firm!
A big tree had fallen across the water, and she managed to reach it, and to cling to it for support while she rested. Her feet hung down in the muck, and she realized that the water was comparatively shallow. She wanted to laugh aloud in her relief.
Pulling herself up by her hands, she decided to walk the log to the bank, and had just poised herself upon its rather perilous round surface, when she encountered the greatest shock in her life thus far. Not ten yards away, in the very water where she would have been now, had she not mounted the log – was an alligator, at least eight feet long! Brave as she was usually in the face of other dangers, she let out a piercing scream of terror at the sight of this horrible monster.
"Now I've got to walk the log!" she thought. "It's death if I fall off!"
She watched the alligator a minute or two while she regained her self-control, and made sure that he was not moving. Then, with eyes straight ahead, she started to walk the log.
Once, toward the middle, she swayed, but it was only for a second. She straightened herself staunchly and marched on – to dry land.
Oh, the joy of feeling her feet on firm ground again! To know that whatever misfortune might come on the morrow, she was safe for that night at least! She could not drown, or be tortured by enemies; her only danger would come from snakes. She would take the precaution to explore her sleeping-place thoroughly before she lay down.
Weary as she was, she did not stop until she had gone farther into the island. The trees were denser here than they had been at Black Jack; it would be more difficult to land an autogiro, if by chance Susie should follow her. Nevertheless, she resolved to stay hidden as much as possible.
Away from the shore, she finally dropped to the ground and took off her wet shoes and stockings.
"Not that it will do me much good in the morning to start off dry," she thought bitterly. "But anyhow, I don't want to sleep in them." And then she removed her outer garments.
"Wouldn't supper taste good!" she said aloud, envying Susie that well-filled larder at the camp. But Linda knew that there was no danger of her starving so soon, after that big noon-day meal, and she put the thought of food from her mind. Water she could not forget so easily. After half an hour's thirst, she decided to risk a drink from the swamp. Had she but known that the water of the Okefenokee is not poisonous, she would have enjoyed her drink more. The "peat" gives it a queer taste, but it is harmless.
She was relieved, in her return to the water, to see that the alligator had gone – which way, she could not tell. Though she was desolately lonely in that vast abandoned wilderness, she did not care for the companionship of so ugly a beast!
When she returned to the spot which she had selected for her camp, she took her knife from its wet case and cut a few stout sticks from a tree. With these she would explore the ground before she lay down, and keep them at her side while she slept, as some sort of protection from snakes.
As with the water, however, Linda's fears regarding snakes proved unnecessary, for the report of a large number of these in the Okefenokee Swamp had been proved by hunters to have been exaggerated. As a matter of fact, Linda did not see one during her entire visit to the swamp.
She waited until the daylight had faded, and darkness completely enveloped the landscape before she lay down to rest. The stars were still visible here and there through the trees, and, as upon the occasion of her lonely flight to Paris, they somehow seemed friendly. After an hour or so, she slipped off to sleep.
Only once during that strange, desolate night did she awaken, and that was when something cold and wet suddenly touched her face. She started up fearfully, seizing a stick with one hand and her knife with the other, squinting her eyes for snakes. Her flash-light had of course been thrown away during her swim, so she could not immediately identify the enemy that had awakened her.
She laughed out loud when she finally saw what it was. She had rolled over against her shoes, which were still cold and clammy with water!
She went back to sleep again, and did not awaken until the sun was well up in the sky. She had no way of telling the exact time, for her watch refused to go after its bath in the swamp, but Linda judged from the sun that it must be nine o'clock at least. Her clothing was dry, at any rate, and her shoes only a little damp. But what a sight she was, she thought, after that long swim!
She went down to the water's edge to wash, and to drink the water that must serve as her breakfast, and looked carefully about her – into the sky, and on the water – for the sight of her enemies. For she had no doubt that as soon as the thieves returned, they would go in search of her, believing that she could not have gotten far away.
She was relieved to see nothing, no sign of human beings anywhere, and she paused to watch some wild birds fly past overhead. Everything was peaceful and quiet – like a Sunday morning in the country. It was hard to believe that wickedness existed in such a beautiful world.
Then, abruptly, she noticed the soft swish of water not far away from her, and she looked up quickly, expecting to see the alligator again. In that awful second, her worst fears were realized. A canoe, with two men aboard, was coming straight towards her. The thieves! They had sighted her – they were wildly waving their arms.
It was too late to hide!
Chapter VI
The Enemy in the Autogiro
Defeated, miserable, hopeless, Linda sank to the ground and buried her face in her hands, waiting for the dreaded approach of her enemies. Oh, the cruelty of fate, to deliver her to them again, after her superhuman effort to escape! Bitter tears rushed to her eyes, scalding her face, and she sat as one expecting death, listening to the rhythmic dip of the paddles, as the canoe came closer and closer.
