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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plunderer, by Henry Oyen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Plunderer
+
+Author: Henry Oyen
+
+Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19401]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLUNDERER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PLUNDERER
+
+
+BY
+
+HENRY OYEN
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+BIG FLAT, GASTON OLAF, THE SNOW BURNER, ETC.
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1920,
+
+BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+THE PLUNDERER
+
+
+I
+
+Roger Payne had come to a decision.  He waited until the office door
+had closed behind the departing stenographer, then swung his long legs
+recklessly upon his flat-top desk and shouted across the room at his
+partner:
+
+"Jim Tibbetts!"
+
+Tibbetts frowned.  He was footing a column of cost figures and the
+blast from his young partner nearly made him lose count.
+
+Payne grinned.  He liked his partner.  Had he not done so he would
+never have allowed himself to be dragged into business--Tibbetts &
+Payne, Manufacturers' Agents.  Two years of it.  Two years from the day
+on a Western irrigation dam when Payne had installed the cement machine
+that Tibbetts was selling.  Two years--to Payne--of prison.  And now
+his moment of decision had arrived.
+
+Roger Payne was out of place.  He did not fit the furniture.  There was
+a look of permanence to the dark tan upon his face which labeled it not
+the surface sunburn which may be collected during a two weeks' vacation
+or gradually acquired by spending Saturday afternoon and Sunday on the
+golf links.  It was a tan that suggested leather, and which comes as
+much from frostbite as sunburn, and from the whip of frozen snowflakes
+as the heated winds of summer.
+
+Beneath the tan the face was too lean and hard to be in sympathy with
+the high polish of flat-top desks.
+
+His body also was lean and hard.  Even the proper cut of a carefully
+tailored business suit could not conceal a certain bunchiness about the
+shoulders which had nothing at all in common with office efficiency.
+The shoulders were outrageously broad, the barrel of his chest was
+scandalously deep, the hands distressingly large and brown, considered
+in intimate association with filing systems and adding machines.  And
+the keen blue eyes, sometimes gazing with a far-away, unbusiness-like
+look out into the grimy, roaring cañon called Wabash Avenue, sometimes
+twinkling with unbusinesslike mischief, inevitably completed the
+exposure of Roger Payne.
+
+He did not belong there, and he knew it.  Hence it was that he suddenly
+jerked his long legs from the desk, sat up and said swiftly:
+
+"Jim Tibbetts, I want you to buy me out!"
+
+Tibbetts blinked.  He was bald, plump, spectacled and kindly.
+
+"Eh?  What say?  Dang it, Rog, you made me lose count!"
+
+He began all over to foot the column of cost figures.  He footed from
+bottom to top, checked the result by footing from top to bottom, erased
+his light penciled figures and rewrote them in ink, laid the sheet to
+one side and folded his hands in resignation.
+
+"I knew it was coming, Rog.  I've seen the signs for weeks past.
+You've been ramping round like a man in prison.  Dang it, Rog, I'm
+sorry."
+
+"Jim," said Roger, "this is no business for me to be in."
+
+"It's a good business, Roger," protested Tibbetts mildly.  "There's
+nothing wrong with it.  We've been running only two years.  Look what
+we've done.  Look at our prospects.  We're pretty well off already.
+We'll be rich pretty soon.  Why?  Because Roger Payne comes pretty near
+being a genius with machinery and Jim Tibbetts can beat most fellows
+selling.  It's too good to spoil, Roger."
+
+"Two years," repeated Payne slowly.  "Jim, it seems like a lifetime to
+me, and it doesn't seem real.  The other did--bridgebuilding,
+irrigation, timber cruising.  That was living."
+
+"That was bumming, and you know it!" protested Tibbetts.  "That was kid
+stuff; it was your way of sowing your wild oats.  How much money did
+you have when it was over?  How much have you got now, after only two
+years of business?  It was time-wasting, that's what it was, and you
+know it."
+
+"It was outdoors," said Payne.
+
+They were silent for a while.
+
+"Roger," said Tibbetts sorrowfully, "are you beginning to turn dreamer?"
+
+"No," said Payne emphatically, "I'm waking up.  I'm like a man who's
+been asleep for the last two years.  I'm just coming out of it.  I'm
+wide awake; and that's why I've come to see that this game and I don't
+belong together.  You said you'd noticed me ramping round like a man in
+prison.  That's right!  Can you guess why?  Well, just because of what
+I tell you; I've come to myself, Jim, and I've got to get out."
+
+"Why?  Why have you got to get out?"
+
+Roger Payne shook a hard brown fist at the gray-stone walls of the
+other side of the clanging street.
+
+"That's why, Jim.  It's a prison--to me.  Easy enough if you fit in it.
+I don't.  So I'm going to get out; and it's got to be now."
+
+"But why, in the name of Sam, now?  You're getting old, I'll admit.
+Let's see, how long ago is it since I gave you that scarfpin for your
+twenty-seventh birthday?  Twenty-seven!  Come out of it, Rog.
+Fifty-seven is the proper age to begin dreaming about quitting
+business."
+
+"I know it.  That's why I'm going to do it now, before the game gets
+me.  It gets everybody who stays in it.  It would even get me.  Then at
+fifty-seven, as you say, I might quit and go outdoors and begin to
+live--too late.  Jim, did you ever see a more pitiful spectacle than a
+natural-born outdoor man who's kept his nose on a desk for thirty years
+and then realized his lifelong dream?  Neither have I.  He thinks he's
+going to get out and start living then, but what he does is to begin to
+die--from the shoulders up.  No, sir!"  The young man sprang to his
+feet, flinging the swivel chair away with a kick.  "I'm not going to be
+trapped.  I'd rather hike back to-morrow to that irrigation job out
+West and boss Hunkies for Higgins than sit cooped up here day after day
+and get rich."
+
+"You--crazy young fool!" said Tibbetts affectionately.
+
+"All right, Jim.  Crazy, if you please.  But that is what's going to
+happen; you're going to buy me out, or get another partner, and I"--he
+filled his great lungs with air--"I'm going to get outdoors."
+
+"What're you going to do?  I'll bet you don't know.  Have you got any
+plans?"
+
+"Yes, I'm going to get out of the city the day after I wind things up
+here."
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"Back home to Jordan City and look the old town over, first of all."
+
+"Jordan City!  Why--why you aren't a retired farmer."
+
+Payne laughed.  "Not going to settle there, Jim."
+
+"Oh, and after you've looked it over, what then?"
+
+"I'll make my plans there.  I don't know what it will be.  But whatever
+it is, it will be something that won't bring me back to town."
+
+James Tibbetts looked long and hopefully at the browned face of his
+young partner; but at what he saw there his hopes vanished.
+
+"You're set on this, I see, Rog," he said sorrowfully.
+
+"Cheer up, Jim!" responded Payne.
+
+"I'll give you a deal that will help you get rich a lot quicker than if
+I stayed with you."
+
+Tibbetts shook his head and was silent a long time.  "Well, if you're
+bound to sell, you won't go out of here exactly busted--after two years
+with me," he said at last.  "Rog!  Do you mean it?  We're going to
+part?"
+
+"It would be plain hell for me to stick, Jim."
+
+Tibbetts grasped the extended hard brown hand in his own soft white
+fingers.  After a while he managed to stammer:
+
+"I see.  This just had to come!"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+On the fat rolling lands about Jordan City pedigreed kine graze by the
+hundreds, corn grows high and thick and silos are to be seen in every
+barnyard.  And in Jordan City bank accounts are large and permanent.
+
+It is an old town, as age goes in the Mississippi Valley.  Maple trees
+with huge, solid trunks and immense branches line its older streets.
+The streets themselves, save for the strip of asphalt where the state
+highway sweeps through the town, are largely paved with hard red
+bricks.  In the older streets in the residence sections the sidewalks
+are of the same material, and in many places soft green moss grows
+undisturbed upon these hard red paths.  Back from the little-used
+sidewalks of these sections, surrounded by hedges of Osage orange or
+box elder, stand old staid houses in good paint and repair.  Rich
+retired owners of the fat acres of Jordan County live in most of them
+and own ponderous eight-cylinder cars.
+
+There is a new section of the town, too, where the architecture runs to
+bungalow styles, where the installment collectors from the phonograph
+houses are regularly seen, and where papa gets out in front and twirls
+the crank when the family car goes out for its airing.  No important
+line of demarcation separates the old staid section of town from the
+new and brighter one.  Major Trimble, President of the Jordan Bank &
+Trust Company, accepts deposits from both sections with strict
+impartiality; the spire of the Methodist Episcopal Church is the Sunday
+lodestone to folk on both sides of town, as well as for much of the
+country round.  They talk mainly of farms, of cattle and of the weather
+on the streets of Jordan; and the young folk largely go off to Chicago
+to make their way in the world.
+
+Into this farm-ringed islet of tranquillity, where faith in one's
+fellowman, and hoarded money, are in abundance, about the time that
+Roger Payne was beginning to know that his place was not in the city,
+the afternoon train from the east deposited a large, dignified
+personage of robust, well-nourished, ministerial manner and apparel,
+who bore comfortably upon his well-padded shoulders the name, Isaiah
+Granger.
+
+Isaiah Granger!  The name alone would have been an open sesame to the
+important circle which made possible the prosperity of Major Tumble's
+bank and the First M. E. Church.  But Mr. Granger had other things to
+recommend him.  He came, quoth the _Jordan Record_--whose editor's
+notes Major Trimble held--to make his home in that most beautiful of
+towns, Jordan City.  He was an old friend of Major Tumble's.  Mr.
+Granger was "well fixed"--Major Trimble gave his word for that.
+
+Hence Mr. Granger was met at the station by Major Trimble, driven in
+the Major's ponderous car to his home and there introduced to Mrs.
+Trimble--strange that being so old a friend of the Major's he should
+not have met Mrs. Trimble before--and then in the seclusion of the
+Major's library he had shucked his coat, as it were, and said:
+
+"Well, what's the prospects for a killing?  Got any of 'em lined up?"
+
+"First," retorted Major Trimble, stroking his knife-edged nose, "let me
+see your credentials from Senator Fairclothe."
+
+The visitor smiled and passed over the requested credentials.  Major
+Trimble inspected them as an astute banker should.
+
+"All right," he said, and waited.
+
+Mr. Granger passed over a bank draft.
+
+"All right," repeated the banker, "and ten percent on all sales made
+here or through connections from here."
+
+"Ten per cent," agreed Granger, "and no responsibility to be attached
+to you."
+
+"I'll take care of that," snapped Trimble, "Now, Granger, I think you
+ought to do some real business here."
+
+And Granger did.
+
+Long before Roger Payne had sold his share in his business, Isaiah
+Granger was leading the choir in the First M. E. Church and Mrs.
+Granger, a lady of girth and charm, was President of the Jordan
+Beautiful Society.  Their position in Jordan was solid and assured.
+Long before Roger finally escaped from the large city, Isaiah Granger,
+and therefore Jordan, had been most significantly honored.
+
+Granger had been appointed by United States Senator Lafayette
+Fairclothe, in a letter written on Senate stationery, as district
+manager for that great organization, The Prairie Highlands Association,
+Senator Fairclothe, President, Washington, D. C.--which, under the
+encouragement of the Government, was bestowing a boon on a land-hungry
+nation of developing the fabulously rich prairie lands of the Western
+Everglades, Florida.  Long before the afternoon when Roger swung
+boyishly off the train at Jordan, Isaiah Granger's fellow townsmen, led
+by Major Trimble, had become insistent in their demands that he give
+them first chance at that land right there in Jordan--a demand which
+Granger had admitted to be entirely just.
+
+It was Major Trimble, as an old family friend, who hinted to Roger
+about the snap that Brother Granger was letting his fellow citizens in
+on in Florida land.  It was Senator Fairclothe's direct, sincere
+replies to Roger's letters of inquiry that convinced him.  There is
+magic in the words "United States Senator."  But after all, it was the
+spirit of adventure, the love of outdoors, the instinct of the pioneer,
+which prompted him to buy a 1000-acre block of "prairie highland," at
+the headwaters of the Chokohatchee River.  It was necessary to buy at
+once, for Trimble was after that tract for himself.  Having made the
+purchase Payne sent a wire to the Far West asking one Higgins,
+engineer, if he were open for a job.  And then Roger Payne turned his
+eager eyes toward sunny Southern Florida.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+A flaring ray of purple sun came flashing over the sea to Gumbo Key, a
+warning of the brazen subtropical dawn that was to come.  It pierced a
+vista in the jungle of coco palms on the narrow key, colored purple the
+white side of the Paradise Gardens Colony excursion boat Swastika,
+which lay at the tiny wharf on the key's western shore, and splashed
+without warning into an open porthole well aft.
+
+Roger Payne awoke with a start.  It was his first experience with the
+shock of a Southern Florida dawn.  Dawns of many sorts he had seen--the
+ghastly ashy, clanging dawns of cities, the gray, creeping dawns of
+Northern winter, the bluish dawns of the Western mountains--but a dawn
+which came flaring up from the sea like a clap of thunder was a novelty.
+
+He lay for a moment, stretching his buoyant body on the shelflike
+berth, his soles firmly against one wall, his head touching another,
+and wondered how a man could sleep in that bunk who was over six feet
+one.  The Swastika had come from the railroad terminus at Flora City
+during the night, laden with small land buyers bound up the
+Chokohatchee River for the Paradise Gardens Colony, and had laid up at
+Gumbo Key at the mouth of the river to wait for daylight.  Payne had
+secured passage upon it, bound for his prairie land beyond the head
+waters of the Chokohatchee.  As he realized that dawn was coming and
+that soon he would see his land, he tumbled from his berth with
+something of the eagerness of a boy on the first day of the long
+vacation.
+
+"Come on, Hig; daylight's coming."
+
+Higgins, the other man in the room, stirred grudgingly.  He was young
+in years but old in the ways of men, hardened by many hard jobs in
+rough corners of the world, and broad of body and round and red of head.
+
+"Like the sunrise, do you?" grumbled Higgins.  "Go ahead; soak your
+soul in it.  My soul don't need soaking, so lemme sleep.  Or, here;
+mebbe you're out early for a glimpse at the young lady who kept to her
+room all last evening?"
+
+"I scarcely noticed her."
+
+"You're right; you didn't.  That's why I been wondering if there ain't
+something wrong with you.  Tall, slim, carried herself like a princess,
+and dressed----"
+
+"Go back to sleep, Hig, you're still dreaming."
+
+"A dream is right--but in the flesh--and you never noticed her!"
+
+"I'm down here on business; haven't time for anything else.  I'm going
+out and see what the country is like."
+
+"Go ahead.  By the purple shadows I can tell you that in a few minutes
+'twill be sunrise, and all gaudier than a campmeeter's picture of
+heaven.  So I'll just roll over and tear off ten winks more."
+
+Out on the narrow wharf Payne caught his foot on the painter of a
+rowboat moored near the Swastika's stern, and found the soft blue haze
+of the subtropical night still undisturbed save for the first ray of
+dawn.
+
+The tree growth on the key was jungle-like in density.  A path had been
+cut through to the eastern shore.  It was almost a tunnel, for the
+fronds of the coco palms and the branches of the red-trunked gumbo
+limbo, and of live oak formed an arch overhead, from which hung long,
+listless streamers of Spanish moss.  The red rays touched the hanging
+tips of the moss, as if the streamers had been dipped in vermilion, and
+it tinted softly the palm fronds, wet with the night's dew.
+
+Payne walked down the path to the east shore of the key, and suddenly
+he seemed to behold a world being born anew.  Dawn was coming with a
+rush.  The soft velvety blackness of night in the heavens was giving
+way to a faint purple.  Up from the mystic spaces of the east rays of
+deep purple, of burnt umber, vermilion, scarlet and flame were leaping
+into the sky.  Black dots began to appear on the horizon, keys and
+trees silhouetted against the rising light.  A huge heron flapped
+grotesquely up from the top of a mangrove bush as the sun struck it; a
+flamingo flapped by, matching its dainty pink with the sun's best
+tints; a dolphin's fin broke the dark purple water near shore.
+
+Then the eastern horizon became a flare of flame and fire, and the sea
+grew rosy.  Beyond its brim a great conflagration seemed to be raging,
+throwing its flames of gold, of red and of uncountable tints high into
+the sky.  Higher it rose, its rays more insistent; and then, as with a
+clashing of brazen cymbals, the full-blown dawn was upon the world.
+
+Payne now saw that the light had revealed two yachts moored to a short
+pier which ran out from the eastern shore.  One, a splendid sixty-foot
+cruiser of the luxurious type seen in Florida waters during the tourist
+season, lay at the end of the pier ready to sail.  From bow to stern
+she was immaculate white with shiny brown trimmings, and on her bow the
+sun revealed in small gilt letters the name Egret.
+
+The second boat was a low, dirty forty-footer--the Cormorant--the boat
+to which the Swastika's passengers were to transfer for the trip up the
+river.
+
+A Japanese steward, in spick and span whites, came down the Egret's
+shiny gangway, entered the path leading to the Swastika's dock, and in
+a few minutes came hurrying back to his boat carrying a handbag.
+
+The sun now had splashed boldly upon the languid wet fronds of the
+palms, upon the trunks of trees and the hanging moss.  It lighted up
+the tunnellike vista, painting rosy the shell path underfoot and
+revealing the Swastika beyond.  In the morning stillness Payne heard
+light, swift steps creaking crisply upon the crushed shells of the
+path.  Then, from his place in the shadows beneath a palm, he saw the
+girl.  She came to the open space before the sea, whistling softly to
+herself an irrepressible, tuneless matin song of youth, and thus she
+walked unexpectingly into the full power of the relentless dawn.  For a
+moment she halted, blinking, astounded.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Her exclamation was a cry of the joy of youth.  She stood facing the
+coming day, and the sea and sun; and a puff of morning breeze flung
+behind her a vagrant strand of golden hair.
+
+She was quite tall, and upon her young figure, long of waist and lithe,
+yet well-rounded, the thin white dress of the subtropics was but a
+filament, a feminine accessory to the virgin beauty and the message of
+her budding womanhood.
+
+Payne heard a soft, heavy step at his back and saw that Higgins, too,
+had answered the call of dawn.
+
+The girl stood entranced by the spectacle before her.  She placed her
+hands upon her bosom and stood with uplifted visage, like a young
+goddess of the dawn.  She stretched her arms passionately out over the
+sea and said quite loudly and fervently:
+
+"I love you, I love you!"
+
+In the shadow of the palm Payne and Higgins began to retreat guiltily.
+
+"No use your sticking round, Payne," whispered the engineer.  "You're
+too late; she's took.  You heard what she said."
+
+"Sh-h!"
+
+"I love you," repeated the girl with the same ecstatic tone and pose.
+"Ah!  How I love you!"
+
+From the arch over the path there dropped with a swish and crash the
+ten-foot branch of a coco palm, falling without warning or apparent
+reason, as the overripe branches of coco palms do fall.  The girl
+whirled round; and Payne was shocked and chilled to the marrow by the
+sight of her as she faced toward them.
+
+Beautiful she was, her face as beautiful as her vibrant young body, but
+for the moment she was like a thing at bay.  Fear shown in her eyes,
+not the passing fear of a sudden alarm, but a deep-seated, wearing fear
+suddenly awakened.  Her face was a deadly white.  For an instant it
+seemed to Roger that the depths of her soul were revealed, and at the
+mystery and dread in her eyes he took a step forward.  He did not
+speak.  Her expression baffled him.  He stood irresolute for the
+moment, and in that moment she recovered her poise.  She drew herself
+upright slowly, the red came flowing back into the cream of her cheeks,
+and she relaxed, leaning her weight upon one foot.  As she looked at
+Roger, and from him to the weather-beaten Higgins and back to Roger,
+her eyes grew easy with assurance.
+
+She began to smile.
+
+"Didn't know there were tigers or other dangerous beasts on this
+island, miss," chuckled Higgins.  "Say the word and we'll clean 'em out
+for you."
+
+Neither the girl nor Payne appeared to hear.  Payne looked at her
+without attempting to speak; he had tried to smile and carry the thing
+off easily, but as their eyes met his lips remained half parted without
+uttering a word.  He looked at her in utter helplessness, caught for
+the moment, at least, in the grip of a force greater than himself.  The
+girl shot Higgins a smile of understanding and friendliness, but as her
+eyes came back to Roger's the smile vanished by degrees; and upon her
+visage for the while was the same look of awesome seriousness as was
+upon the young man's.
+
+"Mebbe they're gorillas, miss," chuckled Higgins.
+
+She turned, reluctant yet relieved at the release from the tension, and
+looked at him speculatively.
+
+"Why did you say that?" she asked.
+
+"Gorillas, miss?  Pshaw!  Don't be afraid; I juggle them for morning
+exercise.  Eh?  What?" he continued, as he realized that her expression
+was not one of jesting.  "By the great smoked fish--excuse me for
+cussin', miss--if it wasn't ridiculous I'd say I'd hit it!"
+
+"Do you know anything about this place?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Not a thing, miss."
+
+"Or about the people round here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It was strange," she said, "your saying 'tiger' and 'gorilla' just
+then.  It was what I would have said--if I could have spoken."
+
+"I am sorry, very sorry we alarmed you," said Roger.  "We didn't want
+to intrude."
+
+"Oh, I am glad you were here," she cried.  "You don't know how glad I
+was to turn round and see you two instead of----"
+
+"Instead of tigers and gorillas?" laughed Roger.  "Oh!  I beg your
+pardon!" he cried in swift contrition at the look which the words
+brought back to her eyes.  "I wouldn't for the world--but, surely--it's
+impossible; there are no dangerous wild animals on this pretty little
+key."
+
+"No," she said slowly, looking away from him.  "No, there are not any
+dangerous--wild beasts on this key.  It--it was just a morning
+nightmare."  She laughed, looking up.  "Perhaps I wasn't thoroughly
+awake yet."  But she shuddered, and swiftly made pretense she was
+shaking herself.  "There; I'm awake now.  There are no dangerous wild
+animals here.  There are only--people.  It--it was just--just
+moonshine."
+
+"Do they make a little of it round here, miss?"  Higgins winked eagerly
+and with such energy that his ears and hat moved.
+
+"Oh, Higgins!" groaned Roger; but the girl threw back her head and
+laughed with relief and gratitude for the chance of merriment until the
+virgin morning seemed filled with song.  Higgins' hair-trigger laughter
+rumbled deep accompaniment; and, as always, the engineer's merriment
+forced itself upon Roger, and he joined in, while the silver of the
+girl's tones pealed above both, tinkling in the sun-kissed palms above,
+rolling out over the purple water, out to the mooring of the immaculate
+Egret.
+
+"We were on the Swastika, and rose early," explained Roger.
+
+"You're land buyers?"
+
+"Yes, I've invested in a big tract way up the river."
+
+"You're going up to-day?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then--are you going right back after seeing your land--like the
+others?"
+
+"I plan to develop that land--if it is anything like what it was
+represented."
+
+Her manner changed.  She grew thoughtful.
+
+"Whom did you buy your land from--if it isn't too impertinent?"
+
+"From Senator Fairclothe's company."
+
+"From Senator----!  Why, that's----" she stopped.
+
+"Tell me, please; how was that land represented?"
+
+"Prairie land.  Soil reports and surveys were furnished.  I discounted
+them fifty per cent, and still thought it a good investment."
+
+"Did the fact that--Senator Fairclothe recommended the land influence
+you?"
+
+"Why, certainly.  He's a United States Senator."
+
+She turned swiftly toward the Egret, but not swiftly enough to hide the
+flush that rushed to her cheeks.
+
+"I hope--I do hope you are not disappointed," she said.
+
+Her laughter of a moment before, penetrating to the cabin of the Egret,
+had brought a tall, thin woman, the sun glinting on the diamond
+pendants in her ears, out from a stateroom forward.
+
+"Ah, my dear Annette!"
+
+"Aunty!  You awake so early?"
+
+"The climate has made me young.  Come aboard, dear.  We sail at once."
+
+The girl hesitated.  Her tone was indefinable as she asked: "Is--Mr.
+Garman----?"
+
+"He's up at his place, and his boat is at our disposal.  Come, dear;
+come inside.  The mornings are damp in spite of their gorgeous beauty."
+
+The girl looked back at Payne from the door of the stateroom.  One
+glance.  He tried in vain to fathom it.  Then she disappeared.
+
+A few minutes later the Egret's softly purring engines were edging her
+away from the pier, when:
+
+"Cormorant, ahoy!" called a man from her engine room.
+
+"Hey?" responded a gruff voice from a shack on shore.
+
+"Got that extra drum of gasoline there?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Bring it up on the Cormorant when you come."
+
+"Aw-right."
+
+The Egret was well away from shore now.  Her sharp white bow cleaved
+the blue water of the way with slow, irresistible power.  Her speed
+increased.  In a few minutes twin waves of blue were curling away from
+her cutwater as, smoothly and swiftly, she raced across the bay and out
+of sight round the first bend of the wide mouthed Chokohatchee River.
+
+Roger Payne stood looking up the river long after the boat was out of
+sight.  He was in a daze; but he was very glad that he, too, was going
+up the river.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+Aboard the broad-beamed Swastika life was beginning to stir.  The odors
+of cooking food from her galley spread briskly upon the virgin morning
+air.  Shoes clattered upon the deck; a chatter of voices developed.
+The score or more of land-seekers aboard were awake and preparing early
+for the great day upon which they should behold their promised land.
+
+Up with the earliest of them, rosy, clean shaved, soberly and richly
+dressed and ministerial in dignity, was Granger, the agent, the expert
+leader of this confiding flock.
+
+Fate had created Granger for a fisher of men; greed had sent him into
+the South Florida land business.  His bland self-possession, his
+impressive physique, his confidence-winning voice and bearing
+constituted a profitable stock in trade.  In the slang of his
+craft--shall we say "graft"?--he "played the church game strong."
+Under the sway of his hypnotic personality God-fearing, bank-fearing
+old couples brought forth hidden wealth to place in his dexterous
+hands; school-teachers wrecked their savings to invest with Granger.
+And Granger turned the receipts over to the great masters of his
+company, minus his large commission.  Granger was only one tentacle of
+the company, one machine for extracting money from naïve, land-hungry
+citizens.  The powerful, cunning men--or man--behind it had many
+machines.
+
+Senator Lafayette Fairclothe was the most expensive of these machines.
+It had cost much money and political trading to get his name on the
+Company's literature, but it was worth more.
+
+"The future in this country belongs to the producer; I recommend this
+investment to my fellow citizens.  Lafayette Fairclothe, United States
+Senator."
+
+It was worth millions.  For this was in the heyday of the Florida land
+boom; and the Paradise Gardens Colony, a branch of the Prairie
+Highlands Association, was one of the organizations that made history
+in Florida--a history that stank to high heaven, and even to
+Washington, to accomplish which, experience has taught us, requires a
+stench of vast and penetrating proportions indeed.
+
+Granger had gathered his flock from afar, none nearer than a thousand
+miles away from Florida's subtropics.
+
+It was a varied throng which gathered in the Swastika's saloon for an
+early breakfast.  They were earnest, serious, land seekers, not
+tourists.  In the main they were goodly folks worn by a monotony of
+life; men who had worked and women who had saved through long, gray
+years, buoyed up by the hope of a comfortable haven in old age to
+compensate them for a lifetime on the treadmill.  Some of them were
+farmers, some small-towners, two or three were from cities; and the
+spell of dreams, and of Granger, was upon them all.  They were dazzled,
+dazed.  On their native heaths, perhaps as shrewd as any, here they
+were pleased, hopeful children in a master's hands.  Ponce de León's
+Fountain of Youth, a plot of land in perpetual sun, where crops grow
+without work or worry, big land profits, easy money, something for
+nothing--the lure is as innate and potent as the eternal lure of gold!
+
+At breakfast the rumor began to spread somehow that something had
+happened, and the trip up the river to the colony would have to be
+delayed a few hours.  Then it was rumored that the delay would be a
+day, two days; it was dangerous to go upstream; it was impossible.  It
+was doubtful if the trip could be made for a long time.
+
+Granger was very busy and concerned, flying about the boat, off it and
+on again; his brow wrinkled, his lips compressed with determination.
+
+"Anything gone wrong, Mr. Granger?"
+
+"Nothing to speak of, brother.  I'll get it straightened out.  Do not
+worry, brother."
+
+"Ain't worryin' 'tall, long's you're in charge, Mr. Granger."
+
+The women on board began to feel sorry for Mr. Granger, the way he was
+rushing and worrying about for them.
+
+"Yes, Granger's all right.  He'll do the best any one can by us."
+
+More and more Granger rushed; more and more his countenance became
+marked with the lines of deep concern.  He was heard the length of the
+boat in protest to some news imparted by the captain.
+
+"But I tell you we must go up to-day, Captain Sayles.  Do you think I
+will disappoint these good friends of mine?  I have a reputation to
+sustain; I have never broken my word in my life; and I've promised to
+pilot these good friends to our Colony to-day."
+
+"Can't be done, Mr. Granger.  Dangerous.  Don't want to wreck and drown
+your people, do you?"  The captain raised his voice.  "The government
+inspectors have closed the river for a week."
+
+The news spread over the Swastika.  But Granger was not one to give in
+even to such a diction.  He rushed about some more.  One of the women
+thought she saw him enter his stateroom for a moment of prayer.  All of
+no avail.  Even Granger had to submit; and in the end, with apparent
+reluctance, he assembled his flock in the saloon.
+
+"Folks--neighbors--good friends all, I am sorry."  Mr. Granger cast a
+glance about him which was like a benediction in spite of his doleful
+words.  "We have come to our promised land too soon; we cannot go up
+the river and inspect our glorious properties for another week.  The
+river is closed by government orders.  The colossal improvements by
+which the Paradise Gardens Colony is transforming the wilderness into a
+veritable paradise for us all have interfered slightly with our program.
+
+"Only a few miles up the river the Colony is constructing an enormous
+bridge to carry the rail which is pushing swiftly on its way toward the
+Colony and which, as we all know, will increase the value of our
+properties by such leaps and bounds that each and all of us shall reap
+a harvest of wealth.  We who are in on the ground floor will sell at
+our own price when the rush comes; where we invested hundreds we will
+sell for thousands.  The construction of this great bridge entails
+enormous engineering feats and for the present the river is blocked.
+Entirely blocked.  Blocked so that not even a Seminole Indian could
+pole his picturesque dugout from here to the magnificently fertile
+lands of the Colony.
+
+"We had no way of knowing this would happen.  Nevertheless, the Colony
+will transfer its members free of charge back to Flora City; and one
+week from to-day we will resume our trip up the beautiful Chokohatchee
+to the Paradise Colony.  Let us not grieve too much, good friends, over
+the slight delay.  'What doth it profit a man if he gain the world and
+lose his soul.'  A week at beautiful, tropical Flora City!  A week in
+which to feast our souls on the enchantment of Southern Florida!
+Friends, I think we may congratulate ourselves; and we start back in
+fifteen minutes."
+
+"The grub's so damn bad at that Flora Hotel," snapped a weazened old
+man.  "I'm poisoned yet by some of that beef I et.  Tougher'n hell it
+was."
+
+"_Mister_ Perkins, _sir_!  I must ask you to refrain from the use of
+profanity.  The spirit of the Colony, of its members----"
+
+"Well, I should say so!" said Mrs. Perkins.  "Swearin' and rarin' round
+after all Mr. Granger's done for us!  I declare I'm 'shamed to take you
+along, Tom Perkins."
+
+"Have you no soul or eyes for the higher things, Mr. Perkins?" inquired
+a large, black-clad lady reprovingly.  "With all this beauty about us,
+and the inspirin' scenery, I should think----"
+
+"Well, that's all right, Mrs. Caine, what you think," interrupted Mrs.
+Perkins sharply.  "You do your thinking for your husband and I'll do
+the thinking for mine; and I guess if you do that you won't have to
+fill in your time meddling with others."
+
+"Well!  Well, I never----"
+
+"Ladies!" murmured Granger.  "Let us not allow this little
+inconvenience which we have experienced to disturb our equanimity."
+
+"Let's have that agin," growled a fat gentleman.  "You say we can't get
+up the river, hey?  Well, what's the matter with driving up?"
+
+"The magnificent oiled highway which is going to bring thousands of
+visitors to our Colony has not quite been built down to the mouth of
+the river here."
+
+"All right.  We'll walk up to where she begins.  Ain't no cripples
+aboard, far's I can see."
+
+"The one bad piece of land in the district unfortunately lies between
+the mouth of the river.  It is a small swamp--only a small one--then
+the fair uplands of our Colony begin.  But until the road is built
+across it the river is the only means of travel inland and that, as I
+sorrowfully tell you, is blocked.  Come; let us forget our business,
+our future wealth, for the time being and revel in the subtropical joys
+at Flora City.  The land will remain.  Each day sees an increase in its
+value.  Good friends, we're getting ready to sail.  All aboard for
+beautiful Flora City."
+
+"Slick enough!" chuckled Higgins, where he and Payne were standing in
+the background.  "I'll say he does it well.  Now let's step up there
+and tell him how many kinds of a liar he is."
+
+"Hold on," muttered Roger.  "I'm here to get some business done; I'm
+here to get up the river and see that land."
+
+"Sure."
+
+"This boat isn't going up, there's no question of that; calling him a
+liar wouldn't send the boat upstream."
+
+"Not an inch."
+
+"And it would warn them that we were onto the fact that boats can go
+up, and that we intend to go."
+
+"Oh, you intend to go, do you?  How, for instance?"
+
+"That tub, the Cormorant, is going up.  I don't know when, but that's
+where she's bound.  I'm going on her."
+
+Higgins made no reply.
+
+"You don't want to tackle it, I see."
+
+"No, you don't see anything of the sort," retorted Higgins.  "I'm going
+with you all right; I've made up my mind to that.  I was just trying to
+figure how we are going to work it.  You're right; if we tell 'em we're
+staying here, the Cormorant won't go up.  There's something slick going
+on round here so we've got to be slickers ourselves.  We've got to
+sneak on 'em."
+
+"Sneak?  What for?  I've got a right to go up and look at the land I've
+paid money on."
+
+"Sure, so has that flock of suckers on the boat; but you don't see them
+going, do you?"
+
+"I wonder if the whole crowd demanded to be taken up----?"
+
+"Pooh!  They're sheep and Granger's got them hypnotized.  You say one
+word against the Colony and you'd be an outcast among 'em.  No; we've
+got to let them go."
+
+Roger agreed.
+
+"And we've got to pretend to go along to Flora City," he added.  "I
+don't like to sneak.  It goes against my grain; but business is
+business.  Come on, Higgins.  Next trip in a week, Mr. Granger?  Good
+enough.  We're going to our stateroom and catch up some sleep.  Wake us
+at peril of your life."
+
+He led the way swiftly to the stateroom, grasped his bag and Higgins',
+locked the door and hurried aft out of sight of the people gathered
+forward.
+
+"Come on," he whispered throwing a leg over the railing.
+
+Higgins, peering after him, saw the young man untying the rowboat which
+was fastened to the dock beneath the Swastika's stern.
+
+"You certainly see a lot of things and work fast, when you get
+a-going," whispered the engineer as he let himself down into the boat.
+"Now where to?"
+
+"Just round that bunch of mangroves and out of sight of the Swastika's
+decks.  Grab that oar and paddle.  Easy--but work fast!"
+
+A minute or two of swift anxious paddling and they had whisked the boat
+down the shore, round the mangrove promontory into the seclusion of a
+tiny bay.  And then:
+
+"Hell!" said Higgins.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A clean-cut, solidly built man in a suit of greasy overalls was
+standing on the shore of the bay, looking steadily up at the reddened
+sky.  Payne followed the direction of the man's gaze.  Up against the
+multi-hued red of the morning was a gently undulating streak of
+dazzlingly snowy white.  Roger had often seen white of the purest sort
+in the untracked snows of northern forests, but never a white so pure,
+so soft, so warm as this.  And then he saw by the undulations of the
+streak that it was a flock of long, graceful birds moving in single
+file from west to east.  Shimmering in the brassy dawn sun, they rode
+like dream birds upon a vermilion sea, their slow movements so
+graceful, so rhythmic as seemingly to represent no effort, as if the
+birds merely floated along, their beauty and grace the ultimate
+expression of the spirit of the scene.  They flew with their delicate
+necks bent back upon their bodies, as swans afloat upon still water,
+their long legs held motionless and straight behind; yet they moved
+rapidly, moved steadily and to a definite goal some place eastward up
+the river.
+
+"Beautiful!  A dream worth the trip alone!"
+
+To Roger's amazement the man in overalls started at the words with
+something like alarm in his expression; but as his shrewd blue eyes
+took them in they showed relief.
+
+"What are they?" asked Roger.
+
+The man's expression took upon itself a mask of disinterest, almost
+sullenness.
+
+"What you talking about?"
+
+"Those birds up there?"
+
+"Didn't see any birds.  Looking to see if it would rain."
+
+"Well, look now.  What are they?"
+
+The man refused to look.
+
+"Donno.  Donno anything about birds."
+
+Payne looked at him closely and was puzzled.  The man's obvious
+appearance of intelligence rendered such a reply unnatural.
+
+The stranger returned the scrutiny, appraising the pair with a lazy air
+of indifference, which did not quite conceal his shrewdness.
+
+"What you-all doing here?  Fishing?"
+
+"Hiding."
+
+"Come on the Swastika?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"She's sailing."
+
+"Yes; that's why we're hiding.  We're not going back on her."  Roger's
+eyes had not left the man's.  Each had appraised the other and given a
+favorable verdict.  "We're going up the river.  I've got some land I've
+got to look at up there."
+
+"How d'you figure to go?"
+
+"On the Cormorant; we know she's going up.  We're going on her--by
+force, if necessary."
+
+"I'm engineer on the Cormorant."
+
+"Well, your clothes'll 'bout fit me.  Maybe she's going to have a new
+engineer."
+
+They laughed together.
+
+"Buddy," said Higgins suddenly, "you don't belong down here, do you?"
+
+The engineer did not reply.
+
+"I see you don't.  And we ain't crackers either."
+
+"I see that.  Where is your land?"
+
+"At the head of the river.  Prairie land."
+
+"What?  In Garman's----  Who did you do business with?"
+
+"The Prairie Highlands outfit--Senator Fairclothe is its president.  Do
+you run up there?"
+
+"No.  It's bad enough to get up to what they call the Colony; never
+been there myself," said the stranger, "but you're beyond that.  We
+don't go there ourselves."
+
+"How far up do you go?"
+
+"To what's on the maps as the Colony.  Get there at about noon."
+
+"My land is Sections 16 and 17."
+
+"That prairie tract is beyond the headwaters.  Do you know this
+country--anything about the people, and so on?"
+
+"All I know is that I've got some money invested in some land up the
+river and I'm going up to have a look at it."
+
+The stranger had made up his mind.  He looked round to make sure he was
+not observed or overheard.
+
+"There's a little cabin on the foredeck of the Cormorant," he said.
+"It isn't used nowadays.  Nobody on board.  Move fast."
+
+He wheeled and was gone.
+
+Payne and Higgins slipped swiftly through the jungle to the farther
+side of the key where the Cormorant lay moored.  A rush into the water
+and they were on the starboard side of the boat and hidden from the
+shore.  In another moment they were over the low rail onto the deck and
+crawling into the lower cabin and forward beneath the wheelhouse.
+
+"Whew!" Higgins sniffed at the strange odor that greeted them.  "What
+is it--arsenic?"
+
+"Shut the door.  Good!  Things are working fine."
+
+"It's a darn funny way to go looking at land."
+
+"But it's a way, and that's what we're after."
+
+"Smells like a morgue in here."
+
+"Ssh!"
+
+With his eyes at a crack in the door Roger saw the crew coming aboard.
+The engineer was in the lead; behind him came the captain, a tall man
+of vicious appearance, and a half-naked mulatto deckhand.
+
+"Hard eggs, those two; that engineer doesn't belong in their company."
+
+"Nope; he doesn't belong here at all," whispered Higgins.  "He tries to
+look the part and doesn't quite make it.  Wonder what his game is?"
+
+"There goes the Swastika."
+
+A sharp whistle announced the departure of the larger boat.  Presently
+there came floating over the water, over the key, the quaint, plaintive
+sound of untrained voices enthusiastically raised in song.  Roger
+smiled grimly as he pressed his ear to the crack and caught the faint
+words:
+
+  "Shall we gather at the river?
+  The beautiful, the beautiful river----"
+
+
+Granger's voice was distinguished above the rest; he was on the job; he
+was leading his shorn flock back from the gates of Paradise to the tune
+of a hymn.  At Flora City, Granger, being through with this flock,
+would quit it; and ere its members, obstructed time after time in their
+efforts to reach the Colony, would disperse, Granger, in a new field,
+would be laying his snares for fresh victims.
+
+In a few minutes the hull of the Cormorant began to throb with the
+drive of her powerful engines.  With no word of command she slid
+silently away from her mooring to the deep channel and began to drive
+her way upstream at a speed that caused Roger and Higgins to look at
+one another.  The captain was in the wheelhouse above their heads, the
+mulatto lounged on the deck near the cabin door; so they did not even
+dare to whisper, but each knew the question the other would ask: Why
+such terrific speed in a dirty craft like the Cormorant?
+
+Through his precarious peekhole Payne caught glimpses of the water and
+land that the Cormorant was leaving behind her.  At first there was
+little to see save blue water, for the mouth of the Chokohatchee was
+more an estuary of the sea than a river.  Far away on either side were
+the low-growing tangled growths of mangrove which represented the
+river's banks near the sea, and toward these banks, from both sides of
+the wake, water birds could be seen winging their way, frightened from
+their feeding ground by the Cormorant's rush.  Great, clumsy pelicans
+rose painfully and flew with surprising speed, once they were in the
+air; small blue herons went shoreward in uncountable flocks, flying
+high into the morning sun.  Close to the water, ducks of many kinds
+clove the air with business-like intent and speed.
+
+The water itself seemed alive with an abundance of life.  The black
+back of a porpoise showed above the surface; far away the sun glinted
+on the silver scales of a leaping tarpon.  The red sides of a mangrove
+snapper were seen as it tried in vain to escape the jaws of a
+steel-gray barracuda, and a moment later half of the slim barracuda
+flew into the air as the jaws of a shark, catching it in full flight,
+snapped it in two.
+
+The course of the Cormorant was shifted slightly, and by the muddy
+color of the water Payne knew they were entering the river proper.  The
+stream here was perhaps two hundred yards across and over the stern, to
+port and starboard, the banks were plainly visible.  The land was low,
+so low that it seemed but a little higher than the water level, but it
+bore an amazingly abundant growth.  The river seemed to flow through a
+channel cut in the dense, solid vegetation.  Great cypress trees
+towered up from the water, enormously thick at the roots and rapidly
+dwindling above.  Between their rough trunks cypress scrub, sturdy
+cabbage palms, mangrove, custard apple and other varieties of tropical
+trees found space to grow; and between the trunks of the smaller trees
+was a tangle of palmetto, saw grass, jungle vine, Virginia creeper and
+the beautiful moon vine and its dainty flowers.  Blue, yellow and red
+flowers peeped from the tangle.  Air plants bearing in their hearts
+scarlet orchids clung to the trunks of hoary live oak, and the Spanish
+moss, fragile, listless, drooping, hung like delicate drapery over all.
+
+The stream grew narrower and the turtles upon the shore became visible.
+A water turkey, though the boat was past, fell clumsily off its perch
+into the water and after frantic efforts flopped away.  Alligators lay
+here and there along the banks; and a wild hog plowed about in the
+matted water-hyacinths, unconcernedly seeking food, not alarmed by the
+alligators or the boat or by the fierce brown Mexican buzzards--the
+killing variety--which contemplated him from the dead cypress branches
+above.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+For two hours the Cormorant drove upstream without missing a stroke of
+her engines.  Then the speed was diminished.  Through the crack in the
+door Payne caught glimpses which showed that the stream had narrowed
+suddenly and began to wind.  In another hour the captain shouted back
+an order.  The engineer's head popped up from the engine pit near the
+stern, his expression indicating that the order had taken him by
+surprise.
+
+"What'd you say, cap?  Stop at Mangrove Point?"
+
+"Yep.  Boss' orders."
+
+The engineer disappeared in the pit and the boat began to slow down as
+its course was altered to bring it in shore.  Presently leaves brushed
+against its side and the craft came to a dead stop.
+
+The mangrove branches on the bank were pushed aside, revealing a creek,
+and a long Seminole dugout, bearing two rough-looking men, slipped like
+a snake out of the jungle and up to the Cormorant's bow.  The two men
+vaulted easily over the low rail onto the deck.
+
+"Where is he?" asked the hideously scarred leader.  "The boss said we
+should take him to Palm Island and leave him tied."
+
+"My way would be to knock 'im in the head an' sink him in an alligator
+hole," grumbled the captain.  "He's hard as nails; he'll be hard to get
+tied."
+
+"You're too lazy to live.  Call 'im out; we want to be going."
+
+The speaker and his companion took up a position on the port rail; the
+captain and the mulatto lounged to starboard.
+
+"Oh, Davis," called the captain, drawing a revolver.  "Give us a hand
+here, will you?"
+
+Davis emerged from the engine room, wiping his hands on a wisp of
+waste, saw by the eyes of the four men that he was trapped, and looked
+steadily at the captain.
+
+"What's the idea, cap?"
+
+"Stick up them hands!"
+
+"What is it, I say?"
+
+"Guess you know.  You wanted to get into the swamp with us, did you,
+you damn snooper?  Well, you're going in there--to stay."
+
+The scarred man thrust forward a noosed rope.
+
+"Put your hands in that, you damn snooper."
+
+"Put 'em in," growled the captain, "or I'll shoot your ears off."
+
+Davis made a pretense of obeying, caught the rope holder about the
+middle and rushed him at the captain.  So swift and skillful was his
+move that ere the lethargic captain could move he found himself pinned
+against the rail.  With one hand Davis flung his human shield aside
+while the other leaped up and caught the captain's gun hand.  His
+disengaged hand slipped inside his shirt; and then two men leaped like
+wolves upon his back.
+
+"He's got a gun on him!  Look out!"
+
+The mulatto's thick arm was about Davis' throat, dragging him back, yet
+he managed to give the captain's wrist a sharp twist which flung the
+revolver high in the air to drop with a splash into the river ere he
+fell in a tangle with his assailants to the deck.
+
+"Look out!  He's strong's a bear!  He's got a gun!  Kick his head,
+somebody!  Kick his head!"
+
+In their little coop forward, from which they saw it all, Payne looked
+at Higgins.  Higgins returned the look.
+
+"He's a white man against four."
+
+"Come on, Hig!"
+
+With a kick Payne sent the door flying and crawled out on deck.
+
+The captain saw him and sprang for an ax.  Roger caught him in a leap,
+flung him aside and threw the ax overboard.
+
+Higgins kicked, struck and pulled at the pile on Davis and saved him
+from being kicked unconscious or killed, and suddenly found himself on
+the deck with the pile on top of him.  Payne came to his rescue.  A few
+seconds of rough work and they were up on their feet, fighting
+furiously.
+
+"Look!  He's getting away!"  The captain pointed at Davis who, in the
+mêlée, had leaped overboard and was in the canoe pushing his way into
+the jungle.
+
+"Quitting?" demanded Payne.
+
+"Got to.  Explain later."
+
+The mangrove branches closed behind him and he was gone.  Roger turned
+to face the captain, who was furious.
+
+"How'd you get on this boat?"
+
+"Crawled on."
+
+"Who be ye?"
+
+"Land buyers."
+
+"Get off this boat."
+
+"Go to hell."
+
+A long curved knife appeared in the captain's hand; and the crew behind
+him smiled in horrible anticipation.  He came crouching sideways toward
+Payne, the knife held point forward ready for the spring and upward
+thrust, which, with the body weight behind it, would drive the long
+blade through a possible arm guard and deep into the abdomen.  Roger's
+back was against the rail and he could not retreat.  He heard Higgins
+ask a question, but he did not turn his head.  His thumbs hooked easily
+in his belt, his eyes held steadily on the captain's, he waited, his
+body apparently frozen with fright.  In reality he was seething with
+purpose and ready to function at the right moment, his eyes betraying
+no vestige of his intentions.  Suddenly his left foot shot out and
+upward with incredible swiftness.  The captain's knife hand flew up to
+save itself, and ere it came down Roger, moving forward with the kick,
+had swung his right fist like a thunderbolt to its mark beneath the
+captain's heart.
+
+The thud of the blow was followed by a moment of complete silence, of
+complete inaction.  The crew behind the captain stood still, staring
+and frozen with consternation.  The captain stood slightly stooped
+over, his knees bent, mouth open, gasping for air, his eyes popping.
+Slowly, brutishly he began to wilt and topple forward.  He was almost
+bent double before he fell; and with the thud of his body upon the
+deck, one of the crew groaned: "Killed by a fist blow, by God!"
+
+"Killed nothing," retorted Higgins.  "He's just got the wind belted out
+of him good and plenty.  But somebody will get killed sure 'nough if
+you bad men try any more knife tricks."
+
+"You damn fool!" muttered the scarred man to his companion.  "You left
+that rifle in the canoe."
+
+"They's only two of 'em; let's get 'em."
+
+At that instant the captain moaned painfully.
+
+"Anybody else want the same dose?" asked Higgins.
+
+He and Payne stood poised on the balls of their feet, their fists
+swinging, ready to hurl themselves forward to meet the expected rush.
+The captain moaned again.  The rush did not materialize.
+
+"That's right," said Roger.  "We've got no quarrel with you fellows."
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"I told you--land buyers."
+
+"What'd you butt in for?"
+
+"Four on one, and you were kicking at him at that."
+
+"Any business of yours?"
+
+"We made it so.  The next move is up to you."
+
+"Licker!" groaned the captain.  "Gimme drink--I'm dying."
+
+One of the men made a movement toward his left hip pocket, but halted
+guiltily.
+
+"Ain't got no licker."
+
+"Go ahead; give him some!" chuckled Higgins.  "We aren't revenue men."
+
+The man finally produced a bottle of colorless stuff, a stiff drink of
+which brought the captain to his knees.  A second drink and he was able
+to rise to his feet.
+
+"Moonshine, by the great smoked fish!" laughed Higgins.  "Two snorts of
+it and the dead walk!"
+
+The captain leaned weakly against the rail.
+
+"Where'm I hit?"
+
+"Just above the belt."
+
+"Bleedin' much?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Who--who shot me?"
+
+"You're not shot at all, captain," interposed Payne.  "You looked so
+wicked with that knife, I just happened to tap you in a vital spot,
+that's all."
+
+"Wal--I ain't shot, sure 'nough!" exclaimed the relieved captain after
+inspecting his mid-section.  "What'd he hit me with, boys?"
+
+Roger held up his hard brown fist.
+
+"Sorry to do it, friend, but a man with a knife makes me see red."
+
+The scarred man spoke up: "If you're sheriff's men, and if you think
+we're going back with you----"
+
+"I've told you we're just ordinary land buyers, going up to look at a
+tract beyond the river."
+
+"Know that snooper, Davis?"
+
+"No, we took his part because you fellows were jumping him."
+
+"Know anything about him--what his business is?"
+
+"No; and don't care.  The only business I'm interested in just now is
+getting up the river."
+
+"You can't go on this boat."
+
+"So we were told down at the Key."
+
+The captain consulted with the other three men.
+
+"You got to get off here.  We're going up to--to where you can't go.
+We'll send an Indian down here to paddle you back to Gumbo Key.  Get
+off the boat!"
+
+"Easy!"  Roger was rapidly losing patience.  "Don't try it again."
+
+"Get off this boat, I'm telling you."
+
+Higgins nudged Roger.
+
+"I've got old Betsy under my arm," he suggested.
+
+"Then line 'em up and hold 'em here," exploded the young man.  "Let's
+quit fooling.  I'll start the engine.  You make one of them take the
+wheel.  They can't keep me from seeing that land now."
+
+Old Betsy, large and ancient, black and rusty, but extremely reliable,
+came out of Higgins' arm holster with a jerk.
+
+"Shove 'em high!" he commanded.  "It's a hold up.  Captain, you get up
+there and take that wheel and steer honest and true upstream for the
+Colony.  The rest of you get up in front where I can watch you.  No
+tricks.  Fooling's over."
+
+"This is piracy, of course," called Roger from the engine pit as he
+filled a priming cup, "and you'll have a good case against us--if you
+take it into court.  But from what I've seen and heard I don't think
+you'll monkey with the courts--don't think you like the word.  So when
+we get to where you're going I'll give you boys five dollars apiece and
+call it square.  What do you say?"
+
+The captain looked round with the sickness of deadly fear in his eyes.
+
+"Don't make us go up there like this," he begged hoarsely.  "For God's
+sake, don't do that!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Payne paused with a hand on the flywheel.
+
+The dread in the captain's eyes was obviously genuine.
+
+"Don't make us take you up there, mister," he repeated.  "You wouldn't
+if you knew."
+
+"Knew what?"
+
+"We can't bring any one up there."
+
+"You aren't bringing any one; you're being brought."
+
+"It'll be hard luck for you, too, mister, if you run up there."
+
+Higgins shouldered angrily forward.
+
+"Keep that kind of pap talk behind your teeth.  Trouble with you
+fellows is you've been used to handling suckers.  You sort of get it
+that we're different, don't you?"
+
+"I'm telling you," persisted the captain; "'twon't be any luck for you
+to run up there, and it'll be hell for us."
+
+"Get up there and take that wheel!" roared Higgins.  "Steer her right
+and true to the end of the strip and you won't get into any trouble.
+Try to ground her or any tricks, and you won't have to go 'up there' to
+catch hell."
+
+"Hold on, Hig."  Payne had sensed the desperation rising in the four
+men and he was averse to violence if it could be avoided.  He was new
+in that country and he expected to settle there and develop his land.
+For a long time to come, until the contemplated railroad line came down
+from the north to his property, he knew the Chokohatchee River must be
+his means of communication with the outer world.  The four men on the
+boat were natives of the section.  He had not yet been able to fathom
+just what nature of men they were or what their business was, but he
+suspected the latter to be something illegal, and despite the poor
+showing they had made in the fight on the boat it was apparent that
+there was in them at least a tinge of the desperado.  The swamps of
+Southern Florida, he knew, were favorite hiding places for scores of
+bad men.  These men probably spent a good deal of time on the river
+which he must use, and therefore he had no wish to make them his deadly
+enemies.
+
+"Don't take that wheel, cap!" said one of the men suddenly.  "And keep
+your trap closed."
+
+The scarred man turned and stared sullenly into the barrel of Higgins'
+revolver.
+
+"Go ahead and shoot.  That's the only way I'll go up there."
+
+"Don't want to go alive, eh?"
+
+"Ain't--allowed--to go--at all."
+
+"Hold on, Hig," repeated Roger.  "Don't be unreasonable."
+
+"Unreasonable, hell!  We're on our way, aren't we?  Going to let 'em
+stop us?"
+
+"We've got no quarrel with these men.  We'll use a little reason."
+
+"Go ahead, you're the boss."  Higgins retired to the starboard rail,
+but he did not sheath Old Betsy.
+
+"Can you tell me the reason you are afraid to go on?" asked Roger.
+
+"Ain't afraid to go there.  It's you that stops us."
+
+"Why can't you take us there?"
+
+"Got orders not to."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+A sullen silence followed the question.
+
+"Anybody connected with the Land Company?"
+
+"Save your wind," growled the scarred man.  "We ain't telling."
+
+Roger debated a moment and decided that he had indulged in enough
+irregularity and violence for one day.
+
+"Now, talking as man to man, how much would it hurt you to take us up
+there?"
+
+The captain's bleak face cracked in a slight smile of despair and
+hopelessness that left no need for words as an answer.
+
+"Well, what is it?" blurted Higgins.  "Can't you tell us what you're
+afraid of?"
+
+"You look like a pretty stiff man, mister," said the scarred man after
+appraising Higgins, "but I'll bet if you was in our boots you wouldn't
+do different'n us."
+
+"Can you beat it?" gasped Higgins.  "They don't look like Sunday-school
+kids either."
+
+Roger, running his eyes over the hard faces, smiled at the comparison.
+
+"How far is it up to this terrible place from here, captain?"
+
+"It's four miles from this point."
+
+"By air line or river?"
+
+"River."
+
+"How's the walking?"
+
+A look of relief in his hard eyes betrayed the hope that the question
+aroused in the captain.
+
+"Fair--I won't say good, but fair.  Right here she's swampy.  A mile up
+the high banks start, and there's sort of a trail right into the place."
+
+"All right.  You'll run us up to the high banks.  We'll get off and
+walk the rest of the way.  You'll lay up at the banks for half an hour
+after we've started."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I guess you're all right, but I play safe.  I don't know anything
+about what you're afraid of up there, but I don't want you to get in
+ahead of us and accidentally break the news of our coming."
+
+"Good!" cried Higgins admiringly.  "And Old Betsy here, she'll throw a
+slug clean through that wheelhouse wall, captain, in case you should
+get impatient and try to run by."
+
+The captain looked inquiringly at the scarred man, who nodded sullenly.
+
+"All right."
+
+"We'll be hitting back into the swamp," said the scarred one.  "Come
+on, Pedro."
+
+"No, you'll stay until we get to the high banks."
+
+"What fer?"
+
+"Davis did us a favor this morning, and I want to give him a chance for
+a fair start.  If you would tell me his business----"
+
+"Ain't telling anything."
+
+"All right.  Take the wheel, captain.  We're off."
+
+The Cormorant backed out of the thicket of mangrove branches which held
+her against the point, straightened out and started upstream.
+
+"A little explanation and maybe we could be friends," suggested Payne.
+
+"We're much obliged----" began the captain, and the scarred man
+interrupted with:
+
+"But we ain't explainin'."
+
+"Cheer up, boys!" laughed Higgins.  "We're doing you a favor, you know."
+
+"Know you are."
+
+"So you might tip us off about why it's going to be hard luck for us to
+hit this place we're bound for."
+
+There was no reply.  The captain sullenly kept the boat's nose in the
+deep channel, but beyond this the gang was apparently no more
+responsive to words than the alligators which lay sunning themselves at
+the water's edge.  The river now grew narrower, its waters grew
+clearer, changing from a yellow to a faint indigo.
+
+"Getting into a limestone formation," called Higgins over his shoulder.
+"But I don't see anything that looks like land yet.  This stuff ought
+to be sold by the gallon instead of the acre."
+
+Soon, however, a change began to appear in the landscape.  The
+mangroves gave way to banks of solid land.  A few scattering pines,
+tall, straight, thin and branchless save for their crowns, reared their
+tops high above the tropical growths.
+
+"There's land there," said Roger.  "Where there are pines there's
+honest ground beneath, even if it's only sand.  It's good to see them."
+
+"You're right.  I begin to feel at home again.  That thick stuff is
+pretty, but give me some real trees."
+
+The sand area, and with it the pines, gave way to a stretch of muck and
+saw grass, the saw grass to a jungle of elderberry trees so thick the
+light barely filtered in.  Blackbirds by thousands, large and plump and
+glistening, swarmed about in the jungle; and on the thicker branches
+the loathsome buzzards sat waiting, waiting.
+
+Payne carefully inspected the shore before leaving the boat when the
+landing was made at the high banks.
+
+"Step ashore, Higgins, and see if there's a trail."
+
+"Sort of a one-hog path, I guess.  It looks all right."
+
+"All right."  Roger gathered their bags from the stinking hole forward
+and followed.
+
+"Now," he said, turning to the men on the boat, "we don't want to leave
+you with any hard feelings.  We'll pay for our ride.  Will ten dollars
+be about right?"
+
+He plucked two five-dollar bills off a roll and handed one each to the
+scarred man and the captain.
+
+"Hey!" called the latter.  "You won't say anything about being on this
+boat to anybody?"
+
+"Not if it will be a favor not to.  I'm not particularly proud of
+sneaking a ride."
+
+"We won't say anything if you don't."
+
+"I thought you wouldn't.  Now you just lay up here for half an hour and
+don't try to pass us.  Business is business and I'm playing safe.  So
+long."
+
+There was no reply.  The crew on the boat watched silently as the pair
+marched out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+"Nice boys, those fellows," said Higgins after a while.  "I wonder
+where they cut throats for a living?  Can you make 'em out?"
+
+Roger shook his head.
+
+"I've heard there were a lot of bad men hiding out down here, and,
+strange, but I never believed it.  Apparently it's true; and it seems
+we've stepped right into the midst of them."
+
+"They called Davis a 'snooper.'"
+
+"Well, I'm not worrying about Davis.  From what I saw of him he's quite
+able to take care of himself."
+
+"I'll say he is.  You too.  You've come pretty near making pals of the
+fellows we were fighting a little while ago."
+
+"That was business.  I don't want a whole lot of enemies strung out
+along the river between me and civilization."
+
+"Well, it looks as if the captain was honest about the trail at least,"
+said Higgins, leaping over a pool of quivering mud.  "It's fair, but
+not good."
+
+A cotton-mouth water snake, short, thick as a man's arm and
+indescribably loathsome, wriggled on top of the mud as Roger prepared
+to leap.
+
+"Whoa, boy!" cried Higgins, glancing back.  "Stand still while I get a
+club."  He broke off a thick branch from a custard apple tree.
+
+"My God! what wood!" he exclaimed in disgust.  "It's light as paper."
+
+However, he managed to creep up behind the snake and slash off at a
+blow the foul, flat head that reared itself above the slime.
+
+"And I suppose this swamp is full of those things."
+
+"Probably.  But my land isn't in the swamp, remember; it's beyond the
+head of the river."
+
+"There's some real ground ahead; I can see the tops of some pines."
+
+Half an hour later they entered a stretch of open country.  A few
+spindly pines grew near the river.  To the north and west, as far as
+the eye could reach, was a prairie, covered with a sparse growth of
+grass.  Small circular islands of palmetto scrub dotted the monotonous
+scene and at rare intervals a clump of somber cypress told of the
+presence of water.  In a nearby bunch of palmetto a pair of horns were
+visible; and a herd of wild cattle, incredibly thin and fleet, leaped
+with a snort into the open, stared an instant at the intruders and
+sprang out of sight with the speed of deer.  A covey of small, brown
+quail broke close at hand and sailed away, skimming the top of the
+grass.  Fox squirrels were to be seen through the hanging moss on the
+cypress trees.  A great whooping crane waded into view and flapped away
+in clumsy fashion.  A flock of teal duck, flying swift and true as an
+arrow, came winging their way to the river.  At the water hole where
+the crane had been feeding the yellow eyes of a wildcat, cheated of its
+prey, shone for a flash and withdrew.  By use of his field glasses
+Payne saw a mother turkey, low-crouched and stepping softly, leading
+her brood to shelter in the scrub.  Farther away the glasses picked out
+the antlers and head of a small deer, peering above the brush.
+
+Higgins had kicked a hole in the ground with professional interest.
+
+"Sand!  No good."
+
+"Right.  Come on."
+
+The river frontage of the prairie was a scant mile.  Its eastern
+boundary consisted of a growth of custard apple.  The small spreading
+trees, fifteen feet at the topmost branches, were literally hidden
+beneath a covering of the delicate moon vine.  The vine wreathed itself
+about the trunks and branches.  It covered the tops, it stretched over
+open spaces like closely woven tapestry; draped itself over everything,
+its small green leaves and tiny pink-white flowers inextricably matted
+together with the tree growth and making of the whole a delicate bloom.
+
+A broad riding path had been cut through the tangle along the river out
+to the open prairie.  From the entrance a glimpse was had of a magic
+interior.  The sunlight struck fiercely down through the interstices in
+the all-pervading moon vine, piercing the jungle shade with a myriad of
+hard points of light.  The path wound in and out, its course easy to
+follow by the shaft of light in the gloom.
+
+Inside, the atmosphere was that of a great conservatory.  A dozen
+tropical growths mingled their odors into an indefinable whole; and the
+effect was akin to that of a subtle exotic drug, lulling the senses,
+filling the whole being with a languor, a relaxation, a pleasant
+enervation which it seemed well not to throw off.  Outside on the
+prairie the sun burned harshly; within, the scented shadows shielded
+away the sun and wrapped round one a drugged warmth all its own.  The
+path and the open spaces beneath the stubby trees permitted sufficient
+circulation of air so the effect was not stifling; but no winds swept
+through there; the perfumes lay heavily in the air, old and potent, and
+breathing a mystic, sensuous lure.
+
+Payne bent forward, peering into the mystic recesses of the growth,
+susceptible to its magic thrall in spite of his hardheadedness.
+Higgins, the engineer, kicked deeply into the black dirt of the bridle
+path.
+
+"Muck.  Good enough.  If your stuff's like this you're a rich man."
+
+"Don't you notice anything else about this place?"
+
+"What do you mean?"  Higgins, less sensitive than his employer,
+required more time to feel the jungle's spell.
+
+"It seems to me like the air is perfumed with poison somehow; and the
+poison is very easy to take."
+
+"It's the lotus effect," said Higgins presently.  "I know it.  I got a
+taste of it down in Yucatan once.  It makes you want to sit down
+against the roots of a tree and have a woman bring you drinks.  It's
+bad medicine when you've got work to do.  I feel it now.  The old lotus
+effect.  _Poco tiempo_!  Man, we're nearer the tropics than the maps
+show."
+
+"There's somebody coming."
+
+It was a young negress crossing the path round a turn.  Swaying
+indolently she went her way, with drooping eyes and listless steps,
+seeing no one, lost in the mysterious dreams which brought a sensuous
+smile to her heavy lips.  She vanished down a footpath leading from the
+roadway to a cabin, which could be discerned a short distance in the
+trees.  A bull-like male voice of her race greeted her with lazy
+laughter from the cabin, and with soft, sensuous laughter of elation
+and relief she replied.  Then the woods were silent once more, save for
+the omnipresent twitter of the birds.
+
+Tiny trails deviated from the bridle path at intervals, weaving their
+way out of sight into the drugged depths of the plantations.  Flaming
+red cardinals flew to and fro before the intruders, and a small green
+parrakeet clung upside down to a moon vine and whistled as they went
+past.
+
+Roger, who was in the lead, stopped abruptly.  Down one of the bypaths
+a strutting peacock had caught his eyes.  A glimpse of water showed
+beyond the gaudy tail of the bird, and a few steps toward it revealed a
+circular bathing pool in the heart of the thicket.  Large mats of
+colored straw, thick rugs and cushions, all brilliantly hued, lay
+scattered about on the pink-tinted concrete edges of the pool.  A
+wicker _chaise longue_ stood beneath a striped canopy of silk under a
+shelter of moon vine; other lounging chairs were scattered about.  The
+water of the pool flowed, fresh and clear, from the wine skin of a
+bronze bacchante, hideously squat and fat and green with age, which
+with drunken eyes in a back-thrown head leered mysteriously down upon
+the water.  And the atmosphere of the place was akin to that of a
+heavily scented boudoir.
+
+Higgins was examining the daintily colored concrete with professional
+interest.
+
+"That's darn fine work.  See how those mosaics and tiles are set in.
+That's Italian work; we don't finish stuff as well as that in this
+country.  Yes, sir; some rich gazaboo has spent a barrel of money
+bringing Dago workmen down here to make him a little swimming hole in
+the jungle."
+
+"It fits in with the whole scheme--the jungle, flowers, birds and
+scents, doesn't it?"
+
+"A sultan could wish for nothing better."
+
+"Come on."
+
+Though the air was heavy out in the bridle path, it compared to the
+shut-in pool like a breath from out-of-doors.  Payne led the way
+hurriedly.  The path curved slightly in the direction of the river.
