"Oh!" exclaimed Amy blankly. "Then what can we do? We have no bullets!"
"It isn't going very fast," observed Mollie as she watched the boat moving slowly up the river. "We can run along the bank after it, and maybe the beast will let go, or run ashore with the Gem. Then we could get it."
"Who—the boat or the alligator?" asked Betty, who seemed to be in better spirits now., even in the face of trouble.
"The boat, of course."
"Then speak af the Gem as 'her' and the alligator as 'it,'" Betty directed. "But I believe Mollie's plan is the only one we can adopt. We must follow along the bank. Only I hope, if the alligator does let go, it won't be in the middle of the river, for then our boat would float down, and it might lodge on the other shore. Then we would be as badly off as we are now. Oh, what a predicament! We seem to be getting into nothing but trouble of late."
"Never mind," consoled Amy. "Maybe this will be the last."
"It's a comfort to think so, anyhow," agreed Grace. "I wonder why an alligator ran off with our boat?"
"A mere accident," was Betty's opinion. "Probably the creature was swimming along
