Did you ever try to sleep on a rattlesnake-proof bed on a poison-ivy island? Well, if that was all there was to it it isn’t likely you’d drop right off into a doze and have pleasant dreams. But throw in for good measure that two men like Batten and Bill were out looking for you; and if you close your eyes a wink, then I’m pretty much mistaken.

Mark and I tried to sleep. I know I shut my eyes and pretended I was at home with father and mother in the next room. Somehow that didn’t do much good—I couldn’t pretend hard enough, I guess. Then I tried counting sheep jumping over a fence, but the sheep jumped so slow that I had time in between to figure what Batten would do to us if he caught us. I counted up to a thousand, and watched an imaginary wheel go round and round. But in spite of everything I could think of I was just as wide awake at the end as I was at the beginning.

Mark was perfectly still, and of course I didn’t know whether he was asleep or awake. Everything except Sammy was still, too still altogether for comfort. When things are so quiet you just have to listen. You can’t help it if it was to save your life; and I didn’t want to listen. Listening for something you don’t hear makes you shivery. I don’t know but that it was more scary than the night we sat up by the cave before we knew what Sammy was. I couldn’t help imagining a rattler was trying to climb the leg of my bed, and every snap of a twig or rustle of a leaf I turned into a man sneaking through the underbrush.

Besides, there was Sammy snoring for dear life. Just you get into a tight place like we were in and have the only person you can depend on start to snore! I tell you, you feel even lonesomer than if nobody was there at all. I was mad at Sammy, mad all the way through. It didn’t seem right that anybody should be comfortable and happy when I was so miserable. Once I made up my mind to yell at Sam, but then I thought how hard he’d been working for us, and kept still.

After a while I couldn’t stand it any longer, though, so I raised my head and whispered, cautious, “Oh, Mark, are you awake?”

“Awake!” he says, cross-like. “If I was as sound asleep as I’m w-w-wide awake an earthquake wouldn’t rouse me.”

“Let’s talk,” says I; “it’ll seem more sociable.”

We started in to talk, but there didn’t seem to be anything to talk about but snakes and Batten and Bill. The more you talk about things that scare you the more afraid you get, so our conversation wasn’t what you’d call a success. We both laid back and kept quiet.

I don’t know whether it was two hours or fifteen minutes after that when I sat up straight and listened. I thought I heard voices out on the river, and I sat there stiff, holding my breath, with chills running up and down my spine ten to the minute. For a while I didn’t hear another thing; then, up the river some place, something creaked. It isn’t natural to hear something creaking out on the water, for fish don’t creak, and neither does water. It’s surprising how few things there are that do creak that aren’t made by men. Just listen around and see. As soon as I heard that sound I knew it couldn’t be anything else but an oar-lock, and an oar-lock meant a rowboat, and a rowboat meant Batten and Bill. Nobody else would be poking around the river at that time of night.

“Mark,” I says, my voice trembling in spite of all I could do to keep it steady.

“Yes,” he answered, right off.

“Did you hear it?”

“Yes.”

“It must be Batten and Bill.”

“L-l-l-lookin’ for us!” he sputtered.

“What’ll we do?”

“Sammy—wake Sammy.”

“Go and wake him,” says I, for I didn’t like to put my feet down on that ground for fear of stepping right in the middle of a rattler.

We didn’t dare call Sammy, for fear of being overheard; and it wasn’t safe to throw a stick at him, because he might wake up and holler. There was nothing for it but to take a chance with the snakes.

“Come on,” says I. But I didn’t trust my feet on the ground till I’d found my club. I took it and reached all around as far as I could, thumping the earth so if there were any rattlers hanging around they’d be scared away, or at least rattle so we’d know where they were. I didn’t hear anything, so I made up my mind it would be safe for a little ways at least.

We got down and made for Sammy as quietly as we could go. Sam lay with one arm over his head and the other across his face, and his mouth open wide enough to take in an apple. Mark tickled the palm of his hand, but Sammy only closed his fingers. Then I tapped him on the cheek. Sam just slapped at me like I was a mosquito. It was plain Sammy was a sound sleeper.

There wasn’t anything left but to shake him good and hard, so Mark shook. As soon as he did he slapped his hand over Sammy’s mouth so he couldn’t holler, but that isn’t what Sam did at all. He just heaved himself onto his feet all at once and grabbed Mark with his big hands. He’d have broken him in two if I hadn’t spoken quick.

“Sammy,” says I, as sharp as I could, “it’s us—Mark and me.”

He came to in a minute and grinned at us sheepish-like.

“Sammy most bust fat boy,” he said. “Sammy wake up quick. Scairt. He grab—no find out who.”

“Hush,” whispers Mark. “There’s a boat a-comin’ down the river.”

“Batten come? Bill come? Eh?”

“I guess so. C-c-couldn’t be anybody else.”

“Sammy go see.” Off went Sammy as quiet as a fish in the water, leaving us all alone.

“Let’s stamp out what’s left of the fire,” says I.

It had burned almost out, but we trampled the coals, and when they were black we covered the place with brush so nobody’d know there had been any fire at all. Now it was as dark as if we were in somebody’s pocket, and mighty uncomfortable, I can tell you. Both of us made for our beds and sat on them with our feet pulled up, to wait for Sammy.

In no time he was back. I didn’t hear him coming, but all at once he was there. It was just as if he’d popped up out of the ground.

“Who is it?” Mark whispered.

“Batten and Bill,” says Sammy.

“Where are they?”

“In boat. Come along island slow, very slow. Look here, look there. Goin’ to land, Sammy think.”

It was a nice pickle, wasn’t it? There were two grown men against a couple of kids and a queer-headed Indian. Of course, Sammy was so big he was a comfort, but, then, there was no telling what Batten and Bill would manage to do.

“Can we hide away from them, Sammy?” I wanted to know, and I wanted to know quick.

“Can’t hide if men hunt good. Try, maybe.”

“And we can’t hide the boat and the turbine,” says Mark. “They’d rather have the engine than us.”

That was a fact, all right. If the men took to searching the island they’d find my boat hauled up on the shore of the bayou, and they’d get back the turbine. All our work and trouble would be for nothing.

“We got to keep them from l-l-landing,” says Mark. He was so excited and anxious I thought he’d never get through stuttering over “landing.”

“Sammy throw men in river.” He grinned and shook his head and opened and shut his great big hands as though it would be quite a joke to give Batten and Bill a ducking.

But Mark didn’t want that; besides, he didn’t know if Sammy could manage both the men. What we wanted was to find some scheme that would keep the men from landing at all. I just sat still and waited, because Mark is the schemer of the party. I’m no good that way, and I knew if Mark couldn’t think up something there was no use for me to try.

“Sammy,” says Mark, “maybe you can do it.” He spoke slow, so as not to stutter. “There’s a chance of scarin’ ’em off.”

“Sammy do it. Sure. Sammy yell like panther, eh?”

“No, Sammy won’t yell like a panther. Sammy will keep quiet like a f-f-fish till I get through.”

Sammy showed his white teeth, and I could almost hear him purr. It tickled him all over every time Mark spoke to him, and it didn’t make any difference what he said, either.

“You got to pretend you’re a rattlesnake,” says Mark. “Go quiet as you can to the shore wherever they try to land. Hide so’s they can’t see you. Then as soon’s one of ’em puts a f-f-foot ashore you rattle. Understand?”

“Sammy know. To be sure. Sammy go kr-r-r-r-r-r.”

I jumped and looked around before I thought. It was the rattlesnakiest noise you ever heard.

“That’s it,” says Mark. “Now hurry!”

Mark stayed where he was because he cou............