+The light of a large opening appeared ahead, and presently they came
+abruptly upon a clearing.  A large low building, Moorish in
+architecture and tinted like the concrete of the pool, dominated the
+scene.  Beyond glistened the blue water of the tiny lake which was the
+headwaters of the Chokohatchee River.  At a canopied boat landing lay
+moored a gleaming white yacht--the Egret.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+"This," said Payne, "is where the Paradise Gardens Colony should be by
+all maps and reports."
+
+"But it isn't," said Higgins.  "It's where some gazaboo with a pot of
+money and a taste for oriental effects camps out.  I'm wondering if
+there is such a thing as that much advertised colony."
+
+"I'm going to find out."
+
+"Look out!  There comes a ferocious animal to chew you up!"
+
+A white poodle of tiny size with a bark like a piping bird came bobbing
+out of the house.
+
+"Here, Nero!" called Higgins.
+
+And then the dark slender woman who had been on the Egret stepped out
+from behind a palm.
+
+"Flossy!" she said with a stamp of the foot, which twinkled the
+pendants in her ears.  "She won't bite you."
+
+"I was worrying," said Roger.
+
+"Ramos!" called the woman.  "There are some strange men here.  Come,
+Flossy."
+
+Payne found himself facing a tall dark man, with a hook nose, rings in
+his ears and a stringy mustache.  The man placed himself full in the
+path leading to the little lake, and lazily, insolently studied the
+intruding pair.
+
+"You wish to see some one?" he drawled.
+
+"You, greaser!" blurted Higgins in anger.  "Hanged if I've seen such a
+sassy half-breed since I left Mexico."
+
+The man's lazy-lidded eyes narrowed to a slit.  He came forward.
+
+"Unless you are known you had better go elsewhere," he murmured.
+
+"Really?" said Payne.
+
+"Don't bother to be polite to him," growled Higgins.  "Can't you see
+he's a greaser?  Get out of the way, _hombre_; we want to talk to some
+one with brains."
+
+Payne caught the engineer by the shoulder and held him back.
+
+"We just want directions for getting up to the headwaters," he said.
+
+"I still repeat: unless you are known, you had better go elsewhere."
+
+"That's what we want to do.  We're going up to the headwaters.  This
+place happens to be on our way."
+
+"You are not known here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then go back."  The Mexican pointed toward the path whence they had
+come.
+
+"Go back where you came from--and quickly."
+
+"No," said Payne slowly, "that doesn't suit our program.  We're going
+that way."  He pointed across the clearing toward the blue water of the
+lake.
+
+"Call your boss, greaser," snapped Higgins.  "Let's talk to him."  He
+raised his voice to a shrieking falsetto.  "Help, help!"
+
+Payne looked toward the boat landing instinctively.
+
+The girl of the dawn on Gumbo Key was coming toward them, laughing; and
+the trees and the vine flowers and the sun all seemed to laugh with her.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said.  "And the red-haired man, too!"
+
+"Auburn!" protested Higgins, baring his fiery poll.  "The best barbers
+of the West have told me it's auburn."
+
+Ramos bowed deferentially.
+
+"You know these men, miss?"
+
+The girl and Payne looked at one another a long while.  At last she
+turned resolutely to Ramos.
+
+"Yes; I know them."
+
+"My orders----"
+
+"That's all right, Ramos, I know them."
+
+"Perhaps you will tell me who they are?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"Ah!  Yes.  Perhaps.  Mrs. Livingstone called me.  She did not know
+these men."
+
+"I do.  And I scarcely know you at all, Ramos.  What are you; what is
+your job round here?"
+
+"Caretaker, miss.  Especially--when Mr. Garman is away."
+
+"Annette!"  It was the older woman again.
+
+"Aunty," the girl whirling about resolutely, "I want to know a lot of
+things; why is there said to be a colony here when there is only Mr.
+Garman's winter home?  Why is there all this mystery round here?  Why
+does Ramos prowl round like a watchdog?"
+
+"Come in the house, dear.  Leave Ramos to deal with the strangers."
+
+"Why don't you answer me, aunty?"
+
+"You foolish child!"
+
+"I'm not a child."  The red was burning in the girl's creamy cheeks.
+"I won't be treated as a child.  I want to know."
+
+"Please, Annette, do not discuss your affairs before strangers."
+
+"Strangers!  Why, aunty, it's you who are strange to me.  I can't
+understand you.  It's all strange.  My father letting me come here
+alone before he comes--he's strange, too, lately."
+
+"I suppose Mr. Garman is strange to you too?"
+
+A flush spread over the girl's face and she appeared to shrink and
+wilt; and in the swift glance she cast at Payne there seemed an appeal
+for help.
+
+Payne spoke swiftly.
+
+"We are truly sorry to intrude.  We blundered in here on our way to the
+head of the river.  If we can get directions we will be on our way at
+once."
+
+The girl looked from her aunt to Ramos and then to Payne, and her chin
+went up.
+
+"Come," she said, and led the way to the boathouse on the lake shore.
+"Oh, Willy Tiger!"
+
+As mild and stoical a Seminole Indian as ever belied his surname
+responded to her call.  He smiled at the sight of her, an appalling
+feat for a Seminole; and the smile confessed he was her abject slave.
+
+"Willy, you will do a favor for me, won't you?  I want you to take
+these two friends of mine up to the head of the river, wherever that
+is.  My friends.  For me, Willy."
+
+The Seminole silently disappeared and returned paddling a long dugout
+into which he tossed his rifle and a bundle containing his camping
+outfit.
+
+"My name's Roger Payne," said Roger, preparing to follow Higgins into
+the boat.  "I am under obligations, Miss----"
+
+She did not respond to his suggestive pause.
+
+"I don't think I'll tell you my name--now," she said thoughtfully.
+"Perhaps--after you've seen the land you purchased from Senator
+Fairclothe.  Perhaps--not.  Good-by."
+
+Roger looked at Ramos, watching them from a distance, and replied:
+
+"So long."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+Higgins sat facing the silent Seminole, who swiftly paddled the long
+dugout out of the little lake before the house and into a sluggish
+creek running into it from the northeast.  The Indian wore the
+mauve-tinted, gaudily embroidered dress shirt of his tribe, but as a
+concession to civilization he had donned a pair of overalls so much too
+large for him that the belt was high round his strapping chest.
+
+"What name did she call you by, Willy?" asked the engineer.
+
+"Me Willy Tiger."
+
+"Tiger doesn't fit you, Willy."
+
+Higgins dipped his hand overboard and sprinkled water on the Indian's
+head.
+
+"I hereby christen you Willy High Pockets.  And may they never be
+empty."
+
+An awful contortion took place upon the Seminole's mahogany features.
+He was trying to grin.
+
+"You give good Seminole why-o-me," he said, ceasing his paddling to rub
+his stomach.  "Willy Tiger----"
+
+"High Pockets!"
+
+"Willy High Pock' sick.  Why-o-me make strong."
+
+"So that's how they miscall hooch down in this country," ruminated
+Higgins.  "No, Willy; we don't pack any liquor.  Shall I give him a
+piece of plug?"
+
+"Suit yourself--if you've got any."
+
+"Got any?  Never go into an Indian country without it."
+
+Higgins produced from his bag a slab of plug tobacco which made Willy's
+mouth water.
+
+"Willy," said Payne suddenly, "who is Mr. Garman?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"Put your tobacco away, Higgins."
+
+"Garman big boss," said the Indian swiftly.
+"_Esoka-bonus-che_-tobacco.  You give."
+
+"Boss of what?"
+
+Without taking his eyes from the plug Willy's right arm described an
+eloquent arc embracing the earth, the water, the sky, about them.
+
+"Big boss--all  country!  Good  tobacco.  Strong----"
+
+"Boss of the whole country, eh?  What business is he in?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"Where is he now?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"What makes him boss of this country?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"And there you are," laughed Higgins.  "Willy looks different from a
+regular Indian; but they're all alike.  He loosened up to get this
+piece of plug; now he 'dunno' anything."
+
+"Donno," repeated Willy monotonously.
+
+As the dugout scraped and stuck on the bottom the Indian doffed his
+overalls and displayed the full gorgeousness of the Seminole dress
+shirt.  Payne wondered how in the souls of these swamp dwellers there
+had developed a taste for a hue as delicate as the pink of the
+flamingo.  Bands of red, yellow, scarlet, mauve and black were
+embroidered upon the cloth, and upon the shoulders were scarlet tufts
+resembling epaulets.  Willy stepped overboard, barefooted and nude save
+for his rolled up shirt, and began to shove.  A three-foot water
+moccasin lay coiled on a mud bank in his path and the Indian's bare
+foot flung it aside as one might kick away a stick.  Presently he
+paused, deep in liquid mud to his thighs, his feet working on something
+below.
+
+"_Alpate_," he said.  "'Gator."
+
+A commotion followed in the mud; a dark knob appeared above water.
+There was a thrashing and upheaval and the Indian threw a half-grown
+alligator upon the bank and dispatched it with a blow from his camp ax.
+
+A few rods farther on the canoe was over the shallows and floating
+easily in a flooded jungle of saw grass which stretched away as far as
+the eye could reach.
+
+"What's this?" demanded Payne.
+
+"_Oko_ make river end."
+
+"What?"
+
+"_Oko_--lake.  River end here.  We there."
+
+Payne drew out his maps and studied them.
+
+"Where's Deer Hammock?"
+
+"_Echu_ Hammock there."  The Indian pointed to a cluster of palmettos
+that reared its tops above the saw grass to the north.
+
+"Go there."
+
+They shoved their way through the grass; and as he contemplated the
+drowned land all round Payne grew warm and then cold with anger.  Mile
+after mile to the east, north and south the watery waste stretched.
+Here and there a hammock bearing a few trees stood out, like tiny
+islands in a vast sea.  Save for this there was only the uninhabited
+desolation of the water and grass; and the brilliant sky above.
+
+There was no word spoken as they pushed toward the hammock.  Higgins
+had noted the change on Payne's countenance and saw it was no time for
+careless words.  Payne drove his pole into the bottom and drew it out
+for inspection.
+
+"Limestone bottom; a thin scum of muck on top of it; and water."
+
+The saw grass grew thicker.  Only a water trail worn by dugouts
+permitted them to go through.  Higgins probed the bottom.
+
+"About six inches of muck here," he reported, "and a foot of water on
+it."
+
+The water grew shallow on both sides of the channel and the grass more
+dense.  The Indian rose to his toes and peered above the grass tops as
+they neared the hammock.
+
+"_Echu_!" he said presently, reaching for his rifle.  "Deer _ojus_ on
+hammock."
+
+Silently the dugout crept toward the high ground, the Indian parting
+the saw grass to peer ahead.  They were fifty yards from it when Willy
+began to fire and at the third shot a tiny buck leaped up and crashed
+down in the palmetto scrub, where it had fancied itself concealed.
+
+It was near the end of the day now and the phenomena of the tropical
+sunset served to add to the desolation of the scene.  Tiny clouds rode
+in the sky, multicolored from the sun, for all the world as if painted
+upon the blue above.  The west was livid with scarlet and orange flame,
+and on the hammock the tops of the trees were rosy in the sunset.
+
+Higgins and Payne set to work to dress the deer while Willy proceeded
+to build a Seminole camp.  On the highest ground of the hammock he dug
+a fire hole, and radiating from it like spokes from the hub of a wheel
+he dug three small ditches.  With his ax he swiftly constructed three
+sleeping benches of branches, building them close to the central fire
+hole.  Then he built his main fire of short logs in the fire hole.  In
+each of the little ditches he threw long logs, their ends in the fire.
+
+Payne and Higgins watched him, expertly appreciative of his novel
+woodcraft.
+
+"It was a shame to take this country away from his kind," said Higgins.
+"They know how to live in it--and like it."
+
+Payne nodded.  He was looking back over the watery waste through which
+they had come.
+
+"You got your tract located?" asked Higgins.
+
+Payne pointed out over the saw grass waving above the drowned land on
+the southern side of the hammock.
+
+"That's it."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+"We'll look her over in the morning."
+
+Higgins lay stretched comfortably upon his sleeping bench, and between
+puffs of a campfire pipe, strove to be consoling.  On another bench
+Willy High Pockets, having gorged himself beyond human capacity on
+boiled venison, lay staring at the camp fire, open-eyed but in a stupor
+of complete contentment.  Payne occupied the third bench.  He lay flat
+on his back, staring upward through the palmetto branches at the soft
+stars which were appearing in the magic purple velvet of the Southern
+night.
+
+In the center, the large fire hole was filled with red, smoldering
+embers.  Radiating from it flames licked along the logs in the three
+shallow ditches which trisected the camp site, and as the central fire
+burned down the ends of the long logs were pushed into it and new fuel
+supplied.  The heat from the fires spread along the ground beneath the
+slightly raised sleeping benches, smothering or drying up such dampness
+as might otherwise rise from the earth after sunset.  Distributed as
+the heat was, it formed a barrier which shut out miasmatic fogs from
+creeping over the high ground from the swamp.  It was the Seminole
+system by which these Indians had survived in their unhealthy
+environment.
+
+"She may not look so bad when we go over her carefully," added Higgins.
+
+"Thanks," said Payne.  "Optimism is good medicine to sleep on.  I'm
+stung, of course.  The Prairie Highlands Company sold this stuff to me
+as virgin prairie sod ready for the plow.  I discounted that by fifty
+per cent, considering the low price.  I knew enough about this land to
+know, in spite of lying maps, faked soil reports and photographs, that
+there would be some water here.  I hired you because I was prepared for
+a drainage proposition.  But I didn't think they were crooked and nervy
+enough to sell me a lake--that senator writing letters on his official
+stationery."
+
+"Maybe you've got on the wrong tract?"
+
+"You know better; you went over the maps yourself.  No; they've got the
+crust to show this hammock in their photographs; I recognized it at
+once.  They showed it with fat, black grassland stretching away on
+every side of it.  They've got photographs of a town that should be
+located here, and of roads and ditches and farms.  Their crop
+exhibit--crops from Prairie Highlands--is a wonder: Corn, sugar cane,
+potatoes, grass.  Fifty per cent I discounted it; one hundred per cent
+would have been right."
+
+"They got soil experts to write reports on it," growled Higgins.  "Or
+at least, to sign them.  Those are pretty big names on your papers, men
+with big reputations.  How could they do it?"
+
+"They haven't been in here," said Payne bitterly.  "The thing is
+beginning to get a little clear.  Nobody's been in here who wasn't
+wanted.  It's simple to keep them out, with the river the only trail to
+come in by; so they've built up a fiction about the district, and
+nobody's been here to check up on it--until now."
+
+"Wonder how they got those soil men to put their names on the reports?"
+
+"Senator Fairclothe, I suppose.  You can get men from Washington who
+can't be got any other way.  What I'm wondering about is who's big
+enough to get him."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Did you ever know of a politician with a big name who was ever
+anything but a figurehead in a deal of this sort?"
+
+"I guess you're right."
+
+"It's the name and the reputation and the man's official standing
+that's valuable.  Senator Fairclothe may be crooked--I don't say he is;
+but he isn't a fool politically, at least.  No man gets a stranglehold
+on his state and an inside standing in Washington and keeps it year
+after year as he has done without being some shrewd as a politician.
+It's a one-hundred-to-one bet that he's never seen this lake that his
+company is selling as farms.  He might be willing to do something as
+crooked as that, but he wouldn't be so foolish.  Understand?
+
+"It would be taking too big a risk.  He'd be afraid that his political
+opponents would get next.  If they did, they'd get some swindled buyer
+to start action against him, just before an election.  My guess is that
+Fairclothe doesn't know a thing about what this tract is.  He's been
+got by somebody, as the soil experts were got; and I'm wondering who it
+is that's big enough to get him.  It must be somebody pretty big; but
+whoever it is, that's the gang or the man I'm going to talk business
+with."
+
+"Make 'em cough up your money, eh?  They'll probably do it--to keep
+your mouth shut."
+
+"They can't keep my mouth shut now."
+
+"Nor mine.  It's too rotten, too--rotten."
+
+"You're right, Hig.  And I don't know whether I want to just take my
+money back and clear out--even if they'd offer it to me."
+
+"Well"--Higgins' chuckle came forth sleepily--"it might be made
+something of at that.--Alligators?  No.  Fish?  No.  There's the water
+buffalo.  That's never been tried down here.  Hah!  I see a fortune in
+it.  'Buy a wonderful Water Buffalo Ranch and Get Rich Quick.  He Lives
+on Water.  Have We Got Lots of it?  Ask Us!'--How does that hit you for
+advertising matter?--Form a stock corporation; get a picture of a
+Philippine buffalo; and sell stock for all the money a sucker's got.
+Of course there aren't any water buffalos here; but neither is there
+any land; and that doesn't keep them from selling it just the same."
+
+"There is land here--under the water."
+
+"Yes.  Pretty good, too--under the water."
+
+"Water can be drained off."
+
+"Sure.  But--well, we'll look her over in the morning, Payne.  Hey,
+Willy High Pockets!  Touch up that fire a little."
+
+But Willy High Pockets was snoring.  Higgins rolled out, replenished
+the fire and soon followed the Indian's example.
+
+Payne did not go to sleep for a long time.  It was not the sensuously
+whispering night with its mistlike darkness and near-by stars that kept
+him awake.  Nor was it the splash of an otter, of minks and the sounds
+of other animals of the darkness.  The deep eyes of the girl of the
+morning were the lights that he saw as he lay staring up at the
+palmetto tops; and what sent his blood racing too swiftly for sleep was
+the memory of her flushed face and tossing hair as she had defied her
+aunt and Ramos in order to help two men whom she had seen for only a
+few minutes before.
+
+Payne had roamed much and had never had any thought or feelings for a
+new country save as a scene for his activity, for achievement.  He had
+never loved.  As he lay on his rude couch under the open sky and
+realized how mistaken was his investment he wondered why he did not
+feel unduly depressed or disturbed.  He had made a poor business deal,
+and good business sense dictated that he should try to get out of it
+with as little loss as possible and get into something new.  The spirit
+of business adventure in him, which constantly urged him to seek new
+fields for his ventures, had led him to make mistakes ere this.
+
+He had never wasted time upon his errors, either in deploring them or
+in deceiving himself that he could turn them to advantage, but had
+promptly put them behind him, credited something to experience, and
+started anew upon the road of achievement.  This was what he should do
+now.  Better to lose his investment than waste his time upon a doubtful
+if not hopeless proposition.  But when he recalled the unanswered
+questions which the girl had directed at her aunt, he knew that in this
+instance he was not going to do anything of the sort.  Having accepted
+this as a fact he closed his eyes to the soft, intimate stars above the
+palmettos and went to sleep.
+
+
+In the morning, when the water and grass were still vivid with the
+reflection of the multi-colored dawn, Payne and Higgins were out in
+Willy High Pockets' canoe, cruising the thousand acres Payne had
+bought.  The piece lay mainly to the southwest of Deer Hammock.
+
+"That hammock is the northeast corner post of the Prairie Highlands
+Company's land," said Payne, studying his map.  "I got the corner
+thousand in a square chunk.  Do you see a pine wood, Higgins?"
+
+"There's something down there, straight west of the hammock that might
+be it."
+
+Payne swept a westward line with his glasses and nodded.  "Looks like
+it.  A pine island, I suppose.  Now the southern line runs to a growth
+of cypress, two of immense size.  I can pick them out too.  We'll go
+down the south line first."
+
+Halfway toward the cypress trees the dugout grounded hopelessly, and
+they left it and waded through six inches of water the remainder of the
+distance.
+
+"They're honest about their marks at least," said Payne when they had
+reached the trees.  "But they didn't say anything about the cypress
+being in an unholy swamp."
+
+"Holy smoked fish, what a country!" muttered Higgins as he peered into
+the dark recesses of the densely wooded swamp.  "What a place to hide
+out in if a fellow wanted to drop out of the world.  Say, I guess this
+is the same swamp our friend Davis went paddling into yesterday.  Well,
+she lies lower than your lake, notice that?"
+
+"So it does.  I thought I had the lowest land in the world, but this
+swamp's got mine beat."
+
+"A ditch in the swamp running into the river might drain your piece
+some.  Have to be some dig, but you could afford to do it on a
+thousand-acre proposition.  It's something to figure on."
+
+Payne made no reply but led the way to the dugout and headed across the
+water for the bunch of pines marking his northwestern corner.
+
+"There isn't as much water on it as I thought," he said as the canoe
+stuck again as they approached the pines.
+
+"No; it's only the middle that's really drowned.  Wonder what the
+bottom's like."
+
+Higgins thrust his paddle tentatively into the bottom.  "Well, I'll be
+damned!"  The blade of the paddle had slipped easily into the ground.
+Higgins pushed on the handle, pushed the paddle three feet into soil,
+withdrew it and held it up for inspection.  "Muck!  Three foot of black
+muck, and I wasn't near touching bottom!"
+
+Together they began to probe, and everywhere with the same result.  The
+muck underneath the water ran from three to five feet in depth, and was
+as black as peat.
+
+The water grew shallower as they went westward and presently gave way
+to dry land covered with a growth of saw grass through which they
+literally had to push their way.  The saw grass ended abruptly, and the
+last hundred yards to the pines they walked on high and dry land.  The
+pines were on the eastern edge of the great prairie which they had
+glimpsed on their walk up the river.
+
+As they paddled back to the hammock for the breakfast which they had
+left the Seminole to prepare Payne studied the land to the northward
+with keen interest.  A heavier growth than saw grass covered this land.
+On closer inspection it proved to be a jungle of elderberry, the growth
+so dense that a man could barely squeeze through.  The land here was
+higher and dry, and black muck of the same depth as on the drowned land
+to the south.  Payne paddled back to Deer Hammock in silence.  Just as
+they were about to land he drove his paddle into the bottom with a
+gesture of finality.
+
+"Well, Higgins?"
+
+"Yes, sir!  That high ground to the north is a watershed and it all
+drains off onto your land.  That's what drowns it."
+
+"Right.  And I drain into that river."
+
+"Yep.  You can drain your piece all right.  But it'll cost like sin;
+and that high elderberry ground up there will always be shedding water
+onto it."
+
+"So all I need is to get hold of that piece up there."
+
+"Hah!  So that's what you were thinking about?  Who owns it?"
+
+"Not this crooked Prairie Company.  It's owned by the Southern Cypress
+Company.  They own so much land they probably don't know what they've
+got over here.  We'll get breakfast and hustle back to a wire some
+place.  I'll think it over.  I may buy that piece.  Then we'll have
+something to do business with."
+
+"Well, you'd better hurry or your breakfast will be gone," spoke a
+voice from the hammock.  "Willy Tiger had it all ready when we arrived."
+
+Payne stepped from the canoe and strode toward the two men who were
+seated at the camp fire.  One of them rose and he recognized the dark
+face of Ramos.  Then he saw Willy Tiger's crumpled body lying like a
+sack of grain across one of the sleeping benches.
+
+Payne looked at the man who had spoken, who remained seated.  He looked
+at him steadily for a long while.  Then he said: "My name is Payne.  I
+guess you're Mr. Garman."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+"You're right."
+
+The seated man was nibbling a piece of venison on a broiling stick and
+did not look up.
+
+"I'm Garman."
+
+He finished the venison, wiped his drooping, fawn-colored mustache with
+a silk handkerchief, displaying as he did so the two large diamonds
+upon his fingers; and through his heavy, yellow eyebrows he looked up
+lazily.
+
+As he sat squatted there by the fire Garman's figure gave an impression
+of squatness and of grossness in proportions and flesh.  The closely
+cropped head was of a size sufficient to dominate the huge body, and by
+the harsh salients of the jaws, the great forehead and the flat back
+head, gave evidence that but for its pink-fleshed rotundity the head
+might have appeared nearly square.  The backs of the hands which drew
+the silk handkerchief delicately across the thick red lips beneath the
+drooping mustache were covered to the fingernails with a fell of thick
+yellow hair; only the fat white palms were bare, like the insides of a
+gorilla's paws.
+
+"Payne, eh?" said Garman with a flash of white teeth showing through
+the mustache.  "Pretty fair-sized boy.  About my size when I was
+eighteen."
+
+Higgins was turning Willy over on his back.
+
+"My God!  Look at him!" he cried, pointing to the Indian's swollen face
+with its protruding tongue and popeyes.  "They've choked the poor devil
+to death!  You cheap, dirty greaser!" he roared, turning upon his
+aversion, Ramos.  "There was a good boy, that Indian; and if you've
+done him dirt I'll beat your greasy head off with your left leg!"
+
+"Hold on, Hig!"  Payne held his engineer back.  "There's no sign of a
+hand on his throat."
+
+"But look at his face!  Can't you tell by that?"
+
+Roger bent over the Indian and felt for a heartbeat.
+
+"He's alive!"
+
+"Is he?" laughed Garman.  "That's important perhaps--to Willy."
+
+"Get some water, Hig.  That's the stuff; souse him.  Ah!  Didn't he
+breathe?"
+
+"Tried to.  Can't you pull his tongue down a little so he can git air?"
+
+"Get some more water!  He's breathing!"
+
+"Hi, Willy!" cried Higgins, tilting the water against the distorted
+mouth.  "Come to, old boy; come to!"
+
+A few drops of the cooling stuff trickled into the Indian's throat,
+stirring the spark of life that was beginning to glow again in him.  A
+tremor convulsed his chest as the lungs sucked spasmodically at the
+tiny stream of air entering the swollen throat.  A gurgle, a deep sigh,
+and Willy's unconscious body was taking in the life-giving air in short
+gulps.
+
+"By the great smoked fish, he'll make a live of it!" jubilated Higgins.
+"And the man who did it--don't care who he is--is one son of a
+she-skunk, net."
+
+Garman, after his morsel of broiled venison, was lighting a large,
+brown cigar, moving the match round and round the tip to make sure it
+burned evenly.  He drew in a long breath and, opening his mouth,
+allowed the fat smoke to ooze up through his mustache, into his
+wide-open nostrils, over his half-closed eyes.
+
+"Willy Tiger is subject to fits--of a suffocating nature," he said.
+"He suffers from a too sensitive conscience.  The fits come upon him
+when he has made a mistake and gets caught at it."
+
+"He was choked!" said Payne bluntly.  "He was suffocated in some
+damnable fashion that left no mark, and he would have been dead in
+another five minutes."
+
+Garman nodded through another cloud of smoke.
+
+"Five minutes!  Sooner, perhaps.  I thought he was dead.  He is going
+to die in one of those fits some day, that's sure--if he lives to make
+more mistakes."
+
+The Indian began to heave and pant as the force of reviving life
+wracked his body.  Moans escaped from his lips, moans of agony, as if
+unconsciously he was protesting against the painful return to
+consciousness.  And Garman smoked, artistically and with luxurious
+enjoyment, his attention concentrated upon his cigar, while Ramos
+watched the writhing Indian with a sneering smile to betray his
+enjoyment of the spectacle.
+
+Presently Willy lay still, his breathing became easier and he opened
+his eyes.  Higgins, the volatile, leaped back and swore at the
+indefinable horror in those eyes.  Payne tightened his lips and laid an
+assuring hand on Willy's shoulder.  A spasm of terror passed over the
+Indian's features as memory returned.  He sprang to his feet, looking
+wildly round and saw Garman.  Then he cowered, shrinking together as if
+striving to sink into the ground, to return to unconsciousness,
+terrified by some overwhelming, incomprehensible horror.
+
+Garman continued his attention to his cigar.  The heavy smoke lay in
+swaying clouds above his head.  To judge by his expression Willy Tiger
+did not exist, save as an incident of the past.  Through the curtain of
+smoke which oozed upward through his mustache at regular intervals, his
+eyes gleamed alert, interested, concentrated upon a problem compared to
+which Willy was only an infinitesimal insect.
+
+Payne understood.  Garman had dealt--possibly through Ramos--with
+Willy.  Now his mind had turned to the problem of dealing with Payne
+and Higgins.  His manner indicated complete confidence in his ability
+to settle the problem as he saw fit, betraying how completely he felt
+himself the master.
+
+Payne controlled his own irritation at the other's attitude of
+superiority and sat down.  Apparently unconscious of Garman's presence
+on the other side of the fire he sampled a strip of broiled venison,
+found it good and began to eat.  Higgins presently followed his
+example.  Save for the presence of Willy Tiger with the unspeakable
+horror in his eyes it might have been amicable hunting party at
+breakfast.
+
+"I like that," said Garman finally.  "Cool hand, Payne.  You make
+yourself right to home."
+
+"Why shouldn't I?" Roger waved his hand to the southward.  "I own it."
+
+"Yes; but you're in a hole just at present.  How do you expect to get
+out of here?"
+
+Payne finished his piece of venison and wiped his fingers.
+
+"Garman," said he, "who are you?  What are you?  What are you butting
+in for?"
+
+Garman's smoking paused for a moment and his fat, rosy countenance was
+suffused with a darker red.
+
+"That was a bad break, Payne.  I don't like it."
+
+"I didn't think you would.  I see you don't like the idea of my being
+here at all."
+
+"That's right."
+
+"In fact, you don't like the idea of anybody's coming up here and
+seeing this country, and you've taken quite elaborate precautions
+against anybody's doing so.  I'll make a guess that there'll be trouble
+for somebody if you ever find out how we got in."
+
+"Don't you trouble about that, Payne; you worry about how you're going
+to get out."
+
+Payne paid no attention to this veiled threat, and continued:
+
+"Also, I'll make a guess that you're one of the real big men in the
+Prairie Highlands Land Company, which sold me a lot of water for farm
+land."
+
+Garman smiled.
+
+"Well, it's this way, Mr. Garman; I've been stung and stung badly.
+That's all right; it's all in the game.  I'm going to play the game
+out.  There's pretty fair farm land under that water out there.  I'm
+going to draw the water off."
+
+Garman resumed his smoking.  Suddenly he rose, an agile, powerful
+figure, graceful in spite of his huge bulk.
+
+"It's a hard job you're tackling, Payne."
+
+"But I'm tackling it."
+
+"I see you are."
+
+Garman turned to Willy and spoke swiftly in Seminole.  Like a whipped
+schoolboy hurrying to obey an order, the Indian grasped his rifle,
+sprang into the dugout and in a flash was poling away from the hammocks
+as if his life depended upon it.  Higgins sprang to the water's edge,
+but a word from Payne stopped him.  When Willy's escape with the dugout
+was assured Ramos disappeared for a moment and returned leading two
+saddle horses which had been hidden in the brush of the hammock.
+Garman threw his huge body into the saddle with an easy spring and rode
+away toward the sand prairie.
+
+"When you get tired of trying to find the way out," he called back,
+"come down to my camp and talk business."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+"Why didn't you let me catch the Indian?" demanded Higgins when the
+riders were gone.  "A man without a canoe here is almost as badly off
+as a man afoot in Death Valley."
+
+"I realize that," agreed Roger.  "But Garman had made up his mind that
+we weren't going to have that canoe."
+
+"I had almost made up my mind we were going to have it."
+
+"I saw that; that's why I stopped you."
+
+"Well!  After what happened on the river boat I didn't expect you to
+stop so easy."
+
+"Those men on the boat were quite different from Garman.  I knew they
+would take a bluff, or I'd never have let you pull your gun.  If you
+had done the same here there would have been shooting or else you'd
+have had to put your gun away and back down.  It's one thing to pull a
+gun on a bunch of river rats, and another on a man like Garman.  I
+don't want any shooting round here."
+
+"Neither do I."
+
+"Then never make a gun move with Garman round.  You can't beat a man
+like him with a gun."
+
+"No, I'll say he's a real he-devil."
+
+"I'm here on a business proposition.  It's a question of brains, not
+guns, in a fight with Garman."
+
+"And he's got a few of them too."
+
+"Decidedly.  Therefore, no rough work."
+
+Higgins laughed skeptically.
+
+"No rough work, eh?  How about little Willy High Pockets?  I've seen a
+few men here and there who've been manhandled, but I've never seen on
+with the fear of the devil driven into him as hard as Willy.  What in
+the name of black hell could they have done to the poor buck?"
+
+Payne shook his head.
+
+"I give it up.  Sorry, too, because I was responsible for his getting
+mixed up with us."
+
+"Not entirely so."
+
+Higgins refrained from mentioning the girl's connection with the
+matter, and Payne was grateful for his delicacy.  Garman, of course,
+had learned that it was the girl of the Egret who had bidden Willy
+Tiger guide the two to their destination.  How greatly this had angered
+Garman was apparent by the fashion in which he had visited
+punishment--whatever it had been--on the inoffensive Seminole.  What
+was Garman to the girl?
+
+"Poor Willy was the goat," said Higgins.  "But go back a little: Garman
+seems to me to be the big boss of this district.  Is that the way you
+figure it out?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"There's a whole lot of hard-boiled eggs round here, and they're scared
+fightless about some one, and he's it.  A man doesn't get that sort of
+a grip without rough work, and he's not pleased with your proposition
+here; and I don't see him changing his method much in dealing with you."
+
+"Perhaps not.  It's going to be hard for him to find an excuse though.
+I'm here on a business proposition, as I say, and business is going to
+be supreme on the job, and rough work a mere incident--if at all."
+
+"Fair enough.  What's your first move?"
+
+"To find a way out of this country without troubling friend Garman."
+
+"Sure.  The dugout was the first answer.  You let that go without
+winking an eyelid.  That means you'd already figured out a second
+answer.  What is it?"
+
+Payne spread out his maps and consulted them carefully.
+
+"Garman felt he had us sewed up tight because the average man who gets
+down here isn't a woodsman."
+
+"Except that fellow, Davis, I haven't seen one who looked like it since
+we got here," agreed Higgins.
+
+"Yep."  Payne was drawing out a new large-scale survey map.  "I don't
+think one of the old-time timber cruisers up North would call it too
+big a job to get out of here.  There's water almost all the way over to
+the east coast--the maps agree on that--so that's no good.  To the
+south is that cypress swamp.  West we've got that sand prairie.  Must
+be some trap there.  But another thing the maps all agree on is that
+the old trading post of Legrue, which is the end of the railroad's
+survey line, is about forty-five miles north of this hammock."
+
+"Sure.  And look at what's between 'em--on the map there."
+
+"The Devil's Playground."
+
+"That's one of the spots down here nobody's been through."
+
+"Well, Hig, I suspect you and I are going to be the first to try to do
+it.  I know the descriptions read tough: great crevices in limestone
+formation filled with impassable liquid mud.  We'll try it, though;
+we've got to."
+
+Without a word Higgins began to cut up more venison, and Payne rebuilt
+the fire.  After a substantial meal they roasted and packed two small
+bundles of meat for carrying and were ready for the start.  Payne
+carefully searched the country about with his glasses and, assured that
+no skulking watchers were in sight, they waded out from the hammock and
+plunged into the elderberry jungle to the north.
+
+From the first they had literally to break their way forward.  The
+elder trees grew from ten to twelve feet in height and so close
+together that to squeeze between them was impossible.  Payne went ahead
+at first, walking sidewise, throwing his shoulder against the brittle
+stems and crashing a path through.  Higgins soon stepped to the fore
+and did likewise.  At the end of an hour, when they had covered a scant
+mile, they paused.
+
+They were now in the heart of the elder growth, hidden from all the
+rest of the world and isolated from anything that might have promised
+relief.  In the branches innumerable large, glossy blackbirds kept up a
+maddening chatter, and higher above, up in the hot sky, the omnipresent
+buzzards floated lazily, awaiting sight of possible carrion prey.
+Animals began to appear almost underfoot, coons and rabbits, disturbed
+for the first time in their fastness.  Water holes appeared rarely, and
+the water in them was unfit for drinking.  Despite the shade it was
+stiflingly hot.
+
+Higgins began to pant.  He was broader and stockier than Payne and less
+favorably built for wedging his weight through the growth.  Neither
+spoke a word.  At the pauses they consulted compasses, laid out the
+trail straight north and drove on.  Payne's breath also soon was coming
+in sharp pants; and the leg muscles of both began to weaken with the
+treacherous going.  Grimly they held to their pace, waiting the release
+of fresh reservoirs of energy, the coming of the athlete's "second
+wind," to relieve them.
+
+When it came they had need for it, for the jungle growth now was
+thicker.  Heavy creepers and vines had appeared among the elder bushes,
+their phenomenal growth often matted thickly together as high as a
+man's waist.  Bushes which formerly had given way at the thrust of a
+shoulder now hung toughly, suspended by the inextricable grip of the
+vines.  Along the ground the matted creepers caught and clung
+tenaciously to ankles.  The carpet of them hid with fair leaves and
+blossoms treacherous water holes into which the travelers plunged at
+times foot deep.  In one such a plunge Payne's boots sent squirming a
+nest of slimy water moccasins.  A moment later he slipped and all but
+fell on the hard slippery back of a hidden turtle.
+
+A gleam of light in the solid growth ahead promised an open space for a
+rest and breathing spell.  With a silent agreement they plunged
+straight for it.  As they wedged their way into sight a flock of black
+buzzards rose lazily from something upon the ground, their wings barely
+lifting their gorged bodies, their foul red heads reeking with the
+putrid feast they were so loath to leave.
+
+Higgins voiced his disgust in one swift curse, but Payne bored silently
+on in a wide circuit round the stench.
+
+A broken trail in the jungle soon told the story.  The tracks of a
+single steer were discernible, pointing toward the opening, and there
+were no tracks returning.  The animal, lost in the thicket had fought
+its way out till, in the open space, its strength gone, it had
+collapsed.
+
+Payne stopped at the animal's tracks.
+
+"That steer came in from the west.  It couldn't have come very far
+through this jam, so probably that cattle prairie isn't very far out
+that way.  We could go out there.  I suppose some of Garman's men would
+see us if we did.  I don't like to have him know where we're bound for."
+
+Higgins was silent.
+
+"Well?"
+
+The engineer's reply was to crash into the thicket, breaking the way;
+and Payne followed without more words.
+
+At noon they dropped on a bed of vines which fairly smothered the
+brush, and ate sparingly of the venison they had brought; cautiously
+they dipped water from a deep root hole and barely wet their lips.
+
+"Have we made four miles?" asked Higgins.
+
+"Just about--less than a mile an hour.  Better start again before we
+begin to stiffen."
+
+They went on, resigned to a continuance of the morning struggle, unable
+to see far enough ahead to distinguish the country beyond.  One moment
+they were in the grasp of the jungle, the next they had broken through
+and stood panting and wide-eyed on the edge of a realized paradise of
+dreams.  It was a tiny lake bordered by a small, grass-grown prairie
+dotted with small clean clumps of palmetto, pine and cypress.  The
+water of the lakelet was clear blue, and the grass round it waved
+softly.  The palmettos grew in small circles and with the pines and
+cypress seemed like islands in a gentle sea; and each island held in
+its center a spring of cold clear water seeping up through a limestone
+bottom.  Long, swaying streamers of Spanish moss hung from the pines;
+up in the cypress were the mysterious air plants with the scarlet
+orchids naming in their hearts.  And beyond the prairie was a grove of
+custard apple swathed in the gentle, blooming moon vine.
+
+"It was black!" said Payne firmly, when they had drunk carefully from
+the lake.
+
+"What was?"
+
+"That land we just came through."
+
+"Black is right.  First-class stuff."
+
+"Worth the fight to find it--if it isn't already sold.  Land fit for a
+man to spend his time and money to put in shape.  Come on!"
+
+They crossed the enchanted prairie with scarcely a word for its beauty
+and plunged into the grove beyond.  The custard-apple trees ran to
+fifteen feet in height and twelve inches in diameter, but between their
+trunks was plenty of room for passage.
+
+The grove gave way and they were up to their waists in a growth of
+thick, rank saw grass, its half-inch wide blades with sharp, serrated
+edges cutting the bare skin of their hands like knives.  Far away on
+the northern horizon, beyond an apparently unbroken sea of grass, rose
+the ragged forest of a great swamp, its outlines sinister even at that
+distance.
+
+For the rest of the afternoon they fought their way toward the trees.
+It was growing dark when they had won through.  The ground beyond was
+lower than the saw-grass land and seemed to be composed of oozy slime.
+The growth that covered it was tangled and twisted as if thrown
+together by a mad burst of storms.  Dark, sinister and threatening the
+interior loomed before them; and without needing to consult their maps
+they spoke as one: "The Devil's Playground!"
+
+As they trod down the grass for a camping spot a streak of white
+gleamed in the gloomy nightmare of the garden and a flock of white
+egrets swept gracefully out into the gilding rays of the setting sun.
+A hundred in number, perhaps, they swerved in dignified fashion and in
+their ineffably beautiful posture of flying, necks gently bent backward
+and long legs trailing delicately, flew away to the west.  They were
+beginning to rise for a long flight when a harsh rattle of shots broke
+the evening quiet.  Pop-pop-pop!  Repeating shotguns worked at full
+speed.  The flock crumpled and broke and a score of the beautiful birds
+came crashing down in shapeless, broken lumps.  And then, too late to
+prevent the crime, darkness was upon the scene.
+
+
+Dawn revealed the interior of the Devil's Playground apparently less
+forbidding than in the gloaming, and Payne and Higgins plunged to their
+task as soon as breakfast was over.  A hard spit of land ran northwest,
+from the saw grass and they followed it till it ended abruptly at a
+narrow gully filled to the brim with liquid mud.  Swiftly and
+skillfully they bridged the space with saplings and branches, a process
+which they were forced to repeat at intervals throughout the forenoon.
+Luncheon they ate seated on cypress roots in water up to their knees;
+and soon after Higgins put a bullet between the yellow eyes of a
+panther which glared at them from its hiding place.  Snakes and
+alligators were in abundance; for miles there was no sign of other life.
+
+"They named it right," panted Higgins in a pause.
+
+"Yes; come on!"
+
+Now they had come to the "flowerpots" of the Playground, beautiful
+grass plots interwoven with delicate blooms and ringed about with water
+lilies.  Into the first one Payne went with a splash to his armpits;
+the grass was only a treacherous skin above a hole of liquid mud, from
+which Higgins with difficulty drew his employer.
+
+For an hour or more they threaded their way, cautiously between these
+beautiful traps.  Then, they found themselves on the brink of a gully a
+hundred yards in width; and Payne, driving ahead at full speed, cried
+out in anguish as he realized how they were stopped.
+
+"Hold on," said Higgins.  "That ground on the other side is higher, and
+it looks to me like a different formation.  Yes; it's limestone with
+sand on top.  Cheer up!"
+
+Payne threw a dry branch onto the mud and it sank immediately.  Wearily
+he turned at right angles to the trail and led the way in a search for
+the end of the gully.  For a mile they followed the barrier of mud,
+then Higgins called a halt.  "Look at this formation."  He pointed to a
+slight swell in the level monotony of the swamp.  "If that showed in
+any human country I'd say it was the beginning of a little ridge."
+
+The slight rise ran to the edge of the gully, where it was broken, and
+appeared again on the farther side of the mud.
+
+"There's just a chance that it runs right through that mud," Higgins
+was probing into the slime with a broken branch.  "Yep.  Here it is,
+about five feet down.  Ugh!  Pretty little piece of wading, but unless
+I miss my guess it will be miles before we find another fording place
+through that mud.  Wish Willy High Pockets was here.  He's the boy who
+could show us how."
+
+Payne looked at the span of slime between the banks.
+
+"Do you think we'll be through if we get to the other bank?" he asked.
+
+"Sure.  This mess can't last forever.  Hold on."  Payne had stepped off
+into the breast-high mud.  "What are you going to do?"
+
+"See if this shallow runs all the way across."
+
+"No you don't!  Chances are there's a break in it in the middle and
+then you'd be all out of luck.  I'll do the investigating."
+
+"Stay right where you are; I'm boss."  Payne was forcing his way out
+from shore.  Halfway across he stopped, panting and exhausted from the
+task of driving through the clinging mud.
+
+"No break?" called Higgins.
+
+"No; solid so far."
+
+"Then it's solid all the way across."  Higgins leaped in and, profiting
+by the trail broken in the mud, came swiftly up to where Roger stood,
+took a desperate chance and fairly swam through the mud, and took the
+lead.
+
+"I'll break trail the rest of the way.  Now--both together!"
+
+Pushing, pulling, falling and floundering they thrust on.  The mud grew
+thicker, heavier, and each step in it now was an appalling effort.  At
+last Higgins came to a stop.  They were twenty feet from the farther
+bank and the mud had assumed the consistency of heavy clay.
+
+"Stuck?" gasped Payne.
+
+"No!"  Higgins began to dig at the stuff with his hands.
+
+"Cheer up!" he panted.  "Get to bank--trouble's over."
+
+They literally dug themselves forward for the rest of the way, the
+hideousness of their situation relieved only by the bank before their
+eyes and the hope of high ground held out by it.  With the last bit of
+energy in them they freed themselves from the mud's suction and
+painfully crawled up the bank.
+
+"Made it!" said Higgins, dropping flat on his face.
+
+Payne raised himself on all fours and looked round through mud-caked
+eyes.  And then he began to laugh in a way that brought Higgins' head
+up with a start.  The high ground of the bank was a strip perhaps ten
+feet in width.  Beyond it as far as they could see was a sea of mud
+similar to that which they had just wallowed through.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+"We'll rest first, then we'll eat."  Payne had instantly recovered
+control of himself.  He let his weary body sink inert upon the ground,
+his face pillowed upon folded arms.  Higgins followed his example.
+They were not insensible to the gravity of their situation.  On the
+contrary it was their very realization of the ghastly nature of the
+trap into which they had floundered that prompted them to relax and lie
+like dead while their bodies recovered from the strain of fighting
+through the mud of the gully.  Not for them the amateurish fault of
+going into a panic.  Their situation was bad.  It was very bad.
+Therefore the pair relaxed after the manner of tired men seeking
+complete rest, and so successful was Higgins, and so severe the
+exhaustion of his thick body, that presently he fell asleep.
+
+Roger did not sleep.  Neither did he worry.  He did not even allow
+himself to contemplate the dire possibilities of the situation.  He did
+not think; he refused to allow himself to think.  He rested.  But
+continuously in his ears there seemed to sound a mocking whisper, as
+faint as the rustle of wind in the saw grass.
+
+"Devil's Playground, Devil's Playground!  How d'you like it?"
+
+Strength returned to his young body with the invincible resiliency of
+youth.  He felt the strain ease in his tired limbs, felt the arteries
+resume their easy functioning and settled himself for more of a rest.
+At last he stretched himself slowly, luxuriously upon the ground, as an
+athlete, rejoicing in the strength of his body, might stretch himself
+before entering a terrific contest.  Slowly he rolled over upon his
+back and opened his eyes.  Above his head long streamers of delicate
+Spanish moss waved indolently from the branches of a cypress tree.  It
+was an old tree and dead, and the moss seemed nothing more cheerful
+than a living shroud.  A cardinal bird flickered its vivid body in and
+out of the moss with a startling effect; and halfway up on the trunk of
+the cypress a mocking touch in the somber scene, a blood-red orchid
+brazenly flaunted its proud beauty.  And then, far above the tallest
+gray, sharp spire of the dead tree, high up in the warm blue heavens,
+appeared a single speck of black.
+
+It floated there in a circle with no apparent effort, a black speck
+floating in a sea of sun-warmed blue.  Its circle, in fact, was a
+leisurely downward spiral, and soon it appeared as a great, black
+buzzard, lazily drifting down from the heavens above.  Down, down, down
+it came, its wings motionless, its gradual descent the movement of a
+creature gifted with infinite patience.  Above the tree top it folded
+back its outspread wings, set its claws and dropped.  It settled upon
+the sharp, gray spike at the top of the dead cypress and sat there,
+motionless as a thing of wood--waiting, waiting, waiting.
+
+Other specks appeared against the blue of the sky.  These specks did
+not move in a circle but came flapping grotesquely toward a central
+point.  The scout of the buzzard flock had made his reconnoissance and
+by settling had signaled back his message.  Nine other buzzards
+followed him and took up their patient watch upon the highest branches
+of the tall tree.  Like black-shrouded, red-hooded ghouls they took
+their watch--waiting, waiting, waiting.  A tenth bird fell like a bolt
+out of the sky and found itself a perch in a tree apart from the
+others.  It was a small brown Mexican buzzard, the daring hawklike
+breed which does not wait till its prey is entirely dead.
+
+Roger's movements had gradually awakened Higgins and the latter also
+rolled on his back and followed Payne's upward stare at the waiting
+buzzards.
+
+"Pretty things, eh, Hig?"
+
+"Sweet, I'd call 'em.  Good waiters too.  'Take all the time you want,
+boys,' they're saying!  'We'll be here when you are all through.'  How
+in the devil do they get next to things so quick?"
+
+"Well, I suppose the signs of animal life in this neck of the woods
+aren't very plentiful.  The sight of us must have been quite a treat to
+those birds."
+
+"Sure.  Look how confident they are.  They've had experience with
+animals foolish enough to straggle off in here.  They look like they're
+going to sleep.  'Boys,' they're saying, 'we'll take a little nap now.
+But don't worry; you won't lose us; we'll be with you to the end and
+then some!'"
+
+The small Mexican buzzard, less patient than the larger scavenger
+birds, flopped halfway down from his branch, swooped over the two
+recumbent figures and swung upward to a new perch.
+
+"Take your time, old boy!" said Higgins.  "You don't eat just yet."
+
+"We do!"  Payne raised his legs high in the air and leaped to his feet
+without touching hands or body on the ground.  Higgins essayed the same
+athletic feat and came down with a crash on his haunches.
+
+"No, I haven't got the spring in me that he has," he addressed the
+buzzards, "but don't you get too hopeful.  I'll last a long time; thick
+men always do."
+
+"We'll warm up some of our venison, Hig," said Payne as he gathered dry
+sticks for a fire.  "Our next move is to stoke ourselves to the
+bursting point.  Then we'll rest some more while our internal machinery
+converts the venison into rich, red pep; and then we'll be ready to
+take a look round."
+
+As Higgins warmed the strips of broiled venison over the fire he cast a
+glance now and then at the buzzards.
+
+"Huh!  I don't like that," he growled as he saw the birds unmoved by
+the odor of broiling meat.
+
+"Don't like what?" asked Payne.
+
+"Those birds have got first-class smellers," replied Higgins, "and
+they're getting the tempting odor of this frying meat right now.  Do
+you see it excite them?  Not a bit.  And let me tell you those are
+mighty wise old birds.  They must feel awful confident of landing us
+since the smell of a few chunks of meat don't interest them at all.
+Did you see any animal signs while you were getting the wood?"
+
+"Eat!" said Payne sharply.
+
+"Which means you didn't.  I thought so.  Not even an alligator.  No
+wonder those buzzards were glad to see us."
+
+In spite of, or rather because of, the seriousness of their situation
+they consumed an extraordinary amount of venison; then, stuffed to
+repletion, stretched themselves out upon the warm earth as if they had
+not a worry in the world.  After the drowsiness of the heavy meal had
+passed they sat up and looked round leisurely.
+
+So far as they could see the narrow strip which comprised the bank of
+the mud gulley they had crossed was the only solid land in sight, and
+because of the trees and palmetto scrub they could not tell how far
+this ran in either direction.  Behind them was the river of mud through
+which they had wallowed.  Before them lay the apparently limitless
+expanse of the same formation, dotted sparsely with clumps of grass and
+flowers and at rare intervals with tiny mangrove islands.  No signs of
+animal life were apparent.  Even the birds were absent.  There were
+only the buzzards overhead--waiting, waiting, waiting.
+
+"See any water while you were hunting wood?" yawned Higgins.  "I need
+about a gallon to top off that meat."
+
+"Yes; come on; there's a little water hole down here."
+
+Payne led the way down the bank to a slight hollow where water had
+seeped up through the mud.
+
+"Go easy on it," he advised as Higgins kneeled by the pool.  "It
+doesn't look extra good to me."
+
+"It's wet anyhow," said Higgins and scooped a double handful to his
+lips.
+
+He spat instantly.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+Higgins again sampled the blackish water.
+
+"Taste it," he said.
+
+Payne obeyed.  He looked at Higgins.  Then they both stood up, shaking
+the water from their fingers.
+
+"Salt!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Higgins took out his pipe and slowly began to fill it.  Payne looked
+round.
+
+"Hig, that means we've got to hustle and find a way out in a hurry.  In
+this heat we can't go long without water.  I suspect it's all salt
+round here.  I remember I've read of salt water between the Everglades
+and the sea.  You take the bank downstream and see what you find.  I'll
+go upstream.  We'll meet here in an hour."
+
+They parted at once.  But Payne was back at the camp fire in an hour
+and Higgins was there ahead of him.
+
+"What did you, Hig?"
+
+"I found a mangrove swamp that a bobcat couldn't get through.  Did you
+have any luck?"
+
+Payne shook his head.
+
+"This high ground ends less than a mile up there.  And then there's
+nothing but mud--not a thing but mud.  Was there water round the
+mangroves?"
+
+"Yes.  Salt.  Salter than salt herring."
+
+"Do you want to turn back, Hig?" asked Payne suddenly.
+
+"You're going to try to get through?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I'm with you to the finish; and that's settled."
+
+Payne pointed out over the mud which lay between them and their
+destination.
+
+"That's the way we're going.  First of all we'll see if the thing can
+be waded."
+
+He stepped carefully off into the oozy slime and allowed himself to
+sink.  He sank to his shoulders without finding any bottom.
+
+"Nothing doing there," he said when Higgins had pulled him back to
+safety.  "Come on."
+
+He led the way up the bank to where the high land gave way to the
+treacherous mud.  Higgins essayed attempts in various directions, but
+each time found the mud of unwadable depths and was dragged back to
+solid ground by his employer's long arms.
+
+"We'll try the mangrove swamp," said Payne.
+
+Higgins' description of the swamps as one "that a bobcat couldn't get
+through" was not an exaggeration.  Countless mangrove trees, each with
+its horde of branches curving weirdly downward and rooted beneath the
+black water which covered the earth, formed a nightmarish obstacle
+through which it would have been folly for any one to attempt to force
+a way.  Between the interwoven tops of the trees the sun found rare
+openings through which its rays struck bolts of light, revealing by
+contrast the infernolike gloom of the swamp's interior.  In these rare
+blobs of light upon the brackish water moving objects were discernible,
+the fin of a fish, swimming over a shallow, the snout of a
+crocodile--proof that the water was salt--and the inevitable squirming
+of snakes, small and large.
+
+"Nothing doing here either."
+
+"No," agreed Payne.  "I'll have to go up high and have a look around."
+
+Retracing the way to the large dead tree upon which the buzzards still
+roosted patiently, he removed his shoes and stockings and looked up at
+the gray, tapering trunk.
+
+"Up you go!" cried Higgins, bending his broad shoulders.  Roger leaped
+upon them, leaped again, caught a hold on the tree and began the
+precarious climb upward.  It was now near the end of the day and the
+time he reached the first spikelike branch which gave him an
+opportunity to rest, the sun was preparing its pyrotechnics of Florida
+eventide.
+
+Roger threw a leg over the branch and unslung his glasses.  He was
+above the tops of the other trees on the bank, and mud, water and
+mangrove swamp lay well below.  A patch of white far to the eastward in
+the swamp had caught his attention even before he raised the glasses to
+his eyes.  Through the powerful lenses the phenomenon seemed at first
+to be composed of snow-white flowers growing upon the mangrove tops,
+but presently he saw that the patch was moving.  Out of the sun-shot
+sky a cloud of tiny specks, white as the driven snow, were fluttering
+downward and settling upon the dark tops of the trees.  Fascinated he
+watched the spectacle until the white patch had doubled in area and
+only a scatter of specks continued to add their mite to the countless
+number which had preceded them.
+
+"Egrets!" he cried aloud.  "Millions of them.  What a sight!"
+
+He was looking at one of the rarest sights beheld by men, a great egret
+rookery with its countless beautiful birds settling upon their nests
+for the night.  He was about to turn his glasses elsewhere when an
+interruption seemed to take place in the snow-white patch.  A cloud of
+gray smoke belched explosively up through its center.  Another and
+another followed swiftly until six of the blasts had occurred.  The
+dense mass of birds rose in fluttering flight and flew wildly up into
+the sky where the setting sun turned their spotless white to pink and
+gold.  Only there remained upon the dark tops of the mangroves six
+small, ragged patches of white, the limp bodies of scores of the
+beautiful birds in each, where the strange smoke blasts had wrought
+their deadly work.
+
+"What's the good word; found a way out?" called Higgins from below.
+
+"Not yet."  Payne dismissed the tragedy he had witnessed and moved his
+glasses in a slow arc to the north and east.
+
+"Look for running water," shouted Higgins.  "That's our bet."
+
+"I know."  Roger was scanning the mud field to the northward.
+
+"There must be high ground some place beyond," continued the engineer.
+"And if there is, there'll be a creek running into that mud.  That
+would mean fresh water."
+
+"I see something that looks like high ground, all right," said Payne,
+studying a smudge of blue against the northern horizon.  "But I don't
+see anything like running water."
+
+"It's got to be there," maintained Higgins.  "In this soft mud it may
+be underground and you'd never see it."
+
+Payne held his precarious perch, scrutinizing the treacherous ground
+which they must cross if they were to continue their journey, until the
+sun, like a blazing red wafer, had slipped down behind the mangrove
+swamp in the west and darkness had come to the earth below.  The
+darkness spread and crept upward to where he sat, and as he prepared to
+descend Payne glanced up toward the last rosy gleams on the topmost
+branches of the tall, dead tree.  The buzzards, which had flown away at
+his appearance, had returned and the sun was gilding their black bodies
+and their foul red heads, as patiently, confidently, they sat waiting.
+
+"Higgins," said Payne, when he reached the ground, "there seems to be a
+chain of islands running across that mud.  I picked out a string of
+them.  The first one is out there about a hundred yards away, and I
+believe that's about the average distance between them.  If we can dope
+out some scheme for getting across a hundred yards of that mush at a
+time I believe we can make it.  That mud doesn't run on forever; I'm
+sure I saw solid ground with timber on it to the north."
+
+"How far away?"
+
+"It's impossible even to guess at the distance in that light.  I'll go
+up in the morning and have another look."
+
+"Do the islands look solid?"
+
+"There's brush on them; that's all I could see."
+
+"My God, I'm thirsty," said Higgins irrelevantly.
+
+"I have been so for the last two hours," responded Payne.
+
+"And you saw no water out there?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we'd better not eat any more of that venison.  Meat makes a man
+thirsty.  A hundred yards, you guess, between the islands.  Well, I can
+dope out a rig to beat that game.  There's branches and saplings enough
+here, and creepers, and vines for ropes."
+
+"Snowshoes!" cried Roger, grasping the idea.
+
+"The same principle.  Only we won't wear 'em.  We'll each make us a
+pair of mats about four feet square.  Big enough to support us.  I've
+crossed rotten ice on 'em lots of times.  Stand on one and toss the
+other ahead of you, step ahead, reach back, pick up the one you left,
+and toss that ahead.  That's easy.  But I'm worrying about your not
+seeing fresh water, Payne.  This will be slow, hard work.  In the heat
+to-morrow we'll thirst like souls in purgatory.  And we don't know how
+far that mud reaches or what we'll be up against when we get across."
+
+"Nevertheless, I'm going to try to cross it in the morning."
+
+"Of course.  So am I.  Now let's build a bright camp fire so I can see
+to do a bit of fancy Indian basket work."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+The sunburst of dawn woke them from a night of restless sleep.  Roger
+sat up sleepily blinking against the garish rays of the rising sun, and
+conscious of an indefinite sense of discomfort.  Sleepily he stumbled
+to his feet, seeking a drink of water, and then, fully awakened, he
+understood.  His tongue was hot and dry and his swollen throat was
+crying for a drink of the brackish water which he must not touch.
+
+"Hell!" said Higgins hoarsely as he awoke and felt his throat.  "It's
+getting us quick.  This heat just boils the moisture out of you.  Do
+your eyes hurt yet?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Mine do.  I ate more of that meat than you did."
+
+They found a sweet-bay bush near by and chewed the fragrant leaves for
+the moisture that was in them.
+
+"I'll climb that tree and have another look round," said Roger.
+
+"All right.  While you're there I'll try out the mats I made last
+night."
+
+They looked together up toward the top of the dead cypress, and Higgins
+swore.  The buzzards were still waiting.
+
+Roger climbed to the branch which offered a perch high up on the tree
+trunk and once more searched the landscape for a sign of fresh water or
+a solid path through the mud.  The scene below him now resembled
+nothing so much as a painter's palette streaked and splashed with all
+the bright primary colors and all their possible hues, shades and
+variations.
+
+The black mud field was livid with a coating of most somber purple shot
+with angry streaks of carmine and orange.  On the foliage of the tiny
+islands which dotted the expanse the sun was rosy.  To the westward the
+matted mass of the mangrove swamp seemed to be sheathed with a liquid
+coat of gold.  The mists of morning were rising above the swamp and
+upon it the dawn played its full palette of colors with delicate
+rainbow effect.  Above the mists the sky was flushed and hectic; and in
+the east the garishness of the sunburst was like the clang of a brazen
+gong.
+
+Payne moved his glasses inch by inch upward, scanning minutely the
+treacherous ground over which they were soon to venture.  Had there
+been running water within sight the searching sun must have revealed
+it.  He saw none, nor did he catch any signs that indicated a
+watercourse.
+
+The mud and the tiny islands stretched northward to the blue streak on
+the horizon, which might be timber highland or only mist.
+
+"It works!" called Higgins from below.
+
+By the time Payne had descended from his perch the engineer was out on
+the mud, demonstrating the efficiency of the mats of thin saplings and
+creepers which he had woven the evening before.  While standing upon
+one mat, which supported his weight and prevented him sinking into the
+mud, he tossed a second one ahead, stepped upon it, drew the first mat
+after him, and repeated the process.  It was slow work, for the mud
+clung to the mats, necessitating a heavy tug to free them, but it was
+sure--so long as a man's strength remained.  Payne followed tediously
+in Higgins' trail and presently by virtue of greater length of leg and
+arm, had caught up with him.  They reached the first island at the same
+time and found it no island at all, but a clump of mangrove trees
+inextricably woven together above a salt-water hole in the mud.
+
+They went on their tedious way without a pause, without a word.  The
+next island was the same, and the next and next.  Still they crept
+steadily on, buoyed and spurred by the hope that the island just ahead
+would prove different.  It was in the middle of the forenoon before
+they permitted this hope to die.  Each island, they now knew, was only
+a hole of salt water with mangrove trees growing in it.  And the
+islands ran on and on into the distance.
+
+The sun now was rising to the height of its power and its burning rays
+beat mercilessly down upon the parched pair.  Seeking a moment's relief
+from its heat they thrust themselves into a clump of mangroves and
+rested.  Neither spoke.  They had but one thought: "Water!" and each
+feared to utter it because of the effect upon his companion.  As they
+leaned against the rootlike branches of the mangroves dark shadows
+moved above them.  They looked up.  The buzzards were leisurely
+following their progress.
+
+Through the rest of the day they plunged ahead, the rest halts becoming
+more and more frequent, and with no break in the monotony of mud and
+islands.  As evening approached they stopped and prepared for the
+night.  Higgins now was all but a wreck.  His weight was beginning to
+tell upon him and his thirst had become torture.  With his knife Payne
+cut armfuls of branches from the nearest island and piled them high
+upon the mats for a sleeping place.
+
+Higgins climbed to his improvised couch ere daylight had gone from the
+sky and at once fell asleep.  As he slept he babbled.  He ordered bell
+boys to bring him ice water, commanded Mexican water carriers to pass
+him a canteen; and muttered fretfully that they brought him empty
+vessels.  Payne did not sleep.  The evening passed; and the soft
+Florida moon rode low in the blue mist of the warm night.  The moon
+disappeared; and through it all he lay awake, vibrant with a fear which
+he dared not own, and which made him yearn for the return of daylight.
+Higgins rose reluctantly next morning.
+
+"I can't do it," he muttered at first.  "I've got to have water."
+
+Payne slapped him full in the face.
+
+"Wake up!  Talk like a man!"
+
+The blood of anger flushed Higgins' face; he blinked and, wide awake,
+understood.
+
+"Oh!  All right.  Come on."
+
+"Give me your gun," said Payne sharply.
+
+"What?  Oh, hell!  I'm not that bad."
+
+"Not yet; but we'll play safe.  Hand it over."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+With the revolver in his possession Payne started the day's march at
+Higgins' side.  Soon his caution was justified.  At an island Higgins
+stopped and stared drunkenly at the salt water gleaming among the
+mangrove roots.
+
+"Steady, Hig," warned Payne.
+
+"What?"
+
+"It's salt, you know."
+
+"Oh, yes.  'At's so."
+
+They crept on.
+
+"Don't care if it is salt; I'm going to have some water," said Higgins
+suddenly.  "Look at those damn buzzards back there.  They know it's
+salt.  Gimme Old Betsy, Payne, and I'll knock one of 'em down, and then
+we'll----"
+
+"Higgins!"
+
+"What?" Higgins shook his head.  "What have I been saying?"
+
+"Nothing.  Come on."
+
+"I guess it's got me, Payne," said the engineer as they rested at noon.
+"The fever is in my head too.  I'm seeing ice and snow and things like
+that."
+
+"Come on; keep moving."
+
+Payne could barely talk, but he drove himself and his companion
+relentlessly.  He no longer troubled to look ahead in hope of beholding
+a change in the land.  The weary futile task of placing one mat before
+the other occupied him entirely.  And suddenly he found himself pushing
+head foremost into a hedgelike thicket of brush and stopped weakly.
+
+"One of those damn islands," mumbled Higgins.  "Got to go round it."
+
+"To the right; come one," whispered Payne.  He did not trouble to look
+up.
+
+"Awful big island."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_Awful_ big."
+
+Payne halted.  He looked up.  He rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Hig," he whispered, "look at it."
+
+Drunkenly Higgins put out his hands toward the sharp-pointed leaves.
+
+"I'm gone, Payne.  I see palmetto scrub."
+
+"Hig--it--isn't an--island!"
+
+Higgins sat down on a mat and covered his face with his hands.
+
+"I thought I could stick with you, Payne, but I'm no good," he panted.
+"Head's gone all to pieces.  I hear a creek clucking away, and all----"
+
+"Do you hear it too?"
+
+"What!  You gone, too, Payne?"
+
+"In there?" cried Payne, pointing into the scrub.  "Do you hear water
+running?  My God!  Hig, there's solid land, there's----"  He hurled
+himself into the midst of the swordlike points of the scrub.  Higgins,
+made suddenly sane by his companion's apparent madness, stumbled after,
+pleading, cajoling.  Neither realized what happened during the next
+seconds.  Their first realization of the truth came as they grappled at
+the brink of a rivulet, Payne striving to drink, Higgins pleading with
+him to remember it was salt.  The struggle sobered them.  Higgins let
+go.
+
+"Do you see it, too, Payne?  Do you see a creek?"
+
+Payne's reply was to scoop up a handful of water and carry it to his
+lips.
+
+"Yes, I see a creek," he replied.  Higgins followed his example.  He
+splashed his head in the clear, cool water, running clean and fresh
+through a limestone channel from its source in the Everglades.  Payne
+did likewise.  Then each drank a sparing sip of the precious stuff and
+sat down to sip carefully and at intervals until the torture of thirst
+had left them.
+
+"The buzzards?" cried Payne, looking in vain for the grisly watchers.
+
+Higgins grinned.
+
+"They're awful wise birds, those fellows.  They've turned back."
+
+They remained by the creek until they were rested, forded it and went
+on.
+
+The ground now was hard and dry.  They found themselves in a sparse
+pine forest where walking was easy.  By nightfall they were out on an
+open prairie, and at midnight they came to the trading post at Legrue.
+
+The trader blinked as he responded to their knocks.  In response to
+Payne's request for information as to the nearest telegraph office he
+stared stupidly.
+
+"Where in the name of alligators you been wadin', boys?"
+
+"Devil's Playground."
+
+The trader winked.
+
+"All right, boys, I ain't askin' no questions.  If you say Devil's
+Playground, all right."  He winked again.  "I ain't no snooper.  Come
+in."
