FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 159 



noon, with darkness not far off, we mustered on 

 the pier, as sorry-looking a crowd of filibusters as 

 could well be found outside the pages of Mr Jack 

 London or Mr Conrad, both of whom seem to have 

 made strange acquaintances on their walk down 

 life's highway. The general scheme of clothing 

 may be glozed over. Our raiment was cool, but 

 immodest, and we wore indeed little more clothing 

 than the reptiles we had come so far to unearth. 

 The footwear alone showed individuality : two of 

 the party, fearing rattlesnakes, wore top-boots ; the 

 rest, indifferent to such risks, went in tennis shoes, 

 or even stocking-foot, and one came forth in a 

 splendid pair of sealskin slippers, a trophy from an 

 Irish lough, picturesque enough in the smoking- 

 room, but in swampy ground a trifle inclined to 

 stay behind. 



The launch pushed her nose up on the landing, 

 and one by one the party disembarked. Then 

 Jack and Underbill assumed the leadership, one of 

 them wielding an immense pole, the object of which 

 will soon be appreciated, the other carrying a 

 short-handled gaff to which was attached a coil of 

 rope. I shouldered my rifle, vaguely imagining 

 myself on a punitive expedition in the bush, and 

 another had a revolver stuck in his belt like one 

 of the Pirates of Penzance. On the whole, indeed, 

 we made a very effective comic-opera combination, 

 and if alligators are gifted with a sense of humour, 

 some of them, peering from behind the dense 

 screen of rank undergrowth, must have chortled 



happily. 



Of path there was no more than that made by 

 those in front hurling themselves against the 



