Ann Crosses a Secret Trail Read online

  CHAPTER XVI

  A TASTE OF “THE SEASON”

  The Bentleys were living on their yacht at present. Jack Hudson waswith them and they straightway invited Suzanne, Ann and Maurice to jointhem. But as the Sterlings were driving to Miami for a short stay, itwas arranged to meet at Fort Lauderdale, twenty-five miles north ofMiami, where the Bentleys expected to “park” their yacht, as Jack said.Mr. Sterling would have the young folks there, on the drive back toPalm Beach. The youngsters, as Mr. Sterling called them, were to havetheir chance first at all the trips, because of their limited stay.Their elders, with the exception of Mr. Sterling, would remain untilMay. Mr. Sterling, indeed, could prolong his stay as long as he chose,or thought best.

  It was fun to shop in Miami, full of tourists as it was. They drove tothe beaches, for they were obliged to try out the winter bathing, theysaid, at every place, if only to prove that they could. Ann was deeplyinterested in the variety of people that they saw, people of everydegree of culture, or its entire lack, occasionally. There were “lovelypeople”, she told her father, and some with hard faces, who did notseem to be happy in spite of the money which they evidently possessed.Wherever he could, Mr. Sterling drove on the roads by the sea, wherethey all filled eyes and hearts with the beauty of the southern watersand sky.

  “Don’t you hope that Grandmother will buy a home down here somewhere?”said Suzanne, as they were on their way back to join the Bentleys.

  “Oh, yes!” exclaimed Ann. “Do you really suppose that she will? What doyou think, Mother?”

  “I should not be surprised,” answered Mrs. Sterling. “Mother begins tofeel the winters very much. She would enjoy escaping the worst part ofthem, the long stretch from the first of January, say. Where would youchoose the place for her, children?”

  “Either Palm Beach or Miami,” declared Suzanne at once.

  “I would rather be a little farther away from so many people,” saidAnn. “I loved the looks of Fort Lauderdale as I went through. All thoseyachts and launches on New River were so wonderful. I like some of theother places that we passed through, too. In the northern places therewere those immense old live oaks; down here are the palms. I wouldn’tknow which to choose!”

  “Probably you couldn’t get Mother to settle north of Palm Beach. Youhaven’t said where you are going to put your vote, Maurice.”

  “Me? Oh, I’m going to have a river front place on New River, so I candock my yacht at my own front yard.” Maurice gave a smiling look at Annas he said this. “Don’t you think, Ann, that my plan is good?”

  “Very good, if you know where the yacht is coming from.” Ann said thisgaily, as usual, but wished that she had not, for Maurice’s face felland he looked sober for some time.

  “Now he is worrying again,” she thought. “It seems that I can not haveany sense!”

  * * * * *

  The new car sped along the Dixie highway from Miami in fine shape.Maurice drove for Mr. Sterling and Ann sat by him, at his suggestion.They drove into Wyldewood to look at the “two million dollar” banyantree and other things; but that did not take long. It seemed a shortride, compared to those which they had been taking, when they crossedthe bridge at Fort Lauderdale and turned down the street by the river,where they saw the pennants of the Bentley yacht.

  Mrs. Bentley saw them and beckoned from the yacht. A young fellow insailor costume came to help them aboard. “Isn’t it great?” whisperedSuzanne to Ann. “I did not know that they had so fine a yacht, nor oneso big as this. It is a good thing the river is so deep, for theselarge boats.”

  The wood seemed to be mahogany, shining and clean, as everythingwas, indeed. On the deck there were comfortable seats, mostly wickerfurniture. It was the first time that Ann had ever been on a yacht, anoccasion to be remembered.

  “I am all alone,” said Mrs. Bentley, when her guests were seated ondeck. “My men all went deep sea fishing this morning. Ron promised tobring me a whale and Jack said that he might catch a shark. Mr. Bentleymade no promises.”

  Ann wondered if this were fun or earnest, probably fun, she thought.Whaling, she knew, was an undertaking by itself. But she did notpretend to know what they did catch in “deep sea fishing,” so keptstill and listened.

  “They thought that you would not get here so early, though I reallyexpected them before this.”

  “You are ready, are you, to undertake the addition to your family?” Mr.Sterling asked.

  “Indeed I am. We have all been anticipating the fun. I wish that youand Mrs. Sterling might join us, too.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Bentley,” replied Mrs. Sterling, “we are sorry not tosee Mr. Bentley, but I promised Mother to reach Palm Beach early. We’dbetter not wait.”

  “Then you must see our yacht, at least,” said Mrs. Bentley, rising.“After the young folks go back to school, perhaps we can persuade youto a little cruise with us.”

  “It would not take any persuading in our case, would it, Ann?” remarkedSuzanne, as they followed the rest on a tour of the yacht.

