630 
FOREST AND STREAM 
November, 1918 
By W. LIVINGSTON' LARNED 
Illustrations from Drawings by the Author 
I T was on December 13th that the fish- 
runner Mae put out from Avenue D 
■Bridge, Miami, on as strange a voyage 
as ever adventurers undertook. 
Down the Miami River and into Bis- 
cayne Bay she put-putted, under fair skies 
and auspicious circumstances. The Mae 
deserves a word of description, for she 
underwent innumerable hardships and un¬ 
told privation. There was something alto¬ 
gether “human” about the Mae, as we are 
destined to learn. 
In the long ago she was a fish-runner, 
out from Miami and as far as the Keys. 
Large, roomy, flat-bottomed and well 
adapted to shallow water navigation, she 
was just the craft for the expedition. The 
cabin had been enlarged to the point where 
it was both snug and commodious. Her 
four-cycle 15 horsepower engine was suf¬ 
ficient unto the purpose, although we shall 
have remarks to make of its make-and- 
break spark system. 
Forty feet long by eight feet wide, she 
had been equipped not only to forge down 
the East Coast but to brave the dangers 
of the Key storms and nose up into river 
country. She carried two drums of gaso¬ 
line, each holding fifty gallons, one kept 
aft, securely leashed. 
Fastened atop the deck house was a ser¬ 
viceable glade boat, light, easily handled, 
and of a type used primarily for Ever¬ 
glades navigation, where the waterways 
are extremely precarious. 
In addition, there tagged on behind, at 
a safe distance, a small but serviceable 
power boat for river cruising. She was 
towed, as a rule; an eighteen-footer, 
equipped with three-horsepower, 2-cycle 
engine, and flat-bottomed, like her larger 
“pal.” “The best little pirate that ever 
drew two-foot of water,” was Hendry’s 
estimate—and Hendry knew. But then you 
will soon know more of Argyle Hendry! 
T HE Mae, as far as her cabin went, 
took on the scientific atmosphere of 
her Captain. Nailed against every 
. foot of available woodwork were U. S. 
Government survey charts. A weather- 
tight box held surveying instruments and 
out-of-the-ordinary books. There were 
bottles of chemicals used in preserving 
specimens, mmtmm and a 
p e r f e c t arsenal 
during the day, were 
for the comfort 
of Mr. King and his son, John Jr. Hen¬ 
dry slept in the forward compartment, 
where he could snore and chew to his sub¬ 
lime satisfaction. And since he knew the 
course like a book, it was best for him to 
be within reaching distance of the wheel. 
The party was comprised of John W. 
King, Civil and Mechanical Engineer, of 
Miami, his son, a likely lad of sixteen, 
and that master-craftsman of the ’Glade 
wilderness, Guide Argyle Hendry. Of 
Hendry much can and should be said, for 
he played an important part in adventures 
to follow, and in the rather spectacular 
success of the expedition.. You will spend 
many unusual hours with these three 
people and we want you to know and ad¬ 
mire their good qualities. 
Argyle was a rough-and-ready of forty- 
five. During the earlier days of his life 
he had been a cow-puncher, and then, 
caught in the eddies of circumstance, 
drifted to Fort Pierce, where he began a 
running fight with every known peril, from 
surreptitiously supplying the Indians with 
“whyome,” to desperate hunting trips into 
the swamps. Argyle was known and loved 
by the Cow Creeks, with whom he frater¬ 
nized freely, learning their singularly adept 
