Mystery of Ten 'Gator Bayou — Kent Conwell

Puzzled by the disappearance of the game warden and strange deaths of two alligators, teenage chums, Gary and Max, go about their summer job harvesting minnows and frog legs for the locals until one night back in a dark slough, they stumble right into the middle of murder and illegal drugs.

Pursued, captured, and bound, the two friends overhear the drug dealers' plan to kill them and bury them in the swamp.

In a desperate effort to escape, Gary and Max leap from a second floor window into the swamp, brave a trek through snake-infested palmetto barrens, and take refuge on the only place left them, Alligator Island.