86 pages • 2 hours read
Carl HiaasenScat
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 21-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
Jimmy Lee Bayliss heads out over the drilling area in McBride’s helicopter, hoping to catch a sight of the person or persons who have been stealing their equipment and taping their employees to trees. When they reach the path of the illegal pipeline, though, he sees a new prank has been played on the company: all of the pink surveyor’s flags marking their territory have been pulled up and rearranged to spell, in huge letters, “SCAT!”It’s clear that someone (the reader knows it’s Twilly Spree) is onto their operation and wants them to get out. This is a deadly threat to the Red Diamond scheme and the millions of dollars it promises.
Back at the secret camp, Twilly and Mrs. Starch explain to Nick and Marta that they have to reunite the baby panther with its mother as soon as possible: if they are separated for too long, the mother panther might no longer recognize her cub and refuse to care for it. Duane Jr. is a gifted tracker, and once Twilly can find the panther’s scat, he will be able to track her location, and “once we know where she is, we turn the cub loose nearby. After that, there’s nothing left to do but pray they find each other before a bobcat or coyote gobbles the little one” (283). They plan to carry out this mission on the following day, and on the way back to town, Nick and Marta ask Twilly why he lives out in the swamp. He reveals that, on the day of the field trip, when the mother panther was scared away, she actually left two cubs behind, and the smaller one didn’t live through the night. The death of a helpless, endangered creature like the baby panther, he says, is why “I’ve got a gutful of anger about what’s happening to this land and everything that lives out here” (285).
Chapter 22 Summary
Mrs. Winship shows up at the Scrod house, ready to defend Duane Jr. against the charge of arson leveled against him by the police and the media. Duane Sr. has no idea where his son is, and though she despises his parenting skills, Mrs. Winship shows real pity for the family that her daughter abandoned.“Duane Sr. had a right to be bitter,” she realizes (288). In the meantime, Duane Jr. shows up at Nick’s house, looking for a place to hide from the police. Since Nick’s mom and dad are leaving for a follow-up at the military hospital, Nick invites Duane Jr. to stay.
Drake McBride has hired a man with a bloodhound named Horace to track the troublemakers who have been disturbing the Red Diamond operation. This trained and professional dog is guaranteed to sniff out any humans who may be lurking in the swamp near the drilling site—making him a threat to Nick and Marta, Mrs. Starch, and the other members of the panther-family-reunification effort. Jimmy Lee Bayliss halfheartedly asks McBride what he intends to do with the interlopers once the bloodhound has exposed them, and McBride’s answer is chilling: “We’ll do whatever it takes to protect this project. You understand?” (293).
Chapter 23 Summary
Detective Marshall continues to work the arson case, even though the suspect has disappeared. He tracks the brand of butane torch found in the backpack to a certain store in the area, and when it turns out they have cameras, he gets a copy of the surveillance footage from the owner. The same man is seen on the security cameras buying two butane torches—one before the fire and one after—but he is not Duane Jr.; Detective Marshall realizes Duane Jr. may be innocent after all.
Duane Jr. explains his two previous arson charges to Nick. The first time, he watched a construction company knock down a tree containing a nest of baby raccoons; later that night, he set fire to their office trailer, after making sure nobody was inside. The second time, he set fire to an airline billboard advertising flights to Europe: “‘My mom had just taken off for Paris and I was all messed up. When I saw that big sign for the airline, I flipped out’” (303).
Back at the Red Diamond headquarters, Bayliss and McBride are dismayed to learn that Horace the bloodhound has disappeared and has possibly been eaten by a panther or bobcat. The dog’s trainer demands payment for his lost animal. Bayliss soon realizes that the trainer has figured out their scam and is effectively demanding hush money; he convinces McBride to pay him off.
Chapters 21-23 Analysis
As the police figure out that Duane Jr. is not responsible for the fire, his previous arson offenses (which earned him the nickname “Smoke”) are explained as essentially well-intentioned, minimally harmful “acting out” by a wounded boy whose mother has abandoned him. Duane Jr.’s retaliation for the death of the raccoon family is a revealing piece of backstory; animals and animal families can act as meaningful surrogates for human relationships that have been lost or broken. This makes Duane Jr.’s efforts to save the motherless panther cub not merely a selfless defense of a helpless animal, but a form of salvation for himself as well.
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By Carl Hiaasen
