The Mystery of the Alligator Swamp Read Online Free Page A

The Mystery of the Alligator Swamp
Book: The Mystery of the Alligator Swamp Read Online Free
Author: Gertrude Chandler Warner
Pages:
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told them. “At least, people say it’s the wind. Of course, some think it’s a long-lost fisherman, crying to get home.”
    “Do you think it was the ghost of Gator Ann you saw there?” asked Violet.
    Before Eve could answer, Swampwater said, “Now, why would Gator Ann, ghost or no, go all the way to Crying Bayou? Alligators have strict rules about where they live. Females, especially, like to stay in their own home pond. And that pond was Billie’s bayou.”
    “I don’t think it was Gator Ann,” Eve said. “She wasn’t mean, the way this gator was. Red eyes and big teeth and ghostly. I left in a big hurry!”
    “It chased you?” Benny cried.
    “I don’t know. I didn’t look back. I just turned the motor up high and got out of there as fast as I could,” said Eve.
    “Will we see it today?” asked Violet, shivering a little.
    “No,” Swampwater said. “Because there is no ghost. What you’ll see if you look up on the branch of that tree is a snake.”
    “A snake!” Violet shrieked. That made all of them jump a little. The pirogue rocked, but it didn’t turn over.
    Sure enough, a big snake was looped around the branch of a tree overhanging the water.
    “Does it bite?” Benny asked.
    “Yep. If you get close enough to let it,” said Swampwater. “It’s a water moccasin. A poisonous bite, so if you see one, give it plenty of room.”
    “Don’t worry,” said Henry.
    Swampwater, Rose, and Eve took the Aldens up and down the watery roads of the swamp. They passed brown pelicans perched on the ends of docks by fishing shacks. Ducks flew from the water as they turned into quiet channels. A raccoon peered at them from the shadows, then slipped away. They saw buzzards circling overhead. That made Violet shudder.

    Rose said, “Buzzards aren’t so bad. Think of them as the garbage collectors for the swamp.”
    “Ick,” said Violet.
    “Wow,” said Benny.
    Swampwater laughed and pulled the boat closer to the edge of one of the bayous.
    “Do people get lost a lot in the swamp?” Benny asked.
    Swampwater answered that. “All the time,” he said. “That’s why you need a good guide.”
    “Have you ever gotten lost?” Jessie asked Eve.
    Eve shrugged again. “I know my way around. To you, it all looks the same, but to me, traveling in the swamp is like going up and down streets in a neighborhood.”
    “And if you stay in Alligator Swamp, you’ll see channel markers and the little yellow arrows that Billie put up,” added Rose. She smiled a little. “I think she got tired of having to look for lost fishermen. Some of those city folks can’t even read a map!”
    “Speaking of alligators, look to your right,” Swampwater said softly.
    At first they thought it was a log. Then the children realized that the log had small, shiny, half-open eyes.
    “Oh! He’s watching us,” said Violet.
    “She,” corrected Eve. “She lives in this bayou. We call her Mossy, because the pattern of her skin looks like the sun through the moss in the trees.”
    Mossy’s half-open eyes glinted as the pirogue glided by. But she didn’t move. Benny didn’t know whether he was glad or sorry.
    Swampwater said, “Now, that one’s no ghost. Told you not to worry about seeing ghosts.”
    Just then a boat came out of a narrow channel so fast that it almost collided with the Swamp Flower.
    “Hey, watch it!” called Rose.
    Two men were in the boat. One of them had bright red hair and was flapping his cap like a flag. He almost fell in.
    “Sit down!” Swampwater shouted.
    The man half sat, half fell down in the pirogue. “The ghost,” he said. “We saw the ghost alligator!”
    “Oh, no,” said Eve. “Oh, no.”
    “Where?” asked Benny. “Where?”
    “Back there,” said the man who’d been waving his cap. “It slid out of the shadows and came straight toward our boat.”
    “Hold on,” said Swampwater. “Back where?”
    “It was that way,” the man in the cap said. He waved wildly. “Ed here saw
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