Bobby Blake on a Plantation; Or, Lost in the Great Swamp Read online

  Produced by Roger Frank and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Fred and Lee saw a huge alligator almost on top of them.]

  BOBBY BLAKE ON A PLANTATION

  OR

  LOST IN THE GREAT SWAMP

  BY

  FRANK A. WARNER

  Author of “Bobby Blake at Rockledge School,”“Bobby Blake on a Cruise,” etc.

  ILLUSTRATED BY WALTER ROGERS

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

  Copyright, 1922 by Barse & Co.

  Bobby Blake On A Plantation

  Printed in the United States of America

  CONTENTS

  I The Sinking Boat II Just in Time III A Close Call IV Facing the Bully V Putting One Over VI Fire! VII At Risk of Life VIII An Unexpected Vacation IX Off for the South X Half a Gale XI Quick Thinking XII Under Sunny Skies XIII Flying Heels XIV Baldy Gives In XV The Land Shark XVI Jim Boolus Appears XVII The Runaway Horse XVIII A Scoundrel’s Trick XIX In Desperate Peril XX The Alligator’s Jaws XXI A Terrible Moment XXII The Distant Howl XXIII Tracked by a Panther XXIV Swallowed Up by the Bog XXV The Hunter’s Cabin XXVI A Midnight Prowler XXVII The Moccasin Snake XXVIII A Great Discovery XXIX ’Rastus Abimelech Belshazzar Johnson XXX Jim Boolus Trapped

  BOBBY BLAKE ON A PLANTATION

  CHAPTER I

  THE SINKING BOAT

  “I tell you what, fellows, that was some game yesterday,” said FredMartin, as he sat with his comrades on the steps of Rockledge Hall, theday after that memorable Thanksgiving Day when Rockledge had beaten itsgreat rival, Belden, in the annual football game.

  “It was a close shave though,” remarked his chum, Bobby Blake, who hadbeen the chief factor in the victory. “There were only two minutes leftof playing time when, we got the touchdown. It came just in the nick oftime.”

  “I thought you were a goner when that fellow Hoskins dove at you,” putin Jimmy Ailshine, better known as “Shiner.” “That fellow sure is aterror when it comes to tackling. He grabs you as if you were along-lost brother.”

  “He came mighty near stopping me,” admitted Bobby. “I just felt hisfingers touch me as I dodged. But a miss is as good as a mile, infootball as in everything else.”

  “It was a tough game for Belden to lose,” commented Perry Wise, a big,fat boy, who went by the ironical nickname of “Pee Wee.” “But both teamscouldn’t win, and we were just a little bit too good for them,” he addedcomplacently.

  “Listen to that ‘we’,” jibed “Sparrow” Bangs. “Lot you had to do withit, you old elephant.”

  “Wasn’t I sitting there rooting to beat the band?” demanded Pee Wee inan aggrieved tone. “And let me tell you I’m some little rooter.”

  “Well, we’ve won the banner of blue and gold anyway,” declared HowellPurdy. “Maybe it won’t look good floating from the top of thatflagstaff.”

  “I wonder when we’re going to get it,” pondered “Skeets” Brody. “Haveyou seen it yet, Bobby?”

  “Not yet,” replied Bobby. “But Frank Durrock told me all about it. It’smighty nifty. It’s made in blue and gold, with a football in the center.Then at each of the four corners there’ll be the emblem of one of theschools that played for it, and it will have embroidered on it:‘Champions of the Monatook Lake Football League.’”

  “I’d like to have the letters big enough so that the Belden fellowscould read it from across the lake,” chuckled Sparrow.

  “Come off, Sparrow,” said Bobby with a laugh. “You’re like the Indianswho scalp the dead. It ought to be enough for you that we beat them,without wanting to rub it in. Besides, we didn’t beat them by such amargin that we can afford to brag much about it. They sure let us knowthat we’d been in a fight.”

  “Talking of fighting,” chimed in Billy Bassett, “did any of you fellowshear of the hold up that took place in town this morning?”

  “Hold up!” came in a chorus from the lips of all the boys, as theycrowded around him.

  “Yes,” replied Billy, “up at Mr. Henderson’s house, about nine o’clock.”

  “In broad daylight!” ejaculated Fred. “Gee, but those robbers aregetting bold. Are you sure about it, Billy?”

  “Dead sure,” replied Billy. “In fact, I just happened to be passing by,and I saw the whole thing.”

