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glad to see you. How did you find us?”
    â€œIt wasn’t too hard,” Homer replied, pointing across the water with his pole. No more than a hundred yards away was an island, dotted with cabins on stilts.
    â€œThe fishing camp?” Joe exclaimed. “We’re on Twin Cypress Key.”
    â€œWow, Frank,” Chet said, “you really did know where you were going.”
    â€œWhat’s the joke?” Homer asked. “Who knows the Seminole language?”
    The boys exchanged confused looks. Then Frank said, “Joe, your forehead!”
    Joe’s forehead had been painted with mud. “Yours, too,” Joe replied. Frank also had something written in mud on his forehead, and so did Chet. The boys climbed down from the limbs of the tree.
    â€œDid you say these were Seminole words?” Frank asked.
    â€œYep,” Homer replied, pointing first to Frank. “Yours says ‘Last,’ Joe’s says ‘Your,’ and Chet’s says ‘Warning.’ ”
    â€œLast your . . . ” Joe said, before it hit him. “Your last warning.”
    â€œOr, rather, our last warning,” Frank said, giving Joe a knowing look. “From none other than Reuben Tallwalker, no doubt.”
    â€œCouldn’t be anyone else,” Homer agreed.
    â€œHow could he climb that tree and do this without waking us up?” Chet asked as he dipped his hand into the water and began rubbing off the mud.
    â€œFolks say he can move in, out, and around as quietly as snowflakes falling,” Homer replied in a warning tone.
    â€œWe were dead tired, too, don’t forget,” Frank noted. “I would have slept through a car alarm.”
    There was the sound of an approaching airplane.Homer waved as Dusty’s hydroplane buzzed over them.
    â€œDusty’s been out looking for you since dawn,” Homer told them, starting up the engine of his boat. “We’d better tell him you’re okay.”
    Back in their cabin, the boys showered and put on dry clothes. “Based on the number of bites,” Chet said, looking at the raised red bumps on his arms and face, “I was the mosquitoes’ midnight snack.”
    Chet was coating the bites with lotion to stop the itching when Dusty popped his head through the door. “Boy, am I glad to see you safe and sound!”
    Frank and Joe filled Dusty in on everything, beginning with Randy Stevens running off and leaving them at the rodeo when he found out they were detectives.
    â€œDon’t forget the mysterious light in the swamp,” Chet added.
    â€œThat could have been the moon reflecting off the surface,” Dusty said. “The thing that has me confused is these alligator attacks. You weren’t near her clutch of eggs. Why would that big mama alligator attack you for no reason?”
    â€œMaybe it’s Reuben’s pet. Like an attack alligator,” Chet suggested. Frank and Joe shared an amused look over their friend’s joke.
    â€œI have a friend who runs an alligator farm in Big Cypress Swamp,” Dusty said. “He knows moreabout reptiles than the reptiles do. Maybe he can explain it.”
    â€œWhat about the rodeo? Aren’t you competing tonight?” Joe asked, concerned.
    â€œI’ll be back in time,” Dusty replied.
    â€œWould you mind if I came along?” Frank asked.
    â€œNot at all,” Dusty said. “Maybe I’ll even give you a chance to fly the hydroplane.”
    â€œMeanwhile, Chet and I will go back to the scene of the attack,” Joe said. “Maybe we can figure out some details about what happened now that it’s daylight.”
    â€œAnd why don’t we rent our own boat from the trading post?” Chet suggested.
    â€œGood idea,” Joe remarked, rubbing the pedaling muscles in his calves. “I don’t want to get stuck without wheels again.”
    Frank agreed and gave Chet and Joe some