  “I don’t know how good a sailor I’ll be,” said Ann, “but I wouldn’tmiss this for a good deal!”

  Not long after the Sterlings’ departure, a small launch came past,carrying the fishermen and their catch. They had gone out with friendsin the early morning.

  A little further along the docks the launch found a place to dock. Herecame the boys, followed by Mr. Bentley and another of his small “crew”that ran the boat for him. “We’re leaving our catch, Mother,” said Ron,“to be attended to at the launch. I’m going to have the sail-fish Icaught mounted!”

  “Ronald! Where will you put it?”

  “Haven’t thought that far yet, Mom!”

  The fishermen boarded the yacht and made many excuses for theirsomewhat disreputable appearance. Jack looked rather pale. Deepsea fishing had been a trifle strenuous for him, but he disclaimedseasickness. With more excuses, they withdrew, to appear some timelater in the garb of civilization, as they said, though not eveningdress by any means. Mrs. Bentley had told the girls that it was notnecessary to change their costume, though they had brought suitablefrocks. “We shall be very informal tonight,” she said. “Indeed, I thinkthat we shall take our evening meal ashore at some pleasant place.”

  It was like living in a house, Ann thought, so convenient toeverything. “I always did think that I would like to live in ahouse-boat,” she confided to Suzanne, to receive a well-bred stare.Suzanne had never thought house-boats had anything to do with her!

  “You do say the funniest things sometimes, Ann,” she said.

  As the boys had planned it, the young people went off to a movingpicture after their rather early dinner, Ronald calling for a youngfriend on a neighboring yacht, which gave each lad a lass. This younglady was one they had met several seasons at Daytona, where theBentleys often stayed. Quite accidentally the girls found that sheknew Eleanor Frost and lived not far from her home on the Hudson.This was enough of a recommendation for Suzanne, who was friendlyat once. Ann liked the appearance of Ronald’s friend, Louise Duncanby name, who had met Maurice before and remembered him. It was a“happy-go-lucky” affair, not planned except for the movie, which wasrather disappointing. They left before it was over and drifted into anice-cream parlor, where they sat to visit as much as to eat the coolrefreshments. Ann could not get over its being winter. “Someway, I keepthinking that I have the dates all wrong,” she said to Maurice, whoremained her special cavalier. “I started to put June on a letter Ibegan to Marta this morning.”

  “You are not the only one who gets mixed in Florida. ‘It is always Junein Miami’ is a favorite saying down here, you know.”

  “We’ll all go up on our deck,” announced Ronald, “and we’ll get out ourlittle banjos for some music.”

  There was no dissenting voice. In a short time Ann was sitting with alight wrap around her shoulders, as in summer time at home, listeningto the music of guitar, mandolin and banjo, the instruments that theboys
happened to play. Theirs was not the only yacht that boastedmusic. Voices and instruments mingled their sounds over the river’sreflections. Stars and moon were bright. An occasional boat passed.Strains from a band concert in the park reached them occasionally, tillthe boys said that there was too much competition and stopped. “Waittill we get out upon the bounding billow, girls,” said Ronald.

  “Then we shall show what we can do!” added Jack. “Tomorrow we aregoing to take you up New River, though, and perhaps around ‘AlligatorCircle’.”

  “What is ‘Alligator Circle’?” asked Ann. “Do you mean that we mayreally see some alligators?”

  “If it is a sunny day, I think that you may see quite a number on thebanks. We are going in Dick Bell’s launch, provided that you youngladies will accept our plan.”

  “We are in for any fun that you suggest,” declared Suzanne.

  Ronald took Louise home to her floating mansion, which was convenientlylocated on the same side of the river. Mrs. Bentley, who, if the truthwere told, had been yawning for some time, as she and her husband satforward and listened to the various harmonies, showed Suzanne and Annto their quarters. From the deck came the strains of “Good Night,Ladies,” the college song immemorial.

  The girls looked at each other with smiles as they listened, but hadno way of acknowledging the message. “Isn’t this a cutey cabin, Ann?”asked Suzanne as she surveyed the little stateroom.

  “Not only cutey, but ducky. I’m rather glad that my first experience ison a stationary boat. With all the fun we’ve had, and the candy we ate,I’m afraid that I’m due for dreams tonight.”

  “May they be pleasant ones,” said her cousin. “I’ve had such a glorioustime that mine ought to be. Jack is such a dear! Do you know that heand Maurice are both planning to get a position in the mills after theygraduate? Jack told me tonight. Father has said that he will start themin, though they may not get what they want at first. I think that heand Grandmother both want Maury to learn the business from the groundup.”

  “Maurice told me that he was planning to begin there, but you don’tsuppose that they will handle the machinery, do you?”

  “No. They would not be of much help there, I suppose, though Mauricelikes that sort of thing. He was always taking everything to pieceswhen he was little. And till he smashed his car he had a lot of fundoing almost the same thing with that.”