+
+"How far to the nearest telegraph office?" repeated Payne.
+
+"Why, that's twenty miles, up to Citrus Grove, where the railroad ends.
+You can make it easy to-morrow."
+
+"Good walking?"
+
+"Just like this all the way."
+
+"Higgins, you stay here and rest."
+
+And Higgins growled in response: "Come on!"
+
+In the middle of the afternoon of the next day the operator at Citrus
+Grove spent five minutes in waking Payne.  He had been paid five
+dollars to perform the feat when a reply should arrive to the long
+telegraph Roger had sent to his lawyer, when at dawn he and Higgins had
+stumbled into the station.  The reply was quite satisfactory:
+
+
+"Deal closed with Southern Cypress Company.  Thirty dollars an acre.
+Company reliable, progressive.  Glad to have live development man take
+hold.  Their title clear.  Will see to transfer at once.  Wait at
+Citrus Grove for surveyor who leaves at once.  Garman unknown to them.
+Will look him up."
+
+
+Payne turned over on his side and went to sleep, the yellow bit of
+paper clenched tightly in his fist.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A week later Payne stood alone on the little Flower Prairie searching
+the flooded lands to the eastward and wondering why Higgins did not
+come.  The week had been a successful one.  A surveyor and a
+representative of the Cypress Company had arrived promptly, had smiled
+skeptically at first when told of the trip through the Devil's
+Playground, and when convinced had looked upon Payne and Higgins with
+the admiration of experts for masters.  Higgins had remained at Citrus
+Grove to organize ox-team transport for the material and labor which
+had been ordered, and Payne had started southward at once.  A sure,
+plodding ox team had carried him in a wide circuit through the flooded
+lands east of Devil's Playground to Deer Hammock.  Signs on the hammock
+told that it had been visited several times during their absence.
+Payne found tracks of a size which he judged must be Garman's.
+
+The thousand acres which Payne had purchased from the Cypress Company
+was found to run northward far enough to include the fairyland of
+Flower Prairie.  The eastern line was where the elderberry jungle and
+Everglade water met and on the west the line was well out on the sand
+prairie.
+
+"That's where you may have some trouble, Mr. Payne," said the surveyor.
+"Florida is a free-range state, and the cattle men have run cattle here
+so long they feel like kings."
+
+"Is Garman in with them too?"
+
+"Nobody knows much about Garman," was the reply, the same reply that
+Roger had received often during the week.  "But they'll run cattle in
+on you from there if you don't fence.  And if you do fence--well, there
+have been some ugly fence wars down here."
+
+"I'll fence at once," said Payne.  "It's the only businesslike thing to
+do."
+
+The surveyor had completed his task and gone.  Roger was alone.  He had
+pitched camp by one of the clear, cool springs in the heart of the
+Flower Prairie.  A camp fire was smoldering before the tent; the smoke
+had attracted attention.  Payne heard the pounding of hoofs coming
+toward him through the tall grass, and soon Ramos swung into sight and
+checked his horse sharply.
+
+"Well?" said Payne.  And then the girl of the Egret came riding up
+beside Ramos.
+
+Payne said, "Well!" again, but the word had another meaning.
+
+"Well!" said she.
+
+Then they both laughed, and she rode up close and dropped off her
+horse.  She was attired in a soft white waist and white riding
+breeches, but there was about her none of the tomboy so easily
+suggested by such togs.  In spite of the masculinity of her attire the
+long, supple lines of her body were exquisitely feminine.  And she was
+as relieved at the sight of him as he was glad to behold her.
+
+"I knew you hadn't gone away," said she, after a short silence.
+
+"Who said I had gone away?"
+
+"They all said so."
+
+"Garman?"
+
+A blush suffused the clear skin of her cheeks; and as she looked away a
+sensation of dread crept round Roger's heart.
+
+"Never mind," he said.  "Never mind who said it; I'm still here; and
+I'm going to remain."
+
+"You found your land?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was not as represented, was it?" she asked slowly.
+
+"Oh, that!" he said carelessly.  "That's all a matter of salesmanship.
+An honest, enthusiastic salesman will boost his goods to the skies
+because that's the way they look to him.  A farmer with a bunch of hill
+and rocks as his property will swear he's got the finest farm in the
+country because he's enthusiastic about it.  This is wild land here--a
+wild, wild land proposition.  It may look bad now as a business deal,
+but another year and there'll be a difference."
+
+"Then you don't feel you've been cheated?" she said, relief and
+hopefulness in her tone.
+
+"No!  No matter what happens, I don't feel I've been cheated."
+
+"Is that true?"
+
+He looked at her steadfastly and replied: "It is."
+
+"Where is your land?"
+
+"Right here."  He waved his hand at the Flower Prairie, at the
+elderberry jungle.
+
+"Here?" she cried, leaning forward eagerly.  "Do you mean it?  Really?"
+
+"Right here," he repeated, kicking the ground vigorously.
+
+"Oh, I'm glad!" she murmured.  "I'm so glad!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I was afraid--maybe my suspicions aren't true after all."  She was
+silent for a moment.  "But I can't leave--I can't leave now!"
+
+"Wait!" he cried, leaping toward her, but with one spring the horse was
+out of reach and galloping away.  Payne watched till she was out of
+sight, but she did not look back.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+Higgins and the first ox wagon of his train arrived soon afterward, and
+in the morning he led the six negro laborers he had brought in an
+attack with heavy machetes upon the elderberry jungle.  The big knives,
+wielded by the powerful blacks, cut through the-soft wood at a single
+stroke.  The brush was then piled and burned, and the land was ready
+for the tractor and breaking plow which were coming in pieces from
+Citrus Grove via ox team.
+
+Payne watched the work for a while, then turned his attention to the
+fencing job out on the prairie.  There was a mile of north-and-south
+fence to be built, and he set at once to work digging post holes well
+on the inside of his line.
+
+He had worked two hours when he saw a horseman loping easily toward him
+from the west.  The horseman was apparently a cow-puncher.  He was
+tall, dark and hard-featured.  He pulled up abruptly on the fence line
+and sat looking down, insolently refusing to acknowledge Payne's
+greeting.  At last he said: "What you think you doing?"
+
+"Well," replied Roger, "I'm sort of under the impression that I'm
+building a line fence."
+
+"You can't fence here."
+
+Roger paused in the act of driving his digger into the ground and
+looked carefully at his visitor, who, sitting his big buckskin with
+easy assurance, looked steadily back.  For several seconds they
+appraised one another.  Roger grew warm with the anger natural to a man
+who has been faced on his own land; the stranger was insolent with the
+bearing of a man who feels himself master in his own country and is
+face to face with a stranger.  Still keeping his eyes on the man Roger
+drove the digger into the soil, twisted it round and pulled up a core
+of dirt.  He continued doing this until the hole was dug, then pacing
+deliberately forward he came on a straight line to the stranger's
+horse.  He touched the animal sharply with the digger.
+
+"Up a step, boy."
+
+"Who!  Whoa ---- you!"  The rider checked his mount's startled leap by
+jerking back on the reins with a viciousness that threw the animal's
+open mouth straight up in the air.
+
+"What you mean ---- you?"
+
+"Easy, easy," cautioned Roger.  "Don't go to cursing.  That's mighty
+poor business."
+
+"Business!  What do you mean by prodding my nag that way?"
+
+"He was standing right where the next hole is going," replied Roger,
+driving the digger into the ground.  "Sorry, but you were in my way.
+Now I'm a busy man, Mister Whoever-you-are, and I haven't any time to
+waste arguing or quarreling with you.  I don't know who you are or why
+you've intruded on me like this, but I do know that you're on my land
+and that you've been extremely insulting; and if you've no other
+business with me than to tell me what I can't do, I bid you good-day."
+
+The rider apparently paid not the slightest attention to Roger's words.
+He sat crouched in the saddle in the attitude of a man controlling
+himself until the propitious moment for a sudden leap.
+
+"In your way?" he said.
+
+"Yes--as you see."
+
+"And you think you come here to move folks when they're in your way?"
+
+"Usually a man has sense enough to move when he's in the way of another
+man's land."
+
+"You come down here to teach us sense too?"
+
+Roger made no reply, but continued with his digging.
+
+"I said you can't fence here."  The man's voice was thick with anger,
+and Roger, sensing what was coming, though he continued with his work,
+his back turned to the rider, leaned forward upon the balls of his
+feet, alert and ready for any emergency.
+
+"You can't fence here!" snarled the rider.  "That's what I come over to
+see about.  I heard talk about your planning to run a fence, but I
+didn't think you'd be foolish enough to try it, so I came over to see.
+And I'm warning you to stop.  This is cattle country and free range.
+You quit right where you are with your fence and you'll save yourself
+money and us the trouble of cutting it down."
+
+"It's against the law to cut fences," suggested Payne.
+
+"Law!  We're the law here; you're an outsider; and I'm laying down the
+law to you now.  You cut out that fence business and don't try to
+change things round here and we may go easy on you.  If you don't folks
+will wonder what's become of you.  Understand English?  Now I've given
+you my message.  And now--you're in my way and it's time for you to
+move!"
+
+Like a flash the big buckskin leaped forward at the cruel dig of the
+spurs, and like a flash Roger turned toward the thudding hoofs,
+swinging the post-hole digger in a swift arc.  The shovels caught the
+horse a terrible blow full on the nose and with a scream it reared high
+in the air, its forehoofs waving almost above Roger's head.
+
+"Down on him, Duke, down on him!" bellowed the rider, striving to swing
+the brute forward, but as Roger leaped to drag him from the saddle he
+swerved his mount and galloped out of reach.  Curses streamed from his
+lips as he checked the steed and swung him round, curses for the horse
+and for the man on foot.  His quirt rose and fell, lashing the horse
+into a frenzy as he galloped in a circle round Roger.
+
+"You're in my way, you hear?" he cried.  "It's your turn to move."
+
+Each turn brought his course nearer his intended victim; and each
+moment wrought horse and rider up to a greater fury.
+
+"Move, you sucker, move!"
+
+Roger stood his ground, turning to follow the whirling horse, waiting
+for the moment when the rider would swing the beast straight at him.
+
+"Jump, sucker, jump! or I'll ride you into the ground."
+
+Roger jumped as the horse came thundering at him, easily carrying
+himself out of danger from the animal's hoofs as well as from the heavy
+quirt which the rider swung at him.
+
+"Pretty nimble, eh?  You sucker, you're going under the hoofs if it
+takes all day!"
+
+Roger looked round.  They were alone on the bare prairie, out of sight
+and hearing of any possible assistance.  Higgins would grow curious at
+lunch time if Roger failed to appear and possibly come out to search
+for him, but previous to that there was no hope that any one would know
+the grim game that was being played out there in the desolate waste.
+
+Three hundred yards away lay an island of palmetto shrubs with a few
+pines sprinkled among them.  If he could reach that without being
+ridden down he could equalize somewhat the advantage which a mounted
+man holds over a man afoot in the open country, but he calculated the
+danger of turning his back to the maddened horse and rider and gave it
+up.  A sense of outrage, deeper than his anger, began to grow in him as
+he considered the spectacle of being forced to hop about like a
+harlequin, at the mercy of a stranger, and on his own land.  The
+instinct of the landowner with his two feet planted upon his own soil
+welled up in him, and he whisked up the long-handed digger and took a
+stand to defend himself.
+
+His attitude was that of a man defying the other to ride him down, and
+the rider, accepting the challenge with a yell, drove at him like a
+Fury.  Roger saw the outstretched nostrils, the bared teeth and
+pounding hoofs hurtling at him and realized the folly of his impulse.
+As the steed came upon him he leaped suddenly to one side and struck
+furiously at the figure in the saddle.  He missed his aim, but the
+horse, with his nose still throbbing from the blow from the steel,
+swerved widely, and Roger's quick eyes saw that which gave him hope.
+
+"Come on, you cur!" he shouted.  "Try it again."
+
+A volley of sneers, defiance, threats, rolled from his lips as he
+backed slowly over to where he had been at work.  All the facility of
+his invention and all his vocabulary were called upon to drive the
+rider frantic with rage and to forbid his powers of observation the
+opportunity to function.  The rider saw no danger, failed to notice the
+little mound of dirt near which Roger was standing, considered nothing
+but the act of driving full speed at the man who taunted him.  Twice he
+rode at his agile enemy, twice Roger struck at the horse to make him
+swerve; and at the third charge the animal's foreleg went into the
+posthole round which Roger had maneuvered, and the rider shot like a
+sprawling puppet from the saddle onto the ground.  He was up in an
+instant, bewildered but unharmed, and as his eyes ranged from the
+struggling horse to Roger, the latter said grimly: "Now we'll talk
+business."
+
+A curse hissed from the other's stiff, open lips, and insane with rage,
+head down, he threw himself forward.  Roger met the rush with a
+straight left, which cut through an eyebrow like a knife, and went home
+with a crack on a high cheek bone; but no blow could stop the rush of
+rage and in another moment the man was on him, grappling for a hold.
+The fight for the nonce became a scuffle.  The stranger fought as Roger
+had never seen a white man fight before; his hard brown fingers were
+fixed rigidly like iron claws with which he struck and clutched
+spasmodically for a grip on the flesh of face or neck.
+
+"I'll claw the face off you, you sucker!  I'll leave you blind for the
+vultures to pick."
+
+"Fight like a white man!" cried Roger, throwing him off.  "Close your
+fists and hit, or, by the eternal, I'll beat you to a pulp."
+
+He caught the wrists of the frenziedly clawing hands as they chopped at
+him again and in an instant was forced to let go, as his assailant
+kicked with vicious cunning at his groin.  Roger drew a great breath,
+filling his lungs to their utmost capacity, then, venting his loathing
+rage in a rumbling bellow, he dove in regardless.  Straight against the
+ironlike claws he drove, reckless in the grasp of the anger that had
+exploded within him at the unfair trick.  Up and back he beat the
+clutching hands, and drove his right fist to the lower ribs with a
+force that made the victim gasp.  Again he struck, bringing his fist
+from behind him in an irresistible arc to its mark.  Again and again he
+struck the cattleman's hardened body and then, sensing his opponent's
+wilting, he drove in, both arms working like pistons, literally beating
+his man flat to the ground.
+
+Roger stepped back.  The tough-bodied fellow on the ground, though
+overwhelmed by the relentless shower of blows, was not unconscious and
+not whipped.  He lay panting and helpless for the moment, his eyes held
+fearfully on Roger's boots.
+
+"You hound!" gasped the young man as he understood.  "Do you think I'd
+kick you when you're down.  Get up, get up!  You've got only half of
+what's coming to you."
+
+"Can't get up," said the prostrate man sullenly, after a pause.  "Hip's
+broke, or something."
+
+"You lie!  Get up, you liar!"
+
+"All right."  The cattleman slumped helplessly together.  "Go ahead;
+stomp on me.  I can't get up."
+
+Roger stood looking down at him irresolutely.  In the fury of combat he
+had been ready, even eager, to wreak any possible damage to his
+opponent by fighting.  Now with his blood growing cooler and no
+antagonist before him it was a different matter, and the Anglo-Saxon
+instinct to succor a fallen and helpless foe began to assert itself.
+
+"You're a lying hound," he said furiously, to hide his intentions.
+"Your hip is as sound as mine.  Get up."
+
+"All right; stomp on me; go ahead; I can't move."
+
+"Where do you pretend you're hurt?"
+
+"It's here."  The man's right hand was fumbling in the side pocket of
+his overalls.  "Broke or paralyzed or something!  Oh! oh!  Mister, you
+won the fight.  Oh!  Going to leave me here for the buzzards, I s'pose?"
+
+"What do you take me for?"  Roger bent over his victim.  "Turn over so
+I can see where your hand is."
+
+"Oh, oh!  Straighten my leg out, for Gawd's sake."  Roger bent to do
+so, his eyes for the moment leaving the other's face.  "Easy; easy,
+now.  There, you sucker; take that!"
+
+As one might leap back from a reptile's fangs, so Roger leaped at the
+burning sensation and the thud of a blow on his back.  The cattleman,
+too, came to his feet with a spring that betrayed his shaming
+[Transcriber's note: shamming?]; and at sight of the glistening thing
+in the man's hand Roger understood.  It was a long-bladed clasp knife
+with a button catch.  While the man was groaning and pretending to feel
+for his broken bones he had opened the knife in his pocket; and when
+Roger had bent over the man had stabbed him in the back.
+
+The man was grinning in bestial fashion, his teeth bared, his eyes
+alight with devilish expectancy, waiting for his victim to fall.  He
+was gloating; he feasted his eyes upon Roger's fresh young face, his
+bright eyes, and waited for the flesh to begin to fade and grow
+greenish white; for the eyes to fill with a slow astonishment and to
+grow dim as a light that is turned out, and for the great young body to
+come crashing stupidly to the ground.  He made no move to strike again;
+he was too intensely interested in anticipation of the sight he thought
+to gloat over.  The delectable spectacle did not seem to come.  The
+victim's fresh color did not fade; his bright eyes did not grow dim.
+
+"Missed," said Roger quietly, withdrawing his wet hand from its
+exploration.  "Hit a rib.  Now, cur, do your damnedest!"
+
+He walked forward toward the outpointed knife, walked straight-limbed
+and head up, his shoulders squared, his jaw set in fashion that
+indicated how completely caution had been flung aside.
+
+But the man was watching the blue eyes and he was of the breed that
+cannot fight fair.  He quailed before the Northern relentlessness, bred
+of kinship with the relentless Northern ice, that showed in those blue
+eyes.  He could not fathom what was in the look that chilled him; his
+breed never could; but one thing he understood: He had met his master.
+
+He gave ground a foot, the knife still held out before him.  He gave a
+yard.  He wilted, became panic-stricken, turned and fled to his horse
+and galloped away.  Well out of reach he turned and waved his blade in
+a dramatic threat.  Then he disappeared behind an islet of palmetto
+scrub.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+Payne stalked back to where Higgins and his negroes were slashing into
+the elderberry brush.
+
+"Call 'em off," he said abruptly.  "We're going to build a fence.
+They've served their first notice; I'm going to shoot one back at them."
+
+"Shoot is right," said Higgins, picking up one of the 30-30 carbines
+which had been a part of his first load.  Payne had armed himself
+similarly.  "When you get ready you'll probably give me a hint of
+what's happened."
+
+As they led the crew over to the western line and started them at work
+on the post holes Payne related the story of the fight.
+
+"I went on the fence job alone because I wanted to reason with them if
+they came to stop me," he said.  "I thought they could be made to
+understand that a new day has dawned down here.  Apparently I was
+mistaken.  There'll be no more attempt at friendliness on my part."
+
+"Free-range cattlemen!" said Higgins.  "The same all over the world!  A
+fence makes them see red.  Barb wire is to 'em like a new steel trap to
+a wolf.  Wonder if it was one of Garman's men?"
+
+"I don't know whether Garman's activities include cattle.  What
+difference does it make?  Our job is to put this fence up.  The next
+move is up to them."
+
+"Here comes their first move!" said Higgins presently.
+
+Payne turned swiftly.  The engineer's keen eyes had picked out three
+small specks bobbing up and down out on the prairie and even at the
+distance he knew them for easily riding horsemen.
+
+"It didn't take him long to tell his friends," said Payne.  "Hig, you
+go down to the other side of the boys.  My guess is that they'll try to
+terrorize our labor.  If they drive this bunch off the news will
+spread.  Negroes won't come to work down here where they hear any white
+men are out against them.  If they're like the first pup they'll try to
+ride the boys down."
+
+"Yep; that's a favorite method."
+
+"Kill the horse under the first man who tries it, if he's down your
+way.  If he's up here I'll do it.  Then stop.  Stop absolutely.  No
+words.  I talked too much to that other hound.  Just wait for their
+next move."
+
+"Well--I've heard they carry guns down here, Payne, and use them well,
+too, sometimes," said Higgins questioningly.
+
+"Well," replied Payne dryly, "I don't think I'll try to tell you what
+to do in that case."
+
+The three riders were still far away and their approach was a slow,
+leisurely canter.  They made no apparent effort to hurry their mounts,
+nor did they maintain a straight course.  At times they were lost from
+view hidden behind the islets of palmetto scrub, or in one of the rare
+clumps of pine or cypress with which the prairie was dotted.
+
+"Looks like they're getting a little chilled below the ankles," called
+Higgins.  "Do they think we're such damn fools they can fool us by
+coming slow?"
+
+The riders disappeared behind one of the small thick clumps of old
+cypress trees draped with great curtains of Spanish moss, which mark
+the presence of a water hole on the Florida prairie.  When they emerged
+their course was altered toward the northward.
+
+"Looks like they're turning back."
+
+"No."
+
+The three horses suddenly broke into a gallop.  Payne reached for his
+field glasses, but before he could bring them to bear the cavalcade had
+disappeared behind a cluster of cabbage palms on a small hammock
+probably five hundred yards away.
+
+The negroes stopped work suddenly, eyeing their masters for
+instructions, but ready to run the next instant if the instructions
+were not forthcoming.
+
+"Lie down!  Right where you are."  Payne's orders seemed to drop the
+blacks in their tracks.  Relieved at having a white man think for them
+they stretched their great bodies in the grass, their eyes not on the
+menace of the hammock, but upon Payne.  Payne and Higgins remained
+standing, their carbines lying across their left arms.
+
+"If they can hit anything at that distance they've got to be pretty
+good shots, Hig."
+
+"I'll say they have.  Got to have pretty good tools, too; and most of
+the rifles I've seen round here are the old forty-fours."
+
+"If they are Garman's men they'll have up-to-date rifles all right."
+
+"Sure.  The best money can buy."  Higgins shrewdly estimated the range
+to the palms.  "Say, Payne, if they've got Springfields or something as
+good, and can use them, we're making a fool play standing here."
+
+"Lie down, there."
+
+"Down hell!  What I mean is we ought to get closer to 'em so we'd have
+an even break with these little 30-30s."
+
+"Then we'd be off our land.  They've got to come to us."
+
+"I see.  What in the devil are they waiting for?  Put your glasses on
+those palms and see what you can see."
+
+"Can't see a thing," reported Payne after a careful scrutiny of the
+hammock.  "The palms shut out the sun and hide them."
+
+"They knew what they were doing when they went there, didn't they?"
+said Higgins.  "Nice, dark hiding place where they can lay safe and
+have their targets out in the sun.  You can do what you please, Payne,
+but the first shot out of there I start for the hammock.  There's a big
+bunch of palmetto scrub south of it.  I'll get in there and give 'em
+hell-for-breakfast."
+
+Payne was holding his glasses upon the palms.  He had gotten the
+perfect focus now and saw that a broad wagon trail led through the
+middle of the hammock.  Out of this opening presently came the three
+riders, riding abreast at a walk.  Payne started.  A hot flush of
+embarrassment flooded his face.
+
+"Higgins; for heaven's sake, put down your gun.  Put it down quick, I
+say!  Hide it.  Get up and go to work, men.  Hustle.  It's all right.
+Get a-going!"
+
+He hid his rifle hurriedly, picked up a digger and set to work, grimly
+ignoring Higgins' frantic demands for an explanation.  He was working
+furiously and the crew was following his example, when the three
+riders, who were Garman, Mrs. Livingstone and the girl, came cantering
+up to the fence line.
+
+It was a different Garman than had faced Roger across the camp fire on
+Deer Hammock; and it was a different girl than had ridden away from
+Flower Prairie.  Only Mrs. Livingstone seemed to be as Roger recalled
+her, cold, affected; arrogant, and extremely conscious of the
+importance of her position as chaperon.
+
+Garman for the nonce was the courtier, the artistic idler, the
+dilettante in the art of luxurious living; and Payne, conscious of his
+dirt-smudged overalls, envied him the elegance with which he played the
+rôle.  That Garman was interested in the crudities of business seemed
+an improbability; that he was connected with things dark and hidden, a
+thought to ridicule.  His purpose in life just then was that of the
+luxurious idler, to escort two ladies of his class for a leisurely
+ride, to serve them gracefully as their chevalier.  And yet, beneath
+the silken coat of manners the tiger force of him was evident.  From
+where he stood Payne could feel the hypnotic power of the man's mere
+presence.
+
+As he looked at the girl he saw that she too had felt it--saw that it
+was Garman's nearness that wrought the change in her.  She seemed under
+an influence which subdued yet excited her as might some subtle drug.
+Her normally calm, frank eyes were heavy and mysterious with a drowsy
+languor.  Her tall, vibrant figure likewise seemed to droop drowsily,
+the budding lines of her body tremulous with young life and womanhood.
+Her hands hung languidly upon the saddle horn.  Only her rich young
+lips were firm and straight, as if her mind and will power were
+fighting resolutely against the desire to yield to the subtle influence
+which was steeping her through and through.
+
+"Are you fencing off Flower Prairie--that garden of dreams come true?"
+she said with a careless laugh.
+
+"Yes," said Payne, "but I'm going to put a gate in there."
+
+"Kind of him, isn't it?" said Mrs. Livingstone, turning to Garman with
+the empty, affected laugh of her kind.  "Shall we be permitted to
+continue our rides to Flower Prairie?  Are persons permitted to place
+such obstructions in such places?"
+
+Garman smoothed his tawny mustache, playfully bowing to her, as if
+loathe to interrupt with a reply.
+
+Payne was breathing hard.
+
+"Yes; they are," he said hoarsely, and checked himself.
+
+"Ye-es," purred Garman.  "If they own the land."
+
+Payne turned on him.
+
+"Where's Willy Tiger?" he snapped out.  "What did you do to him?"
+
+"Come, Annette," said Mrs. Livingstone.  "It is too warm to stand
+still.  We will ride back slowly."
+
+"Aunty----" began the girl, and then, as Garman moved his horse toward
+her, she bowed her head and pulled her mount away from Garman's.  "Very
+well, aunty," she said nervously, and there was relief in her bearing
+as she drew away from Garman.
+
+This time, as she cantered away she looked back.  And in her eyes was a
+look of appeal, and a promise that she would come again.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+"How about Willy High Pockets--or Tiger?" demanded Higgins the instant
+the ladies were out of hearing.
+
+"Payne," said Garman, instantly dropping his air of affectation and
+becoming the business man, "you've made a mistake in picking a chief
+assistant with red hair.  Damn it, man, don't you know it's a sign of
+hot-headedness.  Keep 'em down--foremen, crew handlers, perhaps; but as
+executives, never!"
+
+The veins were swelling in Higgins' thick neck and his face rivaled his
+fiery poll in redness.  He came toward Garman with quick, eager steps.
+
+"Hey, Hig!" laughed Payne.  "Are you going to prove that he's right?"
+
+"I came to see you about that Indian, Payne," said Garman, dismissing
+Higgins emphatically.  "Not that I'm interested personally.  Others
+are.  Didn't he come back to you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You haven't seen him since?"
+
+"No."
+
+"All right; neither have I.  He's gone back to his people probably;
+Indians come and go.  Now that will be all about Willy Tiger," he said
+in a tone of finality.
+
+"Payne, if you're going to stay here we'd better talk like business
+men.  I'm a business man."
+
+"I try to be."
+
+"Sure.  No sense wasting any energy fighting.  You're going to develop
+your tract here?"
+
+"Going to try to; yes."
+
+Garman studied him with new intentness for a moment.
+
+"And yet you look like you had business sense, too."
+
+Payne made no reply.
+
+"You know what a poor business proposition you've got, of course,"
+continued Garman.  "Even assuming that things are as you think they
+are?"
+
+"What things?"
+
+Garman smiled slightly, a slow, amused smile.
+
+"Payne, if I told you that I'm afraid you'd pull up stakes and get out
+_pronto_."
+
+Payne laughed.
+
+"That would leave you broken-hearted, wouldn't it, Garman?"
+
+"No-o-o," said Garman; "but it would--well it would deprive me of your
+company.  I'm a sociable animal, Payne.  I crave company; I like to
+have all sorts of people about me.  Take Ramos, for instance; did you
+ever see a more supercilious, sneaky, disagreeable specimen of the
+half-breed Mexican?  Neither have I.  You, I suppose, wouldn't have him
+'round you."
+
+"Not if I was able to kick him away."
+
+"Exactly; and thereby you would be depriving yourself of most excellent
+entertainment, besides the services of a most useful servant."
+
+"I haven't got any dirty work to be done, Garman."
+
+Garman smoked deliberately for several seconds.
+
+"Payne, once and for all, let this be understood between us: when I
+have any dirty work to be done I do it myself, with these two hands.
+Understand?  Now, Ramos fancies himself in the supposed position of
+bravo.  Very amusing, I assure you----"
+
+"I don't care about Ramos and your whims, Garman," Payne interrupted.
+
+"Of course not.  Why should you?  But I'd be bored to death down here
+if I didn't have people to play with----"
+
+"Rot!  You aren't the playing kind."
+
+"My dear fellow," said Garman with a deep chuckle, "if I didn't have
+lives to play with--other people's lives--I'd die of boredom.  You're
+young," he continued with a sudden touch of bitterness.  "You're still
+able to draw upon the old illusions to maintain your interest in life.
+Ambition, work, achievement, success--Love!  You're inexperienced
+enough to pursue the old will-o'-the-wisps that Nature has planted in
+man's instincts to keep him living till her purpose is served.  Pah!
+Payne, I've tried them all, won them all, and that--" he blew out a
+great cloud of smoke--"that is more real and satisfying than all of
+them put together."
+
+"Have your liver examined," advised Payne; "that's probably what's the
+matter with you."
+
+Garman's Gargantuan burst of laughter rocked him in the saddle.
+
+"Good boy!  We'll have a lot of fun before we're through with one
+another.  But what a materialist you are for a young fellow, Payne!
+What will you be at fifty if now you reduce psychological
+manifestations to a common physical cause?  Why, man, you ought to be
+walking with your head in the clouds, dreaming of the one woman, the
+Perfect Mate, and Love, which are to make your life complete.  All
+young fools of your age do it; why not you?"
+
+"And so you play with other people's lives, do you?" said Payne, paying
+no attention to the other's raillery.  "And is that what you're
+thinking of doing with mine?"
+
+Garman tilted back his head and smiled through a smoke cloud.  "Yes,"
+he said softly; "unless you run away."
+
+"Huh!"
+
+"No, you aren't the running kind.  That's what makes you interesting.
+That's what will make you good fun.  What could be more interesting
+than seeing a young man like yourself want something so badly that he'd
+give his life for it and then suddenly place the desired object far,
+far beyond his reach.  To watch his expression when he discovers that
+he's lost.  To see the change from hope to despair take place in his
+eyes, to watch the illusions go, and the bitter truth about life take
+possession of him.  What will he do, say and look when he discovers
+that the oyster of life is a hollow, empty, fraudulent shell?"
+
+"You're raving, Garman!"
+
+"Do you accept the challenge?"
+
+"To the limit."
+
+"Good boy!  I knew you wouldn't disappoint me.  The girl would have
+been worth while, but adding you, Payne, you glimpsing a dream of a
+fool's paradise, will be glorious!"
+
+"You talk like a damn fool," said Payne bluntly.
+
+Garman nodded, and with the nod his strange mood passed and he was the
+business man again.
+
+"All right.  That's all of that for the present.  Now, what are you up
+against?  What are your biggest problems?"
+
+"Thanks, but I am not placing myself entirely in your hands, Garman."
+
+"That's right; play safe.  But I'm talking business now.  You're
+tackling a hard job here.  What can I do to help?"
+
+"There's only one thing I want you to do, Garman; that's to keep your
+hands off this job, and to keep your men from interfering with me and
+my men and the job, or anything connected with it."
+
+"That's settled.  Anything else?"
+
+"That's all.  It will save trouble for both of us if you'll do that."
+
+Garman dismissed the matter as settled with a nod, and gathered up his
+reins.
+
+"Doing anything next Sunday afternoon?"
+
+Payne thought for a moment.
+
+"Yes; next Sunday I'll be going down the river to Gumbo Key.  The
+ditching outfit that I've hired is due to arrive at the Key on Saturday
+night.  I promised to meet it and see it up the river.  We'll start up
+river Monday morning.  I'll be on that dredger all the way up, Garman.
+
+"Don't waste your time.  There'll be no interference.  In fact, if she
+needs help you can borrow the old Cormorant for a tugboat."
+
+"No, thanks.  They do their own towing."
+
+"All right.  But there's no sense of your going down there and wasting
+your whole Sunday on Gumbo Key.  I suppose you'd do that; prejudice
+against breaking the Sabbath and all that?  I thought so; it goes with
+the illusions.  But there's no need for it this time--and I've been
+specially ordered to invite you down to my little place for Sunday
+afternoon.  If you knew who issued the order you'd come, I know.  It
+will be sort of an affair to welcome you to our midst.  Better come,
+Payne; besides somebody you want to meet properly, there'll be a
+certain man there you ought to meet.  Sunday afternoon."
+
+"Will Mrs. Livingstone be there?"
+
+"Pooh!  Pay no attention to that.  She'll be tamed by Sunday.  Come
+about two.  In the evening if you wish I'll have the Cormorant run you
+down the river to Gumbo Key."  He paused and with a flicker of a smile
+added the words which he knew would evoke but one reply: "Of course if
+you fear it's a trap----"
+
+"At two Sunday afternoon?" said Roger.
+
+"Right."  Garman wheeled his horse and loped away without another word.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+Payne was not greatly concerned one way or another with Garman's
+apparent change of heart toward his enterprise.  He had no intention of
+asking or receiving favors.  All he asked was that Garman keep his
+hands off.
+
+The rest of the week saw the line fence completed and a good slice of
+the elderberry jungle cleared away and burned.  Besides this, Higgins
+and Payne cruised the drowned land and ran the lines where the ditches
+were to be dug when the ditcher should arrive.  Two main ditches,
+running in a V from the head of the Chokohatchee, Higgins' figures
+showed, would drain the surface water off the thousand acres of lake
+which had been sold to Payne as prairie land.
+
+In the soft mud the big ditching machine would eat its way forward at
+the rate of half a mile a day--a week should suffice to put the main
+ditches through.  As soon as the surface water was off, Higgins planned
+for a system of short lateral ditches running at intervals into the two
+branches of the V.  Thus every portion of the thousand-acre tract would
+be subject to thorough drainage.  Following the drainage of the surface
+water the underground seepage would run off as a matter of course.
+
+Garman apparently was as good as his word.  Each morning Payne awoke
+expecting to find that his fence had been cut during the night, but so
+far the wire remained unmolested.
+
+"That proves that Garman is boss of the whole country, cattlemen and
+all," said Payne one morning.  "The cowman that I whipped intended to
+come back."
+
+"If something had not interfered he'd have been back that night with a
+gang.  He was so mad it must have taken something awfully strong to
+stop him, and that means it was Garman."
+
+"Yes," agreed Higgins; "but I wouldn't exactly look on him as a bosom
+friend, if I were you."
+
+"Pooh!  I'm not fooled a bit by him.  He's simply playing with me--or
+trying to do it.  Well, we'll try to be right here, still doing
+business, when the game is over."
+
+One morning a negro from the brushing crew came running up to Payne's
+tent in great excitement.
+
+"Boss, boss!  Trouble in the jungle oveh dah.  White man driving
+colored boys away with rifle."
+
+Payne followed the excited man and found that the machetes of the black
+gang, hacking a space in the heart of the jungle, had exposed an old
+clearing containing a tumble down shack.  A tall, gnarled man with long
+hair and beard stood before the door of the shack, a Winchester held in
+his hands in businesslike fashion.  Behind him hovered a young woman,
+who must have been refined and beautiful once, but who now was
+slatternly, and two children.
+
+Payne called out, "Good morning, neighbor, what seems to be the
+difficulty?" and started toward the shack.
+
+The man with the rifle did not reply.  He merely raised the weapon till
+the sights were full against Roger's breast.  The young man stopped.
+
+"Don't shoot, Cal; please don't shoot!" whimpered the woman.  "They're
+too many for you."
+
+"Shut up!" growled the man.  "Git in the house."
+
+"Put down your gun," shouted Payne.  "Tell me your trouble.  My boys
+been bothering you?"
+
+"You're a-botherin' me," retorted the cracker.  "You cal'late to run me
+off my place here.  Well, I ain't a-going."
+
+Payne looked about the clearing and saw that here, hidden from all the
+world in the dense elder growth, the squatter had attempted and
+succeeded in making a primitive sort of home.  Fish nets and traps,
+otter and coon skins, hung on the walls of the shack.  In the clearing
+was a cultivated patch of the Seminole "contie" root, which could be
+ground into flour, and a scattering of domestic vegetables.  On a few
+stunted trees were a few dried-up oranges; and on the branches of one
+of the larger trees was hung a swing fashioned from tough-fibered
+creepers.  On one side of the rude shack a patch of moon vine was being
+trained along the wall.
+
+"My name is Payne, neighbor," said Roger presently.
+
+The squatter eyed him suspiciously for a long while.  At last he
+dropped the rifle in the hollow of his arm, keeping a ready thumb on
+the hammer.
+
+"Mine's Blease," he said at last.
+
+Roger regarded the man thoughtfully for a long time.  To his surprise
+he perceived that Blease was not at all of the unfavorable type he had
+expected to find squatting in such a place.  The man's hair was long
+and ragged, his beard likewise, and he was poorly nourished and clad;
+but Roger had lived enough in the open to learn how deceptive are
+external appearances in showing the true character of a man.  As he
+looked at Blease, meeting the other's hard eyes, he sensed the true
+worth of the man hiding beneath the guise of a shiftless squatter.  As
+for the woman, it was obvious that she was Blease's superior.
+
+"Tell me, Blease," said Payne suddenly, "How long have you been living
+on this land?"
+
+"'Bout two years," replied the squatter after a long pause.
+
+"You don't pretend you have a title to it?"
+
+Again the pause, then: "No, sir, I don't."
+
+"Have you got a mule?" broke out Roger suddenly.
+
+"A mule?  No.  Why?"
+
+"How do you expect to do any farming without a mule?  Come over to my
+camp next week when I get some in and I'll try to fix you up."  Blease
+stood looking at him, tugging at his ragged beard, shifting from one
+foot to the other, gazing hopelessly round for an answer to the
+miracle.  Finally he cleared his throat.
+
+"Some catch there."
+
+"No."
+
+"How do you mean that, Mr. Payne?"
+
+"Just as I say; if we have an extra mule next week we'll let you have
+it."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To farm with.  You've got to begin to make some money.  You can't stay
+on this land any longer without a title; that isn't business.  I could
+move you, but I don't want to; wouldn't feel right about it.  I want to
+get you to farming right so you can make some money and buy from me the
+piece of ground you're squatting on.  What have you got cleared
+here--five acres?  You ought to have about ten.  We'll measure off ten
+here, and go on with our clearing round you.  Now, what do you say?"
+
+"You mean it?"
+
+Payne crossed the clearing and stood before the squatter.
+
+"Do you think I'm fooling you?" he asked.
+
+The squatter shamefacedly put his rifle away.
+
+"My name, suh, is Calhoun Blease," he said in a new manner.  "I don't
+understand this yit, but I do not believe you are foolin' with me, suh."
+
+"If I am, you've still got your rifle," said Payne.  "Now, tell me
+something: Didn't Mr. Garman send you word that my job was not to be
+molested or hindered?"
+
+At the mention of Garman's name, Blease's thin figure seemed to
+collapse.
+
+"Garman?  Garman don't know we're here, does he?  Are--are you a friend
+of Mr. Garman's, suh?"
+
+"I think," replied Payne, "he is the worst enemy I've got.  Do you know
+him?"
+
+After a long pause Blease said slowly: "I was his caretaker over there
+once."
+
+"What do you think of him?"
+
+"He is the worst enemy any man can have," muttered the squatter.
+"He--don't know we're here?  Good.  Nobody does.  He's too smart and
+hard to be just a man.  Garman is--he--he was the devil who made us
+outcasts like we be--he did it.  Hiding our faces from the world,
+account of him!"
+
+"Do you want to tell me what he did to you?"
+
+Blease glanced at the little shack.
+
+"No, no.  I reckon I don't want to tell you.  But--Mrs. Blease once was
+secretary--never mind.  Garman and his swimming pool----  No, I ain't
+telling; I ain't telling!"
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+The rest of the day was torture for Payne.  Blease had said too much
+and too little for him to have any peace.  He had caught one glimpse of
+the woman in the shack, and alternately he wished he had not seen her
+and that the sight of her had been more illuminating.
+
+Blease's wife was no "cracker," no native of those parts, no type which
+belonged in a squatter's shack in the heart of a jungle.  Her presence
+there seemed to cry out the news of some foul miscarriage of destiny,
+of a wrong to her life too hideous to imagine.  Upon her face--still
+young--was the tale of a broken soul protesting against the wrong life
+had dealt it.  He drew his hands across his brow to dispel the memory
+of that look and to try to see Mrs. Blease as she had been before it
+came.  A high type of business secretary.  Blease had started to tell
+and had stopped.  Secretary to Garman possibly.  Blease had been
+Garman's caretaker.  Payne recalled the swimming pool with its
+drug-like atmosphere.  What had happened there?  He felt he would never
+know, did not wish to know.  What might be happening there now?
+
+A river of ice seemed to roll down his spine and little rivulets seemed
+to trickle out to the last nerve tips of his fingers, chilling him
+through and through; and he worked through the day dry-throated and
+breathing hard, conscious that a crisis in his life lay before him.
+Why should it affect him so?  What had he to do with Garman's affairs
+or the affairs of those with him?  The vision of the girl called
+Annette, as he first saw her in the dawn on Gumbo Key, stood before his
+eyes, and he knew how false his attempts at disinterest.  Life had
+caught him up in a net with other lives.  He thought of Garman, and
+groaned behind set teeth.
+
+Night came with no surcease to the apprehension in his heart; and as if
+to mock his mood the scene, after a lurid sunset, was beautiful and
+kindly beyond compare.  A mist of color like powdered silver filled the
+air.  Soft, near-by stars blinked lazily down upon the scene,
+illumining it without the effect of brilliance.  A half moon hung idly
+in the mists above the cypress trees, and long, languorous shadows
+streaked the silvered ground with black.  In the dark jungle of elder
+bushes there opened long vistas of silver light, as unreal as the black
+tops of the far-away trees.  In the unreality of the night the earth
+itself seemed unreal, all things appeared as shadows swimming in a
+dream sea of soft radiance.
+
+Payne left his tent and walked out into the marvelous night, unsoothed
+by its beauty, not caring whither he went.  Annette's eyes had promised
+she would return, and he went toward the sand prairie where he knew she
+rode sometimes in the cool of the evening.  He came abruptly upon the
+wire of his line fence, and for a moment stood gripping the wires and
+looking off into the distance, over the sand prairie.  He found himself
+presently by the gate he had cut in the wire as an entrance to Flower
+Prairie, and stood entranced by the dreamy beauty of the spot.  In the
+center of the park the bowllike sand of a long dried-up water hole
+seemed overlaid by a thin sheet of silver, and the tiny palms that
+circled its shores were dark pillars, topped by a crown of silver
+leaves.  The effect of the moon upon the water of the Prairie's tiny
+spring lake was like magic.  In its silver gleam the trees, shrubs and
+even the flowers upon its bank were reflected vividly, and a fish
+swimming near the surface lifted the water in a gentle, rolling swell.
+
+Payne looked, and in place of the lake he seemed to behold a swimming
+pool and to sense an atmosphere that was like a drug.  He opened the
+gate and stepped out on the sand prairie.  As in moments of crisis,
+when unseen, unknown forces take a life in hand, he was for the moment
+like a man in a dream, unconscious of his movements, incapable of
+intention.  He leaned against the gatepost to think.  The soft
+thud-thud of an unseen horse, walking slowly somewhere out upon the
+prairie, brought him up with a jerk.  He peered into the moonlight in a
+vain effort to see.  Placing his ear to the ground he caught the sound
+again and after a moment made out that the hoof beats were coming
+slowly toward his fence.
+
+Payne stepped within his own line and closed the gate.
+
+Presently he flung it open again and stood in the shade of a palmetto,
+waiting.  He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not a victim of the
+night's magic.  It was Annette on her pony; she had kept the promise of
+her eyes.  But her appearance gave Roger a shock.  Her hair was
+disheveled.  Her hands hung limply upon the saddle pommel and her head
+was bowed.  She rode through the gate, past him to the brink of the
+tiny lakelet and halted.  Then she looked round as if seeking some one.
+She looked to where the tent lights gleamed mistily through the canvas
+of Payne's camp.  Then, after a long while, she dismounted and started
+to lead her mount toward the tents.  Payne stepped forward out of the
+shadows and into her sight.
+
+Neither spoke at first.  Surprise had rendered her speechless; and as
+the silvery moon haze revealed her upturned face Payne was frozen dumb.
+For the look in her eyes and upon her face was a hint of the look which
+he had beheld upon the countenance of Mrs. Blease.  He recoiled from it
+at first.  Then he bent forward, scanning her mercilessly, and saw with
+a sense of relief that he was wrong.  The face of the girl was the
+panorama of a struggle.  There was fear there, and uncertainty in the
+eyes; but there was no acknowledgment of defeat.  The change in her
+bearing was appalling to Payne.  The gallant bearing of her vibrant
+young body was gone.  She might have been drugged, so submerged was her
+true self.
+
+"You think it's the moon, don't you?" she said with an uneasy laugh,
+leaning languidly against the patient pony's neck.  "Well, it isn't.
+It--it's something else--something so different--I don't even
+understand what it is.  I don't even know if there is anything.  Yet
+there must be; it affects me so.  I'm afraid--and yet I'm not.  I--I
+rather like it, too.  That's why I'm afraid; I like it so well.  It
+seems so--soothing."
+
+"Miss----" began Roger and paused, puzzled at what to call her.
+
+Her response was a languid chuckle.
+
+"My name?  How formal!  Does it seem natural to be formal here?  It
+doesn't to me.  And it doesn't seem pleasant; it jars so.  That's why
+the other thing, whatever it is, seems so inviting and inevitable.  So
+natural.  No formality.  No straining.  Nothing but--that."
+
+"What is--'that'?" asked Payne.
+
+"I don't know," she responded in wide-eyed wonderment.  "Really, I
+don't.  It isn't anything tangible.  It's over there some place," she
+nodded languidly across the prairie.  "It--frightened me to-night.  I
+ran away--but I didn't escape it."
+
+"It's Garman!" blurted Payne hoarsely.
+
+"Oh, don't!"  She cowered against the pony.  "Please--please don't!
+Oh, if you don't wish to be cruel----"
+
+"Miss Annette!"
+
+The utterance of her name seemed to bring back a sense of her true
+self.  She straightened herself slowly to her full height, and her
+poise of assurance seemed to come back to its own.
+
+"It must sound terribly silly to you," she said quietly.  "I wonder if
+the Florida moon affects every one that way."
+
+"You said it wasn't the moon."
+
+"No," she said seriously, "it isn't."  She paused, stroking the pony's
+neck thoughtfully.  "Do you know, I actually was so frightened at
+nothing that I ran away this evening."
+
+"You were going over there?"  He pointed toward the vague lights
+showing through the tents of his camp.
+
+"Why--yes.  It isn't the most thickly populated part of the world about
+here, isn't it?  White people aren't so plentiful here.  At least I
+knew there were white men at those tents--that funny red-haired man and
+yourself.  You see it was the only place about here where I knew I
+could find anybody who--what shall I say?  Why, who doesn't belong in
+this weird atmosphere----It was uncanny over at our place this evening.
+At sunset the water in the swimming pool didn't seem to be water at
+all; it seemed molten gold; and the mosaic round it seemed to be made
+up of whitened bones, and back of that was the fringe of palms hiding
+the jungle.  It suddenly seemed to me that the palms were there for
+that purpose, and that the jungle needed to be hidden; and the palms
+seemed to know it, for their fronds hung drooping, like the hands of
+weary, worn-out women, tired of concealing whatever it is that's Back
+There--in the jungle--on Palm Island."
+
+"You don't mind my talking, do you?  It's a relief.  I couldn't talk to
+any one over there.  The whole place seemed to be suffocating.  I had
+to talk.  I'll tell you why; I wanted to go into the jungle and see
+what it is the palms hide back there at night.  Isn't it ludicrous--or
+ghastly--whichever way you look at it?"
+
+"You aren't alone over there?  Mrs. Livingstone is still there, isn't
+she?"
+
+"Yes, Aunty's still there.  I'm safely chaperoned."  She laughed with a
+note of hardness in her young voice.  "What a chaperon!  If she knew I
+was here talking to you I believe it would drive her mad.  She guards
+me so closely--when it pleases her to do so."
+
+She laughed bitterly again.
+
+"That's why she brought me down here alone to--that house.  I am
+beginning to understand Aunty.  I never knew why she guarded me so
+carefully before.  My mother died before I could remember.  Aunty
+brought me up.  She's my father's sister.  She brought me up well, for
+her purpose.  I've been in schools all my life it seems until last
+winter.  Then she brought me out, in Washington.  Since then--Society.
+You see, we haven't got money.  People think we have, but we haven't.
+So I've been on display, set up by Aunty in one of society's shop
+windows, like goods in the Boardwalk booths at Atlantic City.  Do you
+mind my rambling?"
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"You don't know what such a life means.  You're a producer; I've been a
+doll tricked out for inspection by the men who are rich enough to buy
+expensive dolls.  But we've no money.  Society asks about that first of
+all when--an Aunty is trying to put a doll up for sale:
+
+"'What have you to offer?  Honesty?  Character?  Decency?  Oh,
+well-hm-hm.  Is that all?  Then stand in the corner there among the
+obscure ones.  Some one will see you in time--if you live long enough.
+And the next: What have you to offer?  Intelligence; thought?  No sale;
+you make us all feel uncomfortable.  Virtue?  Tut, tut, my dear!
+Cleverness, charm, facile smartness?  The crowd gathers round.  Beauty?
+The crowd grows thicker.  Money--wealth--gold by millions?  Ah!  Come
+to our arms, you golden one, rotten to the core though you may
+be--gentleman with a gorilla's tastes; lady with Madonna face, Venus
+body, viper soul!  Come to the throne; we salaam before you--your gold
+has made you sacred.'
+
+"Oh!  The stench of it still is in my nostrils; I still feel thick cold
+fingers on my bare arms.  I once was one of them--serenely satisfied
+that I was one of the elect of earth, though I had never produced a
+thing in this world, but only consumed.  No right at all to anything
+and sure I had the right to everything, to consume food, to wear out
+clothes, to wear out servants.  In return I gave--nothing.  Not a
+thing.  But I've waked up.  Earth--good, black earth--you are greater
+than Mrs. Butterfly Croesus and all her brood; because you are real.
+
+"I see it now.  My silly pretty face, my woman's body, my graces,
+seductions, all have been so much bait for Aunty's fishing.  Bait!
+That's what I've been; bait to catch goldfish!  And she brought me down
+here on the greatest fishing trip she's ever attempted."
+
+"But you have a father."
+
+"Yes.  You will meet him Sunday.  Well, I suppose I've bored you
+terribly.  Thank you for your patience.  It was a relief to talk to
+some one."
+
+But she did not go.  The mystery and companionship of the sub-tropical
+night was upon them with its sensuous caresses.  All of Payne's
+hard-won man-strength seemed to leave him: he felt as weak as a child;
+and he began to stammer brokenly.
+
+"Anything I can do--if I can help--what you spoke of--Back There in the
+jungle----?"
+
+"No, no.  Nobody can help me with that.  It's got to be just myself.  I
+know that now."
+
+She was the more self-controlled.  Payne could not speak.  All that he
+wished to say--his strength, his life, at her call in her hour of
+need--he expressed in a gesture.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+She touched his outstretched hand.  Instinctively their fingers locked
+together, instinctively she swayed toward him.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+He had released her hand.  They looked at one another a long time.  She
+smiled a little.
+
+"I must go back."
+
+She touched his sleeve lightly, mounted and looked down at him.
+
+"Can't I help in any way?" he asked.
+
+"No one can help me," she whispered.  "No one but my own weak self."
+
+And the look upon her countenance which had appalled him as she passed
+through the gate was coming back as she rode away.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+A soft, misty pall of midsummer heat hung over and pervaded the
+vine-covered forest of wild-apple trees surrounding Garman's house when
+Payne set out on Sunday afternoon to keep his appointment.  As he
+entered the footpath leading from the prairie toward the house, he was
+forced to stoop to avoid the curtain of flowering moonvine which hung
+overhead, and once in the path he felt again the sickening drowsiness
+of the shut-in air.  A mingling of many sweet odors hung about him like
+a heavy, poisonous drug; and he felt that it was pleasant poison, and
+walked swiftly on.
+
+In a shaded pergola running out from the house to the jungle he saw
+Annette, and stopped.
+
+An old man with a white Vandyke beard and pompously out-thrown chest
+was coming down the path from the house.  He strutted as he walked, and
+stood for a moment framed between two palm trees where the path entered
+the pergola.
+
+"Little Annette!" he murmured, beaming patronizingly upon the girl.
+"Happy again.  I knew you would be.  But I haven't heard you laugh for
+a long time."
+
+"No," said the girl, looking at him intently, "I haven't laughed since
+we came here."
+
+"But you are happy now.  Yes, yes, quite happy, quite happy.  Up early
+this morning and all round the place like a little lark."
+
+"Because I couldn't sleep.  And because--early in the morning--others
+are not up--and I can be alone."
+
+"No one can--no one can be alone in this world, dear.  No one should.
+The laws of God and man, of Nature, forbid it."  His old,
+self-satisfied eyes took in the long rounded lines of her figure and
+the virgin freshness of her throat and face with assuring calculation.
+"Especially, my dear, is it a crime to attempt to remain alone when
+nature has so abundantly endowed one for the purpose of--not remaining
+alone.  Also, my dear," he continued, the playfulness gone from his
+tones as he pointed sternly at the diamond upon the third finger of her
+left hand, "you will kindly not forget that you wear that."
+
+"Do you think there is any opportunity for me to forget it?" she asked.
+"Do you!  Think!"
+
+He attempted to face down her steadfast eyes.  He failed, and, turning
+his glance uneasily, he saw Roger Payne.
+
+"What's this?  What's this?"
+
+His eyes ran wildly from Roger to the girl and back again; and as they
+rested upon Payne they grew dead and gray with hatred, the futile
+hopeless hatred of an old man for one who is young.
+
+"Who is this man, Annette?  How does he come to be here?  Answer me at
+once; answer me, I say!"
+
+The girl looked long at him, looked with clear, calm eyes until the old
+man's pouter-pigeon effect disappeared.
+
+"My dear!  Forgive my vehemence.  You see I think only of you.  I was
+afraid----"
+
+"Yes.  What are you afraid of, father?" asked the girl swiftly.  "Tell
+me that.  I often wonder."
+
+"Afraid?  I?"
+
+"Yes.  I sometimes see it in your eyes when you think no one is
+looking.  Have you done something----?"
+
+"Child?"
+
+"Land sales, for instance?  If so, I must know.  I'm not little Annette
+any longer.  I must know things now."
+
+The old man stroked his white beard nervously.  His eyes shifted
+uneasily toward Payne.
+
+"Oh! pardon my negligence," exclaimed the girl.  "This is Mr. Payne,
+father.  He's purchased a lot of land down here.  Mr. Payne, this is my
+father, Senator Fairclothe."
+
+Payne bowed automatically.  He was dumbfounded for a moment, but in a
+flash his self-control had returned.
+
+"We have had some correspondence--business correspondence--Senator," he
+said.
+
+Senator Fairclothe was watching him with the shifty eyes of a cornered
+man who stands on guard, ready to parry a blow.
+
+"Have we?  I don't recall the name, young man.  Lane, Caine?"
+
+"Payne."
+
+"No.  No, I don't remember the name."
+
+"You're sure you don't, father?" interposed Miss Fairclothe.
+
+Payne came to the rescue.
+
+"Of course you wouldn't remember my name, Senator.  You have too many
+large affairs to occupy your mind.  It was merely about some land down
+here.  I've meant for some time to write you and thank you for
+influencing me to buy the land down here."
+
+"What!" cried the girl, and stood dumb, staring at Payne, with a hand
+pressed to her lips.
+
+"Influence you?" snapped Fairclothe testily.  "How could I influence
+you?  You are no child.  The buyer must protect himself.  It is the
+first rule of business."
+
+"Nevertheless, you did influence me.  It was your letters that caused
+me to decide to buy.  And I want to thank you, because otherwise I
+would not be where I stand at present."
+
+The Senator tugged at his beard, watching Payne narrowly, suspicious of
+some trick.
+
+"Any letters I may have written to you--which I do not remember
+doing--were merely a formal part of one phase of my activities.  It is
+gratifying, of course, to hear you express your satisfaction.  On the
+other hand, as I said, the oldest law in business is 'Let the buyer
+beware,' and it would not have disturbed me in the least, young man,
+had you appeared with a poppycock song of dissatisfaction with your
+purchase."
+
+"But I am satisfied," insisted Payne.  "Some of the land I bought for
+$30 an acre will be worth $200 when the ditcher gets in and we drain
+it.  It's rich, black muck, three feet deep in spots.  I see profit of
+$100 an acre within a year."
+
+"Hm," said Senator Fairclothe.  "As much as that?"
+
+"That's the minimum."
+
+"You will make a hundred dollars on our land--the land you've
+purchased, I should say?"
+
+"As soon as I get it drained, yes, sir."
+
+Senator Fairclothe tugged again at his beard.  There was a new look in
+his eyes as he revolved over and over again the words, "one hundred
+dollars profit per acre."  Payne had purchased a thousand acres from
+his company.  A hundred times a thousand meant a hundred thousand
+dollars.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say that," he said finally.  "I hope you will
+dig your drainage ditches soon?"
+
+"The ditch contractor will come up the river to-morrow.  It won't take
+long after he gets to work."
+
+"I am glad to hear that, too.  If I can do anything to assist you in
+getting your drainage work done, pray command me."
+
+"Just what I told him, Senator," boomed Garman's voice behind them.
+"We want to help him get his improvement work done promptly."
+
+Garman stood leaning against the custard-apple tree which had hidden
+his approach and looked at Payne and Annette as he spoke.  So far as
+his expression was concerned the Senator, whom he addressed, did not
+exist for him.  His lips uttered words for Fairclothe's ears; but his
+lazy, heavily lidded eyes searched Payne and the girl to the bottom of
+their souls.  Roger returned the look steadily; and by the flickering
+mockery in Garman's eyes he knew that it was Garman's ring that gleamed
+on Annette's finger.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+"I was just thanking Senator Fairclothe for influencing me in the
+purchase of land down here," said Roger deliberately.  "If it hadn't
+been for him, Garman, I wouldn't be here now."
+
+"If that is so," returned Garman, "we must thank him, too.  For we
+wouldn't be deprived of your company for a lot--would we, Annette?"
+
+"Mr. Payne was speaking of the land he bought," said Annette.  "The
+land with the water on it."
+
+"Yes, dear."  Garman's mocking eyes were on Payne as he spoke.  "Water
+galore.  But Payne is a worker.  Youth, strength, high hopes, ambition!
+Payne will have that water off in a hurry.  We'll be glad to see that
+done, won't we, Senator?"
+
+"Yes, indeed.  Improvement work----"
+
+"Mrs. Livingston was asking for you and Annette, Senator," said Garman.
+
+Payne nearly started at the change in his tone.  It was a tone of
+command, of dismissal, and to Roger's astonishment Annette and her
+father obeyed.  Garman strolled into the pergola and dropped into a
+chair, a huge, oppressive figure in white silk.  Lazily and from
+beneath the half-closed heavy lids his eyes watched Annette as she
+walked toward the house.  With an air of playful possession he followed
+the play of her young body in motion, the quick, strong flip of her
+foot upon the hard sand of the path, the firmness of her limbs, the
+sway of her rounded torso, the poise of her neck and head.  A smile
+lifted his mustache, revealing the thick red mouth beneath.  Indolently
+he breathed through half-parted lips.
+
+"Payne," he said thickly, "there goes Love.  There goes the dream of
+all young fools.  Aren't you dreaming a little yourself, Payne, eh?--I
+see you are.  You have looked upon the dream in the flesh, and hope has
+been born in your young, manly bosom.  Hope?  No; belief.  Belief in
+the realization of ideals.  What damn fools all you young cubs are, to
+be sure!"
+
+"Well," said Roger calmly, "I like that.  I like to have a man ask me
+to be his guest and try to make things pleasant for me by calling me a
+damn fool."
+
+"If," retorted Garman slowly, "you were the average young cub I'd get
+to my feet and apologize for speaking sense; but you're fairly well
+grown.  All you need, Payne, is to have the fresh young mask pulled
+from the face of Life and to see the old hag as she really is.  Then
+you'd be fit for something.  Payne, I believe I'm going to do that
+service for you."
+
+He looked toward the house where Annette was to be seen on the
+verandah.  He smiled as he saw how Roger's eyes followed his.
+
+"Payne, it's those girls with the fair, thin skin that the Southern sun
+and tropical environment are ruthless with.  They've no shield against
+nature's relentless desire down here, tropical nature's desire for a
+welter of life.  And when they're too young to have developed the hard
+outer shell of experience, why, their womanhood is just naked to the
+searching, smirching tropical sun, and they go plumb crazy.  Develop
+dual personalities.  Lose their civilization.  Want to go into the
+jungle, and so on.  Thin white skin, like thinnest silk, and blue veins
+full of young red blood showing through.  A fine spectacle, Payne; a
+natural princess among girls writhing in a struggle against the luring
+muck of the jungle.  Ever hear of Palm Island?  She's struggling
+against going there.  Well, she'll lose her struggle; has lost it;
+that's settled.  Come on to dinner."
+
+On the verandah he paused sharply, whirling about with the swiftness of
+a tiger.  Ramos, the Mexican, had come galloping out of the jungle,
+flogging his horse as he came.
+
+"Well?"  Garman's attitude, suggested the crouch of a tiger ready to
+spring.
+
+"_Si_!  Yes; it is so!"
+
+"They've got him?"
+
+"Yes.  He is on Palm Island, surrounded; not caught."
+
+"A-a-ah!"  Garman rubbed his hands together as a growl of triumph
+rumbled up from his thick red throat.  "Have Prince saddled, Ramos.
+Then ride back and watch so they don't hurt him.  I'll follow--I'm
+called away--on business, Annette.  You entertain Mr. Payne."
+
+With a leap he was off the verandah and running for the stables.
+
+Payne met him as he mounted, and caught the horse by the head.
+
+"Garman, who's the man Ramos spoke of?"
+
+"Let go, you fool!  The brute's a striker."
+
+Payne dodged the flash of the animal's forehoofs, but caught a bridle
+rein.
+
+"Who is he, Garman?"
+
+"A fool--trespassing.  Just business."
+
+"Not Higgins or any of my men?"
+
+"No, nobody you know.  Look out!"
+
+The horse lunged forward.  Payne stepped aside.  Garman was gone, like
+a hunter in sight of his quarry.
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+The silence that followed was broken by Annette's laughter.
+
+"What very pretty conduct!" she said.
+
+Senator Fairclothe thrust out his chest pompously.  Garman being gone
+he saw himself as the dominant personality present.
+
+"Men of great affairs, my dear Annette, cannot permit attention to the
+petty details of conduct to disturb their purpose when a crisis
+presents itself.  The truly big man lets his results speak for
+themselves.  Mr. Garman exercises the privileges of the big man that he
+is.  It is a privilege to see such a man meeting and solving a problem."
+
+"Do you know what it is about, father?"
+
+"Not at all.  Nor do I concern myself.  I know Mr. Garman."
+
+The girl leaned forward and peered in his eyes.
+
+"Do you really, father?  Ah!  I see you do.  You too, then?  But how
+you--a man?"
+
+"Annette," called Mrs. Livingstone, "will you please come in?"
+
+The meal that followed was a ghastly affair.  One figure there alone
+would have served to cast gloom over the table.  Senator Fairclothe sat
+crumpled in his chair, his white Vandyke beard crushed on his breast,
+looking ridiculously helpless.  He had shrunk from his daughter's
+words.  Not until he had drunk much champagne after the meal did he
+begin to recover.  And soon after he strutted out to a shaded chair and
+fell asleep.
+
+Said Mrs. Livingstone presently:
+
+"Mr. Payne, I understand that Mr. Garman has given orders that the
+Egret is at your disposal if you wish to go down the river.  I believe
+you had planned such a trip, had you not?"
+
+"Are you going?" asked Annette suddenly.
+
+"Yes.  Our ditcher is down there at Gumbo Key.  I'll feel safer if I
+start him up the river myself."
+
+Annette jumped up with a cry of relief.
+
+"Get my sweater coat, Aunty.  Get one for yourself.  Father!  Father,
+wake up!  We're all going for a nice, beautiful, cool ride down the
+river."
+
+"Annette!" gasped Mrs. Livingstone; but Annette carried all before her
+like a young spring storm.
+
+Payne had not contemplated a start until near evening, but within half
+an hour he found himself beside the girl leaning over the port rail of
+the Egret and watching the water curl away from her gleaming bows as
+the boat slipped swiftly downstream toward Gumbo Key.
+
+"I was suffocating back there," she explained.  "I had to get away.
+Yes, Aunty; I'll come out of the sun in a minute--Mr. Payne, I want to
+thank you for the way you lied to my father about being satisfied with
+your land.  Why did you do it?"
+
+He turned to her, intending to laugh the matter away, but as he met her
+look, his eyes betrayed him.
+
+"Why did you do it?" she whispered.
+
+Payne looked away; and there was no need for him to speak.
+
+"Oh, no!" she whispered.  "Oh, no, no, no, no!"
+
+There was a long silence.  At last he heard her stifle a sob and looked
+round.  Annette was walking aft toward the cabin with slow, dragging
+steps.
+
+"My dear Annette!" cried Mrs. Livingstone and Senator Fairclothe
+together as they saw her face, but she pushed past them and disappeared
+in the cabin.
+
+"Sir!" began the Senator indignantly.  "May I ask you for an
+explanation?"
+
+"Lafe," interrupted his sister quietly, "will you go and see how
+Annette is?  I fear she stayed too long in the sun."
+
+"I demand a father's right----"
+
+"Yes, yes.  Please do as I suggest.  I am sure Annette is wanting you."
+
+Alone, Mrs. Livingstone turned and faced Roger.  Though she stood as
+hard and motionless as adamant, the jet pendants in her ears trembled
+and twinkled.  And Payne, as he saw the hard lines about her mouth,
+lines of fear, struggle, determination, felt sorry for her.
+
+"What did you say to Annette?"
+
+"Not one word," replied Roger.
+
+"What did she say to you?"
+
+"That is a secret."
+
+"Why did she leave you--as she did?"
+
+"That is another secret--and she's the only one who knows it."
+
+For a moment they faced one another silently, then suddenly the woman
+blazed out:
+
+"How dare you interfere with my plans for her!  Besides, let me inform
+you, it is too late.  She is engaged to Mr. Garman."
+
+"She is to marry Garman?" asked Roger slowly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then if it's settled--how can I interfere?"
+
+"You can't.  I will not permit it.  And if you could, what could you
+offer her?  You've no money, no position, no influence.  You're nobody.
+She is Annette Fairclothe.  She is the last hope of the family.  I have
+built our whole future upon her.  There will be no interference with my
+plans."
+
+"She has a father----"
+
+"Pooh!  That doddering ass!  Do you think it is he who has enabled us
+to keep our position in Washington?  And now he is going into his
+dotage, and the big men won't dare to use him much longer.  I'm not
+blind, Mr. Payne; I can see as well as Garman.  Let me speak seriously
+to you: Your presence here spells danger to Annette--serious danger."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, rather than risk failure for my plans, I will not stop at
+anything in the world."
+
+"Why in the world should you threaten me, Mrs. Livingstone?"
+
+Mrs. Livingstone's lips parted in a terrible smile as she walked away.
