It was a circular bit of high ground, surrounded by big trees whose spreading branches, draped in moss, shaded it on all sides, while an immense growth of wild grape-vine canopied it overhead.  The water that flowed past the camp was pure and sweet, fresh from the Everglades.  There was heavy timber about the camp and more than once during the night the boys heard the tread of a wild animal.  Once it seemed to be the step of a deer in shallow water near the camp, then it was the soft footfall of some catlike animal and when Ned raised himself on his elbow to listen to a heavier tread, the “wouf” of the startled beast told that Bruin had caught the offensive scent of the white man’s camp.  As the boys lay awake and talked while they watched the stars peeping through the canopy of vines above them, they heard the distant bellowing of a Bull alligator.

“Dick,” said Ned, “do you s’pose we could find that ’gator?  He must be fifteen feet long, from the noise he makes.  I’d like mighty well to rope him.  We could stake him out so he’d never, never get away and he would live for weeks if it took us that long to get him carried to Fort Myers.  Dad would sure be delighted and pay all the bills like a major.”

“Don’t you think he’d throw in new rifles with silver plates and our names on ’em?”

“He sure would.”

“Well, we haven’t got the big alligator yet, but we’ll hunt for him to-morrow.”

Just as Dick spoke the distant report of a gun was heard.

“There goes your fifteen-foot alligator and both of our new rifles with silver plates and our names on them.  Good-night.”

The boys started out across the meadow in the morning on the hunt for the big ’gator.  They carried a rope for the ’gator and Ned took his rifle to be ready for the bear that spoke to them in the night.  There was no more danger of their losing their camp, for Ned had made a chart every night, of their course during the day, until his memory had learned to map every scene his eyes looked upon.  As they crossed a bit of wooded swamp, they heard the step of some heavy animal in a jungle near them, but they could get no sight of the creature and the slushy mud through which it had waded left no prints that inexperienced eyes could read.  They found little ponds from which small ’gators rose to their calls, but none of a size worth thinking of.  They saw one big alligator sunning itself on a dry bank, and spent an hour in creeping near it only to find that it was not over ten feet long.  As it grew late and they turned homeward, Dick said: 

“Ever since that otter of yours died I’ve wanted a pet in camp.  We need one for a watchdog.  ’Most any night we might be eaten up for want of one.  Let’s take home a young alligator and I’ll train it.  These ponds are full of ’em.”

“I don’t want you to go wading in any more ponds, Dick.”

“That’s all right.  Don’t have to.  There are ’gator caves all round these ponds.  You find one of ’em and I’ll do the rest.”