She kept her face hidden until the sound ceased, informing her thereby that the craft had stopped at her side. Tensely she waited for the harsh snarl of her captor's voice. But to her incredulous amazement, she heard instead the soft, deep, well-bred tones of a Southerner!
"Can we be of any help to you, Miss?" inquired the speaker.
Linda looked up instantly into the kind eyes of two exceedingly attractive young men.
"Oh! Please!" she gasped, the tears still running from her eyes. "Yes, please!"
And then, for the first time in her life, Linda Carlton fainted.
When she came to, she was lying on the ground, with two strangers bending over her, one offering her water, and the other hot coffee from a thermos bottle. A warm glow of happiness surged over her as she realized that she was among real human beings – not animals, or criminals. Though not naturally impulsive, she longed to throw her arms about these boys and weep with gratitude. If they had been girls, she would not have hesitated a moment.
Instead, she sat up and smiled her sweetest smile, so that, bedraggled as she was, she was still beautiful. The boys, man-like, each urged his particular offering upon her.
"Put that coffee down, Hal!" commanded the tall, fair youth at her right. "A lady who has just fainted doesn't want coffee."
"I do, though," Linda assured him. "I want water, and coffee – and anything else you have to eat. I fainted from hunger as much as from anything else."
The boy called "Hal" looked pleased at her acceptance of his gift, and he hurried back to the canoe for some food.
"Are you alone?" asked the other, who remained at Linda's side. "And how do you happen to be here?"
"It's a long story," replied the girl, wondering just how much of it she had better tell. It was all so incredulous, that perhaps they wouldn't believe her if she did tell them.
"First have some food," suggested the boy who had gone to the canoe. "How long has it been since you ate?"
"Only yesterday noon – and I even had some chocolate about six o'clock. But after that I waded and swam from Black Jack Island to this place – whatever it is."
"This is 'Billy's Island,'" the boys informed her. "Named after 'Billy Bowlegs,' the Indian who once lived here… But, Great Guns!" exclaimed Hal, "that's five miles at least! Nobody ever tried to swim the Okefenokee Swamp before!"
"Well, it seemed like twenty-five," remarked Linda. "And I hope nobody ever has to try it again."
She did not go on with her story immediately, for she was too busy eating bananas – one right after another. Nothing had ever tasted so good! Meanwhile, the boys introduced themselves as Hal – short for Harold – Perry, and Jackson Carter, both Juniors at the University of Florida.
"We're both on the archery team at college," Jackson explained. "And we take a little trip into the Okefenokee each summer, to try out our bows and arrows on the wild game here. We camp each night on one of the islands."
"Then you know the Swamp pretty well," remarked Linda, with relief. They would be able to take her back to civilization.
"The southern end of it – yes," replied Hal.
"Now tell us who you are," urged Jackson Carter, regarding Linda with silent admiration. There was no doubt about it, she certainly was an attractive girl.
Linda hesitated a moment, and determined not to mention her first name. She was tired of all the publicity and disaster which her ocean flight had brought her. Besides, these boys might think she was just posing as Linda Carlton, the famous aviatrix, in order to impress them. She would tell them only her middle name, instead.
"I am Ann Carlton, from Ohio," she replied. "I was flying my new plane when I got lost over the swamp, and had to come down on the first dry land I saw, because my gas was running low, and I didn't know how far the water extended."
"Smashed your plane?" inquired Hal, evidently satisfied with the explanation.
"No. But unfortunately I fell among a gang of thieves, and they stole it, and tried to hold me prisoner on Black Jack Island. But yesterday I got away, as I told you."
Both boys gazed at Linda in admiration and wonder. What a plucky girl she must be!
"Thieves in the swamp!" repeated Hal. "Not Indians? – a lot of Indians used to live here, and they might have come back."
"No. White men – and one girl. Regular thieves, the kind that rob banks and jewelry stores."
"But what were they doing? Hiding from justice?"
"I don't think so," answered Linda. "Because I don't think anybody suspects them in particular. They have a regular camp on Black Jack Island, and they bring whatever they steal there, and transfer it by airplane to an island in the Atlantic Ocean, where it's picked up by another partner in a boat."
Jackson let out a whistle.
"Pretty slick, aren't they? But they'll get caught sometime."
"I sincerely hope so. Unfortunately, though, nobody could identify them as thieves, because they haven't been caught before."
"You could," remarked Hal.
"Yes, if I ever see them again. Do we have to pass Black Jack Island to get out of the swamp?"
"I'm afraid so – but we needn't go very close to it – it's some distance from the regular 'Gator Road' we always follow."