+
+"You?  Why, I was not thinking of you at all."
+
+Above the Egret a crippled white ibis, with a broken leg impeding its
+flight, was flying clumsily across the river.  Close above it, with
+deadly intent, sailed a brown hawk.  The hawk struck, but in spite of
+its handicap the ibis swerved in time to escape the deadly talons.
+Then pursued and pursuer disappeared in the jungle across the river.
+
+At Gumbo Key the black, scowlike hull carrying the ditching machinery,
+moving slowly in tow of a gasoline tug, was seen making headway across
+the bay toward the mouth of the river.  As the Egret curved gracefully
+round the Key and came alongside the tug to place Payne aboard, Annette
+came and stood by his side.
+
+"You're not going back with us?" she asked.
+
+"No.  It's better that I shouldn't.  Don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose it is."  Her eyes looked out across the bay to the open
+sea beyond.  "Oh!  I wish I weren't going back there; I wish I would
+never see that place again."
+
+"Do you mean that?"
+
+"How can you doubt it!"
+
+The Egret had completed her curve and with throttled engines was
+creeping smoothly up to the ditching scow's side.
+
+"You don't have to go back," said Payne.  "The ditching can wait.  I'll
+have them moor the ditcher here.  You can get aboard the tug and I'll
+have them take you to Key West, to Fort Myers, Tampa--any place you
+want to go.  From there you can go anywhere, as far away as you wish to
+go."
+
+"Really?" she cried, "Oh, but that poor little tug--the Egret would
+catch her in a mile."
+
+"If you get on that tug I will see that you go wherever you wish to go."
+
+"Once aboard the lugger and the girl is free!" she quoted.  "No, no.
+You don't understand.  It isn't so simple as that.  If it was merely a
+question of getting away, do you think I would be afraid?  It's more
+than that.  It's all in myself, all here."  She struck her bosom with a
+white clenched fist.  "It is something in myself--it's something I've
+got to settle all by myself.  You must not try to interfere.  Win or
+lose, no one can help me--no one.  That is why I must go back--though I
+am afraid."
+
+The Egret had crept past the length of the ditcher, disdaining to
+approach its grimy hull with her immaculate sides.  She was approaching
+the squat little tug.  Suddenly the girl held out her hand.
+
+"Good-by," she said.
+
+"Good-by?" he stammered, "Surely it isn't good-by?"
+
+The Egret's starboard ladder was gently chaffing the tug's fender.
+
+"It isn't good-by!" he said.
+
+"I am afraid it is."  She watched him as he went over the side onto the
+tug's deck.  The Egret, as if freed from a burden, shot sharply
+forward.  Annette leaned far over the rail.
+
+"Good-by," she murmured.  "Good-by!"
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+"Mr. Payne, I take it?"
+
+Roger turned to face the speaker, a tall, hawk-nosed man whose sallow,
+leathery face was set in the lines of the hard worker.
+
+"Yes, I'm Payne.  Are you the captain?"
+
+"I'm boss of the ditching outfit, Mr. Payne.  White's my name.  Was you
+planning we should lay up at Gumbo Key to-night?"
+
+Roger looked across the bay at the last glimpse of the Egret's white
+hull as she sped into the mouth of the river.  The setting sun glinted
+on paint and nickel and brasswork.  It was fancy, perhaps, but he
+seemed to make out the figure of Annette still leaning over the
+starboard rail.
+
+"Yes--I was," he said slowly.  The Egret shifted her course slightly,
+and like the snuffing of a light disappeared round the first bend in
+the river.
+
+"Well, I dunno," said White.  "So far's I'm concerned the quicker I get
+my outfit up the river the better I'll like it."
+
+"Do you know the river well?"
+
+"Reckon I do."
+
+"Can you run it by night?"
+
+"Shore can--especially as it's going to be broad moonlight."
+
+"All right," said Roger.  "Let's go."
+
+All through the night, without halting save for occasional engine
+trouble, the little gasoline tug dragged its unwieldly tow up the
+tree-lined reaches of the Chokohatchee River.  The moonlight illumined
+the waterway as with a million softly shaded lights.  The Spanish moss
+which hung from the live oak and cypress along the bank was transmuted
+into scintillating draperies of twinkling silver.  Upon the flowing
+water the light lay like an immutable sheen, seemingly a part of the
+flowing current, an endless stream of molten silver.  Fishes, snakes
+and nocturnal animals broke and rippled the sheen of the water's
+surface.  A huge, sharp fin ripping the silver before the tug's bows
+told of a tarpon strayed far inland with the tide.  An otter's head,
+round and hard, jutted up, looked round, dove again.
+
+In the magic light and shading, the tubby lines of the little tug were
+softened and altered; its paint-cracked deck and wheelhouse silvered
+and mellowed.  The twin wire cables stretching back to the tow became
+two glistening silver ropes.  At their ends, cavernous gloomy and grimy
+despite the moonlight, wallowed the high bulky hull of the ditcher's
+scow.
+
+To Roger Payne, standing beside White in the little wheelhouse, the
+mournful chuckle of the Southern nightingale, as it sounded time after
+time from the cavernous darkness of the jungle shore seemed to strike
+at him personally with a note of knowing mockery.  The weirdness and
+the elusiveness of the scene seemed the inevitable ending of the
+strange day.  On the rippling water the moonbeams twinkled like silvery
+fairy sprites at play; and in the junglelike woods on the shores yawned
+great caverns of darkness, their evil suggestiveness only heightened by
+the bars of light shooting down through the matted leaves.
+
+Back on the scow a sleepless negro, lying face up to the moonlight,
+began to croon weirdly.
+
+"What in the devil do you call that?" asked Roger.
+
+White listened, his head to one side.
+
+"Haiti nigger--French patois," was his reply.  "There; catch the
+'_mom'selle_'?  Haiti nigger singing."
+
+He reached down and picked up a bolt.
+
+"Haiti negro?" said Roger, puzzled.  "How did he get in that gang?"
+
+"Oh, they drift over once in a while."  White was measuring the
+distance to the scow.
+
+The bolt hummed through the air, struck the ditcher's shovels with a
+clang and splashed into the water.
+
+"Missed!" growled White.  "Shut up, you Sam.  This ain't no voodoo
+outfit."
+
+"Voodoo!"  Roger laughed mirthlessly.  "That would be the finishing
+touch."
+
+"How come?" said White, puzzled.
+
+"Do you happen to know Mr. Garman, White?"
+
+"I was 'specting you to ask that, Mr. Payne," was the drawled reply.
+"I got this to say: I know Garman, but that's all.  I dig ditches for
+my living.  I dig 'em fast and I dig 'em good; and--and that's all I'm
+up here for, one way or 'nother."
+
+"Right! and the faster you dig 'em, the better it will suit me."
+
+"Me, too," was the earnest reply.
+
+Roger looked at the man sharply.
+
+"Why?  Don't you like the job?"
+
+"The job's all right.  I've said I'd dig 'em, and I'll dig 'em fast.
+But the quicker I get done, and the quicker I get my outfit pointed
+downstream again, and the quicker I'm out of this river, the better
+suited I'll be.  That's all I'm saying."
+
+Roger laughed grimly.
+
+"You talk like you'd had dealings with Garman before, White?"
+
+"That's all I'm saying," repeated the man.  Then suddenly: "What's
+that?"
+
+A clear shaft of light pierced the moonmist ahead, lighting a broad
+space in the river from the next bend down to the tug.  While they
+watched in fascination the light came nearer, flashing in their eyes,
+and behind it resounded the unmistakable hum of the Egret's engines.
+Compared to the crawling pace of the tug the yacht seemed to leap out
+of the night straight at them.
+
+"Yo hoo!" yelled White.  "Look out!  Want to run us down?"
+
+A full-throated laugh rang out from the Egret's bridge as her course
+was changed slightly and her engines throttled down.  On the bridge
+beside the searchlight Roger saw Garman's huge figure looming.
+
+"Ho, Payne!" came a hail.  "Didn't see anything of the ---- we're
+after, did you?"
+
+"Not to recognize by that description," replied Roger.
+
+"A ---- by any other name would look the same," laughed Garman.  He
+leaned over the rail, smoking furiously, his eyes alight with the
+savage joy of the chase.  "Yes, and he'd stand just as much chance of
+getting out alive.  I'll get him.  He got away from Palm Island into
+the swamp.  Punctured your friend Ramos in doing so."  His laugh rolled
+over the water like the growl of a bear.  "In fact, punctured him so
+successfully that we had to cover Mr. Ramos with three feet of dirt to
+cheat the buzzards.--White, is that you?"
+
+"Yessir."
+
+"Well, White, you do your best for Mr. Payne.  He's in a hurry to get
+his ditches dug.  Do your best for him for he's a particular friend of
+mine--and of some one else."  He laughed again, shouted an order, and
+the Egret leaped past them and on down the river.
+
+"Ghost boat, ghost boat!"  The Haiti black, back on the scow, waking up
+from his sleep, had stared full in the eye of the Egret's searchlight,
+and now was staggering round, terror-stricken and dazed.
+
+"Knock him down somebody," called White calmly.
+
+"Ghost boat, ghost boat!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Down the--uh!  Oh, _ma Dieu_!"
+
+The Egret and her light had disappeared round a bend and the negro was
+pointing at the empty moonlit river.  Hoots of laughter greeted him.
+
+"Guess you got 'em, Sam.  No other boat round here."
+
+"_Ma Dieu_!  Ah seen him.  Yoh gen'men sho' they wasn't no boat?"
+
+"You're raving.  No boat at all."
+
+"Oh--Oh----!"
+
+"Shut up!" cried White.  "Shut up!"
+
+A moment's silence.  Then, from a black corner on the ditcher came the
+negro's voice, moaning in cutting minor notes a primitive jungle croon
+of fear and terror.  White laughed grimly, making no effort to quiet
+him.  Roger stared up the river and made out a flicker of purple light
+shooting up from the eastern horizon into the misty heavens.
+
+"Thank God!" he said in relief.  "Daylight is coming."
+
+He leaped ashore as the tug ran close to an out-jutting point of high
+land below Garman's, and cut straight across the prairie toward his
+camp.  The sunburst of dawn was at its gaudiest when he came within
+sight of the tents and he caught the glint of sun on the bare matchets
+of the clearing gang as the men prepared for the day's work.  Higgins
+was standing before his tent, smoking and chafing the men.
+
+"Everything all right, Hig?" asked Roger with false calm.
+
+"All right?  Sure.  Why wouldn't it be?"  Higgins took the pipe from
+his lips and looked closer.
+
+"Hi!  What's up?  What's happened to you?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, you don't have to tell me, of course; but--but what in the name
+of smoked fish makes you look as if you'd been through the Devil's
+Playground again?"
+
+Higgins breathed hard after Roger had completed the tale of Garman's
+man hunt.
+
+"That's a damn lie about Ramos!" he said.  "If he's dead Garman's gang
+killed him---Garman himself probably--afterwards."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Willy High Pockets has been here."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Yep.  I had him hid down in Blease's shack, but he beat it away."
+
+"Then it was that poor Indian Garman was after!"
+
+"Not quite.  There was a white man, too.  A guy that Willy met out in
+the swamp some place when he beat it that day after Garman had handled
+him.  It was this white man that Garman was after.  Willy was with him.
+Garman's bunch had 'em trapped on an island down in the swamp, but
+Willy happened to know an Injun way out and they slipped the noose.
+Willy came crawling in here last night.  He's got a tear from a
+forty-four along his hip and the white man sent him to us to get it
+doctored up and keep him hidden.  I slipped down to Blease's and fixed
+it up with them to hide him, but he slipped away to join that white man
+as soon as we had him sewed up.
+
+"Where is the white man?"
+
+"Still out in the swamp.  He steered Willy till they saw the tents and
+then he beat it back."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Don't know; Willy wasn't telling."
+
+"What does Garman want to get him for?"
+
+"Willy 'donno' that either.  He 'donno' anything at all about this guy
+in the swamp.  But he did tell a straight story about the sneak they
+made; and there wasn't a shot fired on either side, so Ramos wasn't
+shot then.  I'll bank on Willy's word for that."
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+White promptly made good his promise concerning the ditches.  Within a
+week his dredger had eaten its way through sawgrass, water and muck
+from the headwaters of the Chokohatchee to Deer Key, digging a broad,
+main drainage canal through the middle of Payne's thousand acres of
+drowned land.  Higgins' calculations proved themselves in practice, and
+the big ditch soon drew off the bulk of the surface water on the track.
+The work of cutting the small lateral canals progressed rapidly with
+the smaller ditching machine.  White worked his men in two shifts, and
+kept his shovels at work day and night.  He made no effort to conceal
+the reason for his haste.
+
+"I took the job, and I'll see it through," said he, "but outside of
+collecting my money the best part of this job to me will be when I wind
+it up and get out."
+
+"Still," retorted Higgins, to whom the statement was made, "you don't
+look exactly like a man troubled with cold feet."
+
+But White would not permit himself to be drawn out.
+
+"I'll be glad when I look back from my tug and see Gumbo Key behind me;
+that's all I'm saying."
+
+As the work progressed and it became apparent that the muck lands could
+be sufficiently drained to be available for agricultural purposes,
+Roger grew puzzled.  There had been so far no opposition or
+interference from Garman.  Apparently he had been sincere in his
+declaration that he wished to see Roger successful in the development
+of the tract.  Garman himself was not seen during the period that the
+ditcher was at work, but the conduct of his employees made it obvious
+that they had received orders to assist, not interfere with the
+draining project.  One day the proud Egret stopped to tow a disabled
+supply boat up the river for White's crew.  Another time two of
+Garman's men came out and took the place of a pair of ditch workers who
+were ill.
+
+Why was Garman doing it?  What was behind his apparent friendliness?
+
+Roger gave up the puzzle.  In fact, he had discovered that he was not
+so vitally interested in his land project as he had thought himself to
+be.  He worked and saw that his men worked, and kept the job up to the
+program he had outlined.  And he tossed at night on his camp cot, his
+mind tortured with other thoughts.
+
+White completed his job, pocketed his check and chugged away down the
+river.
+
+Two days after his departure Roger and Higgins were measuring the
+acreage cleared in the elder brush when one of the blacks said suddenly:
+
+"Wha' dem man do ovah thah, Boss?"
+
+Payne glanced out over the ditched sawgrass land whither the negro was
+pointing and saw three men carefully picking their way along the spoil
+banks beside the ditches.
+
+Roger studied the group for a long time, then suddenly he dropped the
+measuring line and strode toward them.
+
+"Right," growled Higgins, doing likewise.  "Those fellows aren't just
+sightseeing by a darn sight."
+
+Payne studied the men as he approached them.  They were dressed in
+tourist apparel, but their hard faces belied their clothes.  Each
+carried a cane, but the thick hands that held them would have appeared
+more at home gripping a blackjack or a revolver.  The largest of the
+trio, a hard-faced man with thin lips, studiously placed himself across
+Roger's path.
+
+"Well," he said, with the snarl of the city tough in his tones, "what
+can we do for you?"
+
+Roger choked down the rage that lept for mastery in his breast and said
+calmly:
+
+"You can explain your insolence to begin with."
+
+"Don't come that--don't try to come that on us, kid!  You ain't dealing
+with no crackers now.  What do you want, huh?"
+
+The hot blood flush passed from Roger; he felt himself growing
+comfortably cool; and within he laughed silently.
+
+"No," he said softly, "I can see that you aren't crackers.  What jail
+held you last?"
+
+The stranger swore foully, a string of oaths that reeked with the
+stench of corner saloons.  He pushed his hat far back upon his round
+head, looked Roger up and down contemptuously, and swore some more.
+
+"Know who you're talking to?" he demanded.  "Better get wise, you----"
+
+Again he polluted the air with his foulness.
+
+Roger waited until the stream of filth had ceased.
+
+"Are you going to explain what you're doing here?" he asked.
+
+"Am--I?  Am I going to explain?  Hell!  Are you going to explain, you
+mean."
+
+"Yes," said Roger, and leaped forward.
+
+Even Higgins whooped in surprise at the swiftness of the spring.
+Before the stranger could move Roger was close to him.  His right fist
+swung from far behind caught the man full on the solar plexus,
+literally lifted him off the spoil bank and knocked him into the water
+of the ditch.
+
+The other two strangers, heavy-jowled toughs, had sprung to meet Payne.
+One Roger staggered with a left swing on the ear; the other grappled
+his legs.  This man Higgins rewarded with a kick which would have
+shattered a thinner skull to bits.  Then two separate fights raged up
+and down the spoil bank.  Instantly Roger and Higgins realized that
+they had their hands full.  Payne ran into a body punch which made him
+realize that his opponent was nearly his equal.  Higgins was knocked
+down at once, bounding up like a rubber ball and cheering the man who
+struck him.
+
+"That was a peach, that one!" he roared, and returned the compliment.
+The man rose, knocked Higgins down again and jumped on him.
+
+"Rough and tumble it is!" cried Higgins, and grappled with bear-like
+arms.
+
+Roger refused to go into a clinch, meeting his antagonist's rushes with
+straight lefts, and following with futile swings of his right.  The
+tough was too skilled to be caught with a solid blow.  Once Roger
+landed full on the jaw with what he expected to be a knockout and the
+blow glanced harmlessly, as the man rolled his head back with the
+trained pugilist's skill.  Roger realized that it would be no short
+fight, and he thought of the man he had knocked into the canal.  The
+fight had raged down the spoil bank, and he glanced around and saw the
+leader clawing his way up the bank.  The pause nearly proved fatal.
+Roger's opponent leaped in and caught his head in chancery.
+
+"Hand it to him!" screamed the tough to his partner in the ditch.
+"Shoot him in the back!"
+
+With a mighty lunge Roger flung himself and his opponent to the ground
+as a pistol snapped viciously and a steel-jacketed bullet zipped over
+his head.
+
+"Look out, Hig!" he shouted.  "Stay under your man."
+
+"Turn 'im over!"  The leader who had crawled upon the spoil bank fired
+again and missed.  "Can't yah turn him up so I can get a crack at 'im?"
+
+Roger felt the tough beneath him exerting all his energy.  Slowly,
+surely he felt himself being turned.  Then out from the sawgrass came
+the roar of a rifle, and a heavy slug whined over the gunman's head.
+
+Bang!  Another shot.  Then the voice of Blease, the squatter:
+
+"Next shot, I'll hold a foot lower.  Throw that gun in the ditch.
+Throw it, you----"  Bang!  "That's right--Now get 'em boys, get 'em!"
+
+Bare feet came drumming down the dirt of the spoil bank.  A huge Bahama
+black was in the lead of his fellows.  He leaped like something wild,
+his machete flashing in the sun.  The gunman cried out and tumbled to
+safety in the ditch.  The black men came with a rush.  The fight was
+over.  Panting, grinning, their teeth and eyeballs gleaming, the
+negroes stood aside awaiting orders.
+
+"I'll be darned," said Roger, puzzled.  "Boys, how did you ever come
+here?"
+
+"Dat white man"--a grinning negro pointed to where Blease had fired
+from the jungle--"he say he shoot us if we don' come."
+
+Higgins had searched the two strangers and taken a revolver from each.
+
+"All right, boys," said Roger.  "You can get right back to work.  The
+show's over."
+
+From the opposite sides of the canal Roger and the leader of the trio
+glared at one another.
+
+"Well," said Payne, "you tried to run a bluff and it didn't work.
+What's the idea?"
+
+The man swore again and replied:
+
+"What's the idear, huh?  That's what I want to know.  You'll get yours
+for this--coming on people's land and starting a roughhouse."
+
+Roger stared stupidly across the canal at the speaker, incomprehension
+taking the place of anger.  "Oh," he said at last, "it's all a mistake.
+You got on the wrong tract: this is my land."
+
+"Like ---- it is!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Don't try to come that on us; don't waste your breath.  Think we're
+dummies?  This is our land.  We bought it last week.  And I'm telling
+you to keep off of it from now on.  Oh, I got the right description; a
+thousand acres west of a line from Deer Key there to the Cypress Swamp.
+Want to look at the deed?  Give you our lawyer's address if you do."
+
+"Who is your lawyer?"
+
+"Big Tom Connors, Washington, D. C.  And if it'll make you feel any
+better--why, he's a law partner of Senator Fairclothe."
+
+"If you think you have really bought this land," said Roger slowly,
+"you have been cheated."
+
+"Huh!  Do we look like easy marks?  Listen, boh: you're the fish that
+got hooked.  You bought a bum title.  Get that?  Didn't know this
+little piece of dirt was in the courts, eh?  Well, it was; and Big Tom
+got it, and we got it from him.  Your title ain't worth the paper it's
+written on.  Now, you're guilty of tresp----Hold on!"
+
+Roger had thrown his self-control to the winds.  He leaped into the
+canal and wallowed across.
+
+"Get off, my land!" he growled.  "Get off!"
+
+The gunman was running for dear life down the spoil bank.  On the
+opposite side his companions were in full flight.  Payne did not
+follow.  He stood and watched them, outraged to the marrow.  "And keep
+off, too!" he shouted grimly.  "Tell your lawyer, tell your sheriff,
+tell 'em all, keep off!"
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+"It's impossible!"
+
+Roger was too stunned to grasp the true significance of the situation
+at once.
+
+"The Senator's company wouldn't have sold me this land if there was a
+suit on it."
+
+Then, little by little, the facts began to clarify in his mind.
+Connors, the lawyer, was Senator Fairclothe's law partner; Fairclothe
+had been anxious to see the tract drained.
+
+"Oh, my God!" he groaned, "Are they that rotten!"
+
+"But you had the title searched before you bought?" said Higgins.
+
+"Of course.  Right back to the first Spanish land grant, and there
+wasn't a flaw in it."
+
+"Then those fellows are stung."
+
+"Pooh!  Those cheap toughs.  They're nothing but tools.  There's
+probably been a false transfer made to their names, but that's all;
+they were picked because they were fighters.  Well, whoever picked them
+hasn't got the least suspicion of what he's started."
+
+"Land titles are rotten things," growled Higgins.  "Specially when land
+sharks are juggling them."
+
+"They waited until the ditches were dug," mused Roger.  "They didn't
+know it would make good land.  And then they struck!  Higgins, I'm
+going right down to Garman's and have a little talk with Senator
+Fairclothe."
+
+"Bet you won't find him.  Bet he's away selling this tract again to
+some other sucker."
+
+But Higgins was wrong.  Senator Fairclothe had not gone away.  As Roger
+entered Garman's grounds, he saw Garman, the Senator and a man in long
+black coat and broad-brimmed black hat in conference upon the verandah.
+At his appearance Garman, lolling in a lawn chair, chuckled lazily; the
+Senator became as cold and pompous as the statue he hoped some day
+would commemorate his services to the Republic, and the black-hatted
+stranger closed his eyes to mere slits.
+
+"Lo, Payne!" drawled Garman.  "Come up out of the sun.  You look all
+heated up."
+
+He looked down at Roger, a smile on his lips as he noted the tenseness
+of the young man's expression.
+
+"Worrying about something, Payne?  Ideals been shattered?  Ambition,
+love--  Where's Annette, by the way?"
+
+His chuckle rose to rumbling laughter.
+
+Senator Fairclothe caught the black-clad stranger's eye and nodded
+stiffly.  The man rose.
+
+"You are Roger Payne?"
+
+"Sit down!"  In one leap Roger was upon the verandah facing the
+stranger.  "Sit down!" he repeated.  "My business is with Senator
+Fairclothe."
+
+"My business----"
+
+"Sit down," said Roger softly, and the stranger sat.
+
+"Senator Fairclothe," continued Payne, "there seems to be a little
+misunderstanding about the title to the land I bought from you."
+
+"You bought no land from me, young man."
+
+"You are president of the Prairie Highlands Association?"
+
+"I was.  I severed that connection some months ago."
+
+"Before you wrote me those letters?"
+
+"No, the day after I wrote you the last letter of our correspondence.
+I had no connection with the company you mention at the time you made
+your purchase.  I had discovered that the Prairie Highlands Association
+was not upon a firm basis.  Of the land which they sold not a foot was
+owned by them.  Their original title was false and invalid.  The
+company now is defunct."
+
+"I see," said Roger after a pause.  "And knowing that your
+recommendations as a United States Senator would influence people to
+purchase this land, and knowing the title to be invalid, did you take
+any steps to warn them?"
+
+"A United States Senator, I assure you, young man, has other and more
+important duties than nursing the petty interests of persons stupid
+enough to purchase land without seeing it.  In fact, it might be
+considered a duty not to interfere.  For the welfare of the country, it
+is desirable, in fact, that such money as such helpless persons may
+possess be transferred to the possession of the shrewd energetic men
+who constitute the vital portion of our population."
+
+"Bravo, bravo!" rumbled Garman, applauding.  "Senator, I congratulate
+you on your logic.  Payne, there's the philosophy of our era in a
+nutshell.  Now let us hear how star-eyed youth, inspired by ideals,
+controverts the wisdom of the togoed sage?  Annette, dear!" he roared.
+"Come out!  Come out and have some sport!"
+
+"Miss Annette is not in the house," responded a maid.
+
+"What?  She was a minute ago."
+
+"She is not now."
+
+"All right.  Too bad; wish you could see her, Payne.  She's changed.
+She's grown up now.  Senator, it just occurred to me: Annette is
+rapidly becoming her father's daughter."
+
+"Well, young man," said Fairclothe complacently.  "Have you anything
+more to say to me?"
+
+"I'm going to keep that land, Garman," said Roger, ignoring the
+Senator.  "Going to keep it in spite of all your tools, whether they're
+city gangsters, United States Senators, or"--with a glance at the
+stranger--"your deputy sheriffs."
+
+"Senator!" cried Garman in mock horror.  "He slanders the honor of your
+sacred office!"
+
+"Better keep a-hold of your tongue, young feller," warned the deputy.
+"I'm a little interested in this, too."
+
+"Well," said Roger, "I think there is something in this that will
+interest people bigger than you or I or the state of Florida.  I think
+the United States Government is due to become interested down here."
+
+The suspicion of a smile curved the corners of Garman's mouth.  There
+was a moment of pregnant silence; then Senator Fairclothe said
+impressively:
+
+"I represent the United States Government, sir."
+
+"Do you really?" laughed Roger bitterly.  "Then the poor old United
+States Government is in a bad way indeed.  But I deny your claim, sir;
+I don't think you represent the United States Government, because the
+United States Government consists of about a hundred million working
+people like myself; and all you represent, sir, are the few rich men
+and the few hundred millions of dollars which constitute the power that
+put you in the Senate."
+
+"Do I understand, sir, that you mean to impugn the honor of the august
+body of which I have the honor to be a member?"
+
+"No; I'm a busy man; I haven't any time to waste like that.  But
+there's going to be something said about using the mails to defraud
+before this is over.  That's Federal business."
+
+"Be careful, sir; I am a member of and represent the Federal
+Government, and I shall take care that nobody casts any aspersions upon
+its honor or mine."
+
+"What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"What?  Sir, do you mean to defy----?"
+
+"Consider the aspersions cast.  What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"He calls," chuckled Garman; "show your cards."
+
+"I shall----"
+
+"Hm," interrupted Garman, and the Senator obediently hesitated.
+
+"I shall not state here and now what means I shall utilize in meeting,
+as befits it, this defiance of our sacred Government.  Nor shall I
+continue any communication or intercourse, or any association
+whatsoever, with the party or parties guilty of such defiance."
+
+"I reckon this young feller has tooted his horn long enough," drawled
+the deputy sheriff.  "Roger Payne, I----"
+
+Roger turned his back deliberately and went down the stairs.
+
+"Here!  Come back here!"
+
+Roger was walking across the lawn, bound for the path that led to his
+camp.  He heard the click of a revolver being cocked on the verandah,
+but he did not look up.
+
+"Oh, put that thing up, you ass!" said Garman disgustedly.  "And go
+back to Flora City and draw your time--Payne, you're a big, bold buck.
+There's only one bigger in the country; and you and I are going to have
+a lot of fun before we're many days older."
+
+Payne did not pause to look back or reply.  Garman's taunts had driven
+him close to the point of explosion.  The wretched situation in which
+he found himself in regard to the land he had paid for and drained was
+a muddle in his mind.  Senator Fairclothe's brazen confession was a
+confusion.  The one thing that was clear to his comprehension--as a
+touch of white-hot steel is clear to its victim--was Garman's assertion
+that Annette had changed and was becoming her father's daughter.  And
+when he came upon her--rather when she stepped out before him--in the
+hidden path near the edge of the wild apple trees, Roger saw that
+Garman had spoken the truth.
+
+She had changed.  She had grown older.  Her beauty was as great as
+ever, but it was now the beauty of a sophisticated, disillusioned and
+hardened woman, rather than that of the buoyant girl he had known.  He
+could not define the change that had taken place in her, so subtle was
+it; but as he looked at her he instinctively flung out his hand, a
+gesture of pleading for something gone, and cried out in youth's agony:
+
+"Annette!  Annette!"
+
+And then the miracle happened.  At the sight of him, at the heart throb
+in his tones as he called her name, she seemed to shiver, then to
+awaken.  She seemed to change before his eyes; though it was only he,
+seeing with the eyes which that moment had given him, who could have
+been sensible of the change.  She seemed to grow and freshen as a
+parched rose at the touch of life-giving water.  Her eyes gleamed with
+the old, frank look, her cheeks were rosy, and she walked girlishly as
+she came forward.
+
+"Ah!  Goody, goody!" she cried, clapping her hands.  "Somebody likes me
+the other way--the way I want to be!"
+
+"Annette!" he said again, and stretched out his hands and touched hers
+and held them.
+
+"You--are happy again now, aren't you?" he stammered.
+
+"Don't I look it?"
+
+Her eyes were brimming with soothing tears.
+
+"Happy?"
+
+"Yes--for a minute."
+
+He drew her hands against his breast.  He held her so, and she looked
+up, her wet eyes close to his.  He put an arm about his shoulders, and
+she nestled against his strength with a little sigh of content.  And
+then he drew her closer to him, and they kissed once, instinctively,
+naturally; and she threw her head back and cried, "Ah, God!  No, no!"
+
+"Annette!  Annette!  What is it?"
+
+"No, no!  Let me go--let me go, dear.  Please--you must, you must!"
+
+She tore herself out of his relaxed arms and pressed her fists against
+her eyes to shut out the sight of him.
+
+"Go away!"  Her voice was flat and heavy.  She turned and crossed her
+arms against the vine-clad trunk of a wild-apple tree and leaned her
+head upon them.  "Don't come near me.  You must not.  You won't if
+you--if you play fair."
+
+"Forgive me!" he said miserably.  "I forgot--I didn't think----"
+
+"Don't!  Don't apologize--to me."
+
+She waited a moment longer, then turned and faced him.  The girlhood
+was gone from her eyes once more, and her mouth was hardened.  She did
+not meet his eyes, she did not look at him, but stared off into the
+jungle as she spoke.
+
+"I came out here on purpose to meet you."  Her tone was cold and
+precise.  "He--Mr. Garman--told me the truth about those three men last
+night.  It is a lie--about your title being a false one.  Your title is
+the good one.  The other title is false.  They intend to get possession
+of the land and entangle it in a lawsuit which will ruin you."
+
+"What does it matter?" he cried pleadingly.  "What does that matter?"
+
+There was no response from her.  She looked steadily off into the
+jungle.
+
+"That is just what does matter," she said.  "You must not let them get
+possession of your land."
+
+"I don't intend to.  But that----"
+
+"I don't want to see them gobble you up like"--she laughed
+bitterly--"like they're doing to me."
+
+"No!  They haven't done that.  They can't.  I saw it a moment ago."
+
+"Don't!  It hurts.  No, they haven't gobbled me up yet, but I don't
+think they'll delay much longer.  They're too strong for me, you see:
+Aunty, and father, and--him.  Aunty trained me for it; poor father
+cries: he's in his power; and he--it's a terribly strong array against
+one girl--all alone."
+
+"Not quite alone."
+
+"Yes, quite alone.  That's the horror of it.  I've told you before; you
+couldn't understand; but it's myself, only my own soul, that can settle
+this--it's very strange."
+
+"You can't tell me--what it is?"
+
+"I've told you too much now.  But you must take care of yourself.  No
+matter what happens you must take care of yourself."
+
+"I don't know if that's so important," said Roger.  "I confess I've
+lost considerable interest in just myself."
+
+"I've--made you--do that?"
+
+"I want to take care of you."
+
+She smiled a smile too old, too cynical for her youthful lips.
+
+"That was a kind thing to say, but----"
+
+"I love you," said Roger bluntly.  "I believe you care a little----"
+
+"Don't, don't, don't!"  She turned a face toward him full of pleading.
+"Do you want to torture me?  Can't you see----?"  Her voice failed her.
+She struggled a moment and turned round; holding back tears and smiling
+by sheer force of will, and held out her hand frankly.
+
+"Good-by!"
+
+"I love you," repeated Roger doggedly.
+
+A low chuckle in the jungle startled them.
+
+"Ah, youth, youth, youth!"  Garman's huge face was peering at them from
+behind a mask of flowering moon vine.  "'I love you.'  Ho ho!  Poor
+Payne!"
+
+"You cad, Garman; you mucker!" cried Roger.
+
+"Go!"  Annette flung herself upon him, seeking to push him away, but he
+stood like an oak.
+
+"Eavesdropping!  Fine work, Garman."
+
+Garman roared with laughter.
+
+"Do you really love me?" whispered Annette, suddenly, her lips closed
+to Roger's.
+
+"You know that now."
+
+"No, not yet; but I will soon.  If you love me, you'll do what I ask.
+Go away.  Please, please at once!"
+
+"I can't leave you here, Annette, helpless among all this devilishness."
+
+"I am not helpless.  Not if I know you really love me.  Can you
+understand that--it will mean so much to me--it will be the one way you
+can help me--the only way.  Help me to save myself, dear, by showing me
+I have your love.  Go!"
+
+He looked at her.  Then he bowed his head and went.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+"They've jumped us!"  Higgins' great neck was swollen with impotent
+rage as he greeted Roger's return to camp.
+
+"It's my fault, too.  Take a good, swift kick at me.  I fell down on
+the job while you were away."
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+Higgins led the way to the edge of the elderberry jungle and pointed
+out over the drained land.  A dozen armed men, outlaws and fugitives of
+the most vicious kind from Big Cypress Swamp, were scattered
+systematically over the thousand-acre tract.  Two men lay behind the
+spoil banks at each of the main canal, their heads and rifle barrels
+showing above the black-earth breastworks.  The other men were placed
+in pairs at strategic points.  No one could set foot on the drained
+land without being seen and subject to fire from two sides.
+
+Through his glasses Payne studied the pair which guarded the end of the
+main ditch near Deer Key.  These were no city toughs who would try to
+bully rather than fight, but lank-haired, sallow-faced killers from the
+darkest part of Big Cypress Swamp; men who were desperate because of
+the crimes they had left behind them, and to whom rifle fire was a
+familiar argument.  By the fashion in which they handled their weapons,
+Roger saw they were hunters; and the grim way in which they kept watch
+proved that they had come expecting a fight; to shoot and be shot at;
+to kill and perhaps be killed.
+
+"That's Garman's work; no one else could get that crowd out of the
+swamp.  How did it happen, Hig?"
+
+"It happened because I'm all bone from the neck up.  They used an old
+trick, and I fell into the trap like a tenderfoot.  A few of them came
+hollering and shooting out of Flower Prairie, stampeding the boys.  I
+figured it to be a raid on the camp, and I hollered for Blease and we
+ran for the tents.  They played the bluff strong.  Steamboat Bill got
+it through the head while he was running for cover--you remember him,
+the big, black fellow with earrings.  Then they threw some lead into
+the tents, and Blease and I had quite a time holding 'em off.  Blease
+got one of 'em; saw them carrying him away too dead to skin.  Then we
+heard three quick shots, repeated three times down on the muck lands,
+and the shooting up here quit _pronto_.
+
+"After a while it got through my thick head what had happened.  Blease
+and I took in on the gallop back toward the ditches, but we were too
+late.  They'd jumped it already, a whole army of 'em, and real hard
+_hombres_.  Shoot?"  He held out his perforated sun helmet.  "I pushed
+that up on the stick for an experiment, and the guy that drilled it was
+two hundred yards away."
+
+"It was my fault," said Payne.  "Garman was too smart for me.  I played
+right into his hand by going down there.  He knew that's what I'd do,
+and he had this gang waiting and shot them over here as soon as he saw
+me coming."
+
+"That isn't all," continued Higgins.  "As soon as the boys saw
+Steamboat Bill run against his bad luck they left the job and ran for
+the brush like rabbits.  Blease says they won't come back; they always
+make tracks when white men start shooting."
+
+"You mean there's only two of us here now?"
+
+"Three.  Old Blease has put on the war paint."
+
+"Three isn't enough."
+
+"Not by a dozen, it isn't.  Did you learn what they're trying to do to
+you?"
+
+"They're trying to beat me out of the land by fixing up a false title.
+Now they've got possession, and their scheme is to carry me from court
+to court till I'm busted and tired out."
+
+As he spoke he realized fully what this meant.  Garman's wealth and
+influence and the pomp and honor of Senator Fairclothe's position would
+be arrayed against him.  He had seen and heard enough to appreciate
+that the vast territory of Southern Florida was in the hands of a set
+of powerful, fearless plunderers, with Garman the arch plunderer of
+them all.  And it was organized, protected plundering.
+
+A county sheriff was a petty pawn in the great game.  A county judge
+would be only slightly larger, and so on, up through state
+legislatures, the governor, congressman, state supreme court judges,
+and even up and into the sacred precincts of the United States Senate
+in the person of Senator Fairclothe.  How vast was the power of
+Garman's plunder organization might be estimated by the degree of
+ignorance in which the land-buying public throughout the country was
+kept concerning the true situation in the district.  Full-page
+advertisements in Sunday newspapers created a golden dream in the
+public mind concerning the Western Everglades; not one single news item
+crept into print revealing the truth.  Roger realized that for such a
+power to crush him in a court test would require merely that the
+machine created for such purpose be set in motion.  He realized also
+that the vicious nature of the desperados whom Garman had placed upon
+his drained land and the desperate measures which would be necessary to
+regain possession of his own.
+
+Yet he found, a little to his own amazement, that he could look upon
+the theft with entire calmness.  The fact was that it did not seem to
+concern him deeply.  His emotions were a throb from the memory of
+Annette in his arms.  He recalled little else of the meeting.  She had
+been in his arms.  And now his arms ached for her again with a
+poignance which made all other things insignificant.
+
+"Well?" said Higgins.  "Going to let 'em do it?"
+
+"Do what, Hig?"
+
+"Going to let them drag you into court and beat you because they've got
+possession of your land?"
+
+"It takes thinking over," mused Roger.
+
+"It takes fighting, that's what it takes," retorted Higgins.  "We've
+got to roust those hard guys out of there before they take root and put
+up buildings.  Some one's got to chase out to Citrus Grove and burn the
+wires up for about twenty tough fighting men to be delivered at Citrus
+Grove as quick as the trains will bring 'em.  Twenty fighting men, and
+twenty riot pump-guns, and a dark night, and I'll kick that bunch off
+the place and have the place back in your own hands by daylight."
+
+Roger laughed sharply.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Higgins, "got a better idea?"
+
+"Higgins, if you think Garman has left our back door open you don't
+half appreciate what the man is.  When were the ox teams due?"
+
+"Whew!" Higgins whistled.  "That's so; this is the day for 'em to show
+up.  They've been due since daylight."
+
+"And they've never missed their weekly schedule so far.  Ox teams are
+slow, Higgins, but they're darn sure."
+
+"You think Garman's cut us off then?"
+
+"Higgins, if you'd studied Garman half as hard as I have you'd know he
+wouldn't fail to do just that thing."
+
+At dark Blease came noiselessly to Roger's tent to substantiate this
+deduction.
+
+He had followed craftily after the party which he and Higgins had
+driven northward from the camp, and had found them encamped on Coon
+Hammock, across the ox trail, a scant mile from the camp.
+
+Roger lay on his cot that night calmly appraising his situation.  To
+the south of the camp Garman's henchmen were in possession of his land.
+To the eastward lay the trackless waters of the Everglades through
+which only the Seminoles cared to find a way; on the west--the only way
+out was through Garman's grounds which meant there was no way at all.
+Northward there was the ox trail, now closed, and the ghastly mud of
+the Devil's Playground.
+
+Garman's trap was quite complete.  Roger wondered when Garman would see
+fit to bring its jaws together.
+
+But Garman had contemplated and prepared a sport more pleasing to him
+than this.  The trap did not spring; day after day passed, and the
+situation remained the same.  The men on the muck lands guarded against
+trespass by day or night.  The moon was losing its radiance of nights,
+but sufficient light still prevailed to make an attempt to cross the
+ditched track plain suicide.  In the north the men on Coon Hammock
+followed the same policy.  No attack was made, but neither was there
+opportunity for any one to pass unobserved or unharmed.
+
+One of the negroes, weary of hiding in the swamp, tried it and came
+staggering back to the camp with a bullet hole in his foot.  Roger
+reasoned that Garman's cat-and-mouse tactics were calculated to break
+his nerve or to provoke a fight which could have only one result.
+Failing in this the trap had but to be maintained and the inevitable
+result would be surrender.
+
+On the first night when a slight cloudiness, promised considerable
+darkness Roger slipped out of his tent trained and primed for the
+ordeal of a passage through the Devil's Playground to Citrus Grove.  He
+crossed the open space of Flower Prairie while a cloudlet hid the moon.
+In the uncertain light a course through the jungle was not to be
+thought of.  He looked up, and, encouraged by the gathering clouds,
+slipped through his fence onto the sand prairie and ran northward.
+
+If he could reach unobserved the timber at the southern end of the
+Devil's Playground he felt he would be safe.  As he ran he prayed for
+the clouds to hold together until he reached the dark wood.  His prayer
+was answered.  He made out a trail running into the timber and plunged
+into the darkness.  The darkness lasted but a little while, however.
+Roger heard the whinny of horses on the trail ahead.  The clouds
+suddenly parted and the moonlight seemed to light the forest like day.
+He was in an open space in the forest, and Garman and Mrs. Livingstone
+and Annette were sitting their horses facing him a few paces away.
+
+"I figured it almost to the minute!" said Garman.  "Almost to the
+minute I figured when you were due to start through the Devil's
+Playground, Payne."
+
+He laughed shortly at the young man's amazement.  "Didn't know I knew
+about that, eh, Payne?  Well, I didn't until you bought that land from
+the Cypress Company.  Then I knew you'd found a new way out and I had
+it looked up.  No go now, Payne; the Devil's Playground is closed for
+traffic."
+
+Annette was sitting straight and firm in her saddle.  She turned on
+Garman with no fear or faltering in her attitude.
+
+"Is this what you brought me out here for?" she asked, so sharply that
+Mrs. Livingstone cried out protestingly:
+
+"My dear!"
+
+Garman lowered his head ominously and the taunting smile on his lips
+turned to a threat as he returned her look.  Even by the faint
+moonlight the sudden leap of anger and the desire to hurt were apparent
+in his countenance.  He controlled himself.
+
+"Yes, dear," he purred dangerously, "it is."
+
+Annette met his gaze fearlessly.  "Is there to be any more of the
+exhibition?"
+
+"Not unless you irritate me, dear.  Don't ride away.  Gaze upon Payne's
+young, star-eyed face, my dear.  Look upon it well; let it soak into
+your soul's memory, as it is now.  It is your last chance.  Next time
+you see him his face will not be the face of star-eyed youth at all!
+Preserve the memory, Annette!"
+
+"Have you quite done?" she said.
+
+"I?  Certainly, my dear."  Garman was nettled at her self-mastery.
+"Mrs. Livingstone, perhaps Annette has a word or two she wishes to
+speak to Payne.  Shall we ride on and give them a moment alone?"
+
+"I am sure Annette can have nothing to say to this Mr. Payne," replied
+Mrs. Livingstone quickly.
+
+"Don't you be so sure of that," said Garman curtly.  "Youth calls to
+youth!"
+
+Annette's riding crop fell suddenly upon her mount and she went past
+Roger on the gallop out onto the prairie.
+
+"Youth calls to youth!" repeated Garman staring after her with angry
+eyes.  "Mrs. Livingstone, don't you remember when you were young; when
+you had ideals and hopes of realizing them, and you could love, nobly
+and purely, without thinking of money?--ha, ha, ha!  Must you really
+follow Annette?  Really!"
+
+He pulled his horse close to Roger.
+
+"Well, Payne, how do you like my rat pit?  Hard to get out of, eh?
+Don't waste your time trying; I've made sure you're going to stay put."
+
+"I've been thinking," said Roger calmly, "that perhaps the best act of
+my life would be to pull the gun inside my shirt and shoot you through
+the head right here."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense; you can't; you're too civilized.  Besides--Hi,
+there!--Look behind you, Payne."
+
+Roger laughed without turning.
+
+"No, you don't get the drop on me with that old trick, Garman."
+
+"Speak, you back there--what's your name--Harney?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said a muffled voice in the shadows behind Roger.  "Ed
+Harney--Joe Harney's brother.  I've got him covered."
+
+"Ho hum!" yawned Garman.  "I must follow the ladies.  Especially,
+Annette--magnificent, tender, fiery little Annette!--Damn her!
+Something has happened; she's bold, defiant!  She needs taming.  Great
+sport, woman taming--in the swamp.  Good night, Payne.  Pleasant
+dreams!"
+
+
+A cloud bank floated across the moon, plunging the woods into Stygian
+darkness.  Out on the sand of the prairie the thud, thud, thud of
+Garman's galloping horse grew fainter and died away.  A rift in the
+clouds revealed the moon for an instant.  Roger whirled round, seeking
+to see the man who had called himself Harney.  The clouds closed up
+again, the woods were black; and a Southern whippoorwill chuckled
+foolishly.  Ahead, on the trail which he must follow to reach the
+Devil's Playground, Roger heard the footsteps of three men, and knew
+that Garman had taken all precautions to make good his assertion that
+the Devil's Playground was closed to traffic.
+
+The anger which was in his heart craved an outlet.  He moved toward the
+hidden men, then paused.  They were three to one; in the dark a fight
+would be folly.  Nothing would please Garman better than for him to
+plunge blindly into a hopeless battle.  As Roger thought over the
+situation his anger rose and clarified.  He realized now what a poor
+figure he had cut face to face with Garman, and he understood why.
+Garman had dominated him, and made him appear the baffled victim of
+Garman's superiority.  Garman had dominated him, had played with Mrs.
+Livingstone till she rode away, helpless, outraged.  But Annette had
+outfaced him, and Garman knew it!
+
+"Something has happened!"
+
+Roger recalled Garman's words, and a thrill shot along his spine.
+Garman did not dominate Annette; he did not hold her helpless by his
+hypnotic presence as formerly.  Something had happened.  Roger feared
+to think what, though hope whispered to him; and he turned back to camp
+not at all crest-fallen because the secret way through the Devil's
+Playground was closed.  He came into camp with an easy, swinging step,
+such as no defeated man should display, and Higgins, appraising him as
+he listened to Roger's brief statement of the case, said:
+
+"Hm.  Then you know about it, do you?"
+
+"About what, Hig?"
+
+"About Willie High Pockets!"
+
+"What!  Willy been here?"
+
+Higgins' thick brows met in a puzzled frown above his eyes.
+
+"Payne, do you mean to tell me that you go out and find we're shut in
+like rats in a pit and come back here stepping high, without knowing
+about our friend Willy?"
+
+"I don't know anything but what I've told you, Hig!  Garman has got us
+shut in.  Got us hopelessly cooped up.  That's all I know."
+
+"Well, you're a gamer bird than I thought, then.  But why so frisky?"
+
+"I figure he's got us about licked," replied Roger, ignoring the
+question.  "We've got one chance in a million.  We'll have it out with
+those birds on the muck land to-night after the moon is down.  We may
+roust 'em.  We may not."
+
+"By God!" swore Higgins swiftly.  "I'm almost sorry Willy High Pockets
+showed up.  Your idea is the one I've had in mind for days.  A fine
+fight we'd have given them, too.  And now that darned Injun cones along
+and spoils it.  We can't try it now."
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+"Why not?" demanded Roger.
+
+"Willy High Pockets came crawling into camp on his belly about ten
+minutes after you'd left.  He came with a message from that white
+side-kick of his he met in the swamp.  You can't guess who that guy is."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Davis."
+
+"What!  The fellow they tried to get on the Cormorant?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Is he some sort of a detective?"
+
+"I suspect so.  Willy ain't much on the tell.  He says that man has got
+Uncle Sam behind him!  And this Davis sends us serious word that we're
+to keep away from Garman's men.  Whatever happens we mustn't get into a
+fight.  We've got to stick right in camp and play safe, or we'll spoil
+two years' work for Uncle Sam.  The first dark night--to-morrow night
+probably--it will be over, whatever it is, and Davis will come here and
+explain.  That's what Willy High Pockets said, and if you'd seen him
+tell it you'd know it was a darn serious business.  By the great smoked
+fish, Payne, there's a big game being played round here.  I feel it in
+my bones.  And I'm sore because I haven't got a finger in the pie."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"You got me.  But whoever this Davis man is he's got Willy so he isn't
+afraid of Garman.  That means something big."
+
+"We'll give Davis to-night and to-morrow night," said Roger, after
+pondering the matter a moment.  "After that----"
+
+"Hell's delight!  And I almost hope that Davis falls down on whatever
+he's doing."
+
+On the narrow there was no sign to indicate that Davis or any one else
+was concerned in the affairs of the district.  The grim guards on the
+muck lands held their stations.  It was apparent that they had orders
+not to leave the tract or to seek trouble, but to be ready to shoot and
+shoot accurately at any one venturing to trespass.  Blease scouted
+northward on the ox-team trail and reported that Coon Hammock was still
+occupied.  Payne himself went through the elderberry and saw grass
+jungle and through his glasses saw men guarding the approach to the
+Devil's Playground.
+
+The strain was beginning to tell on all three men in the clearing.
+Each hour now seemed a day, each sight of a Garman man was a torture.
+
+"It ain't human," muttered Blease.  "I can't stand it."
+
+Higgins lay flat on his back in his tent, staring up at the canvas.
+
+"It had better be a dark night to-night," he said, with a grim smile.
+Roger silently agreed.  And he realized that this was what Garman had
+foreseen and planned for when he digged the pit--the sense of
+imprisonment and the desperate attempt to break out, regardless of
+consequences.
+
+"He's too smart to be just a man, Garman is," droned Blease; but Roger
+stopped him.
+
+"He's nothing but a man; nothing but a man who likes to hurt.  Don't
+let me hear you say he's anything but that."
+
+To Roger and Higgins the sudden, fierce sunset came as a benison,
+presaging the coming of the night.  There was no thought of food or
+sleep.  Narrowly they watched the sun go angrily down in the west and
+the night come rolling over the heavens from the east.  Clouds
+appeared, first a few scatterings of fleecy stuff, next solid cloud
+banks through which the waning moon strove in vain to send its rays.
+
+"It will be a dark one," said Roger.
+
+Higgins on his cot laughed harshly.
+
+"Come through, Davis; to-night or never."
+
+They lay out through the night, waiting, hoping for events, and they
+waited in vain.  The first purple-rayed warning of sunrise in the
+morning found them in a mood of despair.  As the second day came on
+with no sign of Davis they turned their steps toward the tents.
+
+"I don't wait any longer," said Higgins, loading his rifle.  "Soon as
+good shooting light comes I start doing business."
+
+The others followed his example, and Blease led the way by a tortuous
+path through the elderberry jungle to a point near Deer Hammock.  They
+crawled forward, ready to cover the pair of guards at the head of the
+canal.  Blease was in the lead.  Lying flat on his breast he thrust his
+rifle barrel out of the jungle, searching for his quarry.  Presently he
+rubbed his eyes.
+
+Roger crept close to him and searched the grass-covered expanse of
+drained land carefully with his glasses.  Then he stood up and stepped
+out into the open.
+
+The drained land was deserted.  Garman's guards were gone.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+The discovery brought neither relief nor elation to Roger.  Amazement
+smote him dumb for a moment, then came suspicion that this was only
+another of Garman's traps.  He strove to follow the man's psychology to
+an explanation of this move.  Was Garman merely playing with him again,
+arousing false hopes which would be diabolically crushed?
+
+That seemed the logical reason for the move.  What would Garman's next
+move be?
+
+"Looks like a trick, doesn't it?" said Higgins.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Roger strode down to the head of the main drainage ditch where two of
+the guards had held watch.  The forms where the men had lain in the
+soft black muck behind the spoil bank were still sharply defined.  Their
+departure must have occurred during the darkest hours of early morning.
+They had left behind them a flask full of colorless liquid, one whiff
+of which proved its contents to be moonshine whisky.
+
+"Queer thing," said Blease.  "Reckon they must have left in a hurry or
+they'd never have forgot their licker."
+
+Higgins and Roger preceded cautiously over the tract, making sure that
+no guards lay hidden in the ditches.  The trails left by the departing
+men were easily followed.  They led, not to the river or toward
+Garman's as might have been expected, but scattered and lost themselves
+to the southward in the tangle morass of the cypress swamp.  Here and
+there articles had been left behind in what savored of a flight;
+unopened canned goods, a deer carcass, a frying pan, a rifle and a pair
+of shoes.  Roger studied the tracks leading into the swamp and saw that
+several of them had been made on the run.  It was apparent from all
+signs that the guards had fled, driven by fear of something.
+
+"Blease," said Roger suddenly, "you scout up the ox trail and see if
+they're gone from Coon Hammock, too; and, Higgins, you slip up towards
+the Devil's Playground and see what you can see."
+
+He went on down the main ditch toward its junction with the headwaters
+of the Chokohatchee River, keeping a close watch for possible lurking
+danger beyond his line.  Near the mouth of the ditch he found a dugout
+evidently left behind in the flight of the guards.  In the dugout he
+paddled the rest of the distance down the ditch, hidden from sight by
+the spoil banks on the canal's sides.
+
+It was broad daylight when suddenly he checked the canoe at the
+entrance to the river.  The plop of a pair of paddles propelling a
+canoe upstream came from round a bend and Roger lay down flat on the
+bottom of the dugout, his rifle resting upon the prow.  The rifle
+covered the spot where the canoe must come round the bend.  He was on
+his own land, and he would not allow the guards to regain possession
+without a fight.  He saw the white prow of the canoe shoot out past a
+tuft of saw-grass on the bend, and laid his eye to the sights.  Another
+stroke of the paddles and the canoe was in full view, and Roger found
+his front sight bearing upon a button on the silken shirt which
+stretched taut across Garman's great chest.
+
+A roar like the bellow of an angered bull welled from Garman's throat
+as he recognized Payne, an inarticulate cry of rage, then a silence.
+The current carried the canoe back a trifle and with an oath Garman
+drove it forward with his paddle.  In the stern was Senator Fairclothe,
+dumb and helpless from fear.
+
+Garman struck his paddle in the bottom and held the canoe motionless.
+His eyes, usually lazy and indifferent, now blazed beneath the fleshy
+brows with the madness of rage.  He glared full in the eyes above the
+rifle barrel and bellowed:
+
+"Where's Annette!  ---- you, Payne, give her up!"
+
+Roger's heart leaped at the words.  He felt an impulse to jump up and
+shout; but he kept his cheek to the rifle butt and responded:
+
+"Keep to your own side of those stakes, Garman, or I'll sink your
+canoe."
+
+"Answer me!" hissed Garman.  "Answer me, or by God! the alligators will
+make a meal of you!"
+
+"You've got your answer.  Keep off and keep out of danger."
+
+"Give her up!  Do you hear: give her up or she'll be sorry she ever was
+born."
+
+Roger pondered a moment for the right answer.
+
+"Nothing doing," he said firmly.
+
+"You admit she's come here then?"
+
+"Keep your hands in sight, Garman," said Roger.  "I'm taking no
+chances--now."
+
+"You hear, Fairclothe?" demanded Garman.  "She's run away to this
+squirt.  She's been with him all night.  By----! when I get hold of her
+there won't be any talk of marriage--now."
+
+"You've got to come and get her first, Garman," retorted Roger.  If
+Annette had fled she had undoubtedly gone to get away from Garman.
+Garman had jumped to the conclusion she had gone to Payne.  She had
+not; and Roger reasoned that in some manner she had gone down the
+river, whence she would eventually reach civilization.  Every hour that
+he could delay Garman from turning to this surmise would be valuable.
+
+"You've got to come and take her," he repeated.  "I won't give her up
+now."
+
+"You hear him, Fairclothe?" sneered Garman.  "What do you think of your
+daughter now?  Nicely brought up, nicely watched, I must say.  You
+poor--fool!  You'd better jump in right here and drown yourself.  He's
+had your Annette all night; now he's going to keep her at the point of
+a rifle.  I suppose you intend to make the conventional restitution by
+marrying her, Payne?  By----!  I'll spoil that--I'll take her away from
+you.  I'll turn her back to you when I'm tired of her.  Then you can
+marry her, Payne!  Give her up.  I'll wipe you out, including her,
+before I'll let her get away like this."
+
+"Come and get her," repeated Roger.
+
+Fairclothe found his voice.
+
+"I demand that you return my daughter, young man."
+
+"I am not holding her against her will.  She is free to return to you
+if she wishes to do so."
+
+"I demand that I be allowed to speak to her."
+
+"I cannot grant that demand."
+
+"You refuse to allow me to communicate with her?"
+
+"If she wishes to communicate with you I won't prevent it."
+
+"You young scoundrel!"
+
+Roger did not reply.
+
+"If you have harmed my little girl, I warn you you will be punished to
+the utmost."
+
+"You talk like a parrot!" snarled Garman.  "Talk sense--if you can."
+
+Fairclothe cleared his throat.  "Did my daughter Annette come to you of
+her own free will?"
+
+Roger hesitated before replying.
+
+"No!" he said defiantly.
+
+"Ah!  Garman, Garman, what did I tell you--what did I tell you?  I knew
+Annette never would leave you of her own free will!"
+
+"You ---- impudent squirt!" said Garman, "You mean to tell me you----
+No, you wouldn't be man enough to steal her.  Who brought her to you?"
+
+Again Roger debated.
+
+"If you come and get her as you threaten to do, you may find out."
+
+Garman's rage was ghastly to behold.  The flesh of his face seemed to
+swell in puffs, his nostrils widened, his eyes seemed to recede beneath
+the fleshy brows.  He held up his great hairy hands, closing and
+opening them; but enough reason remained in his rage-drunken mind to
+comprehend the iciness of the blue eyes above the rifle barrel.
+
+"By----!  Fairclothe, I believe you did it yourself," he cried, venting
+his rage on the helpless Senator.  "Don't try to talk back.  I believe
+you did it, you and that dried-up, gold-digger of a sister.  But
+by----! if you have you'll be yanked out of the Senate and go to jail,
+Fairclothe!  Don't talk!  I'm sick of you."
+
+He jerked his paddle from the bottom and the current gently drew the
+canoe back downstream.  Roger forced a smile of false triumph upon his
+face.  He must not let Garman turn elsewhere to look for Annette.
+
+"Licked, eh, Garman?" he taunted.  "I'll go back and tell Annette about
+it.  We'll enjoy it together."
+
+The canoe was drifting down the bend.
+
+"And come in a hurry, Garman, if you intend to get her; because if you
+wait long you won't find her here."
+
+Garman appeared not to hear; but he swung the canoe round furiously,
+and paddled out of sight down the river.
+
+Higgins and Blease returned soon afterward, each reporting that the
+guards to the northward had departed, apparently in the same hurried
+fashion as those on the muck land.  Payne wasted no time in an attempt
+to puzzle out the reason for it.  If Garman had withdrawn the men to
+lay a new trap, it was obvious that Annette's flight had upset his
+plans.  For the time being at least his mind was too inflamed with rage
+over her daring in thwarting his will, to admit the consideration of
+any other problem.  He would be too obsessed with thought for
+gratifying his revengeful lust to trouble about Payne's land.
+
+Roger related briefly the fact of Garman's visit, omitting mention of
+Annette.
+
+"Then he'll be coming back to clean us up, you think?" asked Higgins
+hopefully.
+
+"I think so--I've got good reasons for believing so," replied Roger.
+"He won't come alone, but with a gang big enough to make sure of the
+job.  Blease, this isn't your scrap at all, and I suspect it's going to
+be a real one.  The ox trail is open and the mules can travel it, so
+you'd better take a span of them and drive your family out of danger."
+
+Blease deliberated.
+
+"Reckon I won't," he said at last.  "Family's safe in there in the
+elder bush.  I'll stay.  Mebbe get a chance to even up with Garman."
+
+Roger selected a high spoil bank near the center of the muck land as
+his post.  From there he could see any one who approached from the
+river or from the cypress swamp.  Blease took up a hidden position in
+the elderberry jungle, from which he could cover the open prairie
+toward Garman's, and Higgins secreted himself in the palmetto scrub of
+Flower Prairie.  Higgins awaited the expected onslaught merrily; Blease
+was hopeful of revenge; and Roger, as he lay with his rifle ready,
+smiled because Annette was out of Garman's power.  Wherever she was, he
+felt she was safe.  He pictured her as she had faced Garman fearlessly
+two nights before--straight, strong, self-reliant--and was confident
+that her absence was of her own doing, and that whatever the
+circumstances she was free of the influence of her aunt, of her father,
+of the drugging magnetism of Garman, and in control of her own destiny.
+
+As the hours dragged by and he broiled beneath the merciless sun with
+no sign of a move on Garman's part, his confidence waned.  Had Garman
+discovered that Annette was not at Payne's camp?  Had he discovered her
+whereabouts?
+
+Roger recalled the signs of an unpremeditated flight on the part of
+Garman's guards, and his heart sank.  Was it possible that their flight
+had some connection with Annette's disappearance?  They were all
+desperate men, the most vicious Of criminals, who had fled to safety in
+the cypress swamps because their savagery unfitted them for existence
+in a civilized environment.  Inflamed by moonshine whiskey they would
+be capable of anything, even of forgetting for the moment of Garman's
+dominance of them.
+
+Roger swore helplessly, and sought relief from his torturing thoughts
+in physical labor.  The direct rays of the subtropical sun had dried
+and heated the surface of the soft muck land until it radiated heat
+like a stone pavement.  With the butt of his rifle Roger dug deeply
+beneath the surface until he reached damp, cool earth and, scooping a
+hollow, stretched out full length to cool his burning body.  A buzzard
+soared lazily about in the cloudless sky, and his thoughts leaped back
+to the flight of the desperadoes.
+
+What a fool he had been to feel assured of Annette's safety merely
+because Garman was unaware of her whereabouts!  She rode out in the
+evening--probably alone.  And the rattlesnakes in the swamp were no
+more dangerous than the gang which Garman had scattered about the
+district!
+
+He rose, and with glasses to his eyes peered through the dazzling heat
+waves, hoping against hope to catch some sign that Garman was coming.
+He gave up hope.  Hours had passed.  Garman would have been back long
+ago if he was coming.  And he would have come if he had continued to
+believe that Annette was with Payne.
+
+Garman must have discovered the true circumstances of Annette's
+disappearance.  In no other way was his failure to return to be
+explained.  And Roger had been lying there in the dirt, waiting like a
+fool, while Garman was taking measures to get her in his power again!
+
+The dugout lay in the big ditch close to its junction with the river;
+and the river ran down to Garman's house.  Roger stepped into the craft
+and shoved off.  He was thrusting the boat out into the current of the
+river when a faint whip-like crack came to his ears.  He shoved back
+and leaped ashore.
+
+Higgins had fired a shot up on Flower Prairie.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+Roger lay hugging the ground, his finger on the rifle trigger, peering
+through the dancing heat waves and straining his ears for the crack of
+shots in reply.  He could not see Flower Prairie from his post, but
+Blease could; and he knew that the squatter was on the alert, ready to
+throw in aid of Higgins.  He kept his own position because all three
+had agreed that Garman's gang would attack from several directions.  If
+a single shot answered Higgins the latter could deal with his
+adversary; if it was a volley Roger and Blease would rush to his
+assistance.
+
+The tense, breathless seconds passed; they became minutes, but no
+second shot shattered the sultry silence.  Roger relinquished his rifle
+and picked up his glasses.  Again he scanned the muck land and its
+boundaries without result.  Presently he saw Blease emerge from the
+elderberry jungle.  The squatter stood staring toward Flower Prairie
+where the shot had been fired.  Then with a movement of relieved
+tension he threw his rifle over a shoulder and started to walk easily
+in the direction toward which he had gazed.
+
+Roger followed him on the run.  When he came to the little spring lake
+in the prairie he saw Blease squatting on his heels calmly regarding
+Higgins who, at the lakeside, was carefully washing the bloody shoulder
+of the Seminole, Willy High Pockets.
+
+"Darn it all, Willy, why didn't you sing out, why didn't you sing out?"
+the engineer chattered in deep self-reproach.  "Holy smoked fish!  I
+wouldn't have had this happen for a farm; you know that, Willy.  Hold
+steady; that's the stuff.  Hell, Willy, I'll kick myself for the rest
+of my natural!"
+
+"'Twon't hurt him none; a little bleeding's good in this weather,"
+drawled Blease.
+
+"You shoot _ojus_ quick," said the Indian.
+
+"I had to, Willy; I had to," protested Higgins.  "Couldn't make you
+out, and I couldn't risk any one getting the drop on me."
+
+"Shoot first; look who is by'm by.  _Holowaugus_.  No good."
+
+"I took him for one of Garman's gang," explained Higgins to Payne.  "I
+couldn't see for the brush."
+
+"Did purty well, consid'ring that," ventured Blease.
+
+"_Esoka--Bonus-che why-o-me_," said Willy.
+
+"What?"
+
+"_Why-o-me_--me want some."
+
+"Is that what you came for?" demanded Roger.
+
+The Indian shook his head.
+
+"_Chobee eestee hotkee_ (big white man) send me."
+
+"For whiskey?"
+
+"No.  _Chobee eestee hotkee_ come soon himself.  He say I go here.  I
+come.  Him shoot.  _Esoka--bonus--chee why-o-me_."
+
+"No.  No whiskey," said Roger.  "Who is this big white man, Willy?"
+
+"Him come _ojus_ soon.  _Etalitke_.  (Talk much)  Friend you.  Gimme
+tobacco."
+
+Later, while Higgins and Roger were sewing up the wound in Willy's
+shoulder, Blease suddenly uttered a warning whistle.
+
+"Some one coming--walking heavy--through the saw grass."
+
+"No shoot first, look by'm by!" protested Willy.  As the intruder broke
+out of the saw grass into plain sight he said: "Him _chobee eestee
+hotkee_."
+
+The visitor was bearded and ragged from dwelling in the swamp, but he
+strode up to the camp with a confident, even aggressive step, such as
+no true swamp denizen would use; and presently, beneath the beard, the
+matted hair and ragged clothes Roger recognized Davis, the man whom
+they had helped to escape from the Cormorant that first day on the
+river.  Davis' attention was concentrated upon Willy's wound.
+
+"What?" he said hopefully.  "Are there still some of them round?"
+
+When the accident had been explained he turned to Roger.
+
+"The United States Government missed by two hours last night the
+biggest round-up of egret shooters ever made.  Garman tried a gang of
+pugs first, and you cleaned them out.  Then he yanked his egret
+shooters out of the rookery and put them on the job.  It was the first
+time in two years' work that I'd known 'em to be in a bunch.  I got
+fifty government men assembled at Citrus Grove for a round-up; but the
+crooks down here got word of it somehow and streaked it into the
+cypress swamp.  We've got the rookery, got twenty good men hidden
+there; they'll never shoot there again; and the rest of the men are
+after the gang in the cypress swamp.  We lost out last night; but I
+think Garman's egret graft is broken up for good."
