The Mystery of the Alligator Swamp Read Free Page B

open.
    Something was in the bayou, not far away!
    Swish, swish, swish.
    How did an alligator sound when it was swimming in the water? If it was a ghost alligator, did it make the same sound?
    Swish, swish, swish.
    Then, suddenly, Benny heard a thump, a crash, and a huge splash.
    Benny imagined an enormous ghost alligator jumping up out of the swamp. He screamed and turned his flashlight on.
    “Benny, what is it?” This time Violet was wide awake.
    The porch light clicked on. Benny looked around at the faces of his family. “I heard it!” he said. “The ghost of Gator Ann!”
    Henry grabbed his flashlight and flung open the screen door. The beam shone across the narrow strip of dirt between the cabin and the bayou and across the water.
    Violet and Jessie got their flashlights, too, and did the same. Benny pushed under Henry’s arm with his own flashlight pointed toward the bayou.
    Nothing moved. They saw flat black water, drifting strands of moss in the branches of dark trees.
    “I don’t see anything,” Jessie said.
    “No ghosts. No alligators. Nothing,” said Violet, sounding very relieved.
    “I heard it! It went ‘swish, swish, swish,’ like an alligator swimming,” Benny insisted.
    “Is that how an alligator sounds when it is swimming?” asked Grandfather, who had stayed on the porch in the doorway of the cabin.
    “Maybe it was a branch brushing the water,” said Violet. “Or you could have been dreaming.”
    “I was awake,” insisted Benny. He squinted, trying hard to see the shape of a ghostly alligator disappearing into the swamp. But he couldn’t see anything at all.
    Violet yawned. “We have to get some sleep, Benny,” she said.
    “Okay,” said Benny. “I guess it wasn’t the ghost of Gator Ann.”
    “No,” said Jessie. “Well, good night.”
    They all went back to bed. Benny lay down. But he held on to his flashlight, just in case.
    “Wake up, Benny.” Benny opened his eyes. Violet was bending down to shake him awake by the shoulder.
    Benny sat up. He unwrapped his fingers from the flashlight. It was still dark.
    “Did you hear something?” he whispered.
    “No. It’s time to get up,” Violet answered.
    Jessie came out onto the porch and snapped the porch light on. She was already dressed and ready to go. “It’ll be dawn soon,” she reported. “Hurry up, everybody.”
    Benny hurried. Even though it was very early in the morning, it was already hot. He put on shorts, a T-shirt, and sneakers.
    They went out quietly, so they wouldn’t wake up their grandfather. They followed the beam of their flashlights down the short trail to the fishing camp pier.
    The night was fading fast. Now light was beginning to show over the tops of the trees to the east.
    At the dock, Jessie stopped and pointed. “What’s that?” she said in a low voice.
    Benny peered out at the bayou. Something pale and ghostly was floating in the water! Benny’s heart skipped a beat. Then he realized it wasn’t a ghost, but a boat. The boat was floating upside down!
    “Do you think that’s Mr. Nelson’s boat?” Violet said.
    “I hope not,” said Henry.
    Just then they heard the puttering of a motor. A boat came around the bend in the bayou and pulled up to the dock. A large man with a thick black mustache and coal-black hair curling under a broad-brimmed hat sat at the wheel at the front of the boat, steering. Near the back, by the motor, sat a young woman with long, beautiful black hair pulled into a braid. In the middle of the boat was a girl about Jessie’s age.
    Written on the side of the boat was SWAMPWATER NELSON’S SWAMP TOURS . Near the front of the boat was the boat’s name: Swamp Flower.
    “Hello, there, Aldens,” said the man.
    “Are you Mr. Swampwater Nelson?” asked Jessie.
    “In person. Call me Swampwater. And these are my assistants Rose, motor-mechanic and a swamp fox almost as smart as I am, and Eve, who has the sharpest eyes in Alligator Swamp.”
    “Hi,” said Eve.
    Rose