"'Gator Road'?" repeated Linda. "There aren't any roads in the swamp, are there?"
"They're water channels," Hal explained. "Short for alligator-roads."
Linda shuddered.
"I saw an alligator last night," she told them. "I hope we don't meet any more."
"You poor girl!" exclaimed Jackson. "It seems to me you've had most every dreadful experience anybody could have in the last twenty-four hours!"
"But they're over now," laughed Linda, wondering what the boys would say if she told them the real account of the kidnapping.
Even now Jackson Carter was looking at her strangely. She seemed like such a nice girl – but what sort of family could she have come from, that would allow her to roam around the country unchaperoned and alone? He himself was of an old-fashioned Southern family, who regarded such independence in young women as mere boldness. Yet Linda Carlton seemed anything but ill-bred, or bold.
"Aren't your family worried about you, Miss Carlton?" he inquired. "So far away – in an airplane?"
"They must be by now," she replied with a pang of distress. "I had promised to wire them every day – and it's been three nights now since I could. My aunt probably is afraid I have been killed."
"Your aunt?"
"Yes. My mother is dead, and my aunt has always taken care of me."
"But she lets you do pretty much as you please I take it. You northern girls certainly are different."
"Well, not exactly." Linda could not explain without telling the whole story of her life, so she decided to let the matter pass. "Hadn't we better be pushing on, if we expect to get out of the swamp before dark?"
"Yes," replied Hal. "But don't set your heart on that, Miss Carlton. I don't know whether we can or not. But we'll get past Black Jack Island, and at least as far as Soldiers' Camp Island."
"Soldiers' Camp Island?" repeated Linda.
"Yes. The story goes that some Civil War soldiers deserted, and hid there. I don't know how true it is, but it certainly is a good place to hide."
"Don't I know!" sighed Linda.
They climbed into the canoe, putting Linda on some blankets in the center, and started upon their journey. For the first time since her visit to the swamp, Linda was at last able to enjoy its beauty. The thick ferns, the cypress trees growing in abundance, the pines and the water-lilies! What a difference a boat could make! Yesterday she hated the rushes and the moss; today she found everything lovely.
Avoiding the island where the thieves were camped, the boys made a wide circle, and did not pass even in sight of it. With each mile of progress, Linda's spirits rose higher and higher, until finally she suggested that they sing. She just had to find some outlet for her joy and thanksgiving.
"It must be long after noon," remarked Jackson, as they finished a familiar college song. "Hadn't we better eat?"
"I see an island ahead – I think it's Soldiers' Camp," replied Hal. "Wouldn't it be nice to stop and make some coffee?"
"I'm hot enough without any fire or hot coffee," returned Jackson, wiping the perspiration from his face. "But I would like to stretch my legs."
"Let me do the cooking!" urged Linda, eagerly. "I'd love to prove some use to you, after all the trouble I've made."
"You haven't been any trouble!" protested Jackson, whose admiration for Linda had been growing by leaps and bounds, in spite of the fact that he could not wholly approve of her. For the past three hours he had been sitting in the stern of the canoe, gazing at her lovely profile, listening to the charm of her soft voice. Yet he knew he had better not allow himself to care for this girl; she was just the type his mother disapproved of, and with Jackson Carter, his mother's wishes were supreme.
They pulled up to the island and unloaded the canoe. There were all sorts of supplies – bacon, canned beans, fruit, and biscuits, as well as tea, coffee, sugar and canned milk. Even a little folding stove to set over a fire, and a coffee-pot.
"What a perfectly delightful spot!" exclaimed Linda, as she walked some distance inland. "Look at these lovely little houses! Why, I could almost live in them myself!"
What she referred to were the clumps, here and there, of cypress trees and overgrowing vines and evergreens, which, as a matter of fact, the hunters often used to camp in during their visits to the swamp. They were very attractive indeed, and would afford complete privacy, Linda thought, if she were obliged to spend another night in the Okefenokee.
The boys made a fire on the edge of the water, and Linda insisted that they go off for half an hour while she prepared the meal. She laughed and sang as she toasted the dry biscuits and the bacon, and boiled the coffee. What fun it was to picnic when you were among friends – even if they were very new ones!
When the boys came back, they each proudly displayed a wild goose, as proof of their ability with the bow and arrow. Then, like three happy, carefree school-children, they sat down to their meal, having forgotten all about the thieves for the time being.
The shock was all the more terrible, therefore, when they suddenly looked up into the sky and saw the autogiro overhead. Linda was the first to identify the plane, to guess what danger they were in. She stumbled to her feet, pulling Jackson with her, and just as she opened her mouth to tell them to flee with her into the depths of the island, a shot rang out from the autogiro, and a bullet whizzed past the little group, so innocently enjoying their picnic!