+
+"Garman?  Is he in that, too?"
+
+Davis smiled.
+
+"Payne, do you know anything round here that Garman isn't in?  He's
+boss of the egret graft down here."
+
+"Have you got evidence of that?"
+
+"I'll say we have.  A photograph of him trying out the gas gun he
+invented on a bunch of nests."
+
+"Then why don't you get him if he's the head of the gang--first of all?"
+
+Davis' lips came together in a bitter line.
+
+"Did you ever hear of a big man--one of the really big ones of the
+country--being got for anything?  No; the other big men, the whole gang
+of them up in Washington, won't let it be done.  They can't afford to,
+as a matter of self-protection."
+
+"Great Scott!  Garman isn't so big that the Government is afraid of
+him?"
+
+"How much do you know about Garman, Payne?"
+
+"Not much, I admit."
+
+"I'll give you his number: He has among a lot of other things, a home
+in Washington, an office in Jacksonville and the house here and the
+Egret.  When he is at home in Washington, some of the most powerful
+statesmen in this great nation regularly infest his house to prove what
+truly great poker players they are.  No statesmen ever lost any money
+there, for only those whom Garman can use and who will listen to
+business reason are invited.  No statesman accepts a vulgar bribe, but
+several who attend Garman's stags win heavily and consistently at poker.
+
+"At Jacksonville, in his suite of offices, there is one door without a
+name on it, and that is Mr. Garman's private office.
+
+"On his boat, the Egret, he has as his guests during the tourist season
+some of the most prominent people of the country.
+
+"When the season is over, or before it is on, he has no guests down
+here.  That is his vacation time, the time when Garman plays.
+
+"There are more criminal refugees in the wilds of this swamp country
+than anywhere else in this land.  There is no man in Garman's employ,
+white, black or red, who hasn't got a price on his head somewhere.
+There are bandits from Cuba, crooks from large cities, negroes escaped
+from chain gangs, men of unspeakable crimes, the most vicious men of
+mixed blood ever gathered together since the old pirate days; and these
+are Garman's playfellows of his vacation time.  He is absolutely their
+boss.
+
+"Why does he do it?  Because there's money in it.  How?  There!"  Davis
+reached into his grub bag and threw on the ground the limp, snow-white
+corpse of a beautiful egret.  "That's one of the side issues.  There's
+money in it.  Garman saw the rookeries, and couldn't keep his hands off
+them.  These snow-white birds, feeding young ones in the nest, are
+worth money.  Garman's gang gets a living, food, liquor and immunity
+out of the slaughter, an average probably of one dollar a bird.  Garman
+gets the rest.  And his boat Egret in his harvest time is nothing but a
+damn slaughter house, the hold packed with the skins of thousands of
+murdered birds."
+
+"But I thought the Government had taken steps to stop the slaughter.
+Aren't there guards about the rookeries?"
+
+"There are.  Who do you suppose got them their jobs?  Garman--in
+Washington.  How do you suppose they guard?  They guard so carefully
+that nobody can get into the rookeries, not a soul except Garman's
+gang.  Officially the egret shooting is stopped.  Actually it is an
+industry and is in Garman's hands.
+
+"But there are good, progressive men down here--men who really wish to
+develop the country on a sound, honest basis," said Payne.  "Why, don't
+they get after this rotten business?"
+
+"Few of them know anything about it.  Garman has the business
+monopolized; only a few shooters, those absolutely under his control,
+and the birds spirited away in the Egret.  All done so efficiently that
+few people believe there is any shooting done.  Formerly the egrets
+were to be counted by millions, they were uncountable.  They are good
+breeders.  But since their shooting has been 'stopped' officially there
+hasn't been any noticeable increase in their numbers, which certainly
+would have been the case if the shooting actually had been done away
+with.
+
+"Do you know why Garman wants to bust you?  Principally because your
+settling here and draining and developing that piece of drowned land
+would be the opening wedge in the settlement of the district.  You've
+shown what can be done with this land.  People would come flocking in,
+farmers, real settlers, not the fugitives nor the crooked real-estate
+men who so far have had a monopoly down here.  The outlaws would have
+to go.  Egret shooting would have stop.  Garman couldn't play king here
+any longer.  That's why he's out to bust you, Payne.  Keep your eyes
+skinned.  He'll try to smash you in a hurry now."
+
+"You are not going to try to get him then?" asked Roger slowly.
+
+"No use.  We'll break up his gang and stop the egret shooting, but
+Garman----"
+
+Davis shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Garman is too big!" said Roger.  "He will still be cock-o'-the-walk
+round here.  Is that it?"
+
+"Well, he won't have his gang," replied the detective.
+
+"But he will still be--Garman."
+
+"Well--you know what he is."
+
+Roger nodded.
+
+"He'll want to be boss of the district----  He'll try to hog your land."
+
+"Hog is a good word there," ruminated Roger.  But he was not thinking
+about his land.
+
+The arrival of Davis had in no way affected the situation as Roger had
+suddenly seen it just before Higgins' shot had attracted his attention.
+
+Garman had discovered that Annette was not at Payne's camp.  Otherwise
+he would have returned to get her.  And this discovery meant that he
+knew of her whereabouts and was taking steps to pursue her, to get her
+into his power again.  Perhaps he had even succeeded in doing so.
+
+Roger slipped away from camp while supper was being prepared, and
+returned to the dugout which he had left in the big ditch near the
+river.  Precious time had been lost through the arrival of Davis.
+Garman, for the nonce a jungle beast running wild with the reek of rage
+and lust about him, had had hours of opportunity to wreak his revenge.
+
+Roger leaped into the dugout and paddled down the river toward Garman's
+house.  The place seemed dead and deserted as he stepped onto the dock,
+and his heart sank with dismay.  The Egret was gone.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+In the boathouse a young sailor was loading several huge trunks into a
+small launch.
+
+"Closing up for the season?" asked Roger as casually as possible.
+
+"I dunno what they're doing," grumbled the man.  "Fine trick leaving
+one man to handle stuff like this."
+
+Roger lent a hand.  "What did they do, forget this when they left?" he
+asked.
+
+"They did not!" grinned the sailor.  "Mr. Garman didn't give them time
+to forget anything.  He loaded 'em onto the Egret and shot 'em down the
+river without giving them time to forget anything."
+
+"He must have been in a hurry to get away?"
+
+Roger's words were calm, but the beat of his heart was shaking his ribs.
+
+"Who?  Mr. Garman?  He didn't sail.  Just Senator Fairclothe and Mrs.
+Livingstone.  'Get aboard,' he says, and they got.  'Get to hell out of
+here!' he says to the captain.  'Where to?' says the captain.  'Get!'
+says Mr. Garman.  Talk about a temper!  There was blue lightning and an
+eighty-mile wind round here till they'd sailed."
+
+"Mr. Garman staying behind alone?"
+
+"Alone?" said the sailor with a colossal wink.  "Oh, I guess not--not
+so you could notice it."
+
+And the next moment he found himself picked up, flung against the wall
+and nailed there by a grip that cut to the bone.
+
+"Talk straight now, boy, if you value whole bones," said Roger.  "Is
+Miss Fairclothe here with Garman?"
+
+"Not here--nobody here but the cook and caretaker."
+
+"Where--then?"
+
+"Dunno."
+
+"Where!"
+
+"Mr. Garman rode away some place after the Egret had sailed."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Sure.  She wasn't here at all."
+
+Roger went up to the big house.  The caretaker, a pudgy little man with
+the stench of whisky on his breath, was waiting for him.
+
+"Mr. Payne?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A note for you, sir.  Mr. Garman said he expected, sir, that you would
+be round."
+
+The note was addressed to Garman in a clear feminine hand, and it read:
+"Garman: Am at the cottage on Palm Island; come to-night.  Annette."
+At the bottom in a huge masculine scrawl, were three words; "Poor
+Payne!  Garman."
+
+
+"Palm Island?" repeated Willy High Pockets.  "Garman got house on Palm
+Island.  Yes."
+
+"Do you know where it is?" asked Roger.
+
+It was night, and he had called Willy High Pockets away from the camp
+to ask him the question.  The time intervening from the receipt of the
+note at Garman's and the present had been like a nightmare.  He had
+wandered in the jungle and laughed aloud at himself for a sentimental
+fool.  Garman was right: dreams, ideals, high hopes were only
+illusions, only lies, fairy-like mirages to lead a man into the barren
+desert of experience.  The note in his pocket proved it.  He read the
+note over and over again.
+
+"Come to-night, Annette."
+
+His laughter each time he scanned the words was a mirthless expression
+of despair.  Garman was right.  Garman had won.
+
+"Willy," he asked, "where is Palm Island?"
+
+"Little lake in woods down there."  Willy pointed into the darkness
+toward the timber line that marked the western boundary of the sand
+prairie.  "Island in lake."
+
+"Is it far?"
+
+"Yes, many mile in woods."
+
+"All right, Willy.  Go to bed."
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+Roger came upon the little lake in the woods just as the dawn was
+coating its waters with a thick purple.  He saw a canoe pulled upon the
+beach and paddled out to the island.  A circle of stately royal palms,
+their tops gorgeously golden in the sun's first rays, their smooth
+trunks still black, with the darkness of night, ringed the island
+round.  Within the circle of palms was a luxurious tangle of tropical
+plants, of flowers, of lazily drooping vines.  Payne followed a winding
+path through the odorous jungle and came to the tiny bungalow hidden in
+the heart of it all.
+
+"Garman!" he called hoarsely; and by the manner in which his voice
+echoed in the stillness he knew no living being was about the place.
+
+He entered softly, almost fearing to find the signs he sought.  One of
+Garman's large cigars, lighted and thrown away after a few puffs, lay
+on the verandah.  The place inside was a wreck.  Broken furniture,
+shattered glass, torn curtains and bedding, lay about in aimless
+disorder, as if some wild animal had run amuck there tearing and
+trampling to pieces all it touched.  Windows and frames had been
+smashed with terrific blows.  There were dents in the floor where it
+had been beaten furiously with an iron bedpost.
+
+Roger came out and tried to think.  What had happened?  Had Garman
+deliriously celebrated his triumph in an orgy of destruction?  There
+was no sign of a struggle.  He left the island hurriedly.
+
+
+The morning sun was high in the heavens when Roger emerged from the
+woods onto the prairie on his way back to Garman's house.  He followed
+no path.  He was running head down, seeing and hearing nothing.  He
+smashed through a clump of palmetto scrubs into an opening of barren
+white sand, and from another thicket came Garman, a rifle in his hands,
+plunging toward him, blind and deaf, maddened and purple-faced with
+rage.
+
+They were almost face to face when they saw one another.
+
+There was no time to think of weapons, no time to think at all.  They
+sprang at one another with a cry that was old when man invented the
+cleft-stick stone ax.  There is a note of joy in that cry as well as
+that of rage.  Roger leaped primitively to grapple and break his enemy
+with bare hands.  Garman tossed his rifle away and came on intent upon
+the same purpose.
+
+They clinched; and the moment Roger felt those vast soft hands
+tightening upon him the shock brought back to him a sort of reason.
+Garman was the stronger.  His right hand caught Roger's clenched fist
+within an inch of his chin, and his gorilla grip held the fist
+helpless.  His huge hand encased Roger's fist as one might hold a
+baseball; and slowly, surely, gloatingly he bent the arm.
+
+Garman was the stronger.  This was the thought which now monopolized
+Roger's mind.  By natural law Garman would be the victor in this
+primitive struggle; and considering the man and the circumstances,
+Roger had no illusions as to what this would mean to him.  So far as
+his own entity was concerned the mental picture of himself as Garman's
+victim did not disturb him greatly; he had lost all that man may hope
+for in life; no fear came into his heart as he realized how much Garman
+was his physical superior.
+
+An impulse to throw himself madly upon his opponent regardless of
+consequences followed the picture; but with a sudden determination he
+controlled it.  A few wild, reckless spasms and he knew the fight would
+be over.  Once those terrible hands, with their fat, suctionlike palms,
+found a vital hold they would not let go; and Garman was an experienced
+fighter, and wild fighting would soon present him the opportunity which
+he would see and seize.
+
+Roger placed himself wholly upon the defensive, and while he skillfully
+resisted Garman's efforts to end the struggle at once, he fought with
+himself a struggle for calm reason.
+
+He could not win.  That was the basis from which he began to reason.
+Garman was the stronger man, so much stronger that against him Roger's
+powerful young body thrust as against the trunk of an immovable tree.
+For a moment the pair had held motionless, Garman's bulk and might held
+for the instant by Roger's impetuous rush, but now the Plunderer's
+strength was telling and he was slowly thrusting his victim back.
+
+As he retreated before the irresistible strength that was dominating
+him, Roger was winning a battle with himself.  All the youth and pride
+and strength of him were rebelling at even momentary subjection, but
+his will was swiftly gaining the ascendancy within him.  The body cried
+for a swift and terrible struggle; the mind demanded patience.  For
+though he could not win he would if he could, before he succumbed, hurt
+Garman so terribly that victory would be too dearly purchased to be
+enjoyed.
+
+The first clash was over; Garman, contented at having proved himself
+the stronger, had ceased to thrust against Roger, and in a moment the
+pair came to a standstill.  Roger's left fist was still held helpless
+in Garman's grip while with his right he fended away the Plunderer's
+hand at his throat.  Garman was not striking; his great left hand like
+a wide-open claw came forward seeking a throttling grip, while the wild
+light in his eyes and the ghastly smile on his face showed how sure he
+was of an easy triumph.
+
+"I've got you, Payne!" he roared.  "Let that sink into your soul.  I've
+got you.  Out here nobody will come or hear you when you begin to
+shriek for mercy.  Oh, you're going to shriek, all right; don't have
+any doubt about that.  I know how to do it; I'm going to have some fun
+out of this mess after all.  Yes, enough fun to pay for all the damage
+you've done me.  I'm going to play with you, sonny; I'm going to show
+you tricks you never heard of.  I'm going to make you last a long time
+after you begin to shriek and beg me to kill you, and every minute of
+it will be to me like a dream come true.  Buck me, will you?  Then come
+to me!"
+
+The last words were accompanied by a sudden jerk.  Garman's arms licked
+out viciously and Roger found himself clasped to his enemy's breast.  A
+horror possessed him such as he had never imagined, for Garman's whole
+body seemed like his hands, soft, clinging, destructive; and Roger put
+all his strength in the effort and broke free.
+
+He must not let Garman get him like that again, he thought as he fought
+back.  It had cost him too much energy to break the hold.  Garman had
+been a trifle too assured, not realizing fully his opponent's strength;
+and the next time he would make sure that there was no escape from his
+gorilla-like arms.
+
+"Come to me, Payne," he repeated softly, reaching for another grip.
+"I've got you; feed your soul on those words.  So young and full of
+life; but I've got you out here in the swamp where nobody can see or
+hear.  Why, sonny, I doubt if they'll ever find you, or what's left,
+after I get through."
+
+Roger, calm again after his sudden effort, watched for an opening and
+shot his left like a bullet against the huge, gross mouth.  Almost in
+the same second he side-stepped and brought his right in an arc to the
+mark above Garman's belt and leaped back out of danger.  Garman did not
+stir, and though the blow on the mouth cut it did not efface the sneer
+on his lips.
+
+"Or what's left after I get through," he repeated.  "Let your mind take
+hold of that, sonny.  It won't be pretty to look at, but never mind;
+you won't be able to see it.  All alone, out here in the swamp and the
+buzzards will be waiting."
+
+He lunged and Roger slipped by his guard, smashed his fist into the
+mouth again and pivoted to safety.
+
+"The buzzards will be waiting, Payne," continued Garman in his
+monotone.  "Big hungry one, up there in the cypress.  But the Mexican
+Buzzards, the little brown fellows, will come down from the trees
+first--fierce little Mexican buzzards--not afraid to tackle a thing
+still living a little and groaning!"
+
+Roger scarcely heard the last words, for Garman was on him like a fury,
+striking, clawing, cursing.
+
+"Hit me, will you!  Try your boxer's tricks on me, eh?" he roared.
+"I'll stamp your head into the ground."
+
+The rush carried them back to the fringe of palmetto scrub, and at the
+touch of sharp leaves on his back Roger leaped to one side and away
+from the scrub.  So swiftly did he move that Garman was unable to turn
+with him, and Roger flung his arms about the raging enemy's middle and
+lifted him in the air.  Then Garman laughed softly, for his paws
+dropped upon Roger's wrists, as he threw himself face downward upon the
+ground.  Roger was on top but for a moment he was helpless, his wrists
+imprisoned beneath Garman's body.
+
+"The Mexican buzzards, sonny; the little fierce fellows.  I've got you;
+I've got you sure this time."
+
+Roger relaxed in apparent defeat; then bending his supple body like a
+bow he managed to drive a knee with all his power into the small of
+Garman's back.  The upper part of the huge, gross body came up with a
+jerk; a cry of mingled pain and rage escaped Garman; his grip relaxed
+and Roger tore himself free.
+
+The terrific wrench of the back would have prostrated any normal man,
+but Garman, rolling swiftly, came to his feet and rushed again with new
+fury.
+
+The fight raged across the clearing and back again, Garman striving to
+drive his agile opponent into the brush and entangle him, Roger
+carefully avoiding this danger which would have enabled Garman to come
+to grips.  Time after time the latter rushed and each time Roger eluded
+his grasp.  When a safe opportunity offered Roger struck and leaped to
+safety, refusing to permit Garman's taunts to rouse him to reckless
+fury.
+
+"Run, why don't you, sonny?  Turn and beat it.  You're fast; you might
+get away."
+
+Roger did not reply to these efforts to provoke him; he circled just
+out of reach, watching with icy eyes for the big man's next move.  And
+when it came he was ready to meet it.  His mind was clear and cool; one
+chance he had and one only,--that Garman would tire himself.  As the
+fight went on and it became obvious that Garman, despite his efforts,
+was as fresh as ever, Roger abandoned this hope; and now he became more
+calm, more icy-eyed than ever.
+
+It was a fight to death and his only purpose now to die hard and
+fighting to the last breath.  A grim satisfaction, a pride, almost a
+joy, in the perfect condition of body, of his strength and agility,
+began to grow in him.  The joy of life, the purposes and hopes of a
+man's existence; the hope of love, all that had been put away; and he
+had become the stark fighting man, single of idea, barren of hope, but
+efficient.  The intoxication of battle began to creep upon him.  From
+the toes of his light strong feet to the top of his head his body
+thrilled with the strong man's joy in his own strength; and only his
+iron will, which had consecrated his strength to the uttermost possible
+harming of Garman, prevented him from shouting exultantly.  Instead he
+stepped in when the opportunity presented itself and swung his right
+with all his power to Garman's long, heavy jaw.  The blow would have
+felled any other man like a pole-axed ox, but Garman's head merely
+rolled back on its thick neck and that was all.
+
+A new gleam of craftiness in Garman's eyes warned Roger to
+extraordinary alertness, and when the other, pretending to seek a
+moment's rest, suddenly lashed out a kick for the groin, the young man
+threw himself away, escaping with a blow on the hip.  Anger flamed in
+him anew, the anger of the fair fighter at a treacherous trick, and at
+the sight of the change in him Garman permitted himself a little smile,
+and Roger again forced himself to grow calm.  He retreated, striking,
+ducking, side-stepping, he circled the clearing.  Once his foot slipped
+on the barrel of Garman's rifle, and he kicked it to one side.  As he
+did so Garman kicked again, at the knee this time; but now Roger was
+ready, he caught his foot behind the other's heel, heaved up and threw
+the big man heavily.
+
+"God--you!" bellowed Garman as he sprang up, and the smile was gone
+from his face.
+
+The fighting now became bestial, brutal, animal-like in its unreasoning
+fury.  Driven wild with humiliation over the heavy throw, Garman
+lowered his head and charged like a mad bull, butting, striking,
+kicking.  His blows were wild, but their power was irresistible;
+Roger's guard was beaten down, he tried in vain to escape; and one of
+the blows went home on his forehead and knocked him into the palmetto
+scrub.  With both feet he kicked viciously at the huge head that was
+rushing at him; Garman's rush stopped sharply; and Roger was on his
+feet and out in the open ere his opponent had recovered.
+
+Garman was insane with rage; Roger was icy calm.  They had been
+fighting so long now and so furiously that he knew the end could not be
+long delayed.  He realized how narrowly he had escaped; had his kick
+missed Garman would have been on top of him.  He must not go down again.
+
+His heart was thumping so his ribs shook, and his breath was coming in
+gulps between parted lips.  Garman's lips were smashed beyond all
+resemblance to a mouth, and the heaving of his great chest told how the
+pace was telling.  His first kick had done the work, however.  A
+numbness was spreading over Roger's right leg.  In the heat of combat
+he had not realized how severe was the kick that had been dealt him,
+but now the fact came home.
+
+He was slowing up.  Well, he would do all the damage he could before
+the stiffening limb permitted Garman to catch him in that horrible
+gorilla grip.  And then Garman spoke:
+
+"You got the girl you ---- young pup, but I've got you."
+
+New strength coursed through Roger's heart.  His lightninglike feint
+drew Garman's guard low; he swung his right in an over-hand blow full
+upon his opponent's hawk-like nose.  Garman's mouth opened wide as he
+struggled for breath, and Roger knew the damage he had done.  Again he
+feinted, again he swung--and a bone in his right hand snapped as the
+fist went home on the top of his enemy's suddenly lowered head.
+
+
+Garman laughed through the welter of his broken face, and rushed, and
+Roger's straight left stopped him.  Again the left flashed into the
+battered face, and again.  Roger was fighting with the desperation of
+his last remnants of strength.  One hand was useless, his leg was
+stiffening rapidly, but his left worked havoc with the other's features.
+
+Garman drew back.  His eyes gleamed with comprehension and triumph.
+Maddened and reckless Roger rushed and struck and got away; and then
+suddenly, in one uncontrollable spasm of rage Garman went wild.  His
+tone became an animal roar of rage, his fighting that of a beast.  And
+as Roger side-stepped and dodged he knew that the end had come.  He
+floundered and stumbled; his right leg was fast becoming useless.
+
+Garman had only to keep on rushing.
+
+Roger slipped on something hard and realized that it was the rifle.  As
+he leaped up and away he saw Garman's eye catch a glint of the weapon.
+With a terrific effort Roger lunged forward.  Too late.  Garman had
+stooped to dig the weapon from the trodden sand.  Roger struck with the
+desperation of life or death behind his blow.  His fist landed full on
+the neck below the ear; Garman grunted bestially and pitched forward on
+his face.  The sight seemed to flood Roger's body with unbounded
+strength, the strength of hope reborn after despair has held sway.  He
+jerked the rifle from his opponent's hands.  Garman was on his hands
+and knees, sneering grotesquely at Roger's face above the leveled
+barrel.  And suddenly Roger swung the rifle round and threw it out of
+reach in the palmetto scrub.
+
+"Get up!" he panted hoarsely.  "I've got you now."
+
+Garman rose on tottering legs and came on.  He could not fight any
+longer, but he could blaspheme, and the foulest curses rolled from his
+lips.  Finally he uttered Annette's name.  Roger set himself and drove
+his fist to the point of the heavy, fat jaw.  And as a marionette falls
+when its suspending strings are cut, so Garman collapsed and lay a
+huge, shapeless heap in the reddened sand.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+Hours later Roger found himself on the bank of the river far below
+Garman's house.  He had wandered wildly, avoiding paths, dodging
+clearings, holding to dark, shaded jungle-land, like a hurt animal
+seeking to hide its wounds from the light of day.  The joy of victory
+over Garman glowed steadily in his bosom, yet though he knew that
+Garman now was a broken man and that he no longer would attempt to play
+king in the district, he also knew that the fruits of the victory were
+like ashes upon his tongue.  He felt old and defeated, like a man
+suddenly robbed of his illusions.  Garman had been right; he had been
+dwelling in the Fool's Paradise of Youth, accepting dreams for
+realities.  Now, he had "torn the mask of illusions from the face of
+Life and seen the old hag as she really is."
+
+Garman's phrases kept ringing in his ears, and with repetition they
+came to hold a note of mocking triumph.
+
+Garman was whipped, yet he had won.  His words remained to cut and
+torture.  In his state of semidelirium Roger began to doubt that he had
+won over Garman.  The doubt became a certainty.  Defeat, not victory,
+was his portion.  Garman's was the victory, the victory of bitter
+knowledge over the vaporish ideals of youth.
+
+Roger stooped to drink from a clear pool at the river's brink and
+shrank back at the reflection he beheld in the water.  A strange, lined
+face stared up at him.  He shut his eyes as he drank, then plunged his
+head into the pool.  Cooled off and cleansed, he again studied his
+reflection.  The traces of dust and combat were washed away, and he saw
+how little they had to do with the transformation.  The change was
+deeper than the skin, deeper than the flesh.  It had bitten into the
+spirit; and the bitterness and hate in his eyes, the cynical sneer that
+leered up at him, sprang from the change that had taken place in his
+soul.
+
+Garman was still winning.
+
+Roger laughed aloud, and at the sound of his voice checked himself
+abruptly.  He turned away from the pool, cursing it for what it had
+revealed, and stumbled back into the darkness of the jungle.
+
+In time he came to the spot where he and Garman had fought.  His enemy
+was gone.  It was some minutes before Roger realized how this
+disappointed him.  He had returned to tell Garman he was right.  He no
+longer hated Garman.  Garman made him see the truth.
+
+Later, as he sat near the spot where his foe had fallen, he saw that
+others had visited the spot recently.  There were a multitude of fresh
+tracks in the sand about the palmetto scrub.  He regarded them
+indifferently until he saw the deep marks of Higgins' hunting boots.
+Besides these he saw other men's tracks, including the marks of Willy
+High Pocket's bare feet.  And then he saw that which sent the blood
+racing to his head.
+
+Clearly outlined in the sand were the marks of a girl's tennis
+slippers, and he knew they were Annette's.
+
+He searched the sand like a hound now, seeking signs of what had
+happened.  He saw where the tracks had come into the clearing--Higgins,
+Willy High Pocket and Annette.  They had been running.  Then he saw how
+they had scattered, searching the country round, and had returned to
+the spot where Garman lay.  From there they had gone toward the path
+leading to Garman's house.  There were tracks of half a dozen men.
+Garman's was among them.  He had, apparently, been helped to his feet
+and led away.
+
+As the last rays of the setting sun were gilding the palm tops Roger
+pushed aside a curtain of moon vine and looked out upon Garman's house
+and the little lake beyond.  To his surprise the Egret lay at the dock,
+the captain on the bridge, ready to start downstream.  Higgins, Davis
+and Willy High Pockets were standing near the pergola looking toward
+the house.  Presently they turned and walked slowly out of sight and
+hearing.
+
+Garman came tottering out of the house onto the walk leading to the
+dock.  He was freshly clad and extensively bandaged.  Beside him walked
+Annette, supporting him with the strength of her tall young body.
+Garman was broken physically, but his spirit remained strong.
+
+Suddenly he halted, painfully freeing his arm from her supporting hand.
+
+"No," he mumbled through his bandages, "I can't let you do that."
+
+"But I want to help you to the boat," she protested.  "You're very
+weak, you know."
+
+Garman tottered, yet he gestured her away.  He spoke slowly, each word
+an effort.
+
+"Might it occur to you that even in my present condition I might be
+capable of feeling a sense of humiliation at being helped away--by you?"
+
+"I wouldn't want you to feel that," she replied.
+
+"Ha!" he laughed faintly, "The magnanimity of victorious youth toward
+the conquered.  Star-eyed youth has won, and----"
+
+"Oh, please don't take up that old strain, Mr. Garman.  You are badly
+hurt; you must think of getting to a doctor at once."
+
+"Can the leopard change his spots?" he said.  "No.  He doesn't want to.
+I was very weak a moment ago.  My strength is returning.  But I am not.
+A strong man leaves and forgets the scene of his defeat, and the
+defeat.  You will never see me again.  Can you bear up under that?"
+
+"I'm very sorry to hear you say things like that."
+
+Garman swayed like a broken tree, but despite it he smiled sardonically.
+
+"You had hoped I had changed?"  His voice was little more than a
+painful whisper.  Swaying drunkenly, almost falling, he drove himself
+on to speak.  "That the leopard's spots had become whiter than snow?
+My dear Miss Fairclothe, people don't change like that.  Behold
+yourself: even the jungle and sun, even I, couldn't change you.  The
+flesh wavered, but the soul held true.  I won't play the hypocrite and
+say I am glad you were too strong for me.  I am not.  I wish I could
+have made you like myself.  Now I'm going away and forget you and all
+this, and the whole affair of civilization.  If you feel sorry for me
+your emotion is wasted.  On the whole it will be a relief for me.
+Business, and so on--I was getting pretty well bored with the whole
+thing."
+
+He staggered grotesquely toward the dock and halted.
+
+"And don't you worry about Payne.  You'll find him.  Trust the woman to
+find the man she's marked for her victim!  No, no!  Don't grow
+indignant; I'll change 'victim' to 'mate.'  There's really little
+difference.  Payne's all right."  A quiver of pain convulsed him.
+"He's got some brains, too.  Not too much, but enough.  You two are too
+perfectly matched for anything to keep you apart, and, having joined
+one another, too perfectly matched to avoid fighting."  He chuckled
+faintly behind his bandages.  "Oh, yes, you'll fight, my dear girl,
+take my word for that; he's got a will of his own, too.  But your
+fights will be embraces in disguise."
+
+He tottered toward the river and again turned.
+
+"Will you shake hands with me before I go?" he asked.
+
+"Why, yes," she said.  "Of course."
+
+Garman chuckled, but turned away without touching her proffered hand.
+
+"I merely wanted to know," he said, and went staggering on his away
+aboard the Egret.  He mumbled an order and an oath to the captain.  The
+Egret slipped swiftly down the river.
+
+Annette watched until the yacht had gone.  When she turned round Roger
+was coming toward her.  She cried out, a cry of relief, of happiness,
+of love.
+
+"Annette!" he whispered, and came close to her.
+
+"Wait, wait!" she said.  "There are things to be explained."
+
+"I know."  He moved back a step.  "I was a brute, too."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Garman----"
+
+"Oh--that!  It was terrible, I know, but you were not the aggressor.  I
+mean about the note."
+
+"Do notes--or things like it--matter now?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; they matter very, very much.  I wish to explain.  I--I went out
+there to Palm Island to fight out my fight with myself."
+
+He looked at her radiant young face and said: "You won."
+
+"Yes, that is the wonderful part of it: I didn't know whether I would
+win when I went there.  Garman was so terribly strong.  He dominated
+me, and seemed to control my thoughts and feelings.  But--do you
+remember what you said in the path there the other day--when I asked
+you to go away--when Garman spied on us?"
+
+"What was it?" he asked.
+
+"Oh!  Don't you remember?"
+
+"Let me see--I called Garman a cad."
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!  You remember you said--you said----"
+
+He looked in her eyes and understood.
+
+"I said I loved you."
+
+"Yes.  That's what saved me.  I knew.  I felt it here in my heart how
+you loved me.  Roger, I felt it from the moment we met."
+
+"Yes," he said, "I loved you from that moment, Annette."
+
+"And I you, Roger.  But it seemed so impossible.  I used to think it
+must be a dream.  Aunty, father, Garman and all the selfishness; and
+then in the midst of it all finding such a love--such a love as girls
+dream of, Roger.  And I was afraid Garman had me in his power.  So I
+went to the island and fought it out.  And then I knew it was all
+right--because all I thought of was you.  So I sent him that note.  I
+was a little afraid of him, and I wanted to lure him away, so I
+could--well, I wanted him away."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I can't tell you, dear."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Please don't make me tell.  I'm ashamed."
+
+"Very well then."
+
+She turned her flushed face up toward him.
+
+"Do you really want to know?"
+
+"If you wish to tell me."
+
+"I wanted him away--so I could come to you.  I hurried straight to your
+camp.  Am I shameless, Roger?  Then we hunted for you.  Roger----"
+
+"I am not worthy of you," he said, "but I love you."
+
+"Roger?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Do you think we will really fight?"
+
+They laughed together, the joyous laughter of youth, her head upon his
+breast and his arms about her.
+
+"Probably," he said.
+
+And they laughed again.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plunderer, by Henry Oyen
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plunderer, by Henry Oyen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Plunderer
+
+Author: Henry Oyen
+
+Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19401]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLUNDERER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PLUNDERER
+
+
+BY
+
+HENRY OYEN
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+BIG FLAT, GASTON OLAF, THE SNOW BURNER, ETC.
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1920,
+
+BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+THE PLUNDERER
+
+
+I
+
+Roger Payne had come to a decision.  He waited until the office door
+had closed behind the departing stenographer, then swung his long legs
+recklessly upon his flat-top desk and shouted across the room at his
+partner:
+
+"Jim Tibbetts!"
+
+Tibbetts frowned.  He was footing a column of cost figures and the
+blast from his young partner nearly made him lose count.
+
+Payne grinned.  He liked his partner.  Had he not done so he would
+never have allowed himself to be dragged into business--Tibbetts &
+Payne, Manufacturers' Agents.  Two years of it.  Two years from the day
+on a Western irrigation dam when Payne had installed the cement machine
+that Tibbetts was selling.  Two years--to Payne--of prison.  And now
+his moment of decision had arrived.
+
+Roger Payne was out of place.  He did not fit the furniture.  There was
+a look of permanence to the dark tan upon his face which labeled it not
+the surface sunburn which may be collected during a two weeks' vacation
+or gradually acquired by spending Saturday afternoon and Sunday on the
+golf links.  It was a tan that suggested leather, and which comes as
+much from frostbite as sunburn, and from the whip of frozen snowflakes
+as the heated winds of summer.
+
+Beneath the tan the face was too lean and hard to be in sympathy with
+the high polish of flat-top desks.
+
+His body also was lean and hard.  Even the proper cut of a carefully
+tailored business suit could not conceal a certain bunchiness about the
+shoulders which had nothing at all in common with office efficiency.
+The shoulders were outrageously broad, the barrel of his chest was
+scandalously deep, the hands distressingly large and brown, considered
+in intimate association with filing systems and adding machines.  And
+the keen blue eyes, sometimes gazing with a far-away, unbusiness-like
+look out into the grimy, roaring canon called Wabash Avenue, sometimes
+twinkling with unbusinesslike mischief, inevitably completed the
+exposure of Roger Payne.
+
+He did not belong there, and he knew it.  Hence it was that he suddenly
+jerked his long legs from the desk, sat up and said swiftly:
+
+"Jim Tibbetts, I want you to buy me out!"
+
+Tibbetts blinked.  He was bald, plump, spectacled and kindly.
+
+"Eh?  What say?  Dang it, Rog, you made me lose count!"
+
+He began all over to foot the column of cost figures.  He footed from
+bottom to top, checked the result by footing from top to bottom, erased
+his light penciled figures and rewrote them in ink, laid the sheet to
+one side and folded his hands in resignation.
+
+"I knew it was coming, Rog.  I've seen the signs for weeks past.
+You've been ramping round like a man in prison.  Dang it, Rog, I'm
+sorry."
+
+"Jim," said Roger, "this is no business for me to be in."
+
+"It's a good business, Roger," protested Tibbetts mildly.  "There's
+nothing wrong with it.  We've been running only two years.  Look what
+we've done.  Look at our prospects.  We're pretty well off already.
+We'll be rich pretty soon.  Why?  Because Roger Payne comes pretty near
+being a genius with machinery and Jim Tibbetts can beat most fellows
+selling.  It's too good to spoil, Roger."
+
+"Two years," repeated Payne slowly.  "Jim, it seems like a lifetime to
+me, and it doesn't seem real.  The other did--bridgebuilding,
+irrigation, timber cruising.  That was living."
+
+"That was bumming, and you know it!" protested Tibbetts.  "That was kid
+stuff; it was your way of sowing your wild oats.  How much money did
+you have when it was over?  How much have you got now, after only two
+years of business?  It was time-wasting, that's what it was, and you
+know it."
+
+"It was outdoors," said Payne.
+
+They were silent for a while.
+
+"Roger," said Tibbetts sorrowfully, "are you beginning to turn dreamer?"
+
+"No," said Payne emphatically, "I'm waking up.  I'm like a man who's
+been asleep for the last two years.  I'm just coming out of it.  I'm
+wide awake; and that's why I've come to see that this game and I don't
+belong together.  You said you'd noticed me ramping round like a man in
+prison.  That's right!  Can you guess why?  Well, just because of what
+I tell you; I've come to myself, Jim, and I've got to get out."
+
+"Why?  Why have you got to get out?"
+
+Roger Payne shook a hard brown fist at the gray-stone walls of the
+other side of the clanging street.
+
+"That's why, Jim.  It's a prison--to me.  Easy enough if you fit in it.
+I don't.  So I'm going to get out; and it's got to be now."
+
+"But why, in the name of Sam, now?  You're getting old, I'll admit.
+Let's see, how long ago is it since I gave you that scarfpin for your
+twenty-seventh birthday?  Twenty-seven!  Come out of it, Rog.
+Fifty-seven is the proper age to begin dreaming about quitting
+business."
+
+"I know it.  That's why I'm going to do it now, before the game gets
+me.  It gets everybody who stays in it.  It would even get me.  Then at
+fifty-seven, as you say, I might quit and go outdoors and begin to
+live--too late.  Jim, did you ever see a more pitiful spectacle than a
+natural-born outdoor man who's kept his nose on a desk for thirty years
+and then realized his lifelong dream?  Neither have I.  He thinks he's
+going to get out and start living then, but what he does is to begin to
+die--from the shoulders up.  No, sir!"  The young man sprang to his
+feet, flinging the swivel chair away with a kick.  "I'm not going to be
+trapped.  I'd rather hike back to-morrow to that irrigation job out
+West and boss Hunkies for Higgins than sit cooped up here day after day
+and get rich."
+
+"You--crazy young fool!" said Tibbetts affectionately.
+
+"All right, Jim.  Crazy, if you please.  But that is what's going to
+happen; you're going to buy me out, or get another partner, and I"--he
+filled his great lungs with air--"I'm going to get outdoors."
+
+"What're you going to do?  I'll bet you don't know.  Have you got any
+plans?"
+
+"Yes, I'm going to get out of the city the day after I wind things up
+here."
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"Back home to Jordan City and look the old town over, first of all."
+
+"Jordan City!  Why--why you aren't a retired farmer."
+
+Payne laughed.  "Not going to settle there, Jim."
+
+"Oh, and after you've looked it over, what then?"
+
+"I'll make my plans there.  I don't know what it will be.  But whatever
+it is, it will be something that won't bring me back to town."
+
+James Tibbetts looked long and hopefully at the browned face of his
+young partner; but at what he saw there his hopes vanished.
+
+"You're set on this, I see, Rog," he said sorrowfully.
+
+"Cheer up, Jim!" responded Payne.
+
+"I'll give you a deal that will help you get rich a lot quicker than if
+I stayed with you."
+
+Tibbetts shook his head and was silent a long time.  "Well, if you're
+bound to sell, you won't go out of here exactly busted--after two years
+with me," he said at last.  "Rog!  Do you mean it?  We're going to
+part?"
+
+"It would be plain hell for me to stick, Jim."
+
+Tibbetts grasped the extended hard brown hand in his own soft white
+fingers.  After a while he managed to stammer:
+
+"I see.  This just had to come!"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+On the fat rolling lands about Jordan City pedigreed kine graze by the
+hundreds, corn grows high and thick and silos are to be seen in every
+barnyard.  And in Jordan City bank accounts are large and permanent.
+
+It is an old town, as age goes in the Mississippi Valley.  Maple trees
+with huge, solid trunks and immense branches line its older streets.
+The streets themselves, save for the strip of asphalt where the state
+highway sweeps through the town, are largely paved with hard red
+bricks.  In the older streets in the residence sections the sidewalks
+are of the same material, and in many places soft green moss grows
+undisturbed upon these hard red paths.  Back from the little-used
+sidewalks of these sections, surrounded by hedges of Osage orange or
+box elder, stand old staid houses in good paint and repair.  Rich
+retired owners of the fat acres of Jordan County live in most of them
+and own ponderous eight-cylinder cars.
+
+There is a new section of the town, too, where the architecture runs to
+bungalow styles, where the installment collectors from the phonograph
+houses are regularly seen, and where papa gets out in front and twirls
+the crank when the family car goes out for its airing.  No important
+line of demarcation separates the old staid section of town from the
+new and brighter one.  Major Trimble, President of the Jordan Bank &
+Trust Company, accepts deposits from both sections with strict
+impartiality; the spire of the Methodist Episcopal Church is the Sunday
+lodestone to folk on both sides of town, as well as for much of the
+country round.  They talk mainly of farms, of cattle and of the weather
+on the streets of Jordan; and the young folk largely go off to Chicago
+to make their way in the world.
+
+Into this farm-ringed islet of tranquillity, where faith in one's
+fellowman, and hoarded money, are in abundance, about the time that
+Roger Payne was beginning to know that his place was not in the city,
+the afternoon train from the east deposited a large, dignified
+personage of robust, well-nourished, ministerial manner and apparel,
+who bore comfortably upon his well-padded shoulders the name, Isaiah
+Granger.
+
+Isaiah Granger!  The name alone would have been an open sesame to the
+important circle which made possible the prosperity of Major Tumble's
+bank and the First M. E. Church.  But Mr. Granger had other things to
+recommend him.  He came, quoth the _Jordan Record_--whose editor's
+notes Major Trimble held--to make his home in that most beautiful of
+towns, Jordan City.  He was an old friend of Major Tumble's.  Mr.
+Granger was "well fixed"--Major Trimble gave his word for that.
+
+Hence Mr. Granger was met at the station by Major Trimble, driven in
+the Major's ponderous car to his home and there introduced to Mrs.
+Trimble--strange that being so old a friend of the Major's he should
+not have met Mrs. Trimble before--and then in the seclusion of the
+Major's library he had shucked his coat, as it were, and said:
+
+"Well, what's the prospects for a killing?  Got any of 'em lined up?"
+
+"First," retorted Major Trimble, stroking his knife-edged nose, "let me
+see your credentials from Senator Fairclothe."
+
+The visitor smiled and passed over the requested credentials.  Major
+Trimble inspected them as an astute banker should.
+
+"All right," he said, and waited.
+
+Mr. Granger passed over a bank draft.
+
+"All right," repeated the banker, "and ten percent on all sales made
+here or through connections from here."
+
+"Ten per cent," agreed Granger, "and no responsibility to be attached
+to you."
+
+"I'll take care of that," snapped Trimble, "Now, Granger, I think you
+ought to do some real business here."
+
+And Granger did.
+
+Long before Roger Payne had sold his share in his business, Isaiah
+Granger was leading the choir in the First M. E. Church and Mrs.
+Granger, a lady of girth and charm, was President of the Jordan
+Beautiful Society.  Their position in Jordan was solid and assured.
+Long before Roger finally escaped from the large city, Isaiah Granger,
+and therefore Jordan, had been most significantly honored.
+
+Granger had been appointed by United States Senator Lafayette
+Fairclothe, in a letter written on Senate stationery, as district
+manager for that great organization, The Prairie Highlands Association,
+Senator Fairclothe, President, Washington, D. C.--which, under the
+encouragement of the Government, was bestowing a boon on a land-hungry
+nation of developing the fabulously rich prairie lands of the Western
+Everglades, Florida.  Long before the afternoon when Roger swung
+boyishly off the train at Jordan, Isaiah Granger's fellow townsmen, led
+by Major Trimble, had become insistent in their demands that he give
+them first chance at that land right there in Jordan--a demand which
+Granger had admitted to be entirely just.
+
+It was Major Trimble, as an old family friend, who hinted to Roger
+about the snap that Brother Granger was letting his fellow citizens in
+on in Florida land.  It was Senator Fairclothe's direct, sincere
+replies to Roger's letters of inquiry that convinced him.  There is
+magic in the words "United States Senator."  But after all, it was the
+spirit of adventure, the love of outdoors, the instinct of the pioneer,
+which prompted him to buy a 1000-acre block of "prairie highland," at
+the headwaters of the Chokohatchee River.  It was necessary to buy at
+once, for Trimble was after that tract for himself.  Having made the
+purchase Payne sent a wire to the Far West asking one Higgins,
+engineer, if he were open for a job.  And then Roger Payne turned his
+eager eyes toward sunny Southern Florida.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+A flaring ray of purple sun came flashing over the sea to Gumbo Key, a
+warning of the brazen subtropical dawn that was to come.  It pierced a
+vista in the jungle of coco palms on the narrow key, colored purple the
+white side of the Paradise Gardens Colony excursion boat Swastika,
+which lay at the tiny wharf on the key's western shore, and splashed
+without warning into an open porthole well aft.
+
+Roger Payne awoke with a start.  It was his first experience with the
+shock of a Southern Florida dawn.  Dawns of many sorts he had seen--the
+ghastly ashy, clanging dawns of cities, the gray, creeping dawns of
+Northern winter, the bluish dawns of the Western mountains--but a dawn
+which came flaring up from the sea like a clap of thunder was a novelty.
+
+He lay for a moment, stretching his buoyant body on the shelflike
+berth, his soles firmly against one wall, his head touching another,
+and wondered how a man could sleep in that bunk who was over six feet
+one.  The Swastika had come from the railroad terminus at Flora City
+during the night, laden with small land buyers bound up the
+Chokohatchee River for the Paradise Gardens Colony, and had laid up at
+Gumbo Key at the mouth of the river to wait for daylight.  Payne had
+secured passage upon it, bound for his prairie land beyond the head
+waters of the Chokohatchee.  As he realized that dawn was coming and
+that soon he would see his land, he tumbled from his berth with
+something of the eagerness of a boy on the first day of the long
+vacation.
+
+"Come on, Hig; daylight's coming."
+
+Higgins, the other man in the room, stirred grudgingly.  He was young
+in years but old in the ways of men, hardened by many hard jobs in
+rough corners of the world, and broad of body and round and red of head.
+
+"Like the sunrise, do you?" grumbled Higgins.  "Go ahead; soak your
+soul in it.  My soul don't need soaking, so lemme sleep.  Or, here;
+mebbe you're out early for a glimpse at the young lady who kept to her
+room all last evening?"
+
+"I scarcely noticed her."
+
+"You're right; you didn't.  That's why I been wondering if there ain't
+something wrong with you.  Tall, slim, carried herself like a princess,
+and dressed----"
+
+"Go back to sleep, Hig, you're still dreaming."
+
+"A dream is right--but in the flesh--and you never noticed her!"
+
+"I'm down here on business; haven't time for anything else.  I'm going
+out and see what the country is like."
+
+"Go ahead.  By the purple shadows I can tell you that in a few minutes
+'twill be sunrise, and all gaudier than a campmeeter's picture of
+heaven.  So I'll just roll over and tear off ten winks more."
+
+Out on the narrow wharf Payne caught his foot on the painter of a
+rowboat moored near the Swastika's stern, and found the soft blue haze
+of the subtropical night still undisturbed save for the first ray of
+dawn.
+
+The tree growth on the key was jungle-like in density.  A path had been
+cut through to the eastern shore.  It was almost a tunnel, for the
+fronds of the coco palms and the branches of the red-trunked gumbo
+limbo, and of live oak formed an arch overhead, from which hung long,
+listless streamers of Spanish moss.  The red rays touched the hanging
+tips of the moss, as if the streamers had been dipped in vermilion, and
+it tinted softly the palm fronds, wet with the night's dew.
+
+Payne walked down the path to the east shore of the key, and suddenly
+he seemed to behold a world being born anew.  Dawn was coming with a
+rush.  The soft velvety blackness of night in the heavens was giving
+way to a faint purple.  Up from the mystic spaces of the east rays of
+deep purple, of burnt umber, vermilion, scarlet and flame were leaping
+into the sky.  Black dots began to appear on the horizon, keys and
+trees silhouetted against the rising light.  A huge heron flapped
+grotesquely up from the top of a mangrove bush as the sun struck it; a
+flamingo flapped by, matching its dainty pink with the sun's best
+tints; a dolphin's fin broke the dark purple water near shore.
+
+Then the eastern horizon became a flare of flame and fire, and the sea
+grew rosy.  Beyond its brim a great conflagration seemed to be raging,
+throwing its flames of gold, of red and of uncountable tints high into
+the sky.  Higher it rose, its rays more insistent; and then, as with a
+clashing of brazen cymbals, the full-blown dawn was upon the world.
+
+Payne now saw that the light had revealed two yachts moored to a short
+pier which ran out from the eastern shore.  One, a splendid sixty-foot
+cruiser of the luxurious type seen in Florida waters during the tourist
+season, lay at the end of the pier ready to sail.  From bow to stern
+she was immaculate white with shiny brown trimmings, and on her bow the
+sun revealed in small gilt letters the name Egret.
+
+The second boat was a low, dirty forty-footer--the Cormorant--the boat
+to which the Swastika's passengers were to transfer for the trip up the
+river.
+
+A Japanese steward, in spick and span whites, came down the Egret's
+shiny gangway, entered the path leading to the Swastika's dock, and in
+a few minutes came hurrying back to his boat carrying a handbag.
+
+The sun now had splashed boldly upon the languid wet fronds of the
+palms, upon the trunks of trees and the hanging moss.  It lighted up
+the tunnellike vista, painting rosy the shell path underfoot and
+revealing the Swastika beyond.  In the morning stillness Payne heard
+light, swift steps creaking crisply upon the crushed shells of the
+path.  Then, from his place in the shadows beneath a palm, he saw the
+girl.  She came to the open space before the sea, whistling softly to
+herself an irrepressible, tuneless matin song of youth, and thus she
+walked unexpectingly into the full power of the relentless dawn.  For a
+moment she halted, blinking, astounded.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Her exclamation was a cry of the joy of youth.  She stood facing the
+coming day, and the sea and sun; and a puff of morning breeze flung
+behind her a vagrant strand of golden hair.
+
+She was quite tall, and upon her young figure, long of waist and lithe,
+yet well-rounded, the thin white dress of the subtropics was but a
+filament, a feminine accessory to the virgin beauty and the message of
+her budding womanhood.
+
+Payne heard a soft, heavy step at his back and saw that Higgins, too,
+had answered the call of dawn.
+
+The girl stood entranced by the spectacle before her.  She placed her
+hands upon her bosom and stood with uplifted visage, like a young
+goddess of the dawn.  She stretched her arms passionately out over the
+sea and said quite loudly and fervently:
+
+"I love you, I love you!"
+
+In the shadow of the palm Payne and Higgins began to retreat guiltily.
+
+"No use your sticking round, Payne," whispered the engineer.  "You're
+too late; she's took.  You heard what she said."
+
+"Sh-h!"
+
+"I love you," repeated the girl with the same ecstatic tone and pose.
+"Ah!  How I love you!"
+
+From the arch over the path there dropped with a swish and crash the
+ten-foot branch of a coco palm, falling without warning or apparent
+reason, as the overripe branches of coco palms do fall.  The girl
+whirled round; and Payne was shocked and chilled to the marrow by the
+sight of her as she faced toward them.
+
+Beautiful she was, her face as beautiful as her vibrant young body, but
+for the moment she was like a thing at bay.  Fear shown in her eyes,
+not the passing fear of a sudden alarm, but a deep-seated, wearing fear
+suddenly awakened.  Her face was a deadly white.  For an instant it
+seemed to Roger that the depths of her soul were revealed, and at the
+mystery and dread in her eyes he took a step forward.  He did not
+speak.  Her expression baffled him.  He stood irresolute for the
+moment, and in that moment she recovered her poise.  She drew herself
+upright slowly, the red came flowing back into the cream of her cheeks,
+and she relaxed, leaning her weight upon one foot.  As she looked at
+Roger, and from him to the weather-beaten Higgins and back to Roger,
+her eyes grew easy with assurance.
+
+She began to smile.
+
+"Didn't know there were tigers or other dangerous beasts on this
+island, miss," chuckled Higgins.  "Say the word and we'll clean 'em out
+for you."
+
+Neither the girl nor Payne appeared to hear.  Payne looked at her
+without attempting to speak; he had tried to smile and carry the thing
+off easily, but as their eyes met his lips remained half parted without
+uttering a word.  He looked at her in utter helplessness, caught for
+the moment, at least, in the grip of a force greater than himself.  The
+girl shot Higgins a smile of understanding and friendliness, but as her
+eyes came back to Roger's the smile vanished by degrees; and upon her
+visage for the while was the same look of awesome seriousness as was
+upon the young man's.
+
+"Mebbe they're gorillas, miss," chuckled Higgins.
+
+She turned, reluctant yet relieved at the release from the tension, and
+looked at him speculatively.
+
+"Why did you say that?" she asked.
+
+"Gorillas, miss?  Pshaw!  Don't be afraid; I juggle them for morning
+exercise.  Eh?  What?" he continued, as he realized that her expression
+was not one of jesting.  "By the great smoked fish--excuse me for
+cussin', miss--if it wasn't ridiculous I'd say I'd hit it!"
+
+"Do you know anything about this place?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Not a thing, miss."
+
+"Or about the people round here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It was strange," she said, "your saying 'tiger' and 'gorilla' just
+then.  It was what I would have said--if I could have spoken."
+
+"I am sorry, very sorry we alarmed you," said Roger.  "We didn't want
+to intrude."
+
+"Oh, I am glad you were here," she cried.  "You don't know how glad I
+was to turn round and see you two instead of----"
+
+"Instead of tigers and gorillas?" laughed Roger.  "Oh!  I beg your
+pardon!" he cried in swift contrition at the look which the words
+brought back to her eyes.  "I wouldn't for the world--but, surely--it's
+impossible; there are no dangerous wild animals on this pretty little
+key."
+
+"No," she said slowly, looking away from him.  "No, there are not any
+dangerous--wild beasts on this key.  It--it was just a morning
+nightmare."  She laughed, looking up.  "Perhaps I wasn't thoroughly
+awake yet."  But she shuddered, and swiftly made pretense she was
+shaking herself.  "There; I'm awake now.  There are no dangerous wild
+animals here.  There are only--people.  It--it was just--just
+moonshine."
+
+"Do they make a little of it round here, miss?"  Higgins winked eagerly
+and with such energy that his ears and hat moved.
+
+"Oh, Higgins!" groaned Roger; but the girl threw back her head and
+laughed with relief and gratitude for the chance of merriment until the
+virgin morning seemed filled with song.  Higgins' hair-trigger laughter
+rumbled deep accompaniment; and, as always, the engineer's merriment
+forced itself upon Roger, and he joined in, while the silver of the
+girl's tones pealed above both, tinkling in the sun-kissed palms above,
+rolling out over the purple water, out to the mooring of the immaculate
+Egret.
+
+"We were on the Swastika, and rose early," explained Roger.
+
+"You're land buyers?"
+
+"Yes, I've invested in a big tract way up the river."
+
+"You're going up to-day?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then--are you going right back after seeing your land--like the
+others?"
+
+"I plan to develop that land--if it is anything like what it was
+represented."
+
+Her manner changed.  She grew thoughtful.
+
+"Whom did you buy your land from--if it isn't too impertinent?"
+
+"From Senator Fairclothe's company."
+
+"From Senator----!  Why, that's----" she stopped.
+
+"Tell me, please; how was that land represented?"
+
+"Prairie land.  Soil reports and surveys were furnished.  I discounted
+them fifty per cent, and still thought it a good investment."
+
+"Did the fact that--Senator Fairclothe recommended the land influence
+you?"
+
+"Why, certainly.  He's a United States Senator."
+
+She turned swiftly toward the Egret, but not swiftly enough to hide the
+flush that rushed to her cheeks.
+
+"I hope--I do hope you are not disappointed," she said.
+
+Her laughter of a moment before, penetrating to the cabin of the Egret,
+had brought a tall, thin woman, the sun glinting on the diamond
+pendants in her ears, out from a stateroom forward.
+
+"Ah, my dear Annette!"
+
+"Aunty!  You awake so early?"
+
+"The climate has made me young.  Come aboard, dear.  We sail at once."
+
+The girl hesitated.  Her tone was indefinable as she asked: "Is--Mr.
+Garman----?"
+
+"He's up at his place, and his boat is at our disposal.  Come, dear;
+come inside.  The mornings are damp in spite of their gorgeous beauty."
+
+The girl looked back at Payne from the door of the stateroom.  One
+glance.  He tried in vain to fathom it.  Then she disappeared.
+
+A few minutes later the Egret's softly purring engines were edging her
+away from the pier, when:
+
+"Cormorant, ahoy!" called a man from her engine room.
+
+"Hey?" responded a gruff voice from a shack on shore.
+
+"Got that extra drum of gasoline there?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Bring it up on the Cormorant when you come."
+
+"Aw-right."
+
+The Egret was well away from shore now.  Her sharp white bow cleaved
+the blue water of the way with slow, irresistible power.  Her speed
+increased.  In a few minutes twin waves of blue were curling away from
+her cutwater as, smoothly and swiftly, she raced across the bay and out
+of sight round the first bend of the wide mouthed Chokohatchee River.
+
+Roger Payne stood looking up the river long after the boat was out of
+sight.  He was in a daze; but he was very glad that he, too, was going
+up the river.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+Aboard the broad-beamed Swastika life was beginning to stir.  The odors
+of cooking food from her galley spread briskly upon the virgin morning
+air.  Shoes clattered upon the deck; a chatter of voices developed.
+The score or more of land-seekers aboard were awake and preparing early
+for the great day upon which they should behold their promised land.
+
+Up with the earliest of them, rosy, clean shaved, soberly and richly
+dressed and ministerial in dignity, was Granger, the agent, the expert
+leader of this confiding flock.
+
+Fate had created Granger for a fisher of men; greed had sent him into
+the South Florida land business.  His bland self-possession, his
+impressive physique, his confidence-winning voice and bearing
+constituted a profitable stock in trade.  In the slang of his
+craft--shall we say "graft"?--he "played the church game strong."
+Under the sway of his hypnotic personality God-fearing, bank-fearing
+old couples brought forth hidden wealth to place in his dexterous
+hands; school-teachers wrecked their savings to invest with Granger.
+And Granger turned the receipts over to the great masters of his
+company, minus his large commission.  Granger was only one tentacle of
+the company, one machine for extracting money from naive, land-hungry
+citizens.  The powerful, cunning men--or man--behind it had many
+machines.
+
+Senator Lafayette Fairclothe was the most expensive of these machines.
+It had cost much money and political trading to get his name on the
+Company's literature, but it was worth more.
+
+"The future in this country belongs to the producer; I recommend this
+investment to my fellow citizens.  Lafayette Fairclothe, United States
+Senator."
+
+It was worth millions.  For this was in the heyday of the Florida land
+boom; and the Paradise Gardens Colony, a branch of the Prairie
+Highlands Association, was one of the organizations that made history
+in Florida--a history that stank to high heaven, and even to
+Washington, to accomplish which, experience has taught us, requires a
+stench of vast and penetrating proportions indeed.
+
+Granger had gathered his flock from afar, none nearer than a thousand
+miles away from Florida's subtropics.
+
+It was a varied throng which gathered in the Swastika's saloon for an
+early breakfast.  They were earnest, serious, land seekers, not
+tourists.  In the main they were goodly folks worn by a monotony of
+life; men who had worked and women who had saved through long, gray
+years, buoyed up by the hope of a comfortable haven in old age to
+compensate them for a lifetime on the treadmill.  Some of them were
+farmers, some small-towners, two or three were from cities; and the
+spell of dreams, and of Granger, was upon them all.  They were dazzled,
+dazed.  On their native heaths, perhaps as shrewd as any, here they
+were pleased, hopeful children in a master's hands.  Ponce de Leon's
+Fountain of Youth, a plot of land in perpetual sun, where crops grow
+without work or worry, big land profits, easy money, something for
+nothing--the lure is as innate and potent as the eternal lure of gold!
+
+At breakfast the rumor began to spread somehow that something had
+happened, and the trip up the river to the colony would have to be
+delayed a few hours.  Then it was rumored that the delay would be a
+day, two days; it was dangerous to go upstream; it was impossible.  It
+was doubtful if the trip could be made for a long time.
+
+Granger was very busy and concerned, flying about the boat, off it and
+on again; his brow wrinkled, his lips compressed with determination.
+
+"Anything gone wrong, Mr. Granger?"
+
+"Nothing to speak of, brother.  I'll get it straightened out.  Do not
+worry, brother."
+
+"Ain't worryin' 'tall, long's you're in charge, Mr. Granger."
+
+The women on board began to feel sorry for Mr. Granger, the way he was
+rushing and worrying about for them.
+
+"Yes, Granger's all right.  He'll do the best any one can by us."
+
+More and more Granger rushed; more and more his countenance became
+marked with the lines of deep concern.  He was heard the length of the
+boat in protest to some news imparted by the captain.
+
+"But I tell you we must go up to-day, Captain Sayles.  Do you think I
+will disappoint these good friends of mine?  I have a reputation to
+sustain; I have never broken my word in my life; and I've promised to
+pilot these good friends to our Colony to-day."
+
+"Can't be done, Mr. Granger.  Dangerous.  Don't want to wreck and drown
+your people, do you?"  The captain raised his voice.  "The government
+inspectors have closed the river for a week."
+
+The news spread over the Swastika.  But Granger was not one to give in
+even to such a diction.  He rushed about some more.  One of the women
+thought she saw him enter his stateroom for a moment of prayer.  All of
+no avail.  Even Granger had to submit; and in the end, with apparent
+reluctance, he assembled his flock in the saloon.
+
+"Folks--neighbors--good friends all, I am sorry."  Mr. Granger cast a
+glance about him which was like a benediction in spite of his doleful
+words.  "We have come to our promised land too soon; we cannot go up
+the river and inspect our glorious properties for another week.  The
+river is closed by government orders.  The colossal improvements by
+which the Paradise Gardens Colony is transforming the wilderness into a
+veritable paradise for us all have interfered slightly with our program.
+
+"Only a few miles up the river the Colony is constructing an enormous
+bridge to carry the rail which is pushing swiftly on its way toward the
+Colony and which, as we all know, will increase the value of our
+properties by such leaps and bounds that each and all of us shall reap
+a harvest of wealth.  We who are in on the ground floor will sell at
+our own price when the rush comes; where we invested hundreds we will
+sell for thousands.  The construction of this great bridge entails
+enormous engineering feats and for the present the river is blocked.
+Entirely blocked.  Blocked so that not even a Seminole Indian could
+pole his picturesque dugout from here to the magnificently fertile
+lands of the Colony.
+
+"We had no way of knowing this would happen.  Nevertheless, the Colony
+will transfer its members free of charge back to Flora City; and one
+week from to-day we will resume our trip up the beautiful Chokohatchee
+to the Paradise Colony.  Let us not grieve too much, good friends, over
+the slight delay.  'What doth it profit a man if he gain the world and
+lose his soul.'  A week at beautiful, tropical Flora City!  A week in
+which to feast our souls on the enchantment of Southern Florida!
+Friends, I think we may congratulate ourselves; and we start back in
+fifteen minutes."
+
+"The grub's so damn bad at that Flora Hotel," snapped a weazened old
+man.  "I'm poisoned yet by some of that beef I et.  Tougher'n hell it
+was."
+
+"_Mister_ Perkins, _sir_!  I must ask you to refrain from the use of
+profanity.  The spirit of the Colony, of its members----"
+
+"Well, I should say so!" said Mrs. Perkins.  "Swearin' and rarin' round
+after all Mr. Granger's done for us!  I declare I'm 'shamed to take you
+along, Tom Perkins."
+
+"Have you no soul or eyes for the higher things, Mr. Perkins?" inquired
+a large, black-clad lady reprovingly.  "With all this beauty about us,
+and the inspirin' scenery, I should think----"
+
+"Well, that's all right, Mrs. Caine, what you think," interrupted Mrs.
+Perkins sharply.  "You do your thinking for your husband and I'll do
+the thinking for mine; and I guess if you do that you won't have to
+fill in your time meddling with others."
+
+"Well!  Well, I never----"
+
+"Ladies!" murmured Granger.  "Let us not allow this little
+inconvenience which we have experienced to disturb our equanimity."
+
+"Let's have that agin," growled a fat gentleman.  "You say we can't get
+up the river, hey?  Well, what's the matter with driving up?"
+
+"The magnificent oiled highway which is going to bring thousands of
+visitors to our Colony has not quite been built down to the mouth of
+the river here."
+
+"All right.  We'll walk up to where she begins.  Ain't no cripples
+aboard, far's I can see."
+
+"The one bad piece of land in the district unfortunately lies between
+the mouth of the river.  It is a small swamp--only a small one--then
+the fair uplands of our Colony begin.  But until the road is built
+across it the river is the only means of travel inland and that, as I
+sorrowfully tell you, is blocked.  Come; let us forget our business,
+our future wealth, for the time being and revel in the subtropical joys
+at Flora City.  The land will remain.  Each day sees an increase in its
+value.  Good friends, we're getting ready to sail.  All aboard for
+beautiful Flora City."
+
+"Slick enough!" chuckled Higgins, where he and Payne were standing in
+the background.  "I'll say he does it well.  Now let's step up there
+and tell him how many kinds of a liar he is."
+
+"Hold on," muttered Roger.  "I'm here to get some business done; I'm
+here to get up the river and see that land."
+
+"Sure."
+
+"This boat isn't going up, there's no question of that; calling him a
+liar wouldn't send the boat upstream."
+
+"Not an inch."
+
+"And it would warn them that we were onto the fact that boats can go
+up, and that we intend to go."
+
+"Oh, you intend to go, do you?  How, for instance?"
+
+"That tub, the Cormorant, is going up.  I don't know when, but that's
+where she's bound.  I'm going on her."
+
+Higgins made no reply.
+
+"You don't want to tackle it, I see."
+
+"No, you don't see anything of the sort," retorted Higgins.  "I'm going
+with you all right; I've made up my mind to that.  I was just trying to
+figure how we are going to work it.  You're right; if we tell 'em we're
+staying here, the Cormorant won't go up.  There's something slick going
+on round here so we've got to be slickers ourselves.  We've got to
+sneak on 'em."
+
+"Sneak?  What for?  I've got a right to go up and look at the land I've
+paid money on."
+
+"Sure, so has that flock of suckers on the boat; but you don't see them
+going, do you?"
+
+"I wonder if the whole crowd demanded to be taken up----?"
+
+"Pooh!  They're sheep and Granger's got them hypnotized.  You say one
+word against the Colony and you'd be an outcast among 'em.  No; we've
+got to let them go."
+
+Roger agreed.
+
+"And we've got to pretend to go along to Flora City," he added.  "I
+don't like to sneak.  It goes against my grain; but business is
+business.  Come on, Higgins.  Next trip in a week, Mr. Granger?  Good
+enough.  We're going to our stateroom and catch up some sleep.  Wake us
+at peril of your life."
+
+He led the way swiftly to the stateroom, grasped his bag and Higgins',
+locked the door and hurried aft out of sight of the people gathered
+forward.
+
+"Come on," he whispered throwing a leg over the railing.
+
+Higgins, peering after him, saw the young man untying the rowboat which
+was fastened to the dock beneath the Swastika's stern.
+
+"You certainly see a lot of things and work fast, when you get
+a-going," whispered the engineer as he let himself down into the boat.
+"Now where to?"
+
+"Just round that bunch of mangroves and out of sight of the Swastika's
+decks.  Grab that oar and paddle.  Easy--but work fast!"