  * * * * *

  Morning brought sunshine and lovely clouds drifting over from theocean. Ann looked out upon islands of water hyacinth, floating pastthe yacht on their way to the sound and the sea. The tide was goingout. Some of the yachts and launches were already moving, for the day,perhaps, or to other shores. It was cool enough for a wrap on deck, butMaurice told the girls that it would warm up as soon as the sun “gotinto action.”

  It was about nine o’clock when the party left the yacht to go along thedocks and across the bridge to where the little launch lazily rockedand waited for them. Louise had joined them and told Suzanne that therewas a bit of pleasant news for her. “I’ll tell you when we get on thelaunch,--if it is necessary,” she mysteriously added.

  Several young people were standing on the dock near the launch as theyapproached. “Why, there’s Eleanor!” Suzanne exclaimed. “Where in theworld did you come from, Eleanor?”

  “Ann, this is our host, Dick Bell,” Maurice was saying. “This is thecousin I told you about, Dick.”

  For a few moments introductions were in order. Then Eleanor had timeto answer Suzanne’s question. “Mother and I are staying at Miami,” shesaid. “I wrote to your address, Suzanne, to let you and Ann know thatwe had suddenly decided to come. But you must have started before theletter reached you. We ran across Dick yesterday, down town, and hetold me about this little trip. I came up on the ’bus a few minutesago. We decided to surprise you, though Dick told the boys, I guess.”

  Besides Eleanor and Richard Bell, there were two other young friends,Richard’s chum, Fred Hall, and his sister, Lois Bell. It bid fair toprove a congenial party, but it would have been thrilling enough to Anneven without the fun. It was all so different, she told Eleanor. Therewere tall, feathery Australian pines and cocoanut palms along the riverbank. In the gardens of the homes near by, the vines and shrubs were ofthose varieties with which she was just becoming familiar.

  “Wait till we get up toward the Everglades,” said Eleanor. “Then youwill think it ‘different’.”

  Ann had never heard of New River till she reached Florida. It was notlike her dashing mountain rivers, but had a beauty of its own. “Howdark the water is,” she said to Maurice, who sat beside her as theymoved up the river, under the two drawbridges, which stood open forthem and some taller boats.

  “Yes. I don’t know why, unless there is something about the soil orwhat grows along the banks. It is a sluggish river, but the tide comesup every day to quite a distance.”

  “There are some compensations for its not being rapid. I love thereflections in the water. See how that palmetto is reflected, withscarcely a ripple to show that it is water!”

  The launch chugged along to the accompaniment of light laughter andconversation. Rounding the curves, they advanced up stream, passingsome beautiful homes on the river front, then reaching the wilderregions, where there were tangles of beautiful trees and shrubs in theswamps. As it was yet early in the season, the water birds were notwary. Herons of all sorts flew ahead of them. A fish hawk crossed thestream overhead. An American bittern, all streaked with brown, flewclose enough to be distinguished without a glass.

  “There!” called Dick. “There, folks, is your alligator! See him?”

  But Ann, who had been following the bittern’s course, saw nothing butthe splash with which the alligator took the water and disappearedfrom view. “What a shame!” she cried. “Do you suppose that we’ll seeanother, Maury?” she asked.

  “Certainly we shall. Watch the shores, especially any place where theywould be likely to lie out in the sun.”

  “It’s like a circus with several rings, isn’t it? While you watch onething, you miss something else!”

  But Ann saw the immense tarpon that leaped out of the water and back.Smaller fishes also disported for their benefit. Finally Ann saw adark scaly body, curved around on a little hillock where the sun shonebetween two masses of growth on the shore. “Is that an alligatorthere?” she asked, pointing to the spot.

  “’Tis the very reptile,” replied Ronald, and Dick made the launch movemore slowly, to let every one have a good look. Sleeping peacefully,his long, hideous mouth in a “grim smile”, as Eleanor had it, theimmense alligator was not disturbed by the passing launch. The deed wasdone. Ann had seen an “alligator in the wild”! But after that therewere perhaps a dozen more of various sizes that they saw, one swimmingin the river not far from the launch.

  Up the canal at some distance, they stopped at a small place where thelarger boat that takes tourists on this ride always makes a stop. Therethey visited an orange grove that Dick told them about, coming back tothe launch laden with the sweet, yellow fruit.

  “How do you say we go back, boys?” asked Dick.

  “Take the cut-off and go around by the sound and Lake Mabel,” saidRonald.

  “That will give the girls a chance to see more,” seconded Maurice.

  “Around the canal we go,” said Dick. “The canal scenery is nothingremarkable, girls, but when we get along further, there will be a viewworth seeing.”

