all those horrid things--ugh!"

She could not finish.

"I guess you're right, Miss," assented Jed. "It will be better not to
shoot from the boat, especially as we've got a pretty good load in, and
my gun is a heavy one, though it don't recoil such an awful lot. Now
we'll take you girls back to the steamer, and then I'll come here and
make a bag--an alligator bag, you might say," he added with grim humor.

"Oh, I want to stay and see you shoot!" cried Alice, impulsively.

"Oh, no, Alice!" cried her sister. "Daddy wouldn't like it, you know."

"Well, perhaps not," admitted the younger girl, more readily than her
sister had hoped. "Shooting alligators is not exactly nice work, I
suppose, however much it needs to be done, for we have to have their
skins for leather."

"Then suppose you take us back," suggested Ruth. "I'm sorry to make so
much trouble--"

"Not at all!" interrupted Paul. "I think it will be best. But if I can
borrow a gun I'm going to get a 'gator myself."

"And get one for me; will you, Paul?" begged Alice. "I'll have my valise
after all!"

"Surely," he answered.