+
+A minute or two of swift anxious paddling and they had whisked the boat
+down the shore, round the mangrove promontory into the seclusion of a
+tiny bay.  And then:
+
+"Hell!" said Higgins.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A clean-cut, solidly built man in a suit of greasy overalls was
+standing on the shore of the bay, looking steadily up at the reddened
+sky.  Payne followed the direction of the man's gaze.  Up against the
+multi-hued red of the morning was a gently undulating streak of
+dazzlingly snowy white.  Roger had often seen white of the purest sort
+in the untracked snows of northern forests, but never a white so pure,
+so soft, so warm as this.  And then he saw by the undulations of the
+streak that it was a flock of long, graceful birds moving in single
+file from west to east.  Shimmering in the brassy dawn sun, they rode
+like dream birds upon a vermilion sea, their slow movements so
+graceful, so rhythmic as seemingly to represent no effort, as if the
+birds merely floated along, their beauty and grace the ultimate
+expression of the spirit of the scene.  They flew with their delicate
+necks bent back upon their bodies, as swans afloat upon still water,
+their long legs held motionless and straight behind; yet they moved
+rapidly, moved steadily and to a definite goal some place eastward up
+the river.
+
+"Beautiful!  A dream worth the trip alone!"
+
+To Roger's amazement the man in overalls started at the words with
+something like alarm in his expression; but as his shrewd blue eyes
+took them in they showed relief.
+
+"What are they?" asked Roger.
+
+The man's expression took upon itself a mask of disinterest, almost
+sullenness.
+
+"What you talking about?"
+
+"Those birds up there?"
+
+"Didn't see any birds.  Looking to see if it would rain."
+
+"Well, look now.  What are they?"
+
+The man refused to look.
+
+"Donno.  Donno anything about birds."
+
+Payne looked at him closely and was puzzled.  The man's obvious
+appearance of intelligence rendered such a reply unnatural.
+
+The stranger returned the scrutiny, appraising the pair with a lazy air
+of indifference, which did not quite conceal his shrewdness.
+
+"What you-all doing here?  Fishing?"
+
+"Hiding."
+
+"Come on the Swastika?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"She's sailing."
+
+"Yes; that's why we're hiding.  We're not going back on her."  Roger's
+eyes had not left the man's.  Each had appraised the other and given a
+favorable verdict.  "We're going up the river.  I've got some land I've
+got to look at up there."
+
+"How d'you figure to go?"
+
+"On the Cormorant; we know she's going up.  We're going on her--by
+force, if necessary."
+
+"I'm engineer on the Cormorant."
+
+"Well, your clothes'll 'bout fit me.  Maybe she's going to have a new
+engineer."
+
+They laughed together.
+
+"Buddy," said Higgins suddenly, "you don't belong down here, do you?"
+
+The engineer did not reply.
+
+"I see you don't.  And we ain't crackers either."
+
+"I see that.  Where is your land?"
+
+"At the head of the river.  Prairie land."
+
+"What?  In Garman's----  Who did you do business with?"
+
+"The Prairie Highlands outfit--Senator Fairclothe is its president.  Do
+you run up there?"
+
+"No.  It's bad enough to get up to what they call the Colony; never
+been there myself," said the stranger, "but you're beyond that.  We
+don't go there ourselves."
+
+"How far up do you go?"
+
+"To what's on the maps as the Colony.  Get there at about noon."
+
+"My land is Sections 16 and 17."
+
+"That prairie tract is beyond the headwaters.  Do you know this
+country--anything about the people, and so on?"
+
+"All I know is that I've got some money invested in some land up the
+river and I'm going up to have a look at it."
+
+The stranger had made up his mind.  He looked round to make sure he was
+not observed or overheard.
+
+"There's a little cabin on the foredeck of the Cormorant," he said.
+"It isn't used nowadays.  Nobody on board.  Move fast."
+
+He wheeled and was gone.
+
+Payne and Higgins slipped swiftly through the jungle to the farther
+side of the key where the Cormorant lay moored.  A rush into the water
+and they were on the starboard side of the boat and hidden from the
+shore.  In another moment they were over the low rail onto the deck and
+crawling into the lower cabin and forward beneath the wheelhouse.
+
+"Whew!" Higgins sniffed at the strange odor that greeted them.  "What
+is it--arsenic?"
+
+"Shut the door.  Good!  Things are working fine."
+
+"It's a darn funny way to go looking at land."
+
+"But it's a way, and that's what we're after."
+
+"Smells like a morgue in here."
+
+"Ssh!"
+
+With his eyes at a crack in the door Roger saw the crew coming aboard.
+The engineer was in the lead; behind him came the captain, a tall man
+of vicious appearance, and a half-naked mulatto deckhand.
+
+"Hard eggs, those two; that engineer doesn't belong in their company."
+
+"Nope; he doesn't belong here at all," whispered Higgins.  "He tries to
+look the part and doesn't quite make it.  Wonder what his game is?"
+
+"There goes the Swastika."
+
+A sharp whistle announced the departure of the larger boat.  Presently
+there came floating over the water, over the key, the quaint, plaintive
+sound of untrained voices enthusiastically raised in song.  Roger
+smiled grimly as he pressed his ear to the crack and caught the faint
+words:
+
+  "Shall we gather at the river?
+  The beautiful, the beautiful river----"
+
+
+Granger's voice was distinguished above the rest; he was on the job; he
+was leading his shorn flock back from the gates of Paradise to the tune
+of a hymn.  At Flora City, Granger, being through with this flock,
+would quit it; and ere its members, obstructed time after time in their
+efforts to reach the Colony, would disperse, Granger, in a new field,
+would be laying his snares for fresh victims.
+
+In a few minutes the hull of the Cormorant began to throb with the
+drive of her powerful engines.  With no word of command she slid
+silently away from her mooring to the deep channel and began to drive
+her way upstream at a speed that caused Roger and Higgins to look at
+one another.  The captain was in the wheelhouse above their heads, the
+mulatto lounged on the deck near the cabin door; so they did not even
+dare to whisper, but each knew the question the other would ask: Why
+such terrific speed in a dirty craft like the Cormorant?
+
+Through his precarious peekhole Payne caught glimpses of the water and
+land that the Cormorant was leaving behind her.  At first there was
+little to see save blue water, for the mouth of the Chokohatchee was
+more an estuary of the sea than a river.  Far away on either side were
+the low-growing tangled growths of mangrove which represented the
+river's banks near the sea, and toward these banks, from both sides of
+the wake, water birds could be seen winging their way, frightened from
+their feeding ground by the Cormorant's rush.  Great, clumsy pelicans
+rose painfully and flew with surprising speed, once they were in the
+air; small blue herons went shoreward in uncountable flocks, flying
+high into the morning sun.  Close to the water, ducks of many kinds
+clove the air with business-like intent and speed.
+
+The water itself seemed alive with an abundance of life.  The black
+back of a porpoise showed above the surface; far away the sun glinted
+on the silver scales of a leaping tarpon.  The red sides of a mangrove
+snapper were seen as it tried in vain to escape the jaws of a
+steel-gray barracuda, and a moment later half of the slim barracuda
+flew into the air as the jaws of a shark, catching it in full flight,
+snapped it in two.
+
+The course of the Cormorant was shifted slightly, and by the muddy
+color of the water Payne knew they were entering the river proper.  The
+stream here was perhaps two hundred yards across and over the stern, to
+port and starboard, the banks were plainly visible.  The land was low,
+so low that it seemed but a little higher than the water level, but it
+bore an amazingly abundant growth.  The river seemed to flow through a
+channel cut in the dense, solid vegetation.  Great cypress trees
+towered up from the water, enormously thick at the roots and rapidly
+dwindling above.  Between their rough trunks cypress scrub, sturdy
+cabbage palms, mangrove, custard apple and other varieties of tropical
+trees found space to grow; and between the trunks of the smaller trees
+was a tangle of palmetto, saw grass, jungle vine, Virginia creeper and
+the beautiful moon vine and its dainty flowers.  Blue, yellow and red
+flowers peeped from the tangle.  Air plants bearing in their hearts
+scarlet orchids clung to the trunks of hoary live oak, and the Spanish
+moss, fragile, listless, drooping, hung like delicate drapery over all.
+
+The stream grew narrower and the turtles upon the shore became visible.
+A water turkey, though the boat was past, fell clumsily off its perch
+into the water and after frantic efforts flopped away.  Alligators lay
+here and there along the banks; and a wild hog plowed about in the
+matted water-hyacinths, unconcernedly seeking food, not alarmed by the
+alligators or the boat or by the fierce brown Mexican buzzards--the
+killing variety--which contemplated him from the dead cypress branches
+above.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+For two hours the Cormorant drove upstream without missing a stroke of
+her engines.  Then the speed was diminished.  Through the crack in the
+door Payne caught glimpses which showed that the stream had narrowed
+suddenly and began to wind.  In another hour the captain shouted back
+an order.  The engineer's head popped up from the engine pit near the
+stern, his expression indicating that the order had taken him by
+surprise.
+
+"What'd you say, cap?  Stop at Mangrove Point?"
+
+"Yep.  Boss' orders."
+
+The engineer disappeared in the pit and the boat began to slow down as
+its course was altered to bring it in shore.  Presently leaves brushed
+against its side and the craft came to a dead stop.
+
+The mangrove branches on the bank were pushed aside, revealing a creek,
+and a long Seminole dugout, bearing two rough-looking men, slipped like
+a snake out of the jungle and up to the Cormorant's bow.  The two men
+vaulted easily over the low rail onto the deck.
+
+"Where is he?" asked the hideously scarred leader.  "The boss said we
+should take him to Palm Island and leave him tied."
+
+"My way would be to knock 'im in the head an' sink him in an alligator
+hole," grumbled the captain.  "He's hard as nails; he'll be hard to get
+tied."
+
+"You're too lazy to live.  Call 'im out; we want to be going."
+
+The speaker and his companion took up a position on the port rail; the
+captain and the mulatto lounged to starboard.
+
+"Oh, Davis," called the captain, drawing a revolver.  "Give us a hand
+here, will you?"
+
+Davis emerged from the engine room, wiping his hands on a wisp of
+waste, saw by the eyes of the four men that he was trapped, and looked
+steadily at the captain.
+
+"What's the idea, cap?"
+
+"Stick up them hands!"
+
+"What is it, I say?"
+
+"Guess you know.  You wanted to get into the swamp with us, did you,
+you damn snooper?  Well, you're going in there--to stay."
+
+The scarred man thrust forward a noosed rope.
+
+"Put your hands in that, you damn snooper."
+
+"Put 'em in," growled the captain, "or I'll shoot your ears off."
+
+Davis made a pretense of obeying, caught the rope holder about the
+middle and rushed him at the captain.  So swift and skillful was his
+move that ere the lethargic captain could move he found himself pinned
+against the rail.  With one hand Davis flung his human shield aside
+while the other leaped up and caught the captain's gun hand.  His
+disengaged hand slipped inside his shirt; and then two men leaped like
+wolves upon his back.
+
+"He's got a gun on him!  Look out!"
+
+The mulatto's thick arm was about Davis' throat, dragging him back, yet
+he managed to give the captain's wrist a sharp twist which flung the
+revolver high in the air to drop with a splash into the river ere he
+fell in a tangle with his assailants to the deck.
+
+"Look out!  He's strong's a bear!  He's got a gun!  Kick his head,
+somebody!  Kick his head!"
+
+In their little coop forward, from which they saw it all, Payne looked
+at Higgins.  Higgins returned the look.
+
+"He's a white man against four."
+
+"Come on, Hig!"
+
+With a kick Payne sent the door flying and crawled out on deck.
+
+The captain saw him and sprang for an ax.  Roger caught him in a leap,
+flung him aside and threw the ax overboard.
+
+Higgins kicked, struck and pulled at the pile on Davis and saved him
+from being kicked unconscious or killed, and suddenly found himself on
+the deck with the pile on top of him.  Payne came to his rescue.  A few
+seconds of rough work and they were up on their feet, fighting
+furiously.
+
+"Look!  He's getting away!"  The captain pointed at Davis who, in the
+melee, had leaped overboard and was in the canoe pushing his way into
+the jungle.
+
+"Quitting?" demanded Payne.
+
+"Got to.  Explain later."
+
+The mangrove branches closed behind him and he was gone.  Roger turned
+to face the captain, who was furious.
+
+"How'd you get on this boat?"
+
+"Crawled on."
+
+"Who be ye?"
+
+"Land buyers."
+
+"Get off this boat."
+
+"Go to hell."
+
+A long curved knife appeared in the captain's hand; and the crew behind
+him smiled in horrible anticipation.  He came crouching sideways toward
+Payne, the knife held point forward ready for the spring and upward
+thrust, which, with the body weight behind it, would drive the long
+blade through a possible arm guard and deep into the abdomen.  Roger's
+back was against the rail and he could not retreat.  He heard Higgins
+ask a question, but he did not turn his head.  His thumbs hooked easily
+in his belt, his eyes held steadily on the captain's, he waited, his
+body apparently frozen with fright.  In reality he was seething with
+purpose and ready to function at the right moment, his eyes betraying
+no vestige of his intentions.  Suddenly his left foot shot out and
+upward with incredible swiftness.  The captain's knife hand flew up to
+save itself, and ere it came down Roger, moving forward with the kick,
+had swung his right fist like a thunderbolt to its mark beneath the
+captain's heart.
+
+The thud of the blow was followed by a moment of complete silence, of
+complete inaction.  The crew behind the captain stood still, staring
+and frozen with consternation.  The captain stood slightly stooped
+over, his knees bent, mouth open, gasping for air, his eyes popping.
+Slowly, brutishly he began to wilt and topple forward.  He was almost
+bent double before he fell; and with the thud of his body upon the
+deck, one of the crew groaned: "Killed by a fist blow, by God!"
+
+"Killed nothing," retorted Higgins.  "He's just got the wind belted out
+of him good and plenty.  But somebody will get killed sure 'nough if
+you bad men try any more knife tricks."
+
+"You damn fool!" muttered the scarred man to his companion.  "You left
+that rifle in the canoe."
+
+"They's only two of 'em; let's get 'em."
+
+At that instant the captain moaned painfully.
+
+"Anybody else want the same dose?" asked Higgins.
+
+He and Payne stood poised on the balls of their feet, their fists
+swinging, ready to hurl themselves forward to meet the expected rush.
+The captain moaned again.  The rush did not materialize.
+
+"That's right," said Roger.  "We've got no quarrel with you fellows."
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"I told you--land buyers."
+
+"What'd you butt in for?"
+
+"Four on one, and you were kicking at him at that."
+
+"Any business of yours?"
+
+"We made it so.  The next move is up to you."
+
+"Licker!" groaned the captain.  "Gimme drink--I'm dying."
+
+One of the men made a movement toward his left hip pocket, but halted
+guiltily.
+
+"Ain't got no licker."
+
+"Go ahead; give him some!" chuckled Higgins.  "We aren't revenue men."
+
+The man finally produced a bottle of colorless stuff, a stiff drink of
+which brought the captain to his knees.  A second drink and he was able
+to rise to his feet.
+
+"Moonshine, by the great smoked fish!" laughed Higgins.  "Two snorts of
+it and the dead walk!"
+
+The captain leaned weakly against the rail.
+
+"Where'm I hit?"
+
+"Just above the belt."
+
+"Bleedin' much?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Who--who shot me?"
+
+"You're not shot at all, captain," interposed Payne.  "You looked so
+wicked with that knife, I just happened to tap you in a vital spot,
+that's all."
+
+"Wal--I ain't shot, sure 'nough!" exclaimed the relieved captain after
+inspecting his mid-section.  "What'd he hit me with, boys?"
+
+Roger held up his hard brown fist.
+
+"Sorry to do it, friend, but a man with a knife makes me see red."
+
+The scarred man spoke up: "If you're sheriff's men, and if you think
+we're going back with you----"
+
+"I've told you we're just ordinary land buyers, going up to look at a
+tract beyond the river."
+
+"Know that snooper, Davis?"
+
+"No, we took his part because you fellows were jumping him."
+
+"Know anything about him--what his business is?"
+
+"No; and don't care.  The only business I'm interested in just now is
+getting up the river."
+
+"You can't go on this boat."
+
+"So we were told down at the Key."
+
+The captain consulted with the other three men.
+
+"You got to get off here.  We're going up to--to where you can't go.
+We'll send an Indian down here to paddle you back to Gumbo Key.  Get
+off the boat!"
+
+"Easy!"  Roger was rapidly losing patience.  "Don't try it again."
+
+"Get off this boat, I'm telling you."
+
+Higgins nudged Roger.
+
+"I've got old Betsy under my arm," he suggested.
+
+"Then line 'em up and hold 'em here," exploded the young man.  "Let's
+quit fooling.  I'll start the engine.  You make one of them take the
+wheel.  They can't keep me from seeing that land now."
+
+Old Betsy, large and ancient, black and rusty, but extremely reliable,
+came out of Higgins' arm holster with a jerk.
+
+"Shove 'em high!" he commanded.  "It's a hold up.  Captain, you get up
+there and take that wheel and steer honest and true upstream for the
+Colony.  The rest of you get up in front where I can watch you.  No
+tricks.  Fooling's over."
+
+"This is piracy, of course," called Roger from the engine pit as he
+filled a priming cup, "and you'll have a good case against us--if you
+take it into court.  But from what I've seen and heard I don't think
+you'll monkey with the courts--don't think you like the word.  So when
+we get to where you're going I'll give you boys five dollars apiece and
+call it square.  What do you say?"
+
+The captain looked round with the sickness of deadly fear in his eyes.
+
+"Don't make us go up there like this," he begged hoarsely.  "For God's
+sake, don't do that!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Payne paused with a hand on the flywheel.
+
+The dread in the captain's eyes was obviously genuine.
+
+"Don't make us take you up there, mister," he repeated.  "You wouldn't
+if you knew."
+
+"Knew what?"
+
+"We can't bring any one up there."
+
+"You aren't bringing any one; you're being brought."
+
+"It'll be hard luck for you, too, mister, if you run up there."
+
+Higgins shouldered angrily forward.
+
+"Keep that kind of pap talk behind your teeth.  Trouble with you
+fellows is you've been used to handling suckers.  You sort of get it
+that we're different, don't you?"
+
+"I'm telling you," persisted the captain; "'twon't be any luck for you
+to run up there, and it'll be hell for us."
+
+"Get up there and take that wheel!" roared Higgins.  "Steer her right
+and true to the end of the strip and you won't get into any trouble.
+Try to ground her or any tricks, and you won't have to go 'up there' to
+catch hell."
+
+"Hold on, Hig."  Payne had sensed the desperation rising in the four
+men and he was averse to violence if it could be avoided.  He was new
+in that country and he expected to settle there and develop his land.
+For a long time to come, until the contemplated railroad line came down
+from the north to his property, he knew the Chokohatchee River must be
+his means of communication with the outer world.  The four men on the
+boat were natives of the section.  He had not yet been able to fathom
+just what nature of men they were or what their business was, but he
+suspected the latter to be something illegal, and despite the poor
+showing they had made in the fight on the boat it was apparent that
+there was in them at least a tinge of the desperado.  The swamps of
+Southern Florida, he knew, were favorite hiding places for scores of
+bad men.  These men probably spent a good deal of time on the river
+which he must use, and therefore he had no wish to make them his deadly
+enemies.
+
+"Don't take that wheel, cap!" said one of the men suddenly.  "And keep
+your trap closed."
+
+The scarred man turned and stared sullenly into the barrel of Higgins'
+revolver.
+
+"Go ahead and shoot.  That's the only way I'll go up there."
+
+"Don't want to go alive, eh?"
+
+"Ain't--allowed--to go--at all."
+
+"Hold on, Hig," repeated Roger.  "Don't be unreasonable."
+
+"Unreasonable, hell!  We're on our way, aren't we?  Going to let 'em
+stop us?"
+
+"We've got no quarrel with these men.  We'll use a little reason."
+
+"Go ahead, you're the boss."  Higgins retired to the starboard rail,
+but he did not sheath Old Betsy.
+
+"Can you tell me the reason you are afraid to go on?" asked Roger.
+
+"Ain't afraid to go there.  It's you that stops us."
+
+"Why can't you take us there?"
+
+"Got orders not to."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+A sullen silence followed the question.
+
+"Anybody connected with the Land Company?"
+
+"Save your wind," growled the scarred man.  "We ain't telling."
+
+Roger debated a moment and decided that he had indulged in enough
+irregularity and violence for one day.
+
+"Now, talking as man to man, how much would it hurt you to take us up
+there?"
+
+The captain's bleak face cracked in a slight smile of despair and
+hopelessness that left no need for words as an answer.
+
+"Well, what is it?" blurted Higgins.  "Can't you tell us what you're
+afraid of?"
+
+"You look like a pretty stiff man, mister," said the scarred man after
+appraising Higgins, "but I'll bet if you was in our boots you wouldn't
+do different'n us."
+
+"Can you beat it?" gasped Higgins.  "They don't look like Sunday-school
+kids either."
+
+Roger, running his eyes over the hard faces, smiled at the comparison.
+
+"How far is it up to this terrible place from here, captain?"
+
+"It's four miles from this point."
+
+"By air line or river?"
+
+"River."
+
+"How's the walking?"
+
+A look of relief in his hard eyes betrayed the hope that the question
+aroused in the captain.
+
+"Fair--I won't say good, but fair.  Right here she's swampy.  A mile up
+the high banks start, and there's sort of a trail right into the place."
+
+"All right.  You'll run us up to the high banks.  We'll get off and
+walk the rest of the way.  You'll lay up at the banks for half an hour
+after we've started."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I guess you're all right, but I play safe.  I don't know anything
+about what you're afraid of up there, but I don't want you to get in
+ahead of us and accidentally break the news of our coming."
+
+"Good!" cried Higgins admiringly.  "And Old Betsy here, she'll throw a
+slug clean through that wheelhouse wall, captain, in case you should
+get impatient and try to run by."
+
+The captain looked inquiringly at the scarred man, who nodded sullenly.
+
+"All right."
+
+"We'll be hitting back into the swamp," said the scarred one.  "Come
+on, Pedro."
+
+"No, you'll stay until we get to the high banks."
+
+"What fer?"
+
+"Davis did us a favor this morning, and I want to give him a chance for
+a fair start.  If you would tell me his business----"
+
+"Ain't telling anything."
+
+"All right.  Take the wheel, captain.  We're off."
+
+The Cormorant backed out of the thicket of mangrove branches which held
+her against the point, straightened out and started upstream.
+
+"A little explanation and maybe we could be friends," suggested Payne.
+
+"We're much obliged----" began the captain, and the scarred man
+interrupted with:
+
+"But we ain't explainin'."
+
+"Cheer up, boys!" laughed Higgins.  "We're doing you a favor, you know."
+
+"Know you are."
+
+"So you might tip us off about why it's going to be hard luck for us to
+hit this place we're bound for."
+
+There was no reply.  The captain sullenly kept the boat's nose in the
+deep channel, but beyond this the gang was apparently no more
+responsive to words than the alligators which lay sunning themselves at
+the water's edge.  The river now grew narrower, its waters grew
+clearer, changing from a yellow to a faint indigo.
+
+"Getting into a limestone formation," called Higgins over his shoulder.
+"But I don't see anything that looks like land yet.  This stuff ought
+to be sold by the gallon instead of the acre."
+
+Soon, however, a change began to appear in the landscape.  The
+mangroves gave way to banks of solid land.  A few scattering pines,
+tall, straight, thin and branchless save for their crowns, reared their
+tops high above the tropical growths.
+
+"There's land there," said Roger.  "Where there are pines there's
+honest ground beneath, even if it's only sand.  It's good to see them."
+
+"You're right.  I begin to feel at home again.  That thick stuff is
+pretty, but give me some real trees."
+
+The sand area, and with it the pines, gave way to a stretch of muck and
+saw grass, the saw grass to a jungle of elderberry trees so thick the
+light barely filtered in.  Blackbirds by thousands, large and plump and
+glistening, swarmed about in the jungle; and on the thicker branches
+the loathsome buzzards sat waiting, waiting.
+
+Payne carefully inspected the shore before leaving the boat when the
+landing was made at the high banks.
+
+"Step ashore, Higgins, and see if there's a trail."
+
+"Sort of a one-hog path, I guess.  It looks all right."
+
+"All right."  Roger gathered their bags from the stinking hole forward
+and followed.
+
+"Now," he said, turning to the men on the boat, "we don't want to leave
+you with any hard feelings.  We'll pay for our ride.  Will ten dollars
+be about right?"
+
+He plucked two five-dollar bills off a roll and handed one each to the
+scarred man and the captain.
+
+"Hey!" called the latter.  "You won't say anything about being on this
+boat to anybody?"
+
+"Not if it will be a favor not to.  I'm not particularly proud of
+sneaking a ride."
+
+"We won't say anything if you don't."
+
+"I thought you wouldn't.  Now you just lay up here for half an hour and
+don't try to pass us.  Business is business and I'm playing safe.  So
+long."
+
+There was no reply.  The crew on the boat watched silently as the pair
+marched out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+"Nice boys, those fellows," said Higgins after a while.  "I wonder
+where they cut throats for a living?  Can you make 'em out?"
+
+Roger shook his head.
+
+"I've heard there were a lot of bad men hiding out down here, and,
+strange, but I never believed it.  Apparently it's true; and it seems
+we've stepped right into the midst of them."
+
+"They called Davis a 'snooper.'"
+
+"Well, I'm not worrying about Davis.  From what I saw of him he's quite
+able to take care of himself."
+
+"I'll say he is.  You too.  You've come pretty near making pals of the
+fellows we were fighting a little while ago."
+
+"That was business.  I don't want a whole lot of enemies strung out
+along the river between me and civilization."
+
+"Well, it looks as if the captain was honest about the trail at least,"
+said Higgins, leaping over a pool of quivering mud.  "It's fair, but
+not good."
+
+A cotton-mouth water snake, short, thick as a man's arm and
+indescribably loathsome, wriggled on top of the mud as Roger prepared
+to leap.
+
+"Whoa, boy!" cried Higgins, glancing back.  "Stand still while I get a
+club."  He broke off a thick branch from a custard apple tree.
+
+"My God! what wood!" he exclaimed in disgust.  "It's light as paper."
+
+However, he managed to creep up behind the snake and slash off at a
+blow the foul, flat head that reared itself above the slime.
+
+"And I suppose this swamp is full of those things."
+
+"Probably.  But my land isn't in the swamp, remember; it's beyond the
+head of the river."
+
+"There's some real ground ahead; I can see the tops of some pines."
+
+Half an hour later they entered a stretch of open country.  A few
+spindly pines grew near the river.  To the north and west, as far as
+the eye could reach, was a prairie, covered with a sparse growth of
+grass.  Small circular islands of palmetto scrub dotted the monotonous
+scene and at rare intervals a clump of somber cypress told of the
+presence of water.  In a nearby bunch of palmetto a pair of horns were
+visible; and a herd of wild cattle, incredibly thin and fleet, leaped
+with a snort into the open, stared an instant at the intruders and
+sprang out of sight with the speed of deer.  A covey of small, brown
+quail broke close at hand and sailed away, skimming the top of the
+grass.  Fox squirrels were to be seen through the hanging moss on the
+cypress trees.  A great whooping crane waded into view and flapped away
+in clumsy fashion.  A flock of teal duck, flying swift and true as an
+arrow, came winging their way to the river.  At the water hole where
+the crane had been feeding the yellow eyes of a wildcat, cheated of its
+prey, shone for a flash and withdrew.  By use of his field glasses
+Payne saw a mother turkey, low-crouched and stepping softly, leading
+her brood to shelter in the scrub.  Farther away the glasses picked out
+the antlers and head of a small deer, peering above the brush.
+
+Higgins had kicked a hole in the ground with professional interest.
+
+"Sand!  No good."
+
+"Right.  Come on."
+
+The river frontage of the prairie was a scant mile.  Its eastern
+boundary consisted of a growth of custard apple.  The small spreading
+trees, fifteen feet at the topmost branches, were literally hidden
+beneath a covering of the delicate moon vine.  The vine wreathed itself
+about the trunks and branches.  It covered the tops, it stretched over
+open spaces like closely woven tapestry; draped itself over everything,
+its small green leaves and tiny pink-white flowers inextricably matted
+together with the tree growth and making of the whole a delicate bloom.
+
+A broad riding path had been cut through the tangle along the river out
+to the open prairie.  From the entrance a glimpse was had of a magic
+interior.  The sunlight struck fiercely down through the interstices in
+the all-pervading moon vine, piercing the jungle shade with a myriad of
+hard points of light.  The path wound in and out, its course easy to
+follow by the shaft of light in the gloom.
+
+Inside, the atmosphere was that of a great conservatory.  A dozen
+tropical growths mingled their odors into an indefinable whole; and the
+effect was akin to that of a subtle exotic drug, lulling the senses,
+filling the whole being with a languor, a relaxation, a pleasant
+enervation which it seemed well not to throw off.  Outside on the
+prairie the sun burned harshly; within, the scented shadows shielded
+away the sun and wrapped round one a drugged warmth all its own.  The
+path and the open spaces beneath the stubby trees permitted sufficient
+circulation of air so the effect was not stifling; but no winds swept
+through there; the perfumes lay heavily in the air, old and potent, and
+breathing a mystic, sensuous lure.
+
+Payne bent forward, peering into the mystic recesses of the growth,
+susceptible to its magic thrall in spite of his hardheadedness.
+Higgins, the engineer, kicked deeply into the black dirt of the bridle
+path.
+
+"Muck.  Good enough.  If your stuff's like this you're a rich man."
+
+"Don't you notice anything else about this place?"
+
+"What do you mean?"  Higgins, less sensitive than his employer,
+required more time to feel the jungle's spell.
+
+"It seems to me like the air is perfumed with poison somehow; and the
+poison is very easy to take."
+
+"It's the lotus effect," said Higgins presently.  "I know it.  I got a
+taste of it down in Yucatan once.  It makes you want to sit down
+against the roots of a tree and have a woman bring you drinks.  It's
+bad medicine when you've got work to do.  I feel it now.  The old lotus
+effect.  _Poco tiempo_!  Man, we're nearer the tropics than the maps
+show."
+
+"There's somebody coming."
+
+It was a young negress crossing the path round a turn.  Swaying
+indolently she went her way, with drooping eyes and listless steps,
+seeing no one, lost in the mysterious dreams which brought a sensuous
+smile to her heavy lips.  She vanished down a footpath leading from the
+roadway to a cabin, which could be discerned a short distance in the
+trees.  A bull-like male voice of her race greeted her with lazy
+laughter from the cabin, and with soft, sensuous laughter of elation
+and relief she replied.  Then the woods were silent once more, save for
+the omnipresent twitter of the birds.
+
+Tiny trails deviated from the bridle path at intervals, weaving their
+way out of sight into the drugged depths of the plantations.  Flaming
+red cardinals flew to and fro before the intruders, and a small green
+parrakeet clung upside down to a moon vine and whistled as they went
+past.
+
+Roger, who was in the lead, stopped abruptly.  Down one of the bypaths
+a strutting peacock had caught his eyes.  A glimpse of water showed
+beyond the gaudy tail of the bird, and a few steps toward it revealed a
+circular bathing pool in the heart of the thicket.  Large mats of
+colored straw, thick rugs and cushions, all brilliantly hued, lay
+scattered about on the pink-tinted concrete edges of the pool.  A
+wicker _chaise longue_ stood beneath a striped canopy of silk under a
+shelter of moon vine; other lounging chairs were scattered about.  The
+water of the pool flowed, fresh and clear, from the wine skin of a
+bronze bacchante, hideously squat and fat and green with age, which
+with drunken eyes in a back-thrown head leered mysteriously down upon
+the water.  And the atmosphere of the place was akin to that of a
+heavily scented boudoir.
+
+Higgins was examining the daintily colored concrete with professional
+interest.
+
+"That's darn fine work.  See how those mosaics and tiles are set in.
+That's Italian work; we don't finish stuff as well as that in this
+country.  Yes, sir; some rich gazaboo has spent a barrel of money
+bringing Dago workmen down here to make him a little swimming hole in
+the jungle."
+
+"It fits in with the whole scheme--the jungle, flowers, birds and
+scents, doesn't it?"
+
+"A sultan could wish for nothing better."
+
+"Come on."
+
+Though the air was heavy out in the bridle path, it compared to the
+shut-in pool like a breath from out-of-doors.  Payne led the way
+hurriedly.  The path curved slightly in the direction of the river.
+The light of a large opening appeared ahead, and presently they came
+abruptly upon a clearing.  A large low building, Moorish in
+architecture and tinted like the concrete of the pool, dominated the
+scene.  Beyond glistened the blue water of the tiny lake which was the
+headwaters of the Chokohatchee River.  At a canopied boat landing lay
+moored a gleaming white yacht--the Egret.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+"This," said Payne, "is where the Paradise Gardens Colony should be by
+all maps and reports."
+
+"But it isn't," said Higgins.  "It's where some gazaboo with a pot of
+money and a taste for oriental effects camps out.  I'm wondering if
+there is such a thing as that much advertised colony."
+
+"I'm going to find out."
+
+"Look out!  There comes a ferocious animal to chew you up!"
+
+A white poodle of tiny size with a bark like a piping bird came bobbing
+out of the house.
+
+"Here, Nero!" called Higgins.
+
+And then the dark slender woman who had been on the Egret stepped out
+from behind a palm.
+
+"Flossy!" she said with a stamp of the foot, which twinkled the
+pendants in her ears.  "She won't bite you."
+
+"I was worrying," said Roger.
+
+"Ramos!" called the woman.  "There are some strange men here.  Come,
+Flossy."
+
+Payne found himself facing a tall dark man, with a hook nose, rings in
+his ears and a stringy mustache.  The man placed himself full in the
+path leading to the little lake, and lazily, insolently studied the
+intruding pair.
+
+"You wish to see some one?" he drawled.
+
+"You, greaser!" blurted Higgins in anger.  "Hanged if I've seen such a
+sassy half-breed since I left Mexico."
+
+The man's lazy-lidded eyes narrowed to a slit.  He came forward.
+
+"Unless you are known you had better go elsewhere," he murmured.
+
+"Really?" said Payne.
+
+"Don't bother to be polite to him," growled Higgins.  "Can't you see
+he's a greaser?  Get out of the way, _hombre_; we want to talk to some
+one with brains."
+
+Payne caught the engineer by the shoulder and held him back.
+
+"We just want directions for getting up to the headwaters," he said.
+
+"I still repeat: unless you are known, you had better go elsewhere."
+
+"That's what we want to do.  We're going up to the headwaters.  This
+place happens to be on our way."
+
+"You are not known here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then go back."  The Mexican pointed toward the path whence they had
+come.
+
+"Go back where you came from--and quickly."
+
+"No," said Payne slowly, "that doesn't suit our program.  We're going
+that way."  He pointed across the clearing toward the blue water of the
+lake.
+
+"Call your boss, greaser," snapped Higgins.  "Let's talk to him."  He
+raised his voice to a shrieking falsetto.  "Help, help!"
+
+Payne looked toward the boat landing instinctively.
+
+The girl of the dawn on Gumbo Key was coming toward them, laughing; and
+the trees and the vine flowers and the sun all seemed to laugh with her.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said.  "And the red-haired man, too!"
+
+"Auburn!" protested Higgins, baring his fiery poll.  "The best barbers
+of the West have told me it's auburn."
+
+Ramos bowed deferentially.
+
+"You know these men, miss?"
+
+The girl and Payne looked at one another a long while.  At last she
+turned resolutely to Ramos.
+
+"Yes; I know them."
+
+"My orders----"
+
+"That's all right, Ramos, I know them."
+
+"Perhaps you will tell me who they are?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"Ah!  Yes.  Perhaps.  Mrs. Livingstone called me.  She did not know
+these men."
+
+"I do.  And I scarcely know you at all, Ramos.  What are you; what is
+your job round here?"
+
+"Caretaker, miss.  Especially--when Mr. Garman is away."
+
+"Annette!"  It was the older woman again.
+
+"Aunty," the girl whirling about resolutely, "I want to know a lot of
+things; why is there said to be a colony here when there is only Mr.
+Garman's winter home?  Why is there all this mystery round here?  Why
+does Ramos prowl round like a watchdog?"
+
+"Come in the house, dear.  Leave Ramos to deal with the strangers."
+
+"Why don't you answer me, aunty?"
+
+"You foolish child!"
+
+"I'm not a child."  The red was burning in the girl's creamy cheeks.
+"I won't be treated as a child.  I want to know."
+
+"Please, Annette, do not discuss your affairs before strangers."
+
+"Strangers!  Why, aunty, it's you who are strange to me.  I can't
+understand you.  It's all strange.  My father letting me come here
+alone before he comes--he's strange, too, lately."
+
+"I suppose Mr. Garman is strange to you too?"
+
+A flush spread over the girl's face and she appeared to shrink and
+wilt; and in the swift glance she cast at Payne there seemed an appeal
+for help.
+
+Payne spoke swiftly.
+
+"We are truly sorry to intrude.  We blundered in here on our way to the
+head of the river.  If we can get directions we will be on our way at
+once."
+
+The girl looked from her aunt to Ramos and then to Payne, and her chin
+went up.
+
+"Come," she said, and led the way to the boathouse on the lake shore.
+"Oh, Willy Tiger!"
+
+As mild and stoical a Seminole Indian as ever belied his surname
+responded to her call.  He smiled at the sight of her, an appalling
+feat for a Seminole; and the smile confessed he was her abject slave.
+
+"Willy, you will do a favor for me, won't you?  I want you to take
+these two friends of mine up to the head of the river, wherever that
+is.  My friends.  For me, Willy."
+
+The Seminole silently disappeared and returned paddling a long dugout
+into which he tossed his rifle and a bundle containing his camping
+outfit.
+
+"My name's Roger Payne," said Roger, preparing to follow Higgins into
+the boat.  "I am under obligations, Miss----"
+
+She did not respond to his suggestive pause.
+
+"I don't think I'll tell you my name--now," she said thoughtfully.
+"Perhaps--after you've seen the land you purchased from Senator
+Fairclothe.  Perhaps--not.  Good-by."
+
+Roger looked at Ramos, watching them from a distance, and replied:
+
+"So long."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+Higgins sat facing the silent Seminole, who swiftly paddled the long
+dugout out of the little lake before the house and into a sluggish
+creek running into it from the northeast.  The Indian wore the
+mauve-tinted, gaudily embroidered dress shirt of his tribe, but as a
+concession to civilization he had donned a pair of overalls so much too
+large for him that the belt was high round his strapping chest.
+
+"What name did she call you by, Willy?" asked the engineer.
+
+"Me Willy Tiger."
+
+"Tiger doesn't fit you, Willy."
+
+Higgins dipped his hand overboard and sprinkled water on the Indian's
+head.
+
+"I hereby christen you Willy High Pockets.  And may they never be
+empty."
+
+An awful contortion took place upon the Seminole's mahogany features.
+He was trying to grin.
+
+"You give good Seminole why-o-me," he said, ceasing his paddling to rub
+his stomach.  "Willy Tiger----"
+
+"High Pockets!"
+
+"Willy High Pock' sick.  Why-o-me make strong."
+
+"So that's how they miscall hooch down in this country," ruminated
+Higgins.  "No, Willy; we don't pack any liquor.  Shall I give him a
+piece of plug?"
+
+"Suit yourself--if you've got any."
+
+"Got any?  Never go into an Indian country without it."
+
+Higgins produced from his bag a slab of plug tobacco which made Willy's
+mouth water.
+
+"Willy," said Payne suddenly, "who is Mr. Garman?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"Put your tobacco away, Higgins."
+
+"Garman big boss," said the Indian swiftly.
+"_Esoka-bonus-che_-tobacco.  You give."
+
+"Boss of what?"
+
+Without taking his eyes from the plug Willy's right arm described an
+eloquent arc embracing the earth, the water, the sky, about them.
+
+"Big boss--all  country!  Good  tobacco.  Strong----"
+
+"Boss of the whole country, eh?  What business is he in?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"Where is he now?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"What makes him boss of this country?"
+
+"Donno."
+
+"And there you are," laughed Higgins.  "Willy looks different from a
+regular Indian; but they're all alike.  He loosened up to get this
+piece of plug; now he 'dunno' anything."
+
+"Donno," repeated Willy monotonously.
+
+As the dugout scraped and stuck on the bottom the Indian doffed his
+overalls and displayed the full gorgeousness of the Seminole dress
+shirt.  Payne wondered how in the souls of these swamp dwellers there
+had developed a taste for a hue as delicate as the pink of the
+flamingo.  Bands of red, yellow, scarlet, mauve and black were
+embroidered upon the cloth, and upon the shoulders were scarlet tufts
+resembling epaulets.  Willy stepped overboard, barefooted and nude save
+for his rolled up shirt, and began to shove.  A three-foot water
+moccasin lay coiled on a mud bank in his path and the Indian's bare
+foot flung it aside as one might kick away a stick.  Presently he
+paused, deep in liquid mud to his thighs, his feet working on something
+below.
+
+"_Alpate_," he said.  "'Gator."
+
+A commotion followed in the mud; a dark knob appeared above water.
+There was a thrashing and upheaval and the Indian threw a half-grown
+alligator upon the bank and dispatched it with a blow from his camp ax.
+
+A few rods farther on the canoe was over the shallows and floating
+easily in a flooded jungle of saw grass which stretched away as far as
+the eye could reach.
+
+"What's this?" demanded Payne.
+
+"_Oko_ make river end."
+
+"What?"
+
+"_Oko_--lake.  River end here.  We there."
+
+Payne drew out his maps and studied them.
+
+"Where's Deer Hammock?"
+
+"_Echu_ Hammock there."  The Indian pointed to a cluster of palmettos
+that reared its tops above the saw grass to the north.
+
+"Go there."
+
+They shoved their way through the grass; and as he contemplated the
+drowned land all round Payne grew warm and then cold with anger.  Mile
+after mile to the east, north and south the watery waste stretched.
+Here and there a hammock bearing a few trees stood out, like tiny
+islands in a vast sea.  Save for this there was only the uninhabited
+desolation of the water and grass; and the brilliant sky above.
+
+There was no word spoken as they pushed toward the hammock.  Higgins
+had noted the change on Payne's countenance and saw it was no time for
+careless words.  Payne drove his pole into the bottom and drew it out
+for inspection.
+
+"Limestone bottom; a thin scum of muck on top of it; and water."
+
+The saw grass grew thicker.  Only a water trail worn by dugouts
+permitted them to go through.  Higgins probed the bottom.
+
+"About six inches of muck here," he reported, "and a foot of water on
+it."
+
+The water grew shallow on both sides of the channel and the grass more
+dense.  The Indian rose to his toes and peered above the grass tops as
+they neared the hammock.
+
+"_Echu_!" he said presently, reaching for his rifle.  "Deer _ojus_ on
+hammock."
+
+Silently the dugout crept toward the high ground, the Indian parting
+the saw grass to peer ahead.  They were fifty yards from it when Willy
+began to fire and at the third shot a tiny buck leaped up and crashed
+down in the palmetto scrub, where it had fancied itself concealed.
+
+It was near the end of the day now and the phenomena of the tropical
+sunset served to add to the desolation of the scene.  Tiny clouds rode
+in the sky, multicolored from the sun, for all the world as if painted
+upon the blue above.  The west was livid with scarlet and orange flame,
+and on the hammock the tops of the trees were rosy in the sunset.
+
+Higgins and Payne set to work to dress the deer while Willy proceeded
+to build a Seminole camp.  On the highest ground of the hammock he dug
+a fire hole, and radiating from it like spokes from the hub of a wheel
+he dug three small ditches.  With his ax he swiftly constructed three
+sleeping benches of branches, building them close to the central fire
+hole.  Then he built his main fire of short logs in the fire hole.  In
+each of the little ditches he threw long logs, their ends in the fire.
+
+Payne and Higgins watched him, expertly appreciative of his novel
+woodcraft.
+
+"It was a shame to take this country away from his kind," said Higgins.
+"They know how to live in it--and like it."
+
+Payne nodded.  He was looking back over the watery waste through which
+they had come.
+
+"You got your tract located?" asked Higgins.
+
+Payne pointed out over the saw grass waving above the drowned land on
+the southern side of the hammock.
+
+"That's it."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+"We'll look her over in the morning."
+
+Higgins lay stretched comfortably upon his sleeping bench, and between
+puffs of a campfire pipe, strove to be consoling.  On another bench
+Willy High Pockets, having gorged himself beyond human capacity on
+boiled venison, lay staring at the camp fire, open-eyed but in a stupor
+of complete contentment.  Payne occupied the third bench.  He lay flat
+on his back, staring upward through the palmetto branches at the soft
+stars which were appearing in the magic purple velvet of the Southern
+night.
+
+In the center, the large fire hole was filled with red, smoldering
+embers.  Radiating from it flames licked along the logs in the three
+shallow ditches which trisected the camp site, and as the central fire
+burned down the ends of the long logs were pushed into it and new fuel
+supplied.  The heat from the fires spread along the ground beneath the
+slightly raised sleeping benches, smothering or drying up such dampness
+as might otherwise rise from the earth after sunset.  Distributed as
+the heat was, it formed a barrier which shut out miasmatic fogs from
+creeping over the high ground from the swamp.  It was the Seminole
+system by which these Indians had survived in their unhealthy
+environment.
+
+"She may not look so bad when we go over her carefully," added Higgins.
+
+"Thanks," said Payne.  "Optimism is good medicine to sleep on.  I'm
+stung, of course.  The Prairie Highlands Company sold this stuff to me
+as virgin prairie sod ready for the plow.  I discounted that by fifty
+per cent, considering the low price.  I knew enough about this land to
+know, in spite of lying maps, faked soil reports and photographs, that
+there would be some water here.  I hired you because I was prepared for
+a drainage proposition.  But I didn't think they were crooked and nervy
+enough to sell me a lake--that senator writing letters on his official
+stationery."
+
+"Maybe you've got on the wrong tract?"
+
+"You know better; you went over the maps yourself.  No; they've got the
+crust to show this hammock in their photographs; I recognized it at
+once.  They showed it with fat, black grassland stretching away on
+every side of it.  They've got photographs of a town that should be
+located here, and of roads and ditches and farms.  Their crop
+exhibit--crops from Prairie Highlands--is a wonder: Corn, sugar cane,
+potatoes, grass.  Fifty per cent I discounted it; one hundred per cent
+would have been right."
+
+"They got soil experts to write reports on it," growled Higgins.  "Or
+at least, to sign them.  Those are pretty big names on your papers, men
+with big reputations.  How could they do it?"
+
+"They haven't been in here," said Payne bitterly.  "The thing is
+beginning to get a little clear.  Nobody's been in here who wasn't
+wanted.  It's simple to keep them out, with the river the only trail to
+come in by; so they've built up a fiction about the district, and
+nobody's been here to check up on it--until now."
+
+"Wonder how they got those soil men to put their names on the reports?"
+
+"Senator Fairclothe, I suppose.  You can get men from Washington who
+can't be got any other way.  What I'm wondering about is who's big
+enough to get him."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Did you ever know of a politician with a big name who was ever
+anything but a figurehead in a deal of this sort?"
+
+"I guess you're right."
+
+"It's the name and the reputation and the man's official standing
+that's valuable.  Senator Fairclothe may be crooked--I don't say he is;
+but he isn't a fool politically, at least.  No man gets a stranglehold
+on his state and an inside standing in Washington and keeps it year
+after year as he has done without being some shrewd as a politician.
+It's a one-hundred-to-one bet that he's never seen this lake that his
+company is selling as farms.  He might be willing to do something as
+crooked as that, but he wouldn't be so foolish.  Understand?
+
+"It would be taking too big a risk.  He'd be afraid that his political
+opponents would get next.  If they did, they'd get some swindled buyer
+to start action against him, just before an election.  My guess is that
+Fairclothe doesn't know a thing about what this tract is.  He's been
+got by somebody, as the soil experts were got; and I'm wondering who it
+is that's big enough to get him.  It must be somebody pretty big; but
+whoever it is, that's the gang or the man I'm going to talk business
+with."
+
+"Make 'em cough up your money, eh?  They'll probably do it--to keep
+your mouth shut."
+
+"They can't keep my mouth shut now."
+
+"Nor mine.  It's too rotten, too--rotten."
+
+"You're right, Hig.  And I don't know whether I want to just take my
+money back and clear out--even if they'd offer it to me."
+
+"Well"--Higgins' chuckle came forth sleepily--"it might be made
+something of at that.--Alligators?  No.  Fish?  No.  There's the water
+buffalo.  That's never been tried down here.  Hah!  I see a fortune in
+it.  'Buy a wonderful Water Buffalo Ranch and Get Rich Quick.  He Lives
+on Water.  Have We Got Lots of it?  Ask Us!'--How does that hit you for
+advertising matter?--Form a stock corporation; get a picture of a
+Philippine buffalo; and sell stock for all the money a sucker's got.
+Of course there aren't any water buffalos here; but neither is there
+any land; and that doesn't keep them from selling it just the same."
+
+"There is land here--under the water."
+
+"Yes.  Pretty good, too--under the water."
+
+"Water can be drained off."
+
+"Sure.  But--well, we'll look her over in the morning, Payne.  Hey,
+Willy High Pockets!  Touch up that fire a little."
+
+But Willy High Pockets was snoring.  Higgins rolled out, replenished
+the fire and soon followed the Indian's example.
+
+Payne did not go to sleep for a long time.  It was not the sensuously
+whispering night with its mistlike darkness and near-by stars that kept
+him awake.  Nor was it the splash of an otter, of minks and the sounds
+of other animals of the darkness.  The deep eyes of the girl of the
+morning were the lights that he saw as he lay staring up at the
+palmetto tops; and what sent his blood racing too swiftly for sleep was
+the memory of her flushed face and tossing hair as she had defied her
+aunt and Ramos in order to help two men whom she had seen for only a
+few minutes before.
+
+Payne had roamed much and had never had any thought or feelings for a
+new country save as a scene for his activity, for achievement.  He had
+never loved.  As he lay on his rude couch under the open sky and
+realized how mistaken was his investment he wondered why he did not
+feel unduly depressed or disturbed.  He had made a poor business deal,
+and good business sense dictated that he should try to get out of it
+with as little loss as possible and get into something new.  The spirit
+of business adventure in him, which constantly urged him to seek new
+fields for his ventures, had led him to make mistakes ere this.
+
+He had never wasted time upon his errors, either in deploring them or
+in deceiving himself that he could turn them to advantage, but had
+promptly put them behind him, credited something to experience, and
+started anew upon the road of achievement.  This was what he should do
+now.  Better to lose his investment than waste his time upon a doubtful
+if not hopeless proposition.  But when he recalled the unanswered
+questions which the girl had directed at her aunt, he knew that in this
+instance he was not going to do anything of the sort.  Having accepted
+this as a fact he closed his eyes to the soft, intimate stars above the
+palmettos and went to sleep.
+
+
+In the morning, when the water and grass were still vivid with the
+reflection of the multi-colored dawn, Payne and Higgins were out in
+Willy High Pockets' canoe, cruising the thousand acres Payne had
+bought.  The piece lay mainly to the southwest of Deer Hammock.
+
+"That hammock is the northeast corner post of the Prairie Highlands
+Company's land," said Payne, studying his map.  "I got the corner
+thousand in a square chunk.  Do you see a pine wood, Higgins?"
+
+"There's something down there, straight west of the hammock that might
+be it."
+
+Payne swept a westward line with his glasses and nodded.  "Looks like
+it.  A pine island, I suppose.  Now the southern line runs to a growth
+of cypress, two of immense size.  I can pick them out too.  We'll go
+down the south line first."
+
+Halfway toward the cypress trees the dugout grounded hopelessly, and
+they left it and waded through six inches of water the remainder of the
+distance.
+
+"They're honest about their marks at least," said Payne when they had
+reached the trees.  "But they didn't say anything about the cypress
+being in an unholy swamp."
+
+"Holy smoked fish, what a country!" muttered Higgins as he peered into
+the dark recesses of the densely wooded swamp.  "What a place to hide
+out in if a fellow wanted to drop out of the world.  Say, I guess this
+is the same swamp our friend Davis went paddling into yesterday.  Well,
+she lies lower than your lake, notice that?"
+
+"So it does.  I thought I had the lowest land in the world, but this
+swamp's got mine beat."
+
+"A ditch in the swamp running into the river might drain your piece
+some.  Have to be some dig, but you could afford to do it on a
+thousand-acre proposition.  It's something to figure on."
+
+Payne made no reply but led the way to the dugout and headed across the
+water for the bunch of pines marking his northwestern corner.
+
+"There isn't as much water on it as I thought," he said as the canoe
+stuck again as they approached the pines.
+
+"No; it's only the middle that's really drowned.  Wonder what the
+bottom's like."
+
+Higgins thrust his paddle tentatively into the bottom.  "Well, I'll be
+damned!"  The blade of the paddle had slipped easily into the ground.
+Higgins pushed on the handle, pushed the paddle three feet into soil,
+withdrew it and held it up for inspection.  "Muck!  Three foot of black
+muck, and I wasn't near touching bottom!"
+
+Together they began to probe, and everywhere with the same result.  The
+muck underneath the water ran from three to five feet in depth, and was
+as black as peat.
+
+The water grew shallower as they went westward and presently gave way
+to dry land covered with a growth of saw grass through which they
+literally had to push their way.  The saw grass ended abruptly, and the
+last hundred yards to the pines they walked on high and dry land.  The
+pines were on the eastern edge of the great prairie which they had
+glimpsed on their walk up the river.
+
+As they paddled back to the hammock for the breakfast which they had
+left the Seminole to prepare Payne studied the land to the northward
+with keen interest.  A heavier growth than saw grass covered this land.
+On closer inspection it proved to be a jungle of elderberry, the growth
+so dense that a man could barely squeeze through.  The land here was
+higher and dry, and black muck of the same depth as on the drowned land
+to the south.  Payne paddled back to Deer Hammock in silence.  Just as
+they were about to land he drove his paddle into the bottom with a
+gesture of finality.
+
+"Well, Higgins?"
+
+"Yes, sir!  That high ground to the north is a watershed and it all
+drains off onto your land.  That's what drowns it."
+
+"Right.  And I drain into that river."
+
+"Yep.  You can drain your piece all right.  But it'll cost like sin;
+and that high elderberry ground up there will always be shedding water
+onto it."
+
+"So all I need is to get hold of that piece up there."
+
+"Hah!  So that's what you were thinking about?  Who owns it?"
+
+"Not this crooked Prairie Company.  It's owned by the Southern Cypress
+Company.  They own so much land they probably don't know what they've
+got over here.  We'll get breakfast and hustle back to a wire some
+place.  I'll think it over.  I may buy that piece.  Then we'll have
+something to do business with."
+
+"Well, you'd better hurry or your breakfast will be gone," spoke a
+voice from the hammock.  "Willy Tiger had it all ready when we arrived."
+
+Payne stepped from the canoe and strode toward the two men who were
+seated at the camp fire.  One of them rose and he recognized the dark
+face of Ramos.  Then he saw Willy Tiger's crumpled body lying like a
+sack of grain across one of the sleeping benches.
+
+Payne looked at the man who had spoken, who remained seated.  He looked
+at him steadily for a long while.  Then he said: "My name is Payne.  I
+guess you're Mr. Garman."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+"You're right."
+
+The seated man was nibbling a piece of venison on a broiling stick and
+did not look up.
+
+"I'm Garman."
+
+He finished the venison, wiped his drooping, fawn-colored mustache with
+a silk handkerchief, displaying as he did so the two large diamonds
+upon his fingers; and through his heavy, yellow eyebrows he looked up
+lazily.
+
+As he sat squatted there by the fire Garman's figure gave an impression
+of squatness and of grossness in proportions and flesh.  The closely
+cropped head was of a size sufficient to dominate the huge body, and by
+the harsh salients of the jaws, the great forehead and the flat back
+head, gave evidence that but for its pink-fleshed rotundity the head
+might have appeared nearly square.  The backs of the hands which drew
+the silk handkerchief delicately across the thick red lips beneath the
+drooping mustache were covered to the fingernails with a fell of thick
+yellow hair; only the fat white palms were bare, like the insides of a
+gorilla's paws.
+
+"Payne, eh?" said Garman with a flash of white teeth showing through
+the mustache.  "Pretty fair-sized boy.  About my size when I was
+eighteen."
+
+Higgins was turning Willy over on his back.
+
+"My God!  Look at him!" he cried, pointing to the Indian's swollen face
+with its protruding tongue and popeyes.  "They've choked the poor devil
+to death!  You cheap, dirty greaser!" he roared, turning upon his
+aversion, Ramos.  "There was a good boy, that Indian; and if you've
+done him dirt I'll beat your greasy head off with your left leg!"
+
+"Hold on, Hig!"  Payne held his engineer back.  "There's no sign of a
+hand on his throat."
+
+"But look at his face!  Can't you tell by that?"
+
+Roger bent over the Indian and felt for a heartbeat.
+
+"He's alive!"
+
+"Is he?" laughed Garman.  "That's important perhaps--to Willy."
+
+"Get some water, Hig.  That's the stuff; souse him.  Ah!  Didn't he
+breathe?"
+
+"Tried to.  Can't you pull his tongue down a little so he can git air?"
+
+"Get some more water!  He's breathing!"
+
+"Hi, Willy!" cried Higgins, tilting the water against the distorted
+mouth.  "Come to, old boy; come to!"
+
+A few drops of the cooling stuff trickled into the Indian's throat,
+stirring the spark of life that was beginning to glow again in him.  A
+tremor convulsed his chest as the lungs sucked spasmodically at the
+tiny stream of air entering the swollen throat.  A gurgle, a deep sigh,
+and Willy's unconscious body was taking in the life-giving air in short
+gulps.
+
+"By the great smoked fish, he'll make a live of it!" jubilated Higgins.
+"And the man who did it--don't care who he is--is one son of a
+she-skunk, net."
+
+Garman, after his morsel of broiled venison, was lighting a large,
+brown cigar, moving the match round and round the tip to make sure it
+burned evenly.  He drew in a long breath and, opening his mouth,
+allowed the fat smoke to ooze up through his mustache, into his
+wide-open nostrils, over his half-closed eyes.
+
+"Willy Tiger is subject to fits--of a suffocating nature," he said.
+"He suffers from a too sensitive conscience.  The fits come upon him
+when he has made a mistake and gets caught at it."
+
+"He was choked!" said Payne bluntly.  "He was suffocated in some
+damnable fashion that left no mark, and he would have been dead in
+another five minutes."
+
+Garman nodded through another cloud of smoke.
+
+"Five minutes!  Sooner, perhaps.  I thought he was dead.  He is going
+to die in one of those fits some day, that's sure--if he lives to make
+more mistakes."
+
+The Indian began to heave and pant as the force of reviving life
+wracked his body.  Moans escaped from his lips, moans of agony, as if
+unconsciously he was protesting against the painful return to
+consciousness.  And Garman smoked, artistically and with luxurious
+enjoyment, his attention concentrated upon his cigar, while Ramos
+watched the writhing Indian with a sneering smile to betray his
+enjoyment of the spectacle.
+
+Presently Willy lay still, his breathing became easier and he opened
+his eyes.  Higgins, the volatile, leaped back and swore at the
+indefinable horror in those eyes.  Payne tightened his lips and laid an
+assuring hand on Willy's shoulder.  A spasm of terror passed over the
+Indian's features as memory returned.  He sprang to his feet, looking
+wildly round and saw Garman.  Then he cowered, shrinking together as if
+striving to sink into the ground, to return to unconsciousness,
+terrified by some overwhelming, incomprehensible horror.
+
+Garman continued his attention to his cigar.  The heavy smoke lay in
+swaying clouds above his head.  To judge by his expression Willy Tiger
+did not exist, save as an incident of the past.  Through the curtain of
+smoke which oozed upward through his mustache at regular intervals, his
+eyes gleamed alert, interested, concentrated upon a problem compared to
+which Willy was only an infinitesimal insect.
+
+Payne understood.  Garman had dealt--possibly through Ramos--with
+Willy.  Now his mind had turned to the problem of dealing with Payne
+and Higgins.  His manner indicated complete confidence in his ability
+to settle the problem as he saw fit, betraying how completely he felt
+himself the master.
+
+Payne controlled his own irritation at the other's attitude of
+superiority and sat down.  Apparently unconscious of Garman's presence
+on the other side of the fire he sampled a strip of broiled venison,
+found it good and began to eat.  Higgins presently followed his
+example.  Save for the presence of Willy Tiger with the unspeakable
+horror in his eyes it might have been amicable hunting party at
+breakfast.
+
+"I like that," said Garman finally.  "Cool hand, Payne.  You make
+yourself right to home."
+
+"Why shouldn't I?" Roger waved his hand to the southward.  "I own it."
+
+"Yes; but you're in a hole just at present.  How do you expect to get
+out of here?"
+
+Payne finished his piece of venison and wiped his fingers.
+
+"Garman," said he, "who are you?  What are you?  What are you butting
+in for?"
+
+Garman's smoking paused for a moment and his fat, rosy countenance was
+suffused with a darker red.
+
+"That was a bad break, Payne.  I don't like it."
+
+"I didn't think you would.  I see you don't like the idea of my being
+here at all."
+
+"That's right."
+
+"In fact, you don't like the idea of anybody's coming up here and
+seeing this country, and you've taken quite elaborate precautions
+against anybody's doing so.  I'll make a guess that there'll be trouble
+for somebody if you ever find out how we got in."
+
+"Don't you trouble about that, Payne; you worry about how you're going
+to get out."
+
+Payne paid no attention to this veiled threat, and continued:
+
+"Also, I'll make a guess that you're one of the real big men in the
+Prairie Highlands Land Company, which sold me a lot of water for farm
+land."
+
+Garman smiled.
+
+"Well, it's this way, Mr. Garman; I've been stung and stung badly.
+That's all right; it's all in the game.  I'm going to play the game
+out.  There's pretty fair farm land under that water out there.  I'm
+going to draw the water off."
+
+Garman resumed his smoking.  Suddenly he rose, an agile, powerful
+figure, graceful in spite of his huge bulk.
+
+"It's a hard job you're tackling, Payne."
+
+"But I'm tackling it."
+
+"I see you are."
+
+Garman turned to Willy and spoke swiftly in Seminole.  Like a whipped
+schoolboy hurrying to obey an order, the Indian grasped his rifle,
+sprang into the dugout and in a flash was poling away from the hammocks
+as if his life depended upon it.  Higgins sprang to the water's edge,
+but a word from Payne stopped him.  When Willy's escape with the dugout
+was assured Ramos disappeared for a moment and returned leading two
+saddle horses which had been hidden in the brush of the hammock.
+Garman threw his huge body into the saddle with an easy spring and rode
+away toward the sand prairie.
+
+"When you get tired of trying to find the way out," he called back,
+"come down to my camp and talk business."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+"Why didn't you let me catch the Indian?" demanded Higgins when the
+riders were gone.  "A man without a canoe here is almost as badly off
+as a man afoot in Death Valley."
+
+"I realize that," agreed Roger.  "But Garman had made up his mind that
+we weren't going to have that canoe."
+
+"I had almost made up my mind we were going to have it."
+
+"I saw that; that's why I stopped you."
+
+"Well!  After what happened on the river boat I didn't expect you to
+stop so easy."
+
+"Those men on the boat were quite different from Garman.  I knew they
+would take a bluff, or I'd never have let you pull your gun.  If you
+had done the same here there would have been shooting or else you'd
+have had to put your gun away and back down.  It's one thing to pull a
+gun on a bunch of river rats, and another on a man like Garman.  I
+don't want any shooting round here."
+
+"Neither do I."
+
+"Then never make a gun move with Garman round.  You can't beat a man
+like him with a gun."
+
+"No, I'll say he's a real he-devil."
+
+"I'm here on a business proposition.  It's a question of brains, not
+guns, in a fight with Garman."
+
+"And he's got a few of them too."
+
+"Decidedly.  Therefore, no rough work."
+
+Higgins laughed skeptically.
+
+"No rough work, eh?  How about little Willy High Pockets?  I've seen a
+few men here and there who've been manhandled, but I've never seen on
+with the fear of the devil driven into him as hard as Willy.  What in
+the name of black hell could they have done to the poor buck?"
+
+Payne shook his head.
+
+"I give it up.  Sorry, too, because I was responsible for his getting
+mixed up with us."
+
+"Not entirely so."
+
+Higgins refrained from mentioning the girl's connection with the
+matter, and Payne was grateful for his delicacy.  Garman, of course,
+had learned that it was the girl of the Egret who had bidden Willy
+Tiger guide the two to their destination.  How greatly this had angered
+Garman was apparent by the fashion in which he had visited
+punishment--whatever it had been--on the inoffensive Seminole.  What
+was Garman to the girl?
+
+"Poor Willy was the goat," said Higgins.  "But go back a little: Garman
+seems to me to be the big boss of this district.  Is that the way you
+figure it out?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"There's a whole lot of hard-boiled eggs round here, and they're scared
+fightless about some one, and he's it.  A man doesn't get that sort of
+a grip without rough work, and he's not pleased with your proposition
+here; and I don't see him changing his method much in dealing with you."
+
+"Perhaps not.  It's going to be hard for him to find an excuse though.
+I'm here on a business proposition, as I say, and business is going to
+be supreme on the job, and rough work a mere incident--if at all."
+
+"Fair enough.  What's your first move?"
+
+"To find a way out of this country without troubling friend Garman."
+
+"Sure.  The dugout was the first answer.  You let that go without
+winking an eyelid.  That means you'd already figured out a second
+answer.  What is it?"
+
+Payne spread out his maps and consulted them carefully.
+
+"Garman felt he had us sewed up tight because the average man who gets
+down here isn't a woodsman."
+
+"Except that fellow, Davis, I haven't seen one who looked like it since
+we got here," agreed Higgins.
+
+"Yep."  Payne was drawing out a new large-scale survey map.  "I don't
+think one of the old-time timber cruisers up North would call it too
+big a job to get out of here.  There's water almost all the way over to
+the east coast--the maps agree on that--so that's no good.  To the
+south is that cypress swamp.  West we've got that sand prairie.  Must
+be some trap there.  But another thing the maps all agree on is that
+the old trading post of Legrue, which is the end of the railroad's
+survey line, is about forty-five miles north of this hammock."
+
+"Sure.  And look at what's between 'em--on the map there."
+
+"The Devil's Playground."
+
+"That's one of the spots down here nobody's been through."
+
+"Well, Hig, I suspect you and I are going to be the first to try to do
+it.  I know the descriptions read tough: great crevices in limestone
+formation filled with impassable liquid mud.  We'll try it, though;
+we've got to."
+
+Without a word Higgins began to cut up more venison, and Payne rebuilt
+the fire.  After a substantial meal they roasted and packed two small
+bundles of meat for carrying and were ready for the start.  Payne
+carefully searched the country about with his glasses and, assured that
+no skulking watchers were in sight, they waded out from the hammock and
+plunged into the elderberry jungle to the north.
+
+From the first they had literally to break their way forward.  The
+elder trees grew from ten to twelve feet in height and so close
+together that to squeeze between them was impossible.  Payne went ahead
+at first, walking sidewise, throwing his shoulder against the brittle
+stems and crashing a path through.  Higgins soon stepped to the fore
+and did likewise.  At the end of an hour, when they had covered a scant
+mile, they paused.
+
+They were now in the heart of the elder growth, hidden from all the
+rest of the world and isolated from anything that might have promised
+relief.  In the branches innumerable large, glossy blackbirds kept up a
+maddening chatter, and higher above, up in the hot sky, the omnipresent
+buzzards floated lazily, awaiting sight of possible carrion prey.
+Animals began to appear almost underfoot, coons and rabbits, disturbed
+for the first time in their fastness.  Water holes appeared rarely, and
+the water in them was unfit for drinking.  Despite the shade it was
+stiflingly hot.
+
+Higgins began to pant.  He was broader and stockier than Payne and less
+favorably built for wedging his weight through the growth.  Neither
+spoke a word.  At the pauses they consulted compasses, laid out the
+trail straight north and drove on.  Payne's breath also soon was coming
+in sharp pants; and the leg muscles of both began to weaken with the
+treacherous going.  Grimly they held to their pace, waiting the release
+of fresh reservoirs of energy, the coming of the athlete's "second
+wind," to relieve them.