  “You saw it!” cried Sparrow, fairly bubbling over with excitement. “It’sa wonder you didn’t say something before. How many were there in it?”

  “There were two against one,” answered Billy.

  “Weren’t you awfully scared?” asked Skeets.

  “Not a bit,” declared Billy. “Why should I be scared at seeing twoclothes pins holding up a shirt?”

  There was a moment of awful silence.

  Then with a howl the crowd rose and threw themselves on Billy, andmauled and pounded him until he begged for mercy.

  “To think that I fell for it!” snorted Fred disgustedly. “I sure ameasy.”

  “I’m just as bad,” mourned Sparrow. “I swallowed the whole thing, hook,line and sinker. I’m not fit to go around alone. They ought to put me inan asylum for the feeble-minded.”

  “Serves you both right,” laughed Bobby. “You ought to know Billy by thistime. Whenever he starts to talk you can be sure that he’s trying to putsomething over on us.”

  “I’d hate to have your suspicious disposition,” grinned Billy, highlydelighted with the success he had scored.

  “Say, fellows, isn’t it getting near time for lunch?” spoke up Pee Weefrom his recumbent position on one of the steps.

  “Can’t that tank ever get filled up?” asked Skeets. “Look at the way hepolished off that grand old Thanksgiving dinner, and he’s starving yet.”

  “That was yesterday,” explained Pee Wee. “How long do you think onedinner’s going to last? Don’t you suppose I’ve got to keep up mystrength?”

  “What for?” scoffed Skeets. “You’re too lazy to use it anyway.”

  “Don’t forget that he’s got a lot of weight to carry around,” admonishedFred.

  “What seems to be the matter down there,” put in Sparrow, pointing to atree on the campus about a hundred feet from where the boys werelounging.

  The others followed the direction of Sparrow’s finger and saw two boysengaged in what seemed to be an angry dispute. Even as they looked, thelarger of the two snatched off the cap of his companion and threw it onthe ground.

  “Bill Snath is at it again!” exclaimed Fred, jumping to his feet. “He’sragging that new pupil that came in a few days ago, Cartier I think hisname is.”

  “Might know that Snath couldn’t stay decent for long,” remarked Skeets.“He toned down a little after Sandy Jackson skipped out, but now he’s upto his old tricks. Cartier’s a good deal smaller than he is.”

  “That’s the reason Snath’s picking on him,” said Bobby. “Trust thatbully not to tackle anyone of his own size. Come along, fellows, andlet’s see what the trouble’s about.”

  They hurried in the direction of the two disputants, even Pee Weeshowing more speed than usual, although even at that he brought up inthe rear.

  In the meantime, Snath had added insult to injury by planting his feetfirmly on Cartier’s cap and looking on with a malicious grin on hisface, while his victim tugged at it in vain attempts to regain it.

  As the running boys neared the two, Snath caught sight of them, and alook of disappointment, not unmixed with fear, came into his small, paleeyes. For a moment he appeared as though about to slink away, but hethought better of it and stood his ground.


  “What’s going on?” asked Bobby, as his eyes went from one to the other.

  “Don’t know that that’s any of your business,” growled Snath, apasty-faced, loose-jawed youth, with mean eyes set too close together.

  “We’ll make it our business, you big bully,” Fred was beginning, whenBobby placed a restraining hand on his chum’s arm.

  “Just a minute, Fred,” he said. “Let’s hear what Cartier has to sayabout it,” he went on, turning to the other boy. “How about it, Lee?”

  “I was passing by him when he told me to take off my cap to him,”replied Lee Cartier, a slender, dark-eyed boy with a clean-cut,intelligent face. “I told him I wouldn’t and then he grabbed it andthrew it on the ground. He’s standing on it now,” and he pointed to thecrumpled cap under the bully’s feet.

  “Suppose you let Lee have his cap, Snath,” said Bobby.

  “Suppose I don’t,” snarled the bully doggedly.

  “Then we’ll make you,” Fred burst out hotly, his face almost as red asthe fiery hair combined with a fiery temper that had gained for him thenickname of “Ginger.”

  But again Bobby intervened.

  “Easy, Fred,” he counseled. “Now look here, Snath,” he continued, fixinghis eyes steadily on the bully, who tried to meet his gaze, though hisshifty eyes wavered, “we’ve had enough of this sort of thing in thisschool, and we’re not going to stand for any more of it. Sandy Jacksontried it and couldn’t get away with it, and you’re not going to, either.Take your foot off that cap.”

