“Where do I come in?” said Molly.  “Haven’t I got something to say about things?”

“Looks as if you were having too much to say now.  You mustn’t try to influence the officers of this ship or lure them away from their duties.”

The little face that Molly made at her father wasn’t quite respectful, but Mr. Barstow only laughed at it.

On this day of the ’gator hunt, Molly took the wheel and her father ran the engine of the motor-boat, while Ned and the captain poled the skiff and Dick stood in the bow with the harpoon pole.  They soon started a nine-foot alligator out of his cave, and after a chase of ten minutes and a few sudden turns were so near the reptile that Dick fixed his harpoon to the end of the pole and stood ready.  Twice he threw and missed, and each time many yards were lost while the pole was being recovered.  Dick was so mortified at missing that he offered the harpoon to the captain, who refused it, saying: 

“You threw all right and almost got him last throw.  You’ll fetch him next time.”

The captain’s prophecy was fulfilled and at the next throw the harpoon pierced the soft hide of the hind leg of the reptile.  From the beginning of the chase the alligator had been making for the river and was within a hundred yards of it when struck.  They headed it off from the river and Dick dragged on the line while the others poled until the skiff was beside the ’gator.  A heavy blow on the bow of the boat from the tail of the reptile and the big open jaws with their rows of great gleaming teeth that swung before Dick’s face made him drop the line and fall backward into the skiff, while the alligator started off in a new direction.  On the next approach the creature turned on the skiff again and though the captain fended it off with an oar the reptile had the best of the battle.  Several times Dick brought the skiff near the alligator and tried to lasso it with the painter of the boat, but the reptile was too wary for him.  The captain suggested running the reptile into the river, saying it would be easier to take it aboard from the deeper water.  As soon as they gave the brute a chance it plunged into the river and towed the skiff two hundred yards down the stream, then turning and rising to the surface the alligator came with open mouth at Dick, who sprang from his place in the bow and, seizing the painter, the boy soon had a rope around the head of the brute and its jaws tied.  They tried towing the alligator up the river to the Irene, but it is easier to drag an anchor than an alligator.  Then as Dick was winded the captain and Ned finally hauled it aboard the skiff, where for a time it amused itself by trying to smash the skiff or knock somebody overboard with its tail.  It became perfectly quiet before the Irene was reached, when the captain dragged on the rope which bound its jaws while Ned boosted with his arms around the tail of the brute.  But the alligator was playing ’possum and had Ned