  On the dry slopes of the canal more alligators were sunning themselves.But these were all shy of being seen. One scarcely saw them, Annthought, before they were in the river and out of sight entirely. “TheIndians hunt them, you know,” Dick explained. “But there are not somany to get any more, they say. A man who has been coming here forthe last twenty-five years told me that there used to be thousands ofalligators where there are only a few now.”

  “So far as I am concerned,” said Ann, “there are enough.” This remarkbrought a laugh f
rom the boys and similar sentiments from the girls.

  “Don’t worry, Ann,” said Ronald. “There aren’t any around the towns.”

  But just then, something was the matter with the engine, which finallystopped, to the inward distress of at least the feminine portion ofthe passengers. To their credit it may be said, however, that nobodyscreamed.

  “Steady, folks,” said Dick, working away. “I’ll get her to going in aminute.”

  The boat swung around, without direction, and Ann thought that theywere going to bump into the bank. Would they upset? So far as she knew,everybody could swim. But how about the alligators?

  “Take that pole, Ron,” called Dick, nodding toward where a long polewas fastened. “If we swing around to the bank, hold her there, if youcan. I can’t find out what is the matter with this double-jointed andtwisted old engine!”

  “I bet I can, Dick,” offered Maurice, who gave a look at Ann to seeif she were frightened and rising, made his way to the engine. Howhandsome Maurice looked in his white flannels, Ann thought.

  “Scared, Suzanne?” asked Eleanor, noticing that Suzanne looked pale.Suzanne shook her head in the negative.

  “Maury will fix it,” said Suzanne. “Still, I imagine that nobody feelsreal comfortable. It was a mighty big alligator that splashed in last!”

  “Sh-sh! Don’t mention it, Suzy. The boys would get us to shore withthat pole.”

  “Chug! Chug-chug!”

  “Good for you, Maurice, you’ve got it!”

  But no; the chugging stopped. Both Dick and Maurice were working awayat the engine. “For pity’s sake, Lois,” said Dick Bell in a low toneto his sister, “get ’em to doing something besides watching us. It’sgetting on my nerves!”

  Maurice, whose white flannels were not quite so white by this time,laughed as he worked and started up the old round, “Row, row, row yourboat, lightly down the stream.”

  With some laughter, the rest joined in. “Better change it to ‘Pole yourboat,’ as the Seminoles do, if we don’t get this thing started prettysoon,” growled Dick, who was nervous from his responsibility.

  “Easy, Dicky,” said Maurice. “I think that I have found out what is thematter. There! hand me that oil can, Dick.”

  In a few minutes the engine was going merrily, while Ann declared thatits sound was the best music she had heard in some time.

  “Fie, cousin,” said Maurice, climbing around to his seat by Ann again,“better than those dulcet strains I started you all with a while ago?”

  “Your voice was all right, Maury,” laughed Ann, “but starting theengine was better yet. Did you find the trouble, or may we have arepetition of the act?”

  “I found it, and unless something else goes wrong we’ll be home asusual!”

  It was worth the trying time in “Alligator Circle” to see the exquisitesky and water of sound, ocean and the little body of water known asLake Mabel. Then came the windings of the New River, past Tarpon Bendand into the passage between the well-known shores where the Bentleyyacht was docked.

  Owing to the long delay in the canal, they were late for lunch andnot even the juicy oranges had dulled the edges of their youthfulappetites. The boys took them to the best hotel this time, wherethey were served at a table of their own, decorated with flowersfor the occasion, with special favors of hibiscus blossoms at eachplate, a hurried order, telephoned after their arrival, but eminentlysatisfactory to all the girls.

  They were just finishing when Mr. Tyson entered the dining-room andcame over to the table, whereupon all the young gentlemen rose at once.“Sit down, boys,” said Mr. Tyson. “Don’t let me interrupt you. I justwant to tell Maurice that I want him to accompany me on a little tripafter lunch, if he can excuse himself. Have you any special plans,Maurice, that will be upset?”

  “None at all, Father. I think that there was some plan about going tothe beach this afternoon,--Las Olas Beach. I can be spared as well asnot.”

  “I stopped at the yacht and Mrs. Bentley told me where you are. I havehad my lunch and will wait for you in the lobby. Mother wants me tolook up a little property for her.”

  When Mr. Tyson walked away, as he did immediately, with a salute toall, the boys sat down again to finish dessert. “It will be a goodchance, Ann,” said Maurice in a low tone to his cousin. He did notexplain what sort of chance he meant, but Ann understood.

  “I think so, too, Maury. Good luck.”

  Maurice thought that it was a very sweet look with which he wasfavored, as Ann looked up at him to wish him good luck. They walked tothe lobby together, with the rest of the party; then Maurice joined hisfather and they drove away at once.

  “I wonder where the property is that Grandmother wants Dad to look up,”said Suzanne.

  “I don’t know,” replied Ann, much preoccupied.