The Boy Chums in the Florida Jungle: or, Charlie West and Walter Hazard with the Seminole IndiansEly, Wilmer M. (Wilmer Mateo)
General
The Boy Chums in the Florida Jungle: or, Charlie West and Walter Hazard with the Seminole Indians
Ely, Wilmer M. (Wilmer Mateo)
Seminole Indians -- Juvenile fiction
"The dynamiters are a good mile and a half ahead of the machine,"
Captain Westfield observed. "I reckon it wouldn't be a bad idea to add
them to the guard around the camp until the machine catches up with
them a little."
"Good suggestion," Charley approved. "We will do that."
"I have got an amendment to offer to the moving plan," Walter said.
"I suggest that we move camp this afternoon. You have all apparently
forgotten that to-morrow is Sunday, and all hands need a rest."
"You're right," Charley agreed promptly. "Call in all the men except
the crew on the machine, and the bridge builders, Bossie. Get the other
men in the tents to roll out and help. Tell the bridge builders to
throw a bridge across the ditch, so that we can cross and get by the
machine with the truck and wagon."
In a few minutes all was astir in the camp, men busy packing up, others
pulling down and folding up tents, while still others piled them in
the waiting truck and wagon. Within half an hour of giving the orders,
Charley started with the first truckload, carrying with him half of
the Spaniards to pitch the tents on the new camp-site. He found the
knoll burnt clear of grass and the ground still smoking from the recent
fire. Hastily unloading and directing the Spaniards where to set up the
tents, the lad hurried back for another load.
Twenty men working with system can accomplish wonders, and long before
dark the moving was finished and Chris was getting supper in the cook
tent.
"I don't like staking out the mules," said the teamster, as he joined
the rest at supper, "but I can't build a corral for them until
to-morrow. You see, they keep moving around nearly all night, and they
get all tangled up in the ropes and wear the hide off their legs trying
to get free."
"I don't believe they will hurt themselves much in one night," Charley
assured him, "and to-morrow all hands can turn in and build a corral
for them. How much wood have you got ahead?"
"Enough for a week," answered the teamster, brightening. "That Juan
is a first-class worker, and I have been hauling steady. I've got it
strung along the road for a mile ahead of the machine."
As soon as it began to get dark, Charley gave a gun to each of the two
dynamiters, and gave them instructions to join their two countrymen as
guards.
Everyone was tired, and all retired early to their tents. It was agreed
that the machine should stop work at midnight, and that, when her crew
came in, two of the camp guard would go out and keep watch on it the
balance of the night.
Charley was roused up about midnight by the stop whistle of the
machine, and a few minutes later he heard its crew entering the camp,
and the chatter of the two guards, as they went out to take the crew's
place. The lad rolled over with a sigh of content, and dropped off to
sleep again, only to awaken again to the sharp crack of rifles. "Get
up, you fellows," he shouted to his chums. "There's more trouble afoot."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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