+
+When it came they had need for it, for the jungle growth now was
+thicker.  Heavy creepers and vines had appeared among the elder bushes,
+their phenomenal growth often matted thickly together as high as a
+man's waist.  Bushes which formerly had given way at the thrust of a
+shoulder now hung toughly, suspended by the inextricable grip of the
+vines.  Along the ground the matted creepers caught and clung
+tenaciously to ankles.  The carpet of them hid with fair leaves and
+blossoms treacherous water holes into which the travelers plunged at
+times foot deep.  In one such a plunge Payne's boots sent squirming a
+nest of slimy water moccasins.  A moment later he slipped and all but
+fell on the hard slippery back of a hidden turtle.
+
+A gleam of light in the solid growth ahead promised an open space for a
+rest and breathing spell.  With a silent agreement they plunged
+straight for it.  As they wedged their way into sight a flock of black
+buzzards rose lazily from something upon the ground, their wings barely
+lifting their gorged bodies, their foul red heads reeking with the
+putrid feast they were so loath to leave.
+
+Higgins voiced his disgust in one swift curse, but Payne bored silently
+on in a wide circuit round the stench.
+
+A broken trail in the jungle soon told the story.  The tracks of a
+single steer were discernible, pointing toward the opening, and there
+were no tracks returning.  The animal, lost in the thicket had fought
+its way out till, in the open space, its strength gone, it had
+collapsed.
+
+Payne stopped at the animal's tracks.
+
+"That steer came in from the west.  It couldn't have come very far
+through this jam, so probably that cattle prairie isn't very far out
+that way.  We could go out there.  I suppose some of Garman's men would
+see us if we did.  I don't like to have him know where we're bound for."
+
+Higgins was silent.
+
+"Well?"
+
+The engineer's reply was to crash into the thicket, breaking the way;
+and Payne followed without more words.
+
+At noon they dropped on a bed of vines which fairly smothered the
+brush, and ate sparingly of the venison they had brought; cautiously
+they dipped water from a deep root hole and barely wet their lips.
+
+"Have we made four miles?" asked Higgins.
+
+"Just about--less than a mile an hour.  Better start again before we
+begin to stiffen."
+
+They went on, resigned to a continuance of the morning struggle, unable
+to see far enough ahead to distinguish the country beyond.  One moment
+they were in the grasp of the jungle, the next they had broken through
+and stood panting and wide-eyed on the edge of a realized paradise of
+dreams.  It was a tiny lake bordered by a small, grass-grown prairie
+dotted with small clean clumps of palmetto, pine and cypress.  The
+water of the lakelet was clear blue, and the grass round it waved
+softly.  The palmettos grew in small circles and with the pines and
+cypress seemed like islands in a gentle sea; and each island held in
+its center a spring of cold clear water seeping up through a limestone
+bottom.  Long, swaying streamers of Spanish moss hung from the pines;
+up in the cypress were the mysterious air plants with the scarlet
+orchids naming in their hearts.  And beyond the prairie was a grove of
+custard apple swathed in the gentle, blooming moon vine.
+
+"It was black!" said Payne firmly, when they had drunk carefully from
+the lake.
+
+"What was?"
+
+"That land we just came through."
+
+"Black is right.  First-class stuff."
+
+"Worth the fight to find it--if it isn't already sold.  Land fit for a
+man to spend his time and money to put in shape.  Come on!"
+
+They crossed the enchanted prairie with scarcely a word for its beauty
+and plunged into the grove beyond.  The custard-apple trees ran to
+fifteen feet in height and twelve inches in diameter, but between their
+trunks was plenty of room for passage.
+
+The grove gave way and they were up to their waists in a growth of
+thick, rank saw grass, its half-inch wide blades with sharp, serrated
+edges cutting the bare skin of their hands like knives.  Far away on
+the northern horizon, beyond an apparently unbroken sea of grass, rose
+the ragged forest of a great swamp, its outlines sinister even at that
+distance.
+
+For the rest of the afternoon they fought their way toward the trees.
+It was growing dark when they had won through.  The ground beyond was
+lower than the saw-grass land and seemed to be composed of oozy slime.
+The growth that covered it was tangled and twisted as if thrown
+together by a mad burst of storms.  Dark, sinister and threatening the
+interior loomed before them; and without needing to consult their maps
+they spoke as one: "The Devil's Playground!"
+
+As they trod down the grass for a camping spot a streak of white
+gleamed in the gloomy nightmare of the garden and a flock of white
+egrets swept gracefully out into the gilding rays of the setting sun.
+A hundred in number, perhaps, they swerved in dignified fashion and in
+their ineffably beautiful posture of flying, necks gently bent backward
+and long legs trailing delicately, flew away to the west.  They were
+beginning to rise for a long flight when a harsh rattle of shots broke
+the evening quiet.  Pop-pop-pop!  Repeating shotguns worked at full
+speed.  The flock crumpled and broke and a score of the beautiful birds
+came crashing down in shapeless, broken lumps.  And then, too late to
+prevent the crime, darkness was upon the scene.
+
+
+Dawn revealed the interior of the Devil's Playground apparently less
+forbidding than in the gloaming, and Payne and Higgins plunged to their
+task as soon as breakfast was over.  A hard spit of land ran northwest,
+from the saw grass and they followed it till it ended abruptly at a
+narrow gully filled to the brim with liquid mud.  Swiftly and
+skillfully they bridged the space with saplings and branches, a process
+which they were forced to repeat at intervals throughout the forenoon.
+Luncheon they ate seated on cypress roots in water up to their knees;
+and soon after Higgins put a bullet between the yellow eyes of a
+panther which glared at them from its hiding place.  Snakes and
+alligators were in abundance; for miles there was no sign of other life.
+
+"They named it right," panted Higgins in a pause.
+
+"Yes; come on!"
+
+Now they had come to the "flowerpots" of the Playground, beautiful
+grass plots interwoven with delicate blooms and ringed about with water
+lilies.  Into the first one Payne went with a splash to his armpits;
+the grass was only a treacherous skin above a hole of liquid mud, from
+which Higgins with difficulty drew his employer.
+
+For an hour or more they threaded their way, cautiously between these
+beautiful traps.  Then, they found themselves on the brink of a gully a
+hundred yards in width; and Payne, driving ahead at full speed, cried
+out in anguish as he realized how they were stopped.
+
+"Hold on," said Higgins.  "That ground on the other side is higher, and
+it looks to me like a different formation.  Yes; it's limestone with
+sand on top.  Cheer up!"
+
+Payne threw a dry branch onto the mud and it sank immediately.  Wearily
+he turned at right angles to the trail and led the way in a search for
+the end of the gully.  For a mile they followed the barrier of mud,
+then Higgins called a halt.  "Look at this formation."  He pointed to a
+slight swell in the level monotony of the swamp.  "If that showed in
+any human country I'd say it was the beginning of a little ridge."
+
+The slight rise ran to the edge of the gully, where it was broken, and
+appeared again on the farther side of the mud.
+
+"There's just a chance that it runs right through that mud," Higgins
+was probing into the slime with a broken branch.  "Yep.  Here it is,
+about five feet down.  Ugh!  Pretty little piece of wading, but unless
+I miss my guess it will be miles before we find another fording place
+through that mud.  Wish Willy High Pockets was here.  He's the boy who
+could show us how."
+
+Payne looked at the span of slime between the banks.
+
+"Do you think we'll be through if we get to the other bank?" he asked.
+
+"Sure.  This mess can't last forever.  Hold on."  Payne had stepped off
+into the breast-high mud.  "What are you going to do?"
+
+"See if this shallow runs all the way across."
+
+"No you don't!  Chances are there's a break in it in the middle and
+then you'd be all out of luck.  I'll do the investigating."
+
+"Stay right where you are; I'm boss."  Payne was forcing his way out
+from shore.  Halfway across he stopped, panting and exhausted from the
+task of driving through the clinging mud.
+
+"No break?" called Higgins.
+
+"No; solid so far."
+
+"Then it's solid all the way across."  Higgins leaped in and, profiting
+by the trail broken in the mud, came swiftly up to where Roger stood,
+took a desperate chance and fairly swam through the mud, and took the
+lead.
+
+"I'll break trail the rest of the way.  Now--both together!"
+
+Pushing, pulling, falling and floundering they thrust on.  The mud grew
+thicker, heavier, and each step in it now was an appalling effort.  At
+last Higgins came to a stop.  They were twenty feet from the farther
+bank and the mud had assumed the consistency of heavy clay.
+
+"Stuck?" gasped Payne.
+
+"No!"  Higgins began to dig at the stuff with his hands.
+
+"Cheer up!" he panted.  "Get to bank--trouble's over."
+
+They literally dug themselves forward for the rest of the way, the
+hideousness of their situation relieved only by the bank before their
+eyes and the hope of high ground held out by it.  With the last bit of
+energy in them they freed themselves from the mud's suction and
+painfully crawled up the bank.
+
+"Made it!" said Higgins, dropping flat on his face.
+
+Payne raised himself on all fours and looked round through mud-caked
+eyes.  And then he began to laugh in a way that brought Higgins' head
+up with a start.  The high ground of the bank was a strip perhaps ten
+feet in width.  Beyond it as far as they could see was a sea of mud
+similar to that which they had just wallowed through.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+"We'll rest first, then we'll eat."  Payne had instantly recovered
+control of himself.  He let his weary body sink inert upon the ground,
+his face pillowed upon folded arms.  Higgins followed his example.
+They were not insensible to the gravity of their situation.  On the
+contrary it was their very realization of the ghastly nature of the
+trap into which they had floundered that prompted them to relax and lie
+like dead while their bodies recovered from the strain of fighting
+through the mud of the gully.  Not for them the amateurish fault of
+going into a panic.  Their situation was bad.  It was very bad.
+Therefore the pair relaxed after the manner of tired men seeking
+complete rest, and so successful was Higgins, and so severe the
+exhaustion of his thick body, that presently he fell asleep.
+
+Roger did not sleep.  Neither did he worry.  He did not even allow
+himself to contemplate the dire possibilities of the situation.  He did
+not think; he refused to allow himself to think.  He rested.  But
+continuously in his ears there seemed to sound a mocking whisper, as
+faint as the rustle of wind in the saw grass.
+
+"Devil's Playground, Devil's Playground!  How d'you like it?"
+
+Strength returned to his young body with the invincible resiliency of
+youth.  He felt the strain ease in his tired limbs, felt the arteries
+resume their easy functioning and settled himself for more of a rest.
+At last he stretched himself slowly, luxuriously upon the ground, as an
+athlete, rejoicing in the strength of his body, might stretch himself
+before entering a terrific contest.  Slowly he rolled over upon his
+back and opened his eyes.  Above his head long streamers of delicate
+Spanish moss waved indolently from the branches of a cypress tree.  It
+was an old tree and dead, and the moss seemed nothing more cheerful
+than a living shroud.  A cardinal bird flickered its vivid body in and
+out of the moss with a startling effect; and halfway up on the trunk of
+the cypress a mocking touch in the somber scene, a blood-red orchid
+brazenly flaunted its proud beauty.  And then, far above the tallest
+gray, sharp spire of the dead tree, high up in the warm blue heavens,
+appeared a single speck of black.
+
+It floated there in a circle with no apparent effort, a black speck
+floating in a sea of sun-warmed blue.  Its circle, in fact, was a
+leisurely downward spiral, and soon it appeared as a great, black
+buzzard, lazily drifting down from the heavens above.  Down, down, down
+it came, its wings motionless, its gradual descent the movement of a
+creature gifted with infinite patience.  Above the tree top it folded
+back its outspread wings, set its claws and dropped.  It settled upon
+the sharp, gray spike at the top of the dead cypress and sat there,
+motionless as a thing of wood--waiting, waiting, waiting.
+
+Other specks appeared against the blue of the sky.  These specks did
+not move in a circle but came flapping grotesquely toward a central
+point.  The scout of the buzzard flock had made his reconnoissance and
+by settling had signaled back his message.  Nine other buzzards
+followed him and took up their patient watch upon the highest branches
+of the tall tree.  Like black-shrouded, red-hooded ghouls they took
+their watch--waiting, waiting, waiting.  A tenth bird fell like a bolt
+out of the sky and found itself a perch in a tree apart from the
+others.  It was a small brown Mexican buzzard, the daring hawklike
+breed which does not wait till its prey is entirely dead.
+
+Roger's movements had gradually awakened Higgins and the latter also
+rolled on his back and followed Payne's upward stare at the waiting
+buzzards.
+
+"Pretty things, eh, Hig?"
+
+"Sweet, I'd call 'em.  Good waiters too.  'Take all the time you want,
+boys,' they're saying!  'We'll be here when you are all through.'  How
+in the devil do they get next to things so quick?"
+
+"Well, I suppose the signs of animal life in this neck of the woods
+aren't very plentiful.  The sight of us must have been quite a treat to
+those birds."
+
+"Sure.  Look how confident they are.  They've had experience with
+animals foolish enough to straggle off in here.  They look like they're
+going to sleep.  'Boys,' they're saying, 'we'll take a little nap now.
+But don't worry; you won't lose us; we'll be with you to the end and
+then some!'"
+
+The small Mexican buzzard, less patient than the larger scavenger
+birds, flopped halfway down from his branch, swooped over the two
+recumbent figures and swung upward to a new perch.
+
+"Take your time, old boy!" said Higgins.  "You don't eat just yet."
+
+"We do!"  Payne raised his legs high in the air and leaped to his feet
+without touching hands or body on the ground.  Higgins essayed the same
+athletic feat and came down with a crash on his haunches.
+
+"No, I haven't got the spring in me that he has," he addressed the
+buzzards, "but don't you get too hopeful.  I'll last a long time; thick
+men always do."
+
+"We'll warm up some of our venison, Hig," said Payne as he gathered dry
+sticks for a fire.  "Our next move is to stoke ourselves to the
+bursting point.  Then we'll rest some more while our internal machinery
+converts the venison into rich, red pep; and then we'll be ready to
+take a look round."
+
+As Higgins warmed the strips of broiled venison over the fire he cast a
+glance now and then at the buzzards.
+
+"Huh!  I don't like that," he growled as he saw the birds unmoved by
+the odor of broiling meat.
+
+"Don't like what?" asked Payne.
+
+"Those birds have got first-class smellers," replied Higgins, "and
+they're getting the tempting odor of this frying meat right now.  Do
+you see it excite them?  Not a bit.  And let me tell you those are
+mighty wise old birds.  They must feel awful confident of landing us
+since the smell of a few chunks of meat don't interest them at all.
+Did you see any animal signs while you were getting the wood?"
+
+"Eat!" said Payne sharply.
+
+"Which means you didn't.  I thought so.  Not even an alligator.  No
+wonder those buzzards were glad to see us."
+
+In spite of, or rather because of, the seriousness of their situation
+they consumed an extraordinary amount of venison; then, stuffed to
+repletion, stretched themselves out upon the warm earth as if they had
+not a worry in the world.  After the drowsiness of the heavy meal had
+passed they sat up and looked round leisurely.
+
+So far as they could see the narrow strip which comprised the bank of
+the mud gulley they had crossed was the only solid land in sight, and
+because of the trees and palmetto scrub they could not tell how far
+this ran in either direction.  Behind them was the river of mud through
+which they had wallowed.  Before them lay the apparently limitless
+expanse of the same formation, dotted sparsely with clumps of grass and
+flowers and at rare intervals with tiny mangrove islands.  No signs of
+animal life were apparent.  Even the birds were absent.  There were
+only the buzzards overhead--waiting, waiting, waiting.
+
+"See any water while you were hunting wood?" yawned Higgins.  "I need
+about a gallon to top off that meat."
+
+"Yes; come on; there's a little water hole down here."
+
+Payne led the way down the bank to a slight hollow where water had
+seeped up through the mud.
+
+"Go easy on it," he advised as Higgins kneeled by the pool.  "It
+doesn't look extra good to me."
+
+"It's wet anyhow," said Higgins and scooped a double handful to his
+lips.
+
+He spat instantly.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+Higgins again sampled the blackish water.
+
+"Taste it," he said.
+
+Payne obeyed.  He looked at Higgins.  Then they both stood up, shaking
+the water from their fingers.
+
+"Salt!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Higgins took out his pipe and slowly began to fill it.  Payne looked
+round.
+
+"Hig, that means we've got to hustle and find a way out in a hurry.  In
+this heat we can't go long without water.  I suspect it's all salt
+round here.  I remember I've read of salt water between the Everglades
+and the sea.  You take the bank downstream and see what you find.  I'll
+go upstream.  We'll meet here in an hour."
+
+They parted at once.  But Payne was back at the camp fire in an hour
+and Higgins was there ahead of him.
+
+"What did you, Hig?"
+
+"I found a mangrove swamp that a bobcat couldn't get through.  Did you
+have any luck?"
+
+Payne shook his head.
+
+"This high ground ends less than a mile up there.  And then there's
+nothing but mud--not a thing but mud.  Was there water round the
+mangroves?"
+
+"Yes.  Salt.  Salter than salt herring."
+
+"Do you want to turn back, Hig?" asked Payne suddenly.
+
+"You're going to try to get through?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I'm with you to the finish; and that's settled."
+
+Payne pointed out over the mud which lay between them and their
+destination.
+
+"That's the way we're going.  First of all we'll see if the thing can
+be waded."
+
+He stepped carefully off into the oozy slime and allowed himself to
+sink.  He sank to his shoulders without finding any bottom.
+
+"Nothing doing there," he said when Higgins had pulled him back to
+safety.  "Come on."
+
+He led the way up the bank to where the high land gave way to the
+treacherous mud.  Higgins essayed attempts in various directions, but
+each time found the mud of unwadable depths and was dragged back to
+solid ground by his employer's long arms.
+
+"We'll try the mangrove swamp," said Payne.
+
+Higgins' description of the swamps as one "that a bobcat couldn't get
+through" was not an exaggeration.  Countless mangrove trees, each with
+its horde of branches curving weirdly downward and rooted beneath the
+black water which covered the earth, formed a nightmarish obstacle
+through which it would have been folly for any one to attempt to force
+a way.  Between the interwoven tops of the trees the sun found rare
+openings through which its rays struck bolts of light, revealing by
+contrast the infernolike gloom of the swamp's interior.  In these rare
+blobs of light upon the brackish water moving objects were discernible,
+the fin of a fish, swimming over a shallow, the snout of a
+crocodile--proof that the water was salt--and the inevitable squirming
+of snakes, small and large.
+
+"Nothing doing here either."
+
+"No," agreed Payne.  "I'll have to go up high and have a look around."
+
+Retracing the way to the large dead tree upon which the buzzards still
+roosted patiently, he removed his shoes and stockings and looked up at
+the gray, tapering trunk.
+
+"Up you go!" cried Higgins, bending his broad shoulders.  Roger leaped
+upon them, leaped again, caught a hold on the tree and began the
+precarious climb upward.  It was now near the end of the day and the
+time he reached the first spikelike branch which gave him an
+opportunity to rest, the sun was preparing its pyrotechnics of Florida
+eventide.
+
+Roger threw a leg over the branch and unslung his glasses.  He was
+above the tops of the other trees on the bank, and mud, water and
+mangrove swamp lay well below.  A patch of white far to the eastward in
+the swamp had caught his attention even before he raised the glasses to
+his eyes.  Through the powerful lenses the phenomenon seemed at first
+to be composed of snow-white flowers growing upon the mangrove tops,
+but presently he saw that the patch was moving.  Out of the sun-shot
+sky a cloud of tiny specks, white as the driven snow, were fluttering
+downward and settling upon the dark tops of the trees.  Fascinated he
+watched the spectacle until the white patch had doubled in area and
+only a scatter of specks continued to add their mite to the countless
+number which had preceded them.
+
+"Egrets!" he cried aloud.  "Millions of them.  What a sight!"
+
+He was looking at one of the rarest sights beheld by men, a great egret
+rookery with its countless beautiful birds settling upon their nests
+for the night.  He was about to turn his glasses elsewhere when an
+interruption seemed to take place in the snow-white patch.  A cloud of
+gray smoke belched explosively up through its center.  Another and
+another followed swiftly until six of the blasts had occurred.  The
+dense mass of birds rose in fluttering flight and flew wildly up into
+the sky where the setting sun turned their spotless white to pink and
+gold.  Only there remained upon the dark tops of the mangroves six
+small, ragged patches of white, the limp bodies of scores of the
+beautiful birds in each, where the strange smoke blasts had wrought
+their deadly work.
+
+"What's the good word; found a way out?" called Higgins from below.
+
+"Not yet."  Payne dismissed the tragedy he had witnessed and moved his
+glasses in a slow arc to the north and east.
+
+"Look for running water," shouted Higgins.  "That's our bet."
+
+"I know."  Roger was scanning the mud field to the northward.
+
+"There must be high ground some place beyond," continued the engineer.
+"And if there is, there'll be a creek running into that mud.  That
+would mean fresh water."
+
+"I see something that looks like high ground, all right," said Payne,
+studying a smudge of blue against the northern horizon.  "But I don't
+see anything like running water."
+
+"It's got to be there," maintained Higgins.  "In this soft mud it may
+be underground and you'd never see it."
+
+Payne held his precarious perch, scrutinizing the treacherous ground
+which they must cross if they were to continue their journey, until the
+sun, like a blazing red wafer, had slipped down behind the mangrove
+swamp in the west and darkness had come to the earth below.  The
+darkness spread and crept upward to where he sat, and as he prepared to
+descend Payne glanced up toward the last rosy gleams on the topmost
+branches of the tall, dead tree.  The buzzards, which had flown away at
+his appearance, had returned and the sun was gilding their black bodies
+and their foul red heads, as patiently, confidently, they sat waiting.
+
+"Higgins," said Payne, when he reached the ground, "there seems to be a
+chain of islands running across that mud.  I picked out a string of
+them.  The first one is out there about a hundred yards away, and I
+believe that's about the average distance between them.  If we can dope
+out some scheme for getting across a hundred yards of that mush at a
+time I believe we can make it.  That mud doesn't run on forever; I'm
+sure I saw solid ground with timber on it to the north."
+
+"How far away?"
+
+"It's impossible even to guess at the distance in that light.  I'll go
+up in the morning and have another look."
+
+"Do the islands look solid?"
+
+"There's brush on them; that's all I could see."
+
+"My God, I'm thirsty," said Higgins irrelevantly.
+
+"I have been so for the last two hours," responded Payne.
+
+"And you saw no water out there?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we'd better not eat any more of that venison.  Meat makes a man
+thirsty.  A hundred yards, you guess, between the islands.  Well, I can
+dope out a rig to beat that game.  There's branches and saplings enough
+here, and creepers, and vines for ropes."
+
+"Snowshoes!" cried Roger, grasping the idea.
+
+"The same principle.  Only we won't wear 'em.  We'll each make us a
+pair of mats about four feet square.  Big enough to support us.  I've
+crossed rotten ice on 'em lots of times.  Stand on one and toss the
+other ahead of you, step ahead, reach back, pick up the one you left,
+and toss that ahead.  That's easy.  But I'm worrying about your not
+seeing fresh water, Payne.  This will be slow, hard work.  In the heat
+to-morrow we'll thirst like souls in purgatory.  And we don't know how
+far that mud reaches or what we'll be up against when we get across."
+
+"Nevertheless, I'm going to try to cross it in the morning."
+
+"Of course.  So am I.  Now let's build a bright camp fire so I can see
+to do a bit of fancy Indian basket work."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+The sunburst of dawn woke them from a night of restless sleep.  Roger
+sat up sleepily blinking against the garish rays of the rising sun, and
+conscious of an indefinite sense of discomfort.  Sleepily he stumbled
+to his feet, seeking a drink of water, and then, fully awakened, he
+understood.  His tongue was hot and dry and his swollen throat was
+crying for a drink of the brackish water which he must not touch.
+
+"Hell!" said Higgins hoarsely as he awoke and felt his throat.  "It's
+getting us quick.  This heat just boils the moisture out of you.  Do
+your eyes hurt yet?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Mine do.  I ate more of that meat than you did."
+
+They found a sweet-bay bush near by and chewed the fragrant leaves for
+the moisture that was in them.
+
+"I'll climb that tree and have another look round," said Roger.
+
+"All right.  While you're there I'll try out the mats I made last
+night."
+
+They looked together up toward the top of the dead cypress, and Higgins
+swore.  The buzzards were still waiting.
+
+Roger climbed to the branch which offered a perch high up on the tree
+trunk and once more searched the landscape for a sign of fresh water or
+a solid path through the mud.  The scene below him now resembled
+nothing so much as a painter's palette streaked and splashed with all
+the bright primary colors and all their possible hues, shades and
+variations.
+
+The black mud field was livid with a coating of most somber purple shot
+with angry streaks of carmine and orange.  On the foliage of the tiny
+islands which dotted the expanse the sun was rosy.  To the westward the
+matted mass of the mangrove swamp seemed to be sheathed with a liquid
+coat of gold.  The mists of morning were rising above the swamp and
+upon it the dawn played its full palette of colors with delicate
+rainbow effect.  Above the mists the sky was flushed and hectic; and in
+the east the garishness of the sunburst was like the clang of a brazen
+gong.
+
+Payne moved his glasses inch by inch upward, scanning minutely the
+treacherous ground over which they were soon to venture.  Had there
+been running water within sight the searching sun must have revealed
+it.  He saw none, nor did he catch any signs that indicated a
+watercourse.
+
+The mud and the tiny islands stretched northward to the blue streak on
+the horizon, which might be timber highland or only mist.
+
+"It works!" called Higgins from below.
+
+By the time Payne had descended from his perch the engineer was out on
+the mud, demonstrating the efficiency of the mats of thin saplings and
+creepers which he had woven the evening before.  While standing upon
+one mat, which supported his weight and prevented him sinking into the
+mud, he tossed a second one ahead, stepped upon it, drew the first mat
+after him, and repeated the process.  It was slow work, for the mud
+clung to the mats, necessitating a heavy tug to free them, but it was
+sure--so long as a man's strength remained.  Payne followed tediously
+in Higgins' trail and presently by virtue of greater length of leg and
+arm, had caught up with him.  They reached the first island at the same
+time and found it no island at all, but a clump of mangrove trees
+inextricably woven together above a salt-water hole in the mud.
+
+They went on their tedious way without a pause, without a word.  The
+next island was the same, and the next and next.  Still they crept
+steadily on, buoyed and spurred by the hope that the island just ahead
+would prove different.  It was in the middle of the forenoon before
+they permitted this hope to die.  Each island, they now knew, was only
+a hole of salt water with mangrove trees growing in it.  And the
+islands ran on and on into the distance.
+
+The sun now was rising to the height of its power and its burning rays
+beat mercilessly down upon the parched pair.  Seeking a moment's relief
+from its heat they thrust themselves into a clump of mangroves and
+rested.  Neither spoke.  They had but one thought: "Water!" and each
+feared to utter it because of the effect upon his companion.  As they
+leaned against the rootlike branches of the mangroves dark shadows
+moved above them.  They looked up.  The buzzards were leisurely
+following their progress.
+
+Through the rest of the day they plunged ahead, the rest halts becoming
+more and more frequent, and with no break in the monotony of mud and
+islands.  As evening approached they stopped and prepared for the
+night.  Higgins now was all but a wreck.  His weight was beginning to
+tell upon him and his thirst had become torture.  With his knife Payne
+cut armfuls of branches from the nearest island and piled them high
+upon the mats for a sleeping place.
+
+Higgins climbed to his improvised couch ere daylight had gone from the
+sky and at once fell asleep.  As he slept he babbled.  He ordered bell
+boys to bring him ice water, commanded Mexican water carriers to pass
+him a canteen; and muttered fretfully that they brought him empty
+vessels.  Payne did not sleep.  The evening passed; and the soft
+Florida moon rode low in the blue mist of the warm night.  The moon
+disappeared; and through it all he lay awake, vibrant with a fear which
+he dared not own, and which made him yearn for the return of daylight.
+Higgins rose reluctantly next morning.
+
+"I can't do it," he muttered at first.  "I've got to have water."
+
+Payne slapped him full in the face.
+
+"Wake up!  Talk like a man!"
+
+The blood of anger flushed Higgins' face; he blinked and, wide awake,
+understood.
+
+"Oh!  All right.  Come on."
+
+"Give me your gun," said Payne sharply.
+
+"What?  Oh, hell!  I'm not that bad."
+
+"Not yet; but we'll play safe.  Hand it over."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+With the revolver in his possession Payne started the day's march at
+Higgins' side.  Soon his caution was justified.  At an island Higgins
+stopped and stared drunkenly at the salt water gleaming among the
+mangrove roots.
+
+"Steady, Hig," warned Payne.
+
+"What?"
+
+"It's salt, you know."
+
+"Oh, yes.  'At's so."
+
+They crept on.
+
+"Don't care if it is salt; I'm going to have some water," said Higgins
+suddenly.  "Look at those damn buzzards back there.  They know it's
+salt.  Gimme Old Betsy, Payne, and I'll knock one of 'em down, and then
+we'll----"
+
+"Higgins!"
+
+"What?" Higgins shook his head.  "What have I been saying?"
+
+"Nothing.  Come on."
+
+"I guess it's got me, Payne," said the engineer as they rested at noon.
+"The fever is in my head too.  I'm seeing ice and snow and things like
+that."
+
+"Come on; keep moving."
+
+Payne could barely talk, but he drove himself and his companion
+relentlessly.  He no longer troubled to look ahead in hope of beholding
+a change in the land.  The weary futile task of placing one mat before
+the other occupied him entirely.  And suddenly he found himself pushing
+head foremost into a hedgelike thicket of brush and stopped weakly.
+
+"One of those damn islands," mumbled Higgins.  "Got to go round it."
+
+"To the right; come one," whispered Payne.  He did not trouble to look
+up.
+
+"Awful big island."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_Awful_ big."
+
+Payne halted.  He looked up.  He rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Hig," he whispered, "look at it."
+
+Drunkenly Higgins put out his hands toward the sharp-pointed leaves.
+
+"I'm gone, Payne.  I see palmetto scrub."
+
+"Hig--it--isn't an--island!"
+
+Higgins sat down on a mat and covered his face with his hands.
+
+"I thought I could stick with you, Payne, but I'm no good," he panted.
+"Head's gone all to pieces.  I hear a creek clucking away, and all----"
+
+"Do you hear it too?"
+
+"What!  You gone, too, Payne?"
+
+"In there?" cried Payne, pointing into the scrub.  "Do you hear water
+running?  My God!  Hig, there's solid land, there's----"  He hurled
+himself into the midst of the swordlike points of the scrub.  Higgins,
+made suddenly sane by his companion's apparent madness, stumbled after,
+pleading, cajoling.  Neither realized what happened during the next
+seconds.  Their first realization of the truth came as they grappled at
+the brink of a rivulet, Payne striving to drink, Higgins pleading with
+him to remember it was salt.  The struggle sobered them.  Higgins let
+go.
+
+"Do you see it, too, Payne?  Do you see a creek?"
+
+Payne's reply was to scoop up a handful of water and carry it to his
+lips.
+
+"Yes, I see a creek," he replied.  Higgins followed his example.  He
+splashed his head in the clear, cool water, running clean and fresh
+through a limestone channel from its source in the Everglades.  Payne
+did likewise.  Then each drank a sparing sip of the precious stuff and
+sat down to sip carefully and at intervals until the torture of thirst
+had left them.
+
+"The buzzards?" cried Payne, looking in vain for the grisly watchers.
+
+Higgins grinned.
+
+"They're awful wise birds, those fellows.  They've turned back."
+
+They remained by the creek until they were rested, forded it and went
+on.
+
+The ground now was hard and dry.  They found themselves in a sparse
+pine forest where walking was easy.  By nightfall they were out on an
+open prairie, and at midnight they came to the trading post at Legrue.
+
+The trader blinked as he responded to their knocks.  In response to
+Payne's request for information as to the nearest telegraph office he
+stared stupidly.
+
+"Where in the name of alligators you been wadin', boys?"
+
+"Devil's Playground."
+
+The trader winked.
+
+"All right, boys, I ain't askin' no questions.  If you say Devil's
+Playground, all right."  He winked again.  "I ain't no snooper.  Come
+in."
+
+"How far to the nearest telegraph office?" repeated Payne.
+
+"Why, that's twenty miles, up to Citrus Grove, where the railroad ends.
+You can make it easy to-morrow."
+
+"Good walking?"
+
+"Just like this all the way."
+
+"Higgins, you stay here and rest."
+
+And Higgins growled in response: "Come on!"
+
+In the middle of the afternoon of the next day the operator at Citrus
+Grove spent five minutes in waking Payne.  He had been paid five
+dollars to perform the feat when a reply should arrive to the long
+telegraph Roger had sent to his lawyer, when at dawn he and Higgins had
+stumbled into the station.  The reply was quite satisfactory:
+
+
+"Deal closed with Southern Cypress Company.  Thirty dollars an acre.
+Company reliable, progressive.  Glad to have live development man take
+hold.  Their title clear.  Will see to transfer at once.  Wait at
+Citrus Grove for surveyor who leaves at once.  Garman unknown to them.
+Will look him up."
+
+
+Payne turned over on his side and went to sleep, the yellow bit of
+paper clenched tightly in his fist.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A week later Payne stood alone on the little Flower Prairie searching
+the flooded lands to the eastward and wondering why Higgins did not
+come.  The week had been a successful one.  A surveyor and a
+representative of the Cypress Company had arrived promptly, had smiled
+skeptically at first when told of the trip through the Devil's
+Playground, and when convinced had looked upon Payne and Higgins with
+the admiration of experts for masters.  Higgins had remained at Citrus
+Grove to organize ox-team transport for the material and labor which
+had been ordered, and Payne had started southward at once.  A sure,
+plodding ox team had carried him in a wide circuit through the flooded
+lands east of Devil's Playground to Deer Hammock.  Signs on the hammock
+told that it had been visited several times during their absence.
+Payne found tracks of a size which he judged must be Garman's.
+
+The thousand acres which Payne had purchased from the Cypress Company
+was found to run northward far enough to include the fairyland of
+Flower Prairie.  The eastern line was where the elderberry jungle and
+Everglade water met and on the west the line was well out on the sand
+prairie.
+
+"That's where you may have some trouble, Mr. Payne," said the surveyor.
+"Florida is a free-range state, and the cattle men have run cattle here
+so long they feel like kings."
+
+"Is Garman in with them too?"
+
+"Nobody knows much about Garman," was the reply, the same reply that
+Roger had received often during the week.  "But they'll run cattle in
+on you from there if you don't fence.  And if you do fence--well, there
+have been some ugly fence wars down here."
+
+"I'll fence at once," said Payne.  "It's the only businesslike thing to
+do."
+
+The surveyor had completed his task and gone.  Roger was alone.  He had
+pitched camp by one of the clear, cool springs in the heart of the
+Flower Prairie.  A camp fire was smoldering before the tent; the smoke
+had attracted attention.  Payne heard the pounding of hoofs coming
+toward him through the tall grass, and soon Ramos swung into sight and
+checked his horse sharply.
+
+"Well?" said Payne.  And then the girl of the Egret came riding up
+beside Ramos.
+
+Payne said, "Well!" again, but the word had another meaning.
+
+"Well!" said she.
+
+Then they both laughed, and she rode up close and dropped off her
+horse.  She was attired in a soft white waist and white riding
+breeches, but there was about her none of the tomboy so easily
+suggested by such togs.  In spite of the masculinity of her attire the
+long, supple lines of her body were exquisitely feminine.  And she was
+as relieved at the sight of him as he was glad to behold her.
+
+"I knew you hadn't gone away," said she, after a short silence.
+
+"Who said I had gone away?"
+
+"They all said so."
+
+"Garman?"
+
+A blush suffused the clear skin of her cheeks; and as she looked away a
+sensation of dread crept round Roger's heart.
+
+"Never mind," he said.  "Never mind who said it; I'm still here; and
+I'm going to remain."
+
+"You found your land?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was not as represented, was it?" she asked slowly.
+
+"Oh, that!" he said carelessly.  "That's all a matter of salesmanship.
+An honest, enthusiastic salesman will boost his goods to the skies
+because that's the way they look to him.  A farmer with a bunch of hill
+and rocks as his property will swear he's got the finest farm in the
+country because he's enthusiastic about it.  This is wild land here--a
+wild, wild land proposition.  It may look bad now as a business deal,
+but another year and there'll be a difference."
+
+"Then you don't feel you've been cheated?" she said, relief and
+hopefulness in her tone.
+
+"No!  No matter what happens, I don't feel I've been cheated."
+
+"Is that true?"
+
+He looked at her steadfastly and replied: "It is."
+
+"Where is your land?"
+
+"Right here."  He waved his hand at the Flower Prairie, at the
+elderberry jungle.
+
+"Here?" she cried, leaning forward eagerly.  "Do you mean it?  Really?"
+
+"Right here," he repeated, kicking the ground vigorously.
+
+"Oh, I'm glad!" she murmured.  "I'm so glad!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I was afraid--maybe my suspicions aren't true after all."  She was
+silent for a moment.  "But I can't leave--I can't leave now!"
+
+"Wait!" he cried, leaping toward her, but with one spring the horse was
+out of reach and galloping away.  Payne watched till she was out of
+sight, but she did not look back.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+Higgins and the first ox wagon of his train arrived soon afterward, and
+in the morning he led the six negro laborers he had brought in an
+attack with heavy machetes upon the elderberry jungle.  The big knives,
+wielded by the powerful blacks, cut through the-soft wood at a single
+stroke.  The brush was then piled and burned, and the land was ready
+for the tractor and breaking plow which were coming in pieces from
+Citrus Grove via ox team.
+
+Payne watched the work for a while, then turned his attention to the
+fencing job out on the prairie.  There was a mile of north-and-south
+fence to be built, and he set at once to work digging post holes well
+on the inside of his line.
+
+He had worked two hours when he saw a horseman loping easily toward him
+from the west.  The horseman was apparently a cow-puncher.  He was
+tall, dark and hard-featured.  He pulled up abruptly on the fence line
+and sat looking down, insolently refusing to acknowledge Payne's
+greeting.  At last he said: "What you think you doing?"
+
+"Well," replied Roger, "I'm sort of under the impression that I'm
+building a line fence."
+
+"You can't fence here."
+
+Roger paused in the act of driving his digger into the ground and
+looked carefully at his visitor, who, sitting his big buckskin with
+easy assurance, looked steadily back.  For several seconds they
+appraised one another.  Roger grew warm with the anger natural to a man
+who has been faced on his own land; the stranger was insolent with the
+bearing of a man who feels himself master in his own country and is
+face to face with a stranger.  Still keeping his eyes on the man Roger
+drove the digger into the soil, twisted it round and pulled up a core
+of dirt.  He continued doing this until the hole was dug, then pacing
+deliberately forward he came on a straight line to the stranger's
+horse.  He touched the animal sharply with the digger.
+
+"Up a step, boy."
+
+"Who!  Whoa ---- you!"  The rider checked his mount's startled leap by
+jerking back on the reins with a viciousness that threw the animal's
+open mouth straight up in the air.
+
+"What you mean ---- you?"
+
+"Easy, easy," cautioned Roger.  "Don't go to cursing.  That's mighty
+poor business."
+
+"Business!  What do you mean by prodding my nag that way?"
+
+"He was standing right where the next hole is going," replied Roger,
+driving the digger into the ground.  "Sorry, but you were in my way.
+Now I'm a busy man, Mister Whoever-you-are, and I haven't any time to
+waste arguing or quarreling with you.  I don't know who you are or why
+you've intruded on me like this, but I do know that you're on my land
+and that you've been extremely insulting; and if you've no other
+business with me than to tell me what I can't do, I bid you good-day."
+
+The rider apparently paid not the slightest attention to Roger's words.
+He sat crouched in the saddle in the attitude of a man controlling
+himself until the propitious moment for a sudden leap.
+
+"In your way?" he said.
+
+"Yes--as you see."
+
+"And you think you come here to move folks when they're in your way?"
+
+"Usually a man has sense enough to move when he's in the way of another
+man's land."
+
+"You come down here to teach us sense too?"
+
+Roger made no reply, but continued with his digging.
+
+"I said you can't fence here."  The man's voice was thick with anger,
+and Roger, sensing what was coming, though he continued with his work,
+his back turned to the rider, leaned forward upon the balls of his
+feet, alert and ready for any emergency.
+
+"You can't fence here!" snarled the rider.  "That's what I come over to
+see about.  I heard talk about your planning to run a fence, but I
+didn't think you'd be foolish enough to try it, so I came over to see.
+And I'm warning you to stop.  This is cattle country and free range.
+You quit right where you are with your fence and you'll save yourself
+money and us the trouble of cutting it down."
+
+"It's against the law to cut fences," suggested Payne.
+
+"Law!  We're the law here; you're an outsider; and I'm laying down the
+law to you now.  You cut out that fence business and don't try to
+change things round here and we may go easy on you.  If you don't folks
+will wonder what's become of you.  Understand English?  Now I've given
+you my message.  And now--you're in my way and it's time for you to
+move!"
+
+Like a flash the big buckskin leaped forward at the cruel dig of the
+spurs, and like a flash Roger turned toward the thudding hoofs,
+swinging the post-hole digger in a swift arc.  The shovels caught the
+horse a terrible blow full on the nose and with a scream it reared high
+in the air, its forehoofs waving almost above Roger's head.
+
+"Down on him, Duke, down on him!" bellowed the rider, striving to swing
+the brute forward, but as Roger leaped to drag him from the saddle he
+swerved his mount and galloped out of reach.  Curses streamed from his
+lips as he checked the steed and swung him round, curses for the horse
+and for the man on foot.  His quirt rose and fell, lashing the horse
+into a frenzy as he galloped in a circle round Roger.
+
+"You're in my way, you hear?" he cried.  "It's your turn to move."
+
+Each turn brought his course nearer his intended victim; and each
+moment wrought horse and rider up to a greater fury.
+
+"Move, you sucker, move!"
+
+Roger stood his ground, turning to follow the whirling horse, waiting
+for the moment when the rider would swing the beast straight at him.
+
+"Jump, sucker, jump! or I'll ride you into the ground."
+
+Roger jumped as the horse came thundering at him, easily carrying
+himself out of danger from the animal's hoofs as well as from the heavy
+quirt which the rider swung at him.
+
+"Pretty nimble, eh?  You sucker, you're going under the hoofs if it
+takes all day!"
+
+Roger looked round.  They were alone on the bare prairie, out of sight
+and hearing of any possible assistance.  Higgins would grow curious at
+lunch time if Roger failed to appear and possibly come out to search
+for him, but previous to that there was no hope that any one would know
+the grim game that was being played out there in the desolate waste.
+
+Three hundred yards away lay an island of palmetto shrubs with a few
+pines sprinkled among them.  If he could reach that without being
+ridden down he could equalize somewhat the advantage which a mounted
+man holds over a man afoot in the open country, but he calculated the
+danger of turning his back to the maddened horse and rider and gave it
+up.  A sense of outrage, deeper than his anger, began to grow in him as
+he considered the spectacle of being forced to hop about like a
+harlequin, at the mercy of a stranger, and on his own land.  The
+instinct of the landowner with his two feet planted upon his own soil
+welled up in him, and he whisked up the long-handed digger and took a
+stand to defend himself.
+
+His attitude was that of a man defying the other to ride him down, and
+the rider, accepting the challenge with a yell, drove at him like a
+Fury.  Roger saw the outstretched nostrils, the bared teeth and
+pounding hoofs hurtling at him and realized the folly of his impulse.
+As the steed came upon him he leaped suddenly to one side and struck
+furiously at the figure in the saddle.  He missed his aim, but the
+horse, with his nose still throbbing from the blow from the steel,
+swerved widely, and Roger's quick eyes saw that which gave him hope.
+
+"Come on, you cur!" he shouted.  "Try it again."
+
+A volley of sneers, defiance, threats, rolled from his lips as he
+backed slowly over to where he had been at work.  All the facility of
+his invention and all his vocabulary were called upon to drive the
+rider frantic with rage and to forbid his powers of observation the
+opportunity to function.  The rider saw no danger, failed to notice the
+little mound of dirt near which Roger was standing, considered nothing
+but the act of driving full speed at the man who taunted him.  Twice he
+rode at his agile enemy, twice Roger struck at the horse to make him
+swerve; and at the third charge the animal's foreleg went into the
+posthole round which Roger had maneuvered, and the rider shot like a
+sprawling puppet from the saddle onto the ground.  He was up in an
+instant, bewildered but unharmed, and as his eyes ranged from the
+struggling horse to Roger, the latter said grimly: "Now we'll talk
+business."
+
+A curse hissed from the other's stiff, open lips, and insane with rage,
+head down, he threw himself forward.  Roger met the rush with a
+straight left, which cut through an eyebrow like a knife, and went home
+with a crack on a high cheek bone; but no blow could stop the rush of
+rage and in another moment the man was on him, grappling for a hold.
+The fight for the nonce became a scuffle.  The stranger fought as Roger
+had never seen a white man fight before; his hard brown fingers were
+fixed rigidly like iron claws with which he struck and clutched
+spasmodically for a grip on the flesh of face or neck.
+
+"I'll claw the face off you, you sucker!  I'll leave you blind for the
+vultures to pick."
+
+"Fight like a white man!" cried Roger, throwing him off.  "Close your
+fists and hit, or, by the eternal, I'll beat you to a pulp."
+
+He caught the wrists of the frenziedly clawing hands as they chopped at
+him again and in an instant was forced to let go, as his assailant
+kicked with vicious cunning at his groin.  Roger drew a great breath,
+filling his lungs to their utmost capacity, then, venting his loathing
+rage in a rumbling bellow, he dove in regardless.  Straight against the
+ironlike claws he drove, reckless in the grasp of the anger that had
+exploded within him at the unfair trick.  Up and back he beat the
+clutching hands, and drove his right fist to the lower ribs with a
+force that made the victim gasp.  Again he struck, bringing his fist
+from behind him in an irresistible arc to its mark.  Again and again he
+struck the cattleman's hardened body and then, sensing his opponent's
+wilting, he drove in, both arms working like pistons, literally beating
+his man flat to the ground.
+
+Roger stepped back.  The tough-bodied fellow on the ground, though
+overwhelmed by the relentless shower of blows, was not unconscious and
+not whipped.  He lay panting and helpless for the moment, his eyes held
+fearfully on Roger's boots.
+
+"You hound!" gasped the young man as he understood.  "Do you think I'd
+kick you when you're down.  Get up, get up!  You've got only half of
+what's coming to you."
+
+"Can't get up," said the prostrate man sullenly, after a pause.  "Hip's
+broke, or something."
+
+"You lie!  Get up, you liar!"
+
+"All right."  The cattleman slumped helplessly together.  "Go ahead;
+stomp on me.  I can't get up."
+
+Roger stood looking down at him irresolutely.  In the fury of combat he
+had been ready, even eager, to wreak any possible damage to his
+opponent by fighting.  Now with his blood growing cooler and no
+antagonist before him it was a different matter, and the Anglo-Saxon
+instinct to succor a fallen and helpless foe began to assert itself.
+
+"You're a lying hound," he said furiously, to hide his intentions.
+"Your hip is as sound as mine.  Get up."
+
+"All right; stomp on me; go ahead; I can't move."
+
+"Where do you pretend you're hurt?"
+
+"It's here."  The man's right hand was fumbling in the side pocket of
+his overalls.  "Broke or paralyzed or something!  Oh! oh!  Mister, you
+won the fight.  Oh!  Going to leave me here for the buzzards, I s'pose?"
+
+"What do you take me for?"  Roger bent over his victim.  "Turn over so
+I can see where your hand is."
+
+"Oh, oh!  Straighten my leg out, for Gawd's sake."  Roger bent to do
+so, his eyes for the moment leaving the other's face.  "Easy; easy,
+now.  There, you sucker; take that!"
+
+As one might leap back from a reptile's fangs, so Roger leaped at the
+burning sensation and the thud of a blow on his back.  The cattleman,
+too, came to his feet with a spring that betrayed his shaming
+[Transcriber's note: shamming?]; and at sight of the glistening thing
+in the man's hand Roger understood.  It was a long-bladed clasp knife
+with a button catch.  While the man was groaning and pretending to feel
+for his broken bones he had opened the knife in his pocket; and when
+Roger had bent over the man had stabbed him in the back.
+
+The man was grinning in bestial fashion, his teeth bared, his eyes
+alight with devilish expectancy, waiting for his victim to fall.  He
+was gloating; he feasted his eyes upon Roger's fresh young face, his
+bright eyes, and waited for the flesh to begin to fade and grow
+greenish white; for the eyes to fill with a slow astonishment and to
+grow dim as a light that is turned out, and for the great young body to
+come crashing stupidly to the ground.  He made no move to strike again;
+he was too intensely interested in anticipation of the sight he thought
+to gloat over.  The delectable spectacle did not seem to come.  The
+victim's fresh color did not fade; his bright eyes did not grow dim.
+
+"Missed," said Roger quietly, withdrawing his wet hand from its
+exploration.  "Hit a rib.  Now, cur, do your damnedest!"
+
+He walked forward toward the outpointed knife, walked straight-limbed
+and head up, his shoulders squared, his jaw set in fashion that
+indicated how completely caution had been flung aside.
+
+But the man was watching the blue eyes and he was of the breed that
+cannot fight fair.  He quailed before the Northern relentlessness, bred
+of kinship with the relentless Northern ice, that showed in those blue
+eyes.  He could not fathom what was in the look that chilled him; his
+breed never could; but one thing he understood: He had met his master.
+
+He gave ground a foot, the knife still held out before him.  He gave a
+yard.  He wilted, became panic-stricken, turned and fled to his horse
+and galloped away.  Well out of reach he turned and waved his blade in
+a dramatic threat.  Then he disappeared behind an islet of palmetto
+scrub.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+Payne stalked back to where Higgins and his negroes were slashing into
+the elderberry brush.
+
+"Call 'em off," he said abruptly.  "We're going to build a fence.
+They've served their first notice; I'm going to shoot one back at them."
+
+"Shoot is right," said Higgins, picking up one of the 30-30 carbines
+which had been a part of his first load.  Payne had armed himself
+similarly.  "When you get ready you'll probably give me a hint of
+what's happened."
+
+As they led the crew over to the western line and started them at work
+on the post holes Payne related the story of the fight.
+
+"I went on the fence job alone because I wanted to reason with them if
+they came to stop me," he said.  "I thought they could be made to
+understand that a new day has dawned down here.  Apparently I was
+mistaken.  There'll be no more attempt at friendliness on my part."
+
+"Free-range cattlemen!" said Higgins.  "The same all over the world!  A
+fence makes them see red.  Barb wire is to 'em like a new steel trap to
+a wolf.  Wonder if it was one of Garman's men?"
+
+"I don't know whether Garman's activities include cattle.  What
+difference does it make?  Our job is to put this fence up.  The next
+move is up to them."
+
+"Here comes their first move!" said Higgins presently.
+
+Payne turned swiftly.  The engineer's keen eyes had picked out three
+small specks bobbing up and down out on the prairie and even at the
+distance he knew them for easily riding horsemen.
+
+"It didn't take him long to tell his friends," said Payne.  "Hig, you
+go down to the other side of the boys.  My guess is that they'll try to
+terrorize our labor.  If they drive this bunch off the news will
+spread.  Negroes won't come to work down here where they hear any white
+men are out against them.  If they're like the first pup they'll try to
+ride the boys down."
+
+"Yep; that's a favorite method."
+
+"Kill the horse under the first man who tries it, if he's down your
+way.  If he's up here I'll do it.  Then stop.  Stop absolutely.  No
+words.  I talked too much to that other hound.  Just wait for their
+next move."
+
+"Well--I've heard they carry guns down here, Payne, and use them well,
+too, sometimes," said Higgins questioningly.
+
+"Well," replied Payne dryly, "I don't think I'll try to tell you what
+to do in that case."
+
+The three riders were still far away and their approach was a slow,
+leisurely canter.  They made no apparent effort to hurry their mounts,
+nor did they maintain a straight course.  At times they were lost from
+view hidden behind the islets of palmetto scrub, or in one of the rare
+clumps of pine or cypress with which the prairie was dotted.
+
+"Looks like they're getting a little chilled below the ankles," called
+Higgins.  "Do they think we're such damn fools they can fool us by
+coming slow?"
+
+The riders disappeared behind one of the small thick clumps of old
+cypress trees draped with great curtains of Spanish moss, which mark
+the presence of a water hole on the Florida prairie.  When they emerged
+their course was altered toward the northward.
+
+"Looks like they're turning back."
+
+"No."
+
+The three horses suddenly broke into a gallop.  Payne reached for his
+field glasses, but before he could bring them to bear the cavalcade had
+disappeared behind a cluster of cabbage palms on a small hammock
+probably five hundred yards away.
+
+The negroes stopped work suddenly, eyeing their masters for
+instructions, but ready to run the next instant if the instructions
+were not forthcoming.
+
+"Lie down!  Right where you are."  Payne's orders seemed to drop the
+blacks in their tracks.  Relieved at having a white man think for them
+they stretched their great bodies in the grass, their eyes not on the
+menace of the hammock, but upon Payne.  Payne and Higgins remained
+standing, their carbines lying across their left arms.
+
+"If they can hit anything at that distance they've got to be pretty
+good shots, Hig."
+
+"I'll say they have.  Got to have pretty good tools, too; and most of
+the rifles I've seen round here are the old forty-fours."
+
+"If they are Garman's men they'll have up-to-date rifles all right."
+
+"Sure.  The best money can buy."  Higgins shrewdly estimated the range
+to the palms.  "Say, Payne, if they've got Springfields or something as
+good, and can use them, we're making a fool play standing here."
+
+"Lie down, there."
+
+"Down hell!  What I mean is we ought to get closer to 'em so we'd have
+an even break with these little 30-30s."
+
+"Then we'd be off our land.  They've got to come to us."
+
+"I see.  What in the devil are they waiting for?  Put your glasses on
+those palms and see what you can see."
+
+"Can't see a thing," reported Payne after a careful scrutiny of the
+hammock.  "The palms shut out the sun and hide them."
+
+"They knew what they were doing when they went there, didn't they?"
+said Higgins.  "Nice, dark hiding place where they can lay safe and
+have their targets out in the sun.  You can do what you please, Payne,
+but the first shot out of there I start for the hammock.  There's a big
+bunch of palmetto scrub south of it.  I'll get in there and give 'em
+hell-for-breakfast."
+
+Payne was holding his glasses upon the palms.  He had gotten the
+perfect focus now and saw that a broad wagon trail led through the
+middle of the hammock.  Out of this opening presently came the three
+riders, riding abreast at a walk.  Payne started.  A hot flush of
+embarrassment flooded his face.
+
+"Higgins; for heaven's sake, put down your gun.  Put it down quick, I
+say!  Hide it.  Get up and go to work, men.  Hustle.  It's all right.
+Get a-going!"
+
+He hid his rifle hurriedly, picked up a digger and set to work, grimly
+ignoring Higgins' frantic demands for an explanation.  He was working
+furiously and the crew was following his example, when the three
+riders, who were Garman, Mrs. Livingstone and the girl, came cantering
+up to the fence line.
+
+It was a different Garman than had faced Roger across the camp fire on
+Deer Hammock; and it was a different girl than had ridden away from
+Flower Prairie.  Only Mrs. Livingstone seemed to be as Roger recalled
+her, cold, affected; arrogant, and extremely conscious of the
+importance of her position as chaperon.
+
+Garman for the nonce was the courtier, the artistic idler, the
+dilettante in the art of luxurious living; and Payne, conscious of his
+dirt-smudged overalls, envied him the elegance with which he played the
+role.  That Garman was interested in the crudities of business seemed
+an improbability; that he was connected with things dark and hidden, a
+thought to ridicule.  His purpose in life just then was that of the
+luxurious idler, to escort two ladies of his class for a leisurely
+ride, to serve them gracefully as their chevalier.  And yet, beneath
+the silken coat of manners the tiger force of him was evident.  From
+where he stood Payne could feel the hypnotic power of the man's mere
+presence.
+
+As he looked at the girl he saw that she too had felt it--saw that it
+was Garman's nearness that wrought the change in her.  She seemed under
+an influence which subdued yet excited her as might some subtle drug.
+Her normally calm, frank eyes were heavy and mysterious with a drowsy
+languor.  Her tall, vibrant figure likewise seemed to droop drowsily,
+the budding lines of her body tremulous with young life and womanhood.
+Her hands hung languidly upon the saddle horn.  Only her rich young
+lips were firm and straight, as if her mind and will power were
+fighting resolutely against the desire to yield to the subtle influence
+which was steeping her through and through.
+
+"Are you fencing off Flower Prairie--that garden of dreams come true?"
+she said with a careless laugh.
+
+"Yes," said Payne, "but I'm going to put a gate in there."
+
+"Kind of him, isn't it?" said Mrs. Livingstone, turning to Garman with
+the empty, affected laugh of her kind.  "Shall we be permitted to
+continue our rides to Flower Prairie?  Are persons permitted to place
+such obstructions in such places?"
+
+Garman smoothed his tawny mustache, playfully bowing to her, as if
+loathe to interrupt with a reply.
+
+Payne was breathing hard.
+
+"Yes; they are," he said hoarsely, and checked himself.
+
+"Ye-es," purred Garman.  "If they own the land."
+
+Payne turned on him.
+
+"Where's Willy Tiger?" he snapped out.  "What did you do to him?"
+
+"Come, Annette," said Mrs. Livingstone.  "It is too warm to stand
+still.  We will ride back slowly."
+
+"Aunty----" began the girl, and then, as Garman moved his horse toward
+her, she bowed her head and pulled her mount away from Garman's.  "Very
+well, aunty," she said nervously, and there was relief in her bearing
+as she drew away from Garman.
+
+This time, as she cantered away she looked back.  And in her eyes was a
+look of appeal, and a promise that she would come again.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+"How about Willy High Pockets--or Tiger?" demanded Higgins the instant
+the ladies were out of hearing.
+
+"Payne," said Garman, instantly dropping his air of affectation and
+becoming the business man, "you've made a mistake in picking a chief
+assistant with red hair.  Damn it, man, don't you know it's a sign of
+hot-headedness.  Keep 'em down--foremen, crew handlers, perhaps; but as
+executives, never!"
+
+The veins were swelling in Higgins' thick neck and his face rivaled his
+fiery poll in redness.  He came toward Garman with quick, eager steps.
+
+"Hey, Hig!" laughed Payne.  "Are you going to prove that he's right?"
+
+"I came to see you about that Indian, Payne," said Garman, dismissing
+Higgins emphatically.  "Not that I'm interested personally.  Others
+are.  Didn't he come back to you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You haven't seen him since?"
+
+"No."
+
+"All right; neither have I.  He's gone back to his people probably;
+Indians come and go.  Now that will be all about Willy Tiger," he said
+in a tone of finality.
+
+"Payne, if you're going to stay here we'd better talk like business
+men.  I'm a business man."
+
+"I try to be."
+
+"Sure.  No sense wasting any energy fighting.  You're going to develop
+your tract here?"
+
+"Going to try to; yes."
+
+Garman studied him with new intentness for a moment.
+
+"And yet you look like you had business sense, too."
+
+Payne made no reply.
+
+"You know what a poor business proposition you've got, of course,"
+continued Garman.  "Even assuming that things are as you think they
+are?"
+
+"What things?"
+
+Garman smiled slightly, a slow, amused smile.
+
+"Payne, if I told you that I'm afraid you'd pull up stakes and get out
+_pronto_."
+
+Payne laughed.
+
+"That would leave you broken-hearted, wouldn't it, Garman?"
+
+"No-o-o," said Garman; "but it would--well it would deprive me of your
+company.  I'm a sociable animal, Payne.  I crave company; I like to
+have all sorts of people about me.  Take Ramos, for instance; did you
+ever see a more supercilious, sneaky, disagreeable specimen of the
+half-breed Mexican?  Neither have I.  You, I suppose, wouldn't have him
+'round you."
+
+"Not if I was able to kick him away."
+
+"Exactly; and thereby you would be depriving yourself of most excellent
+entertainment, besides the services of a most useful servant."
+
+"I haven't got any dirty work to be done, Garman."
+
+Garman smoked deliberately for several seconds.
+
+"Payne, once and for all, let this be understood between us: when I
+have any dirty work to be done I do it myself, with these two hands.
+Understand?  Now, Ramos fancies himself in the supposed position of
+bravo.  Very amusing, I assure you----"
+
+"I don't care about Ramos and your whims, Garman," Payne interrupted.
+
+"Of course not.  Why should you?  But I'd be bored to death down here
+if I didn't have people to play with----"
+
+"Rot!  You aren't the playing kind."
+
+"My dear fellow," said Garman with a deep chuckle, "if I didn't have
+lives to play with--other people's lives--I'd die of boredom.  You're
+young," he continued with a sudden touch of bitterness.  "You're still
+able to draw upon the old illusions to maintain your interest in life.
+Ambition, work, achievement, success--Love!  You're inexperienced
+enough to pursue the old will-o'-the-wisps that Nature has planted in
+man's instincts to keep him living till her purpose is served.  Pah!
+Payne, I've tried them all, won them all, and that--" he blew out a
+great cloud of smoke--"that is more real and satisfying than all of
+them put together."
+
+"Have your liver examined," advised Payne; "that's probably what's the
+matter with you."
+
+Garman's Gargantuan burst of laughter rocked him in the saddle.
+
+"Good boy!  We'll have a lot of fun before we're through with one
+another.  But what a materialist you are for a young fellow, Payne!
+What will you be at fifty if now you reduce psychological
+manifestations to a common physical cause?  Why, man, you ought to be
+walking with your head in the clouds, dreaming of the one woman, the
+Perfect Mate, and Love, which are to make your life complete.  All
+young fools of your age do it; why not you?"
+
+"And so you play with other people's lives, do you?" said Payne, paying
+no attention to the other's raillery.  "And is that what you're
+thinking of doing with mine?"
+
+Garman tilted back his head and smiled through a smoke cloud.  "Yes,"
+he said softly; "unless you run away."
+
+"Huh!"
+
+"No, you aren't the running kind.  That's what makes you interesting.
+That's what will make you good fun.  What could be more interesting
+than seeing a young man like yourself want something so badly that he'd
+give his life for it and then suddenly place the desired object far,
+far beyond his reach.  To watch his expression when he discovers that
+he's lost.  To see the change from hope to despair take place in his
+eyes, to watch the illusions go, and the bitter truth about life take
+possession of him.  What will he do, say and look when he discovers
+that the oyster of life is a hollow, empty, fraudulent shell?"
+
+"You're raving, Garman!"
+
+"Do you accept the challenge?"
+
+"To the limit."
+
+"Good boy!  I knew you wouldn't disappoint me.  The girl would have
+been worth while, but adding you, Payne, you glimpsing a dream of a
+fool's paradise, will be glorious!"
+
+"You talk like a damn fool," said Payne bluntly.
+
+Garman nodded, and with the nod his strange mood passed and he was the
+business man again.
+
+"All right.  That's all of that for the present.  Now, what are you up
+against?  What are your biggest problems?"
+
+"Thanks, but I am not placing myself entirely in your hands, Garman."
+
+"That's right; play safe.  But I'm talking business now.  You're
+tackling a hard job here.  What can I do to help?"
+
+"There's only one thing I want you to do, Garman; that's to keep your
+hands off this job, and to keep your men from interfering with me and
+my men and the job, or anything connected with it."
+
+"That's settled.  Anything else?"
+
+"That's all.  It will save trouble for both of us if you'll do that."
+
+Garman dismissed the matter as settled with a nod, and gathered up his
+reins.
+
+"Doing anything next Sunday afternoon?"
+
+Payne thought for a moment.
+
+"Yes; next Sunday I'll be going down the river to Gumbo Key.  The
+ditching outfit that I've hired is due to arrive at the Key on Saturday
+night.  I promised to meet it and see it up the river.  We'll start up
+river Monday morning.  I'll be on that dredger all the way up, Garman.
+
+"Don't waste your time.  There'll be no interference.  In fact, if she
+needs help you can borrow the old Cormorant for a tugboat."
+
+"No, thanks.  They do their own towing."
+
+"All right.  But there's no sense of your going down there and wasting
+your whole Sunday on Gumbo Key.  I suppose you'd do that; prejudice
+against breaking the Sabbath and all that?  I thought so; it goes with
+the illusions.  But there's no need for it this time--and I've been
+specially ordered to invite you down to my little place for Sunday
+afternoon.  If you knew who issued the order you'd come, I know.  It
+will be sort of an affair to welcome you to our midst.  Better come,
+Payne; besides somebody you want to meet properly, there'll be a
+certain man there you ought to meet.  Sunday afternoon."
+
+"Will Mrs. Livingstone be there?"
+
+"Pooh!  Pay no attention to that.  She'll be tamed by Sunday.  Come
+about two.  In the evening if you wish I'll have the Cormorant run you
+down the river to Gumbo Key."  He paused and with a flicker of a smile
+added the words which he knew would evoke but one reply: "Of course if
+you fear it's a trap----"
+
+"At two Sunday afternoon?" said Roger.
+
+"Right."  Garman wheeled his horse and loped away without another word.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+Payne was not greatly concerned one way or another with Garman's
+apparent change of heart toward his enterprise.  He had no intention of
+asking or receiving favors.  All he asked was that Garman keep his
+hands off.
+
+The rest of the week saw the line fence completed and a good slice of
+the elderberry jungle cleared away and burned.  Besides this, Higgins
+and Payne cruised the drowned land and ran the lines where the ditches
+were to be dug when the ditcher should arrive.  Two main ditches,
+running in a V from the head of the Chokohatchee, Higgins' figures
+showed, would drain the surface water off the thousand acres of lake
+which had been sold to Payne as prairie land.
+
+In the soft mud the big ditching machine would eat its way forward at
+the rate of half a mile a day--a week should suffice to put the main
+ditches through.  As soon as the surface water was off, Higgins planned
+for a system of short lateral ditches running at intervals into the two
+branches of the V.  Thus every portion of the thousand-acre tract would
+be subject to thorough drainage.  Following the drainage of the surface
+water the underground seepage would run off as a matter of course.
+
+Garman apparently was as good as his word.  Each morning Payne awoke
+expecting to find that his fence had been cut during the night, but so
+far the wire remained unmolested.
+
+"That proves that Garman is boss of the whole country, cattlemen and
+all," said Payne one morning.  "The cowman that I whipped intended to
+come back."
+
+"If something had not interfered he'd have been back that night with a
+gang.  He was so mad it must have taken something awfully strong to
+stop him, and that means it was Garman."
+
+"Yes," agreed Higgins; "but I wouldn't exactly look on him as a bosom
+friend, if I were you."
+
+"Pooh!  I'm not fooled a bit by him.  He's simply playing with me--or
+trying to do it.  Well, we'll try to be right here, still doing
+business, when the game is over."
+
+One morning a negro from the brushing crew came running up to Payne's
+tent in great excitement.
+
+"Boss, boss!  Trouble in the jungle oveh dah.  White man driving
+colored boys away with rifle."
+
+Payne followed the excited man and found that the machetes of the black
+gang, hacking a space in the heart of the jungle, had exposed an old
+clearing containing a tumble down shack.  A tall, gnarled man with long
+hair and beard stood before the door of the shack, a Winchester held in
+his hands in businesslike fashion.  Behind him hovered a young woman,
+who must have been refined and beautiful once, but who now was
+slatternly, and two children.
+
+Payne called out, "Good morning, neighbor, what seems to be the
+difficulty?" and started toward the shack.
+
+The man with the rifle did not reply.  He merely raised the weapon till
+the sights were full against Roger's breast.  The young man stopped.
