Strange Creatures of Dr. Korbo (9 page)

Josh grew angry then, but he had no time to express his annoyance.

“I got me a big one!” Wash cried. He struggled with his pole as the fishing line zipped around in the water. “I can't pull him in, he's so big!”

Josh yelled advice. Everybody began yelling advice.

With great effort Wash managed to pull back his pole. It bent, but out of the water came a beautiful fat fish, far bigger than any the other boys had caught.

“That's a great one. Hang onto him!” Reb yelled. “Pull him up higher. I'll go out and get him. You'll never land him.”

Reb put down his own pole and stepped into the water. But he had gotten in no deeper than his knees when suddenly something burst out of the depths of the river.

Things happened so quickly that no one had time to react. First, Josh saw this huge pale creature emerge. Its body was alligatorlike. It had fangs like a serpent
and luminous round eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth. It shot up out of the water, and in an instant Wash's beautiful big fish had disappeared down its gullet. As the creature fell back into the river, its teeth cut through Wash's fishing line.

Reb yelled, “What
is
that thing?”

“Reb, get out of the water! He's coming for you!” Josh shouted.

The alligator, or whatever it was, had surfaced again. The bright round eyes seemed fastened on Reb this time. It charged toward him, mouth gaping open.

Reb let out a yell and splashed toward the bank. Then perhaps he stepped into a hole, for down he went.

At Josh's side, Sarah screamed, “Reb!” He glimpsed her fumbling for her bow, but she had left her weapon back with Meta and the babies and their equipment. So had everyone else—except for Josh himself.

Josh did not even think. His mind was not working fast enough. His hand was fast, however, and from its sheath he jerked the sword that he always carried. He leaped into the water and splashed past Reb. He lifted the sword over his head.

Now the creature was upon him. It had a purplish black mouth and throat that looked like a huge cavern armed with teeth. Josh brought down the sword with all of his might. He felt the jolt all the way to his shoulders, and the head of the beast disappeared under the surface. It came up at once, wounded but with teeth still snapping. Again and again Josh swung his blade. He was desperately aware that, if he missed, the creature's teeth would close on him.

But finally the animal sank, bubbling, and then Reb was at his side, shouting, “Get out of here, Josh! There are more of them!”

Josh looked up to see other pale alligators, or whatever they were, swimming toward them from the opposite bank.

The two boys splashed to shore. The others went running for their weapons, and the battle began. Some of the river monsters died from Sarah's arrows, and others from sword blades. Josh was aware that Gus was in the middle of the fray, slashing right and left and yelling at the top of his lungs.

When the last alligator retreated, Meta ran over to Gus as if he had been the only rescuer. “Oh, Gus, you saved us!”

Gus looked satisfied. “I guess I did, didn't I? Well, that's the way it is. Some of us are just born to be heroes.”

Sarah snorted with disgust. She turned to Josh. She said, “You did wonderfully, Josh.”

Reb came up and threw an arm over Josh's shoulder. “You saved my bacon that time,” he said, beaming. Then he looked around at the dead beasts. “I wonder if they'd be good to eat.”

“What an awful thought!” Sarah exclaimed.

“Well, they used to eat alligators down in Louisiana, I heard tell. These are just a kind of alligator.”

“I just want to get away from here,” Josh said. “Grab your fish, and let's go. Let's leave this river alone.”

 

 

T
hey found a shelter for the night. It was not exactly a cave but a hollow place in the side of a hill. At Josh's suggestion they built fires around the outside edge of their camp and placed the babies as close to the face of the hill as they could.

Sarah was trying to cook the fish that Gus and the boys had cleaned. She had discovered that her hands were still shaking. The monster alligators had been terrifying. “Look at my hands,” she said, showing Meta, who was helping her.

Meta looked. “I know,” she said sympathetically. “I know. I was so frightened just watching that I could hardly stand up. You were all so brave, though—especially Gus.”

Casting a quick look at Meta, Sarah smiled. “Goél helped us. He always does. And, yes, Gus was very brave. You like Gus a great deal, don't you?”

“Oh yes, I do.”

Sarah questioned the young woman while they worked. She found out that Meta had never had a sweetheart. Sarah thought Gus a rather unlikely candidate for this. But in spite of that, she had learned to appreciate the good qualities of the skinny young man.
He doesn't look like much,
she thought,
and he's awfully gloomy at times, but you can always count on him.

“He's a fine young man, Meta,” she said.

As everyone gathered around for the evening meal, Reb said again, “I wish I had some hush puppies.”

“Maybe we can find some more grain and make

some,” Wash said.

“We haven't got time for that!” Dave snapped. “We've got to get out of here.”

Josh was chewing on a piece of fish. It was actually delicious. The meat was white and not at all strong. “I wish I had some tartar sauce,” he said. “That always was good with fish.” Then he glanced over at Dave. “You know, Dave, sometimes the slowest way is the fastest way.”

“I don't know what
that
means. I just know we need to get out of these woods.”

“But we've got all these babies to take care of. If we try to go too fast, it'll be hard on them.”

“We've got to make better time than we've been making. That's all there is to it, Josh. Surely you can see that.”