  “I won’t!” snapped Snath furiously, though there was a perceptiblewobbly movement of his knees. “Who do you think you are anyway, BobbyBlake? You just quit butting in and let me tend to my own affairs. Youneedn’t think you’re running this school.”

  “Take your foot off that cap,” repeated Bobby, not raising his voice aparticle, but moving a step forward so that he was within easy reach.

  The rest of the boys crowded about the two, all agog with expectation ofa “scrap.” There was not one of them but cordially detested the bully,and many of them had been the victims of his petty torments. They wereeager to see him get the thrashing he richly deserved, and that theyfelt Bobby was fully able to give him.

  But Snath was one of those who believed that discretion was the betterpart of valor. He hated to give in, with all the boys looking at him,but he hated still worse the idea of coming to blows with Bobby,although he was much the larger of the two. His eyes fell on Bobby’sfists which were slowly clenching, and then with a growl he stepped backoff the cap. He could not resist, however, the temptation to give thehead covering a vicious kick.

  “Take your old cap,” he snarled. “As for you, Bobby Blake, I’ll get evenwith you for this when you haven’t got your crowd with you.”

  “Make him pick it up, Bobby!” shouted Fred, who was disappointed at notseeing the bully get his just deserts.

  But Lee had already picked up the cap and put it on his head, while heflashed a look of gratitude at his champion.

  Snath shambled away with a last malignant look at Bobby that was full ofthreats of vengeance in the future.

  “It’s too bad you didn’t have an excuse for trimming him, Bobby,” sighedSparrow, as the bully’s form vanished round a comer of the building.“He’s had a licking coming to him for a long time, and you’re the onewho could have done him up to the queen’s taste.”

  “I don’t want to fight,” replied Bobby. “I never want to if I can helpit. You know the trouble that came from that mixup with Sandy Jackson.But there’s been too much of this bullying going on in the school andit’s just as well to let fellows like Snath know where they get off.”

  “He’s got it in for you,” declared Skeets. “Did you see that look hegave you when he went away? I’ll bet he’s figuring out right now somedirty trick to play on you.”

  “Let him figure,” laughed Bobby. “I should worry a lot and build a houseon it. But what do you say, fellows, to kicking the football around alittle? I’m a little sore from yesterday, and it will help get some ofthe kinks out of my bones. Besides it will help us get up an appetitefor lunch.”

  All assented readily, except Pee Wee.

  “I’ve got all the appetite I want already,” he said. “If I had any moreI’d be starving to death. But you dubs go ahead and play, and I’ll liedown here and rest.”

  “That’s the best thing you do,” chaffed Fred.

  “Rest is Pee Wee’s middle name,” jibed Sparrow.

  But the good-natured fat boy only smiled in a superior sort of way andmade himself comfortable, while his comrades got the ball and put it inaction. There were not enough of them to form two elevens and play aregular game, but they got up a couple of skeleton teams and were soonin the thick of some lively scrimmages.

  The new boy, Lee Cartier, had been chosen by Bobby as one of his side,and although he was not familiar with the fine points of the game, heplayed with zest and spirit and showed that he had it in him to become agood player. What he lacked in weight and strength he made up inquickness, and he followed the ball in a way that called forth praisefrom Bobby.

  “That was good work, Lee,” the latter said, after Lee had fallen like aflash on the ball that one of the opposing players had fumbled.

  Lee’s face flushed with pleasure at the commendation.

  “I’m afraid I’m a good deal of a dub at the game,” he answered. “If Icould ever learn to play the way you did yesterday it would be somethingto talk about. I wish you would teach me the way the game ought to beplayed. Will you?”

  “I’ve got lots to learn about it myself,” replied Bobby, “but whatlittle I know you’re welcome to. There’ll probably be lots of days whenwe can practice before real cold weather comes.”

  Just then a cry of alarm arose from Fred, as he happened to glancetoward the lake.

  “Look at that boat!” he shouted. “It looks as if it were sinking!”

  All eyes were turned on a boat containing four boys, about a quarter ofa mile from the shore. Two of the occupants were pulling desperately atthe oars, but making scarcely any progress. The other inmates of theboat were waving their hands wildly and shouting at the tops of theirvoices, although what they were saying could not be distinguished atthat distance.

  Bobby gave one look and threw down the football.

  “Come along, fellows!” he shouted, as he made for the boathouse at thetop of his speed.

  “They’re sinking and we’ve got to save them!”