Nothing Josh said seemed to make any impression on him.

Just before dark, Josh and Gus were milking the goats. Gus was stroking a nanny's head, while Josh milked steadily.

“You sure have turned into a good milker,” Gus said. “Never any good at that myself.”

“I thought you were good at everything, Gus.”

“Well, I'm better at some things than other things.”

“What do you figure you're best at?” Josh asked him. He expected some outlandish boast. He knew that Gus, along with always predicting disaster, held the opinion that he was quite a man.

But to his surprise, Gus said, “I suppose I'm best at writing poetry. That's why the fellows ran me out of the village.”

“I thought it was because all the young ladies preferred you.”

“That's part of the reason they preferred me,” Gus said, stroking the rough coat of the goat. Then he shoved back his floppy hat, and his lean, cavernous features brightened with pleasure. He grinned broadly. “The girls liked me so much not just because I'm such a handsome fellow but because I wrote them nice little love poems.”

“Let me hear one of them,” Josh said.

Immediately Gus began to spout poetry:

 

“Your lips are prettier than palm leaves,

And your eyes are like two pools of buttermilk.

You have a neck like a swan,

Legs like trees

Teeth like mussel shells.

Oh, how beautiful you are!”

 

It all sounded rather sappy to Josh, but he did not say so. “Well, I can see that the ladies would really like you, Gus. All those good looks and a poet too.”

“That's true,” Gus said sadly. “Sometimes I wish I wasn't so gifted.” They continued milking, and after a while he commented, “It's a good thing we found another shelter. Dark's coming on, and I don't want to tangle with those bats. Those blasted alligators were bad enough.”

Josh thought about the night dangers all the way back to camp. When they rejoined the others, he said, “I think we'd better have guards, Dave.”

“Ah, nothing's going to happen,” Dave said. “What could happen? Let's get a good night's sleep. We're all tired.”

Sarah seemed to know that Josh had no intention of sleeping.

“I'll stay up, and we'll watch together,” she said. “Then you can ask Reb or Wash to take a watch.”

“That's a good idea.”

When the others had rolled up in their blankets, Josh and Sarah stood watching. The stars were bright overhead. They glittered like diamonds.

Josh said, “There's the Big Dipper.”

“It hasn't changed.”

“Nope,” Josh said. “Everything on earth has changed, but the stars are still up there.”

“I've almost forgotten the constellations,” Sarah said. “Do you remember any of them except the Big Dipper?”

“Well, there's Cassiopeia.”

“Oh, yes! That's the one that looks just like a badly drawn W,” Sarah said. “And there's Orion.”

“Yep. Look at his belt. Those three stars in the middle.”

“I always liked Orion.”

For a long time they stood talking softly—first about the stars and then about life back in Oldworld. The time passed quickly, and before long, it seemed, Reb came to stand watch.

He held a sword. “You two go get some sleep,” he said.

“Thanks, Reb. I
am
tired,” Sarah said.

When she went off, Reb asked, “Josh, have you thought about it?”

“Thought about what?”

“About what we've talked about a dozen times. Dave's no good as a leader. He's strong, and he's the best swordsman I've ever seen, but he's just not a leader. You are.”

“But I'm such a wimp. I can't shoot a bow like Sarah. I can't use a sword like Dave. I can't ride a horse like you can.”

“That doesn't make no never mind,” Reb said. “Some guys and some girls are just natural born leaders. They're not always the biggest or the strongest, but there's something in them that makes people want to follow them. I reckon that's what Goél saw in you, but you've let him down.”

“You really think so, Reb?”

“Sure I think so. You think about it.”

Josh did indeed think about it. He could not sleep for a long time. He lay with his hands locked beneath his head and stared up at the stars. Ever since the failure of the last mission, he knew he had allowed himself to be swamped with selfpity. It was one thing, however, to know it and something else to come out of it.
How does a guy stop feeling sorry for himself?
he wondered. He thought for a long time but came up with no answers.

The next day, as usual, they milked the goats, fed the babies, and started out on their journey. They traveled steadily all morning, stopping at intervals to rest. Josh saw no opportunity to exert leadership, and he spent most of the morning talking to Gus, who walked along beside him. He had come to like the skinny young man very much indeed.

Gus entertained him by quoting his love poems. He said, “I wrote a new one last night. It's for Meta.”

“Can I hear it?”

“Of course you can't hear it. It's for her.”

“But you let me hear your other poems.”

“This is different. The first time a poem is said, it has to go to the one it's written for.”

“Oh.”

Josh watched as Gus dropped back then and fell into step with Meta. The young woman's face brightened. He could not hear what they were saying, but he knew that Gus was giving a rendition of
her
poem. He saw her face light up even more, and Josh thought,
Well, I'm glad somebody's happy on this trip.

They fed the babies when they were hungry and stopped at noon to eat. It was the middle of the afternoon when Josh felt bold enough to move up beside Dave. “Remember, Dave, we've got to find shelter before nightfall.”

“Know that. Plenty of daylight left.”

Josh said firmly, “Dave, don't be bullheaded about this. We can't wait until dark to start looking.”