+
+"Don't shoot, Cal; please don't shoot!" whimpered the woman.  "They're
+too many for you."
+
+"Shut up!" growled the man.  "Git in the house."
+
+"Put down your gun," shouted Payne.  "Tell me your trouble.  My boys
+been bothering you?"
+
+"You're a-botherin' me," retorted the cracker.  "You cal'late to run me
+off my place here.  Well, I ain't a-going."
+
+Payne looked about the clearing and saw that here, hidden from all the
+world in the dense elder growth, the squatter had attempted and
+succeeded in making a primitive sort of home.  Fish nets and traps,
+otter and coon skins, hung on the walls of the shack.  In the clearing
+was a cultivated patch of the Seminole "contie" root, which could be
+ground into flour, and a scattering of domestic vegetables.  On a few
+stunted trees were a few dried-up oranges; and on the branches of one
+of the larger trees was hung a swing fashioned from tough-fibered
+creepers.  On one side of the rude shack a patch of moon vine was being
+trained along the wall.
+
+"My name is Payne, neighbor," said Roger presently.
+
+The squatter eyed him suspiciously for a long while.  At last he
+dropped the rifle in the hollow of his arm, keeping a ready thumb on
+the hammer.
+
+"Mine's Blease," he said at last.
+
+Roger regarded the man thoughtfully for a long time.  To his surprise
+he perceived that Blease was not at all of the unfavorable type he had
+expected to find squatting in such a place.  The man's hair was long
+and ragged, his beard likewise, and he was poorly nourished and clad;
+but Roger had lived enough in the open to learn how deceptive are
+external appearances in showing the true character of a man.  As he
+looked at Blease, meeting the other's hard eyes, he sensed the true
+worth of the man hiding beneath the guise of a shiftless squatter.  As
+for the woman, it was obvious that she was Blease's superior.
+
+"Tell me, Blease," said Payne suddenly, "How long have you been living
+on this land?"
+
+"'Bout two years," replied the squatter after a long pause.
+
+"You don't pretend you have a title to it?"
+
+Again the pause, then: "No, sir, I don't."
+
+"Have you got a mule?" broke out Roger suddenly.
+
+"A mule?  No.  Why?"
+
+"How do you expect to do any farming without a mule?  Come over to my
+camp next week when I get some in and I'll try to fix you up."  Blease
+stood looking at him, tugging at his ragged beard, shifting from one
+foot to the other, gazing hopelessly round for an answer to the
+miracle.  Finally he cleared his throat.
+
+"Some catch there."
+
+"No."
+
+"How do you mean that, Mr. Payne?"
+
+"Just as I say; if we have an extra mule next week we'll let you have
+it."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To farm with.  You've got to begin to make some money.  You can't stay
+on this land any longer without a title; that isn't business.  I could
+move you, but I don't want to; wouldn't feel right about it.  I want to
+get you to farming right so you can make some money and buy from me the
+piece of ground you're squatting on.  What have you got cleared
+here--five acres?  You ought to have about ten.  We'll measure off ten
+here, and go on with our clearing round you.  Now, what do you say?"
+
+"You mean it?"
+
+Payne crossed the clearing and stood before the squatter.
+
+"Do you think I'm fooling you?" he asked.
+
+The squatter shamefacedly put his rifle away.
+
+"My name, suh, is Calhoun Blease," he said in a new manner.  "I don't
+understand this yit, but I do not believe you are foolin' with me, suh."
+
+"If I am, you've still got your rifle," said Payne.  "Now, tell me
+something: Didn't Mr. Garman send you word that my job was not to be
+molested or hindered?"
+
+At the mention of Garman's name, Blease's thin figure seemed to
+collapse.
+
+"Garman?  Garman don't know we're here, does he?  Are--are you a friend
+of Mr. Garman's, suh?"
+
+"I think," replied Payne, "he is the worst enemy I've got.  Do you know
+him?"
+
+After a long pause Blease said slowly: "I was his caretaker over there
+once."
+
+"What do you think of him?"
+
+"He is the worst enemy any man can have," muttered the squatter.
+"He--don't know we're here?  Good.  Nobody does.  He's too smart and
+hard to be just a man.  Garman is--he--he was the devil who made us
+outcasts like we be--he did it.  Hiding our faces from the world,
+account of him!"
+
+"Do you want to tell me what he did to you?"
+
+Blease glanced at the little shack.
+
+"No, no.  I reckon I don't want to tell you.  But--Mrs. Blease once was
+secretary--never mind.  Garman and his swimming pool----  No, I ain't
+telling; I ain't telling!"
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+The rest of the day was torture for Payne.  Blease had said too much
+and too little for him to have any peace.  He had caught one glimpse of
+the woman in the shack, and alternately he wished he had not seen her
+and that the sight of her had been more illuminating.
+
+Blease's wife was no "cracker," no native of those parts, no type which
+belonged in a squatter's shack in the heart of a jungle.  Her presence
+there seemed to cry out the news of some foul miscarriage of destiny,
+of a wrong to her life too hideous to imagine.  Upon her face--still
+young--was the tale of a broken soul protesting against the wrong life
+had dealt it.  He drew his hands across his brow to dispel the memory
+of that look and to try to see Mrs. Blease as she had been before it
+came.  A high type of business secretary.  Blease had started to tell
+and had stopped.  Secretary to Garman possibly.  Blease had been
+Garman's caretaker.  Payne recalled the swimming pool with its
+drug-like atmosphere.  What had happened there?  He felt he would never
+know, did not wish to know.  What might be happening there now?
+
+A river of ice seemed to roll down his spine and little rivulets seemed
+to trickle out to the last nerve tips of his fingers, chilling him
+through and through; and he worked through the day dry-throated and
+breathing hard, conscious that a crisis in his life lay before him.
+Why should it affect him so?  What had he to do with Garman's affairs
+or the affairs of those with him?  The vision of the girl called
+Annette, as he first saw her in the dawn on Gumbo Key, stood before his
+eyes, and he knew how false his attempts at disinterest.  Life had
+caught him up in a net with other lives.  He thought of Garman, and
+groaned behind set teeth.
+
+Night came with no surcease to the apprehension in his heart; and as if
+to mock his mood the scene, after a lurid sunset, was beautiful and
+kindly beyond compare.  A mist of color like powdered silver filled the
+air.  Soft, near-by stars blinked lazily down upon the scene,
+illumining it without the effect of brilliance.  A half moon hung idly
+in the mists above the cypress trees, and long, languorous shadows
+streaked the silvered ground with black.  In the dark jungle of elder
+bushes there opened long vistas of silver light, as unreal as the black
+tops of the far-away trees.  In the unreality of the night the earth
+itself seemed unreal, all things appeared as shadows swimming in a
+dream sea of soft radiance.
+
+Payne left his tent and walked out into the marvelous night, unsoothed
+by its beauty, not caring whither he went.  Annette's eyes had promised
+she would return, and he went toward the sand prairie where he knew she
+rode sometimes in the cool of the evening.  He came abruptly upon the
+wire of his line fence, and for a moment stood gripping the wires and
+looking off into the distance, over the sand prairie.  He found himself
+presently by the gate he had cut in the wire as an entrance to Flower
+Prairie, and stood entranced by the dreamy beauty of the spot.  In the
+center of the park the bowllike sand of a long dried-up water hole
+seemed overlaid by a thin sheet of silver, and the tiny palms that
+circled its shores were dark pillars, topped by a crown of silver
+leaves.  The effect of the moon upon the water of the Prairie's tiny
+spring lake was like magic.  In its silver gleam the trees, shrubs and
+even the flowers upon its bank were reflected vividly, and a fish
+swimming near the surface lifted the water in a gentle, rolling swell.
+
+Payne looked, and in place of the lake he seemed to behold a swimming
+pool and to sense an atmosphere that was like a drug.  He opened the
+gate and stepped out on the sand prairie.  As in moments of crisis,
+when unseen, unknown forces take a life in hand, he was for the moment
+like a man in a dream, unconscious of his movements, incapable of
+intention.  He leaned against the gatepost to think.  The soft
+thud-thud of an unseen horse, walking slowly somewhere out upon the
+prairie, brought him up with a jerk.  He peered into the moonlight in a
+vain effort to see.  Placing his ear to the ground he caught the sound
+again and after a moment made out that the hoof beats were coming
+slowly toward his fence.
+
+Payne stepped within his own line and closed the gate.
+
+Presently he flung it open again and stood in the shade of a palmetto,
+waiting.  He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not a victim of the
+night's magic.  It was Annette on her pony; she had kept the promise of
+her eyes.  But her appearance gave Roger a shock.  Her hair was
+disheveled.  Her hands hung limply upon the saddle pommel and her head
+was bowed.  She rode through the gate, past him to the brink of the
+tiny lakelet and halted.  Then she looked round as if seeking some one.
+She looked to where the tent lights gleamed mistily through the canvas
+of Payne's camp.  Then, after a long while, she dismounted and started
+to lead her mount toward the tents.  Payne stepped forward out of the
+shadows and into her sight.
+
+Neither spoke at first.  Surprise had rendered her speechless; and as
+the silvery moon haze revealed her upturned face Payne was frozen dumb.
+For the look in her eyes and upon her face was a hint of the look which
+he had beheld upon the countenance of Mrs. Blease.  He recoiled from it
+at first.  Then he bent forward, scanning her mercilessly, and saw with
+a sense of relief that he was wrong.  The face of the girl was the
+panorama of a struggle.  There was fear there, and uncertainty in the
+eyes; but there was no acknowledgment of defeat.  The change in her
+bearing was appalling to Payne.  The gallant bearing of her vibrant
+young body was gone.  She might have been drugged, so submerged was her
+true self.
+
+"You think it's the moon, don't you?" she said with an uneasy laugh,
+leaning languidly against the patient pony's neck.  "Well, it isn't.
+It--it's something else--something so different--I don't even
+understand what it is.  I don't even know if there is anything.  Yet
+there must be; it affects me so.  I'm afraid--and yet I'm not.  I--I
+rather like it, too.  That's why I'm afraid; I like it so well.  It
+seems so--soothing."
+
+"Miss----" began Roger and paused, puzzled at what to call her.
+
+Her response was a languid chuckle.
+
+"My name?  How formal!  Does it seem natural to be formal here?  It
+doesn't to me.  And it doesn't seem pleasant; it jars so.  That's why
+the other thing, whatever it is, seems so inviting and inevitable.  So
+natural.  No formality.  No straining.  Nothing but--that."
+
+"What is--'that'?" asked Payne.
+
+"I don't know," she responded in wide-eyed wonderment.  "Really, I
+don't.  It isn't anything tangible.  It's over there some place," she
+nodded languidly across the prairie.  "It--frightened me to-night.  I
+ran away--but I didn't escape it."
+
+"It's Garman!" blurted Payne hoarsely.
+
+"Oh, don't!"  She cowered against the pony.  "Please--please don't!
+Oh, if you don't wish to be cruel----"
+
+"Miss Annette!"
+
+The utterance of her name seemed to bring back a sense of her true
+self.  She straightened herself slowly to her full height, and her
+poise of assurance seemed to come back to its own.
+
+"It must sound terribly silly to you," she said quietly.  "I wonder if
+the Florida moon affects every one that way."
+
+"You said it wasn't the moon."
+
+"No," she said seriously, "it isn't."  She paused, stroking the pony's
+neck thoughtfully.  "Do you know, I actually was so frightened at
+nothing that I ran away this evening."
+
+"You were going over there?"  He pointed toward the vague lights
+showing through the tents of his camp.
+
+"Why--yes.  It isn't the most thickly populated part of the world about
+here, isn't it?  White people aren't so plentiful here.  At least I
+knew there were white men at those tents--that funny red-haired man and
+yourself.  You see it was the only place about here where I knew I
+could find anybody who--what shall I say?  Why, who doesn't belong in
+this weird atmosphere----It was uncanny over at our place this evening.
+At sunset the water in the swimming pool didn't seem to be water at
+all; it seemed molten gold; and the mosaic round it seemed to be made
+up of whitened bones, and back of that was the fringe of palms hiding
+the jungle.  It suddenly seemed to me that the palms were there for
+that purpose, and that the jungle needed to be hidden; and the palms
+seemed to know it, for their fronds hung drooping, like the hands of
+weary, worn-out women, tired of concealing whatever it is that's Back
+There--in the jungle--on Palm Island."
+
+"You don't mind my talking, do you?  It's a relief.  I couldn't talk to
+any one over there.  The whole place seemed to be suffocating.  I had
+to talk.  I'll tell you why; I wanted to go into the jungle and see
+what it is the palms hide back there at night.  Isn't it ludicrous--or
+ghastly--whichever way you look at it?"
+
+"You aren't alone over there?  Mrs. Livingstone is still there, isn't
+she?"
+
+"Yes, Aunty's still there.  I'm safely chaperoned."  She laughed with a
+note of hardness in her young voice.  "What a chaperon!  If she knew I
+was here talking to you I believe it would drive her mad.  She guards
+me so closely--when it pleases her to do so."
+
+She laughed bitterly again.
+
+"That's why she brought me down here alone to--that house.  I am
+beginning to understand Aunty.  I never knew why she guarded me so
+carefully before.  My mother died before I could remember.  Aunty
+brought me up.  She's my father's sister.  She brought me up well, for
+her purpose.  I've been in schools all my life it seems until last
+winter.  Then she brought me out, in Washington.  Since then--Society.
+You see, we haven't got money.  People think we have, but we haven't.
+So I've been on display, set up by Aunty in one of society's shop
+windows, like goods in the Boardwalk booths at Atlantic City.  Do you
+mind my rambling?"
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"You don't know what such a life means.  You're a producer; I've been a
+doll tricked out for inspection by the men who are rich enough to buy
+expensive dolls.  But we've no money.  Society asks about that first of
+all when--an Aunty is trying to put a doll up for sale:
+
+"'What have you to offer?  Honesty?  Character?  Decency?  Oh,
+well-hm-hm.  Is that all?  Then stand in the corner there among the
+obscure ones.  Some one will see you in time--if you live long enough.
+And the next: What have you to offer?  Intelligence; thought?  No sale;
+you make us all feel uncomfortable.  Virtue?  Tut, tut, my dear!
+Cleverness, charm, facile smartness?  The crowd gathers round.  Beauty?
+The crowd grows thicker.  Money--wealth--gold by millions?  Ah!  Come
+to our arms, you golden one, rotten to the core though you may
+be--gentleman with a gorilla's tastes; lady with Madonna face, Venus
+body, viper soul!  Come to the throne; we salaam before you--your gold
+has made you sacred.'
+
+"Oh!  The stench of it still is in my nostrils; I still feel thick cold
+fingers on my bare arms.  I once was one of them--serenely satisfied
+that I was one of the elect of earth, though I had never produced a
+thing in this world, but only consumed.  No right at all to anything
+and sure I had the right to everything, to consume food, to wear out
+clothes, to wear out servants.  In return I gave--nothing.  Not a
+thing.  But I've waked up.  Earth--good, black earth--you are greater
+than Mrs. Butterfly Croesus and all her brood; because you are real.
+
+"I see it now.  My silly pretty face, my woman's body, my graces,
+seductions, all have been so much bait for Aunty's fishing.  Bait!
+That's what I've been; bait to catch goldfish!  And she brought me down
+here on the greatest fishing trip she's ever attempted."
+
+"But you have a father."
+
+"Yes.  You will meet him Sunday.  Well, I suppose I've bored you
+terribly.  Thank you for your patience.  It was a relief to talk to
+some one."
+
+But she did not go.  The mystery and companionship of the sub-tropical
+night was upon them with its sensuous caresses.  All of Payne's
+hard-won man-strength seemed to leave him: he felt as weak as a child;
+and he began to stammer brokenly.
+
+"Anything I can do--if I can help--what you spoke of--Back There in the
+jungle----?"
+
+"No, no.  Nobody can help me with that.  It's got to be just myself.  I
+know that now."
+
+She was the more self-controlled.  Payne could not speak.  All that he
+wished to say--his strength, his life, at her call in her hour of
+need--he expressed in a gesture.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+She touched his outstretched hand.  Instinctively their fingers locked
+together, instinctively she swayed toward him.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+He had released her hand.  They looked at one another a long time.  She
+smiled a little.
+
+"I must go back."
+
+She touched his sleeve lightly, mounted and looked down at him.
+
+"Can't I help in any way?" he asked.
+
+"No one can help me," she whispered.  "No one but my own weak self."
+
+And the look upon her countenance which had appalled him as she passed
+through the gate was coming back as she rode away.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+A soft, misty pall of midsummer heat hung over and pervaded the
+vine-covered forest of wild-apple trees surrounding Garman's house when
+Payne set out on Sunday afternoon to keep his appointment.  As he
+entered the footpath leading from the prairie toward the house, he was
+forced to stoop to avoid the curtain of flowering moonvine which hung
+overhead, and once in the path he felt again the sickening drowsiness
+of the shut-in air.  A mingling of many sweet odors hung about him like
+a heavy, poisonous drug; and he felt that it was pleasant poison, and
+walked swiftly on.
+
+In a shaded pergola running out from the house to the jungle he saw
+Annette, and stopped.
+
+An old man with a white Vandyke beard and pompously out-thrown chest
+was coming down the path from the house.  He strutted as he walked, and
+stood for a moment framed between two palm trees where the path entered
+the pergola.
+
+"Little Annette!" he murmured, beaming patronizingly upon the girl.
+"Happy again.  I knew you would be.  But I haven't heard you laugh for
+a long time."
+
+"No," said the girl, looking at him intently, "I haven't laughed since
+we came here."
+
+"But you are happy now.  Yes, yes, quite happy, quite happy.  Up early
+this morning and all round the place like a little lark."
+
+"Because I couldn't sleep.  And because--early in the morning--others
+are not up--and I can be alone."
+
+"No one can--no one can be alone in this world, dear.  No one should.
+The laws of God and man, of Nature, forbid it."  His old,
+self-satisfied eyes took in the long rounded lines of her figure and
+the virgin freshness of her throat and face with assuring calculation.
+"Especially, my dear, is it a crime to attempt to remain alone when
+nature has so abundantly endowed one for the purpose of--not remaining
+alone.  Also, my dear," he continued, the playfulness gone from his
+tones as he pointed sternly at the diamond upon the third finger of her
+left hand, "you will kindly not forget that you wear that."
+
+"Do you think there is any opportunity for me to forget it?" she asked.
+"Do you!  Think!"
+
+He attempted to face down her steadfast eyes.  He failed, and, turning
+his glance uneasily, he saw Roger Payne.
+
+"What's this?  What's this?"
+
+His eyes ran wildly from Roger to the girl and back again; and as they
+rested upon Payne they grew dead and gray with hatred, the futile
+hopeless hatred of an old man for one who is young.
+
+"Who is this man, Annette?  How does he come to be here?  Answer me at
+once; answer me, I say!"
+
+The girl looked long at him, looked with clear, calm eyes until the old
+man's pouter-pigeon effect disappeared.
+
+"My dear!  Forgive my vehemence.  You see I think only of you.  I was
+afraid----"
+
+"Yes.  What are you afraid of, father?" asked the girl swiftly.  "Tell
+me that.  I often wonder."
+
+"Afraid?  I?"
+
+"Yes.  I sometimes see it in your eyes when you think no one is
+looking.  Have you done something----?"
+
+"Child?"
+
+"Land sales, for instance?  If so, I must know.  I'm not little Annette
+any longer.  I must know things now."
+
+The old man stroked his white beard nervously.  His eyes shifted
+uneasily toward Payne.
+
+"Oh! pardon my negligence," exclaimed the girl.  "This is Mr. Payne,
+father.  He's purchased a lot of land down here.  Mr. Payne, this is my
+father, Senator Fairclothe."
+
+Payne bowed automatically.  He was dumbfounded for a moment, but in a
+flash his self-control had returned.
+
+"We have had some correspondence--business correspondence--Senator," he
+said.
+
+Senator Fairclothe was watching him with the shifty eyes of a cornered
+man who stands on guard, ready to parry a blow.
+
+"Have we?  I don't recall the name, young man.  Lane, Caine?"
+
+"Payne."
+
+"No.  No, I don't remember the name."
+
+"You're sure you don't, father?" interposed Miss Fairclothe.
+
+Payne came to the rescue.
+
+"Of course you wouldn't remember my name, Senator.  You have too many
+large affairs to occupy your mind.  It was merely about some land down
+here.  I've meant for some time to write you and thank you for
+influencing me to buy the land down here."
+
+"What!" cried the girl, and stood dumb, staring at Payne, with a hand
+pressed to her lips.
+
+"Influence you?" snapped Fairclothe testily.  "How could I influence
+you?  You are no child.  The buyer must protect himself.  It is the
+first rule of business."
+
+"Nevertheless, you did influence me.  It was your letters that caused
+me to decide to buy.  And I want to thank you, because otherwise I
+would not be where I stand at present."
+
+The Senator tugged at his beard, watching Payne narrowly, suspicious of
+some trick.
+
+"Any letters I may have written to you--which I do not remember
+doing--were merely a formal part of one phase of my activities.  It is
+gratifying, of course, to hear you express your satisfaction.  On the
+other hand, as I said, the oldest law in business is 'Let the buyer
+beware,' and it would not have disturbed me in the least, young man,
+had you appeared with a poppycock song of dissatisfaction with your
+purchase."
+
+"But I am satisfied," insisted Payne.  "Some of the land I bought for
+$30 an acre will be worth $200 when the ditcher gets in and we drain
+it.  It's rich, black muck, three feet deep in spots.  I see profit of
+$100 an acre within a year."
+
+"Hm," said Senator Fairclothe.  "As much as that?"
+
+"That's the minimum."
+
+"You will make a hundred dollars on our land--the land you've
+purchased, I should say?"
+
+"As soon as I get it drained, yes, sir."
+
+Senator Fairclothe tugged again at his beard.  There was a new look in
+his eyes as he revolved over and over again the words, "one hundred
+dollars profit per acre."  Payne had purchased a thousand acres from
+his company.  A hundred times a thousand meant a hundred thousand
+dollars.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say that," he said finally.  "I hope you will
+dig your drainage ditches soon?"
+
+"The ditch contractor will come up the river to-morrow.  It won't take
+long after he gets to work."
+
+"I am glad to hear that, too.  If I can do anything to assist you in
+getting your drainage work done, pray command me."
+
+"Just what I told him, Senator," boomed Garman's voice behind them.
+"We want to help him get his improvement work done promptly."
+
+Garman stood leaning against the custard-apple tree which had hidden
+his approach and looked at Payne and Annette as he spoke.  So far as
+his expression was concerned the Senator, whom he addressed, did not
+exist for him.  His lips uttered words for Fairclothe's ears; but his
+lazy, heavily lidded eyes searched Payne and the girl to the bottom of
+their souls.  Roger returned the look steadily; and by the flickering
+mockery in Garman's eyes he knew that it was Garman's ring that gleamed
+on Annette's finger.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+"I was just thanking Senator Fairclothe for influencing me in the
+purchase of land down here," said Roger deliberately.  "If it hadn't
+been for him, Garman, I wouldn't be here now."
+
+"If that is so," returned Garman, "we must thank him, too.  For we
+wouldn't be deprived of your company for a lot--would we, Annette?"
+
+"Mr. Payne was speaking of the land he bought," said Annette.  "The
+land with the water on it."
+
+"Yes, dear."  Garman's mocking eyes were on Payne as he spoke.  "Water
+galore.  But Payne is a worker.  Youth, strength, high hopes, ambition!
+Payne will have that water off in a hurry.  We'll be glad to see that
+done, won't we, Senator?"
+
+"Yes, indeed.  Improvement work----"
+
+"Mrs. Livingston was asking for you and Annette, Senator," said Garman.
+
+Payne nearly started at the change in his tone.  It was a tone of
+command, of dismissal, and to Roger's astonishment Annette and her
+father obeyed.  Garman strolled into the pergola and dropped into a
+chair, a huge, oppressive figure in white silk.  Lazily and from
+beneath the half-closed heavy lids his eyes watched Annette as she
+walked toward the house.  With an air of playful possession he followed
+the play of her young body in motion, the quick, strong flip of her
+foot upon the hard sand of the path, the firmness of her limbs, the
+sway of her rounded torso, the poise of her neck and head.  A smile
+lifted his mustache, revealing the thick red mouth beneath.  Indolently
+he breathed through half-parted lips.
+
+"Payne," he said thickly, "there goes Love.  There goes the dream of
+all young fools.  Aren't you dreaming a little yourself, Payne, eh?--I
+see you are.  You have looked upon the dream in the flesh, and hope has
+been born in your young, manly bosom.  Hope?  No; belief.  Belief in
+the realization of ideals.  What damn fools all you young cubs are, to
+be sure!"
+
+"Well," said Roger calmly, "I like that.  I like to have a man ask me
+to be his guest and try to make things pleasant for me by calling me a
+damn fool."
+
+"If," retorted Garman slowly, "you were the average young cub I'd get
+to my feet and apologize for speaking sense; but you're fairly well
+grown.  All you need, Payne, is to have the fresh young mask pulled
+from the face of Life and to see the old hag as she really is.  Then
+you'd be fit for something.  Payne, I believe I'm going to do that
+service for you."
+
+He looked toward the house where Annette was to be seen on the
+verandah.  He smiled as he saw how Roger's eyes followed his.
+
+"Payne, it's those girls with the fair, thin skin that the Southern sun
+and tropical environment are ruthless with.  They've no shield against
+nature's relentless desire down here, tropical nature's desire for a
+welter of life.  And when they're too young to have developed the hard
+outer shell of experience, why, their womanhood is just naked to the
+searching, smirching tropical sun, and they go plumb crazy.  Develop
+dual personalities.  Lose their civilization.  Want to go into the
+jungle, and so on.  Thin white skin, like thinnest silk, and blue veins
+full of young red blood showing through.  A fine spectacle, Payne; a
+natural princess among girls writhing in a struggle against the luring
+muck of the jungle.  Ever hear of Palm Island?  She's struggling
+against going there.  Well, she'll lose her struggle; has lost it;
+that's settled.  Come on to dinner."
+
+On the verandah he paused sharply, whirling about with the swiftness of
+a tiger.  Ramos, the Mexican, had come galloping out of the jungle,
+flogging his horse as he came.
+
+"Well?"  Garman's attitude, suggested the crouch of a tiger ready to
+spring.
+
+"_Si_!  Yes; it is so!"
+
+"They've got him?"
+
+"Yes.  He is on Palm Island, surrounded; not caught."
+
+"A-a-ah!"  Garman rubbed his hands together as a growl of triumph
+rumbled up from his thick red throat.  "Have Prince saddled, Ramos.
+Then ride back and watch so they don't hurt him.  I'll follow--I'm
+called away--on business, Annette.  You entertain Mr. Payne."
+
+With a leap he was off the verandah and running for the stables.
+
+Payne met him as he mounted, and caught the horse by the head.
+
+"Garman, who's the man Ramos spoke of?"
+
+"Let go, you fool!  The brute's a striker."
+
+Payne dodged the flash of the animal's forehoofs, but caught a bridle
+rein.
+
+"Who is he, Garman?"
+
+"A fool--trespassing.  Just business."
+
+"Not Higgins or any of my men?"
+
+"No, nobody you know.  Look out!"
+
+The horse lunged forward.  Payne stepped aside.  Garman was gone, like
+a hunter in sight of his quarry.
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+The silence that followed was broken by Annette's laughter.
+
+"What very pretty conduct!" she said.
+
+Senator Fairclothe thrust out his chest pompously.  Garman being gone
+he saw himself as the dominant personality present.
+
+"Men of great affairs, my dear Annette, cannot permit attention to the
+petty details of conduct to disturb their purpose when a crisis
+presents itself.  The truly big man lets his results speak for
+themselves.  Mr. Garman exercises the privileges of the big man that he
+is.  It is a privilege to see such a man meeting and solving a problem."
+
+"Do you know what it is about, father?"
+
+"Not at all.  Nor do I concern myself.  I know Mr. Garman."
+
+The girl leaned forward and peered in his eyes.
+
+"Do you really, father?  Ah!  I see you do.  You too, then?  But how
+you--a man?"
+
+"Annette," called Mrs. Livingstone, "will you please come in?"
+
+The meal that followed was a ghastly affair.  One figure there alone
+would have served to cast gloom over the table.  Senator Fairclothe sat
+crumpled in his chair, his white Vandyke beard crushed on his breast,
+looking ridiculously helpless.  He had shrunk from his daughter's
+words.  Not until he had drunk much champagne after the meal did he
+begin to recover.  And soon after he strutted out to a shaded chair and
+fell asleep.
+
+Said Mrs. Livingstone presently:
+
+"Mr. Payne, I understand that Mr. Garman has given orders that the
+Egret is at your disposal if you wish to go down the river.  I believe
+you had planned such a trip, had you not?"
+
+"Are you going?" asked Annette suddenly.
+
+"Yes.  Our ditcher is down there at Gumbo Key.  I'll feel safer if I
+start him up the river myself."
+
+Annette jumped up with a cry of relief.
+
+"Get my sweater coat, Aunty.  Get one for yourself.  Father!  Father,
+wake up!  We're all going for a nice, beautiful, cool ride down the
+river."
+
+"Annette!" gasped Mrs. Livingstone; but Annette carried all before her
+like a young spring storm.
+
+Payne had not contemplated a start until near evening, but within half
+an hour he found himself beside the girl leaning over the port rail of
+the Egret and watching the water curl away from her gleaming bows as
+the boat slipped swiftly downstream toward Gumbo Key.
+
+"I was suffocating back there," she explained.  "I had to get away.
+Yes, Aunty; I'll come out of the sun in a minute--Mr. Payne, I want to
+thank you for the way you lied to my father about being satisfied with
+your land.  Why did you do it?"
+
+He turned to her, intending to laugh the matter away, but as he met her
+look, his eyes betrayed him.
+
+"Why did you do it?" she whispered.
+
+Payne looked away; and there was no need for him to speak.
+
+"Oh, no!" she whispered.  "Oh, no, no, no, no!"
+
+There was a long silence.  At last he heard her stifle a sob and looked
+round.  Annette was walking aft toward the cabin with slow, dragging
+steps.
+
+"My dear Annette!" cried Mrs. Livingstone and Senator Fairclothe
+together as they saw her face, but she pushed past them and disappeared
+in the cabin.
+
+"Sir!" began the Senator indignantly.  "May I ask you for an
+explanation?"
+
+"Lafe," interrupted his sister quietly, "will you go and see how
+Annette is?  I fear she stayed too long in the sun."
+
+"I demand a father's right----"
+
+"Yes, yes.  Please do as I suggest.  I am sure Annette is wanting you."
+
+Alone, Mrs. Livingstone turned and faced Roger.  Though she stood as
+hard and motionless as adamant, the jet pendants in her ears trembled
+and twinkled.  And Payne, as he saw the hard lines about her mouth,
+lines of fear, struggle, determination, felt sorry for her.
+
+"What did you say to Annette?"
+
+"Not one word," replied Roger.
+
+"What did she say to you?"
+
+"That is a secret."
+
+"Why did she leave you--as she did?"
+
+"That is another secret--and she's the only one who knows it."
+
+For a moment they faced one another silently, then suddenly the woman
+blazed out:
+
+"How dare you interfere with my plans for her!  Besides, let me inform
+you, it is too late.  She is engaged to Mr. Garman."
+
+"She is to marry Garman?" asked Roger slowly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then if it's settled--how can I interfere?"
+
+"You can't.  I will not permit it.  And if you could, what could you
+offer her?  You've no money, no position, no influence.  You're nobody.
+She is Annette Fairclothe.  She is the last hope of the family.  I have
+built our whole future upon her.  There will be no interference with my
+plans."
+
+"She has a father----"
+
+"Pooh!  That doddering ass!  Do you think it is he who has enabled us
+to keep our position in Washington?  And now he is going into his
+dotage, and the big men won't dare to use him much longer.  I'm not
+blind, Mr. Payne; I can see as well as Garman.  Let me speak seriously
+to you: Your presence here spells danger to Annette--serious danger."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, rather than risk failure for my plans, I will not stop at
+anything in the world."
+
+"Why in the world should you threaten me, Mrs. Livingstone?"
+
+Mrs. Livingstone's lips parted in a terrible smile as she walked away.
+
+"You?  Why, I was not thinking of you at all."
+
+Above the Egret a crippled white ibis, with a broken leg impeding its
+flight, was flying clumsily across the river.  Close above it, with
+deadly intent, sailed a brown hawk.  The hawk struck, but in spite of
+its handicap the ibis swerved in time to escape the deadly talons.
+Then pursued and pursuer disappeared in the jungle across the river.
+
+At Gumbo Key the black, scowlike hull carrying the ditching machinery,
+moving slowly in tow of a gasoline tug, was seen making headway across
+the bay toward the mouth of the river.  As the Egret curved gracefully
+round the Key and came alongside the tug to place Payne aboard, Annette
+came and stood by his side.
+
+"You're not going back with us?" she asked.
+
+"No.  It's better that I shouldn't.  Don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose it is."  Her eyes looked out across the bay to the open
+sea beyond.  "Oh!  I wish I weren't going back there; I wish I would
+never see that place again."
+
+"Do you mean that?"
+
+"How can you doubt it!"
+
+The Egret had completed her curve and with throttled engines was
+creeping smoothly up to the ditching scow's side.
+
+"You don't have to go back," said Payne.  "The ditching can wait.  I'll
+have them moor the ditcher here.  You can get aboard the tug and I'll
+have them take you to Key West, to Fort Myers, Tampa--any place you
+want to go.  From there you can go anywhere, as far away as you wish to
+go."
+
+"Really?" she cried, "Oh, but that poor little tug--the Egret would
+catch her in a mile."
+
+"If you get on that tug I will see that you go wherever you wish to go."
+
+"Once aboard the lugger and the girl is free!" she quoted.  "No, no.
+You don't understand.  It isn't so simple as that.  If it was merely a
+question of getting away, do you think I would be afraid?  It's more
+than that.  It's all in myself, all here."  She struck her bosom with a
+white clenched fist.  "It is something in myself--it's something I've
+got to settle all by myself.  You must not try to interfere.  Win or
+lose, no one can help me--no one.  That is why I must go back--though I
+am afraid."
+
+The Egret had crept past the length of the ditcher, disdaining to
+approach its grimy hull with her immaculate sides.  She was approaching
+the squat little tug.  Suddenly the girl held out her hand.
+
+"Good-by," she said.
+
+"Good-by?" he stammered, "Surely it isn't good-by?"
+
+The Egret's starboard ladder was gently chaffing the tug's fender.
+
+"It isn't good-by!" he said.
+
+"I am afraid it is."  She watched him as he went over the side onto the
+tug's deck.  The Egret, as if freed from a burden, shot sharply
+forward.  Annette leaned far over the rail.
+
+"Good-by," she murmured.  "Good-by!"
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+"Mr. Payne, I take it?"
+
+Roger turned to face the speaker, a tall, hawk-nosed man whose sallow,
+leathery face was set in the lines of the hard worker.
+
+"Yes, I'm Payne.  Are you the captain?"
+
+"I'm boss of the ditching outfit, Mr. Payne.  White's my name.  Was you
+planning we should lay up at Gumbo Key to-night?"
+
+Roger looked across the bay at the last glimpse of the Egret's white
+hull as she sped into the mouth of the river.  The setting sun glinted
+on paint and nickel and brasswork.  It was fancy, perhaps, but he
+seemed to make out the figure of Annette still leaning over the
+starboard rail.
+
+"Yes--I was," he said slowly.  The Egret shifted her course slightly,
+and like the snuffing of a light disappeared round the first bend in
+the river.
+
+"Well, I dunno," said White.  "So far's I'm concerned the quicker I get
+my outfit up the river the better I'll like it."
+
+"Do you know the river well?"
+
+"Reckon I do."
+
+"Can you run it by night?"
+
+"Shore can--especially as it's going to be broad moonlight."
+
+"All right," said Roger.  "Let's go."
+
+All through the night, without halting save for occasional engine
+trouble, the little gasoline tug dragged its unwieldly tow up the
+tree-lined reaches of the Chokohatchee River.  The moonlight illumined
+the waterway as with a million softly shaded lights.  The Spanish moss
+which hung from the live oak and cypress along the bank was transmuted
+into scintillating draperies of twinkling silver.  Upon the flowing
+water the light lay like an immutable sheen, seemingly a part of the
+flowing current, an endless stream of molten silver.  Fishes, snakes
+and nocturnal animals broke and rippled the sheen of the water's
+surface.  A huge, sharp fin ripping the silver before the tug's bows
+told of a tarpon strayed far inland with the tide.  An otter's head,
+round and hard, jutted up, looked round, dove again.
+
+In the magic light and shading, the tubby lines of the little tug were
+softened and altered; its paint-cracked deck and wheelhouse silvered
+and mellowed.  The twin wire cables stretching back to the tow became
+two glistening silver ropes.  At their ends, cavernous gloomy and grimy
+despite the moonlight, wallowed the high bulky hull of the ditcher's
+scow.
+
+To Roger Payne, standing beside White in the little wheelhouse, the
+mournful chuckle of the Southern nightingale, as it sounded time after
+time from the cavernous darkness of the jungle shore seemed to strike
+at him personally with a note of knowing mockery.  The weirdness and
+the elusiveness of the scene seemed the inevitable ending of the
+strange day.  On the rippling water the moonbeams twinkled like silvery
+fairy sprites at play; and in the junglelike woods on the shores yawned
+great caverns of darkness, their evil suggestiveness only heightened by
+the bars of light shooting down through the matted leaves.
+
+Back on the scow a sleepless negro, lying face up to the moonlight,
+began to croon weirdly.
+
+"What in the devil do you call that?" asked Roger.
+
+White listened, his head to one side.
+
+"Haiti nigger--French patois," was his reply.  "There; catch the
+'_mom'selle_'?  Haiti nigger singing."
+
+He reached down and picked up a bolt.
+
+"Haiti negro?" said Roger, puzzled.  "How did he get in that gang?"
+
+"Oh, they drift over once in a while."  White was measuring the
+distance to the scow.
+
+The bolt hummed through the air, struck the ditcher's shovels with a
+clang and splashed into the water.
+
+"Missed!" growled White.  "Shut up, you Sam.  This ain't no voodoo
+outfit."
+
+"Voodoo!"  Roger laughed mirthlessly.  "That would be the finishing
+touch."
+
+"How come?" said White, puzzled.
+
+"Do you happen to know Mr. Garman, White?"
+
+"I was 'specting you to ask that, Mr. Payne," was the drawled reply.
+"I got this to say: I know Garman, but that's all.  I dig ditches for
+my living.  I dig 'em fast and I dig 'em good; and--and that's all I'm
+up here for, one way or 'nother."
+
+"Right! and the faster you dig 'em, the better it will suit me."
+
+"Me, too," was the earnest reply.
+
+Roger looked at the man sharply.
+
+"Why?  Don't you like the job?"
+
+"The job's all right.  I've said I'd dig 'em, and I'll dig 'em fast.
+But the quicker I get done, and the quicker I get my outfit pointed
+downstream again, and the quicker I'm out of this river, the better
+suited I'll be.  That's all I'm saying."
+
+Roger laughed grimly.
+
+"You talk like you'd had dealings with Garman before, White?"
+
+"That's all I'm saying," repeated the man.  Then suddenly: "What's
+that?"
+
+A clear shaft of light pierced the moonmist ahead, lighting a broad
+space in the river from the next bend down to the tug.  While they
+watched in fascination the light came nearer, flashing in their eyes,
+and behind it resounded the unmistakable hum of the Egret's engines.
+Compared to the crawling pace of the tug the yacht seemed to leap out
+of the night straight at them.
+
+"Yo hoo!" yelled White.  "Look out!  Want to run us down?"
+
+A full-throated laugh rang out from the Egret's bridge as her course
+was changed slightly and her engines throttled down.  On the bridge
+beside the searchlight Roger saw Garman's huge figure looming.
+
+"Ho, Payne!" came a hail.  "Didn't see anything of the ---- we're
+after, did you?"
+
+"Not to recognize by that description," replied Roger.
+
+"A ---- by any other name would look the same," laughed Garman.  He
+leaned over the rail, smoking furiously, his eyes alight with the
+savage joy of the chase.  "Yes, and he'd stand just as much chance of
+getting out alive.  I'll get him.  He got away from Palm Island into
+the swamp.  Punctured your friend Ramos in doing so."  His laugh rolled
+over the water like the growl of a bear.  "In fact, punctured him so
+successfully that we had to cover Mr. Ramos with three feet of dirt to
+cheat the buzzards.--White, is that you?"
+
+"Yessir."
+
+"Well, White, you do your best for Mr. Payne.  He's in a hurry to get
+his ditches dug.  Do your best for him for he's a particular friend of
+mine--and of some one else."  He laughed again, shouted an order, and
+the Egret leaped past them and on down the river.
+
+"Ghost boat, ghost boat!"  The Haiti black, back on the scow, waking up
+from his sleep, had stared full in the eye of the Egret's searchlight,
+and now was staggering round, terror-stricken and dazed.
+
+"Knock him down somebody," called White calmly.
+
+"Ghost boat, ghost boat!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Down the--uh!  Oh, _ma Dieu_!"
+
+The Egret and her light had disappeared round a bend and the negro was
+pointing at the empty moonlit river.  Hoots of laughter greeted him.
+
+"Guess you got 'em, Sam.  No other boat round here."
+
+"_Ma Dieu_!  Ah seen him.  Yoh gen'men sho' they wasn't no boat?"
+
+"You're raving.  No boat at all."
+
+"Oh--Oh----!"
+
+"Shut up!" cried White.  "Shut up!"
+
+A moment's silence.  Then, from a black corner on the ditcher came the
+negro's voice, moaning in cutting minor notes a primitive jungle croon
+of fear and terror.  White laughed grimly, making no effort to quiet
+him.  Roger stared up the river and made out a flicker of purple light
+shooting up from the eastern horizon into the misty heavens.
+
+"Thank God!" he said in relief.  "Daylight is coming."
+
+He leaped ashore as the tug ran close to an out-jutting point of high
+land below Garman's, and cut straight across the prairie toward his
+camp.  The sunburst of dawn was at its gaudiest when he came within
+sight of the tents and he caught the glint of sun on the bare matchets
+of the clearing gang as the men prepared for the day's work.  Higgins
+was standing before his tent, smoking and chafing the men.
+
+"Everything all right, Hig?" asked Roger with false calm.
+
+"All right?  Sure.  Why wouldn't it be?"  Higgins took the pipe from
+his lips and looked closer.
+
+"Hi!  What's up?  What's happened to you?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, you don't have to tell me, of course; but--but what in the name
+of smoked fish makes you look as if you'd been through the Devil's
+Playground again?"
+
+Higgins breathed hard after Roger had completed the tale of Garman's
+man hunt.
+
+"That's a damn lie about Ramos!" he said.  "If he's dead Garman's gang
+killed him---Garman himself probably--afterwards."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Willy High Pockets has been here."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Yep.  I had him hid down in Blease's shack, but he beat it away."
+
+"Then it was that poor Indian Garman was after!"
+
+"Not quite.  There was a white man, too.  A guy that Willy met out in
+the swamp some place when he beat it that day after Garman had handled
+him.  It was this white man that Garman was after.  Willy was with him.
+Garman's bunch had 'em trapped on an island down in the swamp, but
+Willy happened to know an Injun way out and they slipped the noose.
+Willy came crawling in here last night.  He's got a tear from a
+forty-four along his hip and the white man sent him to us to get it
+doctored up and keep him hidden.  I slipped down to Blease's and fixed
+it up with them to hide him, but he slipped away to join that white man
+as soon as we had him sewed up.
+
+"Where is the white man?"
+
+"Still out in the swamp.  He steered Willy till they saw the tents and
+then he beat it back."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Don't know; Willy wasn't telling."
+
+"What does Garman want to get him for?"
+
+"Willy 'donno' that either.  He 'donno' anything at all about this guy
+in the swamp.  But he did tell a straight story about the sneak they
+made; and there wasn't a shot fired on either side, so Ramos wasn't
+shot then.  I'll bank on Willy's word for that."
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+White promptly made good his promise concerning the ditches.  Within a
+week his dredger had eaten its way through sawgrass, water and muck
+from the headwaters of the Chokohatchee to Deer Key, digging a broad,
+main drainage canal through the middle of Payne's thousand acres of
+drowned land.  Higgins' calculations proved themselves in practice, and
+the big ditch soon drew off the bulk of the surface water on the track.
+The work of cutting the small lateral canals progressed rapidly with
+the smaller ditching machine.  White worked his men in two shifts, and
+kept his shovels at work day and night.  He made no effort to conceal
+the reason for his haste.
+
+"I took the job, and I'll see it through," said he, "but outside of
+collecting my money the best part of this job to me will be when I wind
+it up and get out."
+
+"Still," retorted Higgins, to whom the statement was made, "you don't
+look exactly like a man troubled with cold feet."
+
+But White would not permit himself to be drawn out.
+
+"I'll be glad when I look back from my tug and see Gumbo Key behind me;
+that's all I'm saying."
+
+As the work progressed and it became apparent that the muck lands could
+be sufficiently drained to be available for agricultural purposes,
+Roger grew puzzled.  There had been so far no opposition or
+interference from Garman.  Apparently he had been sincere in his
+declaration that he wished to see Roger successful in the development
+of the tract.  Garman himself was not seen during the period that the
+ditcher was at work, but the conduct of his employees made it obvious
+that they had received orders to assist, not interfere with the
+draining project.  One day the proud Egret stopped to tow a disabled
+supply boat up the river for White's crew.  Another time two of
+Garman's men came out and took the place of a pair of ditch workers who
+were ill.
+
+Why was Garman doing it?  What was behind his apparent friendliness?
+
+Roger gave up the puzzle.  In fact, he had discovered that he was not
+so vitally interested in his land project as he had thought himself to
+be.  He worked and saw that his men worked, and kept the job up to the
+program he had outlined.  And he tossed at night on his camp cot, his
+mind tortured with other thoughts.
+
+White completed his job, pocketed his check and chugged away down the
+river.
+
+Two days after his departure Roger and Higgins were measuring the
+acreage cleared in the elder brush when one of the blacks said suddenly:
+
+"Wha' dem man do ovah thah, Boss?"
+
+Payne glanced out over the ditched sawgrass land whither the negro was
+pointing and saw three men carefully picking their way along the spoil
+banks beside the ditches.
+
+Roger studied the group for a long time, then suddenly he dropped the
+measuring line and strode toward them.
+
+"Right," growled Higgins, doing likewise.  "Those fellows aren't just
+sightseeing by a darn sight."
+
+Payne studied the men as he approached them.  They were dressed in
+tourist apparel, but their hard faces belied their clothes.  Each
+carried a cane, but the thick hands that held them would have appeared
+more at home gripping a blackjack or a revolver.  The largest of the
+trio, a hard-faced man with thin lips, studiously placed himself across
+Roger's path.
+
+"Well," he said, with the snarl of the city tough in his tones, "what
+can we do for you?"
+
+Roger choked down the rage that lept for mastery in his breast and said
+calmly:
+
+"You can explain your insolence to begin with."
+
+"Don't come that--don't try to come that on us, kid!  You ain't dealing
+with no crackers now.  What do you want, huh?"
+
+The hot blood flush passed from Roger; he felt himself growing
+comfortably cool; and within he laughed silently.
+
+"No," he said softly, "I can see that you aren't crackers.  What jail
+held you last?"
+
+The stranger swore foully, a string of oaths that reeked with the
+stench of corner saloons.  He pushed his hat far back upon his round
+head, looked Roger up and down contemptuously, and swore some more.
+
+"Know who you're talking to?" he demanded.  "Better get wise, you----"
+
+Again he polluted the air with his foulness.
+
+Roger waited until the stream of filth had ceased.
+
+"Are you going to explain what you're doing here?" he asked.
+
+"Am--I?  Am I going to explain?  Hell!  Are you going to explain, you
+mean."
+
+"Yes," said Roger, and leaped forward.
+
+Even Higgins whooped in surprise at the swiftness of the spring.
+Before the stranger could move Roger was close to him.  His right fist
+swung from far behind caught the man full on the solar plexus,
+literally lifted him off the spoil bank and knocked him into the water
+of the ditch.
+
+The other two strangers, heavy-jowled toughs, had sprung to meet Payne.
+One Roger staggered with a left swing on the ear; the other grappled
+his legs.  This man Higgins rewarded with a kick which would have
+shattered a thinner skull to bits.  Then two separate fights raged up
+and down the spoil bank.  Instantly Roger and Higgins realized that
+they had their hands full.  Payne ran into a body punch which made him
+realize that his opponent was nearly his equal.  Higgins was knocked
+down at once, bounding up like a rubber ball and cheering the man who
+struck him.
+
+"That was a peach, that one!" he roared, and returned the compliment.
+The man rose, knocked Higgins down again and jumped on him.
+
+"Rough and tumble it is!" cried Higgins, and grappled with bear-like
+arms.
+
+Roger refused to go into a clinch, meeting his antagonist's rushes with
+straight lefts, and following with futile swings of his right.  The
+tough was too skilled to be caught with a solid blow.  Once Roger
+landed full on the jaw with what he expected to be a knockout and the
+blow glanced harmlessly, as the man rolled his head back with the
+trained pugilist's skill.  Roger realized that it would be no short
+fight, and he thought of the man he had knocked into the canal.  The
+fight had raged down the spoil bank, and he glanced around and saw the
+leader clawing his way up the bank.  The pause nearly proved fatal.
+Roger's opponent leaped in and caught his head in chancery.
+
+"Hand it to him!" screamed the tough to his partner in the ditch.
+"Shoot him in the back!"
+
+With a mighty lunge Roger flung himself and his opponent to the ground
+as a pistol snapped viciously and a steel-jacketed bullet zipped over
+his head.
+
+"Look out, Hig!" he shouted.  "Stay under your man."
+
+"Turn 'im over!"  The leader who had crawled upon the spoil bank fired
+again and missed.  "Can't yah turn him up so I can get a crack at 'im?"
+
+Roger felt the tough beneath him exerting all his energy.  Slowly,
+surely he felt himself being turned.  Then out from the sawgrass came
+the roar of a rifle, and a heavy slug whined over the gunman's head.
+
+Bang!  Another shot.  Then the voice of Blease, the squatter:
+
+"Next shot, I'll hold a foot lower.  Throw that gun in the ditch.
+Throw it, you----"  Bang!  "That's right--Now get 'em boys, get 'em!"
+
+Bare feet came drumming down the dirt of the spoil bank.  A huge Bahama
+black was in the lead of his fellows.  He leaped like something wild,
+his machete flashing in the sun.  The gunman cried out and tumbled to
+safety in the ditch.  The black men came with a rush.  The fight was
+over.  Panting, grinning, their teeth and eyeballs gleaming, the
+negroes stood aside awaiting orders.
+
+"I'll be darned," said Roger, puzzled.  "Boys, how did you ever come
+here?"
+
+"Dat white man"--a grinning negro pointed to where Blease had fired
+from the jungle--"he say he shoot us if we don' come."
+
+Higgins had searched the two strangers and taken a revolver from each.
+
+"All right, boys," said Roger.  "You can get right back to work.  The
+show's over."
+
+From the opposite sides of the canal Roger and the leader of the trio
+glared at one another.
+
+"Well," said Payne, "you tried to run a bluff and it didn't work.
+What's the idea?"
+
+The man swore again and replied:
+
+"What's the idear, huh?  That's what I want to know.  You'll get yours
+for this--coming on people's land and starting a roughhouse."
+
+Roger stared stupidly across the canal at the speaker, incomprehension
+taking the place of anger.  "Oh," he said at last, "it's all a mistake.
+You got on the wrong tract: this is my land."
+
+"Like ---- it is!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Don't try to come that on us; don't waste your breath.  Think we're
+dummies?  This is our land.  We bought it last week.  And I'm telling
+you to keep off of it from now on.  Oh, I got the right description; a
+thousand acres west of a line from Deer Key there to the Cypress Swamp.
+Want to look at the deed?  Give you our lawyer's address if you do."
+
+"Who is your lawyer?"
+
+"Big Tom Connors, Washington, D. C.  And if it'll make you feel any
+better--why, he's a law partner of Senator Fairclothe."
+
+"If you think you have really bought this land," said Roger slowly,
+"you have been cheated."
+
+"Huh!  Do we look like easy marks?  Listen, boh: you're the fish that
+got hooked.  You bought a bum title.  Get that?  Didn't know this
+little piece of dirt was in the courts, eh?  Well, it was; and Big Tom
+got it, and we got it from him.  Your title ain't worth the paper it's
+written on.  Now, you're guilty of tresp----Hold on!"
+
+Roger had thrown his self-control to the winds.  He leaped into the
+canal and wallowed across.
+
+"Get off, my land!" he growled.  "Get off!"
+
+The gunman was running for dear life down the spoil bank.  On the
+opposite side his companions were in full flight.  Payne did not
+follow.  He stood and watched them, outraged to the marrow.  "And keep
+off, too!" he shouted grimly.  "Tell your lawyer, tell your sheriff,
+tell 'em all, keep off!"
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+"It's impossible!"
+
+Roger was too stunned to grasp the true significance of the situation
+at once.
+
+"The Senator's company wouldn't have sold me this land if there was a
+suit on it."
+
+Then, little by little, the facts began to clarify in his mind.
+Connors, the lawyer, was Senator Fairclothe's law partner; Fairclothe
+had been anxious to see the tract drained.
+
+"Oh, my God!" he groaned, "Are they that rotten!"
+
+"But you had the title searched before you bought?" said Higgins.
+
+"Of course.  Right back to the first Spanish land grant, and there
+wasn't a flaw in it."
+
+"Then those fellows are stung."
+
+"Pooh!  Those cheap toughs.  They're nothing but tools.  There's
+probably been a false transfer made to their names, but that's all;
+they were picked because they were fighters.  Well, whoever picked them
+hasn't got the least suspicion of what he's started."
+
+"Land titles are rotten things," growled Higgins.  "Specially when land
+sharks are juggling them."
+
+"They waited until the ditches were dug," mused Roger.  "They didn't
+know it would make good land.  And then they struck!  Higgins, I'm
+going right down to Garman's and have a little talk with Senator
+Fairclothe."
+
+"Bet you won't find him.  Bet he's away selling this tract again to
+some other sucker."
+
+But Higgins was wrong.  Senator Fairclothe had not gone away.  As Roger
+entered Garman's grounds, he saw Garman, the Senator and a man in long
+black coat and broad-brimmed black hat in conference upon the verandah.
+At his appearance Garman, lolling in a lawn chair, chuckled lazily; the
+Senator became as cold and pompous as the statue he hoped some day
+would commemorate his services to the Republic, and the black-hatted
+stranger closed his eyes to mere slits.
+
+"Lo, Payne!" drawled Garman.  "Come up out of the sun.  You look all
+heated up."
+
+He looked down at Roger, a smile on his lips as he noted the tenseness
+of the young man's expression.
+
+"Worrying about something, Payne?  Ideals been shattered?  Ambition,
+love--  Where's Annette, by the way?"
+
+His chuckle rose to rumbling laughter.
+
+Senator Fairclothe caught the black-clad stranger's eye and nodded
+stiffly.  The man rose.
+
+"You are Roger Payne?"
+
+"Sit down!"  In one leap Roger was upon the verandah facing the
+stranger.  "Sit down!" he repeated.  "My business is with Senator
+Fairclothe."
+
+"My business----"
+
+"Sit down," said Roger softly, and the stranger sat.
+
+"Senator Fairclothe," continued Payne, "there seems to be a little
+misunderstanding about the title to the land I bought from you."
+
+"You bought no land from me, young man."
+
+"You are president of the Prairie Highlands Association?"
+
+"I was.  I severed that connection some months ago."
+
+"Before you wrote me those letters?"
+
+"No, the day after I wrote you the last letter of our correspondence.
+I had no connection with the company you mention at the time you made
+your purchase.  I had discovered that the Prairie Highlands Association
+was not upon a firm basis.  Of the land which they sold not a foot was
+owned by them.  Their original title was false and invalid.  The
+company now is defunct."
+
+"I see," said Roger after a pause.  "And knowing that your
+recommendations as a United States Senator would influence people to
+purchase this land, and knowing the title to be invalid, did you take
+any steps to warn them?"
+
+"A United States Senator, I assure you, young man, has other and more
+important duties than nursing the petty interests of persons stupid
+enough to purchase land without seeing it.  In fact, it might be
+considered a duty not to interfere.  For the welfare of the country, it
+is desirable, in fact, that such money as such helpless persons may
+possess be transferred to the possession of the shrewd energetic men
+who constitute the vital portion of our population."
+
+"Bravo, bravo!" rumbled Garman, applauding.  "Senator, I congratulate
+you on your logic.  Payne, there's the philosophy of our era in a
+nutshell.  Now let us hear how star-eyed youth, inspired by ideals,
+controverts the wisdom of the togoed sage?  Annette, dear!" he roared.
+"Come out!  Come out and have some sport!"
+
+"Miss Annette is not in the house," responded a maid.
+
+"What?  She was a minute ago."
+
+"She is not now."
+
+"All right.  Too bad; wish you could see her, Payne.  She's changed.
+She's grown up now.  Senator, it just occurred to me: Annette is
+rapidly becoming her father's daughter."
+
+"Well, young man," said Fairclothe complacently.  "Have you anything
+more to say to me?"
+
+"I'm going to keep that land, Garman," said Roger, ignoring the
+Senator.  "Going to keep it in spite of all your tools, whether they're
+city gangsters, United States Senators, or"--with a glance at the
+stranger--"your deputy sheriffs."
+
+"Senator!" cried Garman in mock horror.  "He slanders the honor of your
+sacred office!"
+
+"Better keep a-hold of your tongue, young feller," warned the deputy.
+"I'm a little interested in this, too."
+
+"Well," said Roger, "I think there is something in this that will
+interest people bigger than you or I or the state of Florida.  I think
+the United States Government is due to become interested down here."
+
+The suspicion of a smile curved the corners of Garman's mouth.  There
+was a moment of pregnant silence; then Senator Fairclothe said
+impressively:
+
+"I represent the United States Government, sir."
+
+"Do you really?" laughed Roger bitterly.  "Then the poor old United
+States Government is in a bad way indeed.  But I deny your claim, sir;
+I don't think you represent the United States Government, because the
+United States Government consists of about a hundred million working
+people like myself; and all you represent, sir, are the few rich men
+and the few hundred millions of dollars which constitute the power that
+put you in the Senate."
+
+"Do I understand, sir, that you mean to impugn the honor of the august
+body of which I have the honor to be a member?"
+
+"No; I'm a busy man; I haven't any time to waste like that.  But
+there's going to be something said about using the mails to defraud
+before this is over.  That's Federal business."
+
+"Be careful, sir; I am a member of and represent the Federal
+Government, and I shall take care that nobody casts any aspersions upon
+its honor or mine."
+
+"What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"What?  Sir, do you mean to defy----?"
+
+"Consider the aspersions cast.  What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"He calls," chuckled Garman; "show your cards."
+
+"I shall----"
+
+"Hm," interrupted Garman, and the Senator obediently hesitated.
+
+"I shall not state here and now what means I shall utilize in meeting,
+as befits it, this defiance of our sacred Government.  Nor shall I
+continue any communication or intercourse, or any association
+whatsoever, with the party or parties guilty of such defiance."
+
+"I reckon this young feller has tooted his horn long enough," drawled
+the deputy sheriff.  "Roger Payne, I----"
+
+Roger turned his back deliberately and went down the stairs.
+
+"Here!  Come back here!"
+
+Roger was walking across the lawn, bound for the path that led to his
+camp.  He heard the click of a revolver being cocked on the verandah,
+but he did not look up.
+
+"Oh, put that thing up, you ass!" said Garman disgustedly.  "And go
+back to Flora City and draw your time--Payne, you're a big, bold buck.
+There's only one bigger in the country; and you and I are going to have
+a lot of fun before we're many days older."
+
+Payne did not pause to look back or reply.  Garman's taunts had driven
+him close to the point of explosion.  The wretched situation in which
+he found himself in regard to the land he had paid for and drained was
+a muddle in his mind.  Senator Fairclothe's brazen confession was a
+confusion.  The one thing that was clear to his comprehension--as a
+touch of white-hot steel is clear to its victim--was Garman's assertion
+that Annette had changed and was becoming her father's daughter.  And
+when he came upon her--rather when she stepped out before him--in the
+hidden path near the edge of the wild apple trees, Roger saw that
+Garman had spoken the truth.
+
+She had changed.  She had grown older.  Her beauty was as great as
+ever, but it was now the beauty of a sophisticated, disillusioned and
+hardened woman, rather than that of the buoyant girl he had known.  He
+could not define the change that had taken place in her, so subtle was
+it; but as he looked at her he instinctively flung out his hand, a
+gesture of pleading for something gone, and cried out in youth's agony:
+
+"Annette!  Annette!"
+
+And then the miracle happened.  At the sight of him, at the heart throb
+in his tones as he called her name, she seemed to shiver, then to
+awaken.  She seemed to change before his eyes; though it was only he,
+seeing with the eyes which that moment had given him, who could have
+been sensible of the change.  She seemed to grow and freshen as a
+parched rose at the touch of life-giving water.  Her eyes gleamed with
+the old, frank look, her cheeks were rosy, and she walked girlishly as
+she came forward.
+
+"Ah!  Goody, goody!" she cried, clapping her hands.  "Somebody likes me
+the other way--the way I want to be!"
+
+"Annette!" he said again, and stretched out his hands and touched hers
+and held them.
+
+"You--are happy again now, aren't you?" he stammered.
+
+"Don't I look it?"
+
+Her eyes were brimming with soothing tears.
+
+"Happy?"
+
+"Yes--for a minute."
+
+He drew her hands against his breast.  He held her so, and she looked
+up, her wet eyes close to his.  He put an arm about his shoulders, and
+she nestled against his strength with a little sigh of content.  And
+then he drew her closer to him, and they kissed once, instinctively,
+naturally; and she threw her head back and cried, "Ah, God!  No, no!"
+
+"Annette!  Annette!  What is it?"
+
+"No, no!  Let me go--let me go, dear.  Please--you must, you must!"
+
+She tore herself out of his relaxed arms and pressed her fists against
+her eyes to shut out the sight of him.
+
+"Go away!"  Her voice was flat and heavy.  She turned and crossed her
+arms against the vine-clad trunk of a wild-apple tree and leaned her
+head upon them.  "Don't come near me.  You must not.  You won't if
+you--if you play fair."
+
+"Forgive me!" he said miserably.  "I forgot--I didn't think----"
+
+"Don't!  Don't apologize--to me."
+
+She waited a moment longer, then turned and faced him.  The girlhood
+was gone from her eyes once more, and her mouth was hardened.  She did
+not meet his eyes, she did not look at him, but stared off into the
+jungle as she spoke.
+
+"I came out here on purpose to meet you."  Her tone was cold and
+precise.  "He--Mr. Garman--told me the truth about those three men last
+night.  It is a lie--about your title being a false one.  Your title is
+the good one.  The other title is false.  They intend to get possession
+of the land and entangle it in a lawsuit which will ruin you."
+
+"What does it matter?" he cried pleadingly.  "What does that matter?"
+
+There was no response from her.  She looked steadily off into the
+jungle.
+
+"That is just what does matter," she said.  "You must not let them get
+possession of your land."
+
+"I don't intend to.  But that----"
+
+"I don't want to see them gobble you up like"--she laughed
+bitterly--"like they're doing to me."
+
+"No!  They haven't done that.  They can't.  I saw it a moment ago."
+
+"Don't!  It hurts.  No, they haven't gobbled me up yet, but I don't
+think they'll delay much longer.  They're too strong for me, you see:
+Aunty, and father, and--him.  Aunty trained me for it; poor father
+cries: he's in his power; and he--it's a terribly strong array against
+one girl--all alone."
+
+"Not quite alone."
+
+"Yes, quite alone.  That's the horror of it.  I've told you before; you
+couldn't understand; but it's myself, only my own soul, that can settle
+this--it's very strange."
+
+"You can't tell me--what it is?"
+
+"I've told you too much now.  But you must take care of yourself.  No
+matter what happens you must take care of yourself."
+
+"I don't know if that's so important," said Roger.  "I confess I've
+lost considerable interest in just myself."
+
+"I've--made you--do that?"
+
+"I want to take care of you."
+
+She smiled a smile too old, too cynical for her youthful lips.
+
+"That was a kind thing to say, but----"
+
+"I love you," said Roger bluntly.  "I believe you care a little----"
+
+"Don't, don't, don't!"  She turned a face toward him full of pleading.
+"Do you want to torture me?  Can't you see----?"  Her voice failed her.
+She struggled a moment and turned round; holding back tears and smiling
+by sheer force of will, and held out her hand frankly.
+
+"Good-by!"
+
+"I love you," repeated Roger doggedly.
+
+A low chuckle in the jungle startled them.
+
+"Ah, youth, youth, youth!"  Garman's huge face was peering at them from
+behind a mask of flowering moon vine.  "'I love you.'  Ho ho!  Poor
+Payne!"
+
+"You cad, Garman; you mucker!" cried Roger.
+
+"Go!"  Annette flung herself upon him, seeking to push him away, but he
+stood like an oak.
+
+"Eavesdropping!  Fine work, Garman."
+
+Garman roared with laughter.
+
+"Do you really love me?" whispered Annette, suddenly, her lips closed
+to Roger's.
+
+"You know that now."
+
+"No, not yet; but I will soon.  If you love me, you'll do what I ask.
+Go away.  Please, please at once!"
+
+"I can't leave you here, Annette, helpless among all this devilishness."
+
+"I am not helpless.  Not if I know you really love me.  Can you
+understand that--it will mean so much to me--it will be the one way you
+can help me--the only way.  Help me to save myself, dear, by showing me
+I have your love.  Go!"
+
+He looked at her.  Then he bowed his head and went.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+"They've jumped us!"  Higgins' great neck was swollen with impotent
+rage as he greeted Roger's return to camp.
+
+"It's my fault, too.  Take a good, swift kick at me.  I fell down on
+the job while you were away."
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+Higgins led the way to the edge of the elderberry jungle and pointed
+out over the drained land.  A dozen armed men, outlaws and fugitives of
+the most vicious kind from Big Cypress Swamp, were scattered
+systematically over the thousand-acre tract.  Two men lay behind the
+spoil banks at each of the main canal, their heads and rifle barrels
+showing above the black-earth breastworks.  The other men were placed
+in pairs at strategic points.  No one could set foot on the drained
+land without being seen and subject to fire from two sides.
+
+Through his glasses Payne studied the pair which guarded the end of the
+main ditch near Deer Key.  These were no city toughs who would try to
+bully rather than fight, but lank-haired, sallow-faced killers from the
+darkest part of Big Cypress Swamp; men who were desperate because of
+the crimes they had left behind them, and to whom rifle fire was a
+familiar argument.  By the fashion in which they handled their weapons,
+Roger saw they were hunters; and the grim way in which they kept watch
+proved that they had come expecting a fight; to shoot and be shot at;
+to kill and perhaps be killed.
+
+"That's Garman's work; no one else could get that crowd out of the
+swamp.  How did it happen, Hig?"
+
+"It happened because I'm all bone from the neck up.  They used an old
+trick, and I fell into the trap like a tenderfoot.  A few of them came
+hollering and shooting out of Flower Prairie, stampeding the boys.  I
+figured it to be a raid on the camp, and I hollered for Blease and we
+ran for the tents.  They played the bluff strong.  Steamboat Bill got
+it through the head while he was running for cover--you remember him,
+the big, black fellow with earrings.  Then they threw some lead into
+the tents, and Blease and I had quite a time holding 'em off.  Blease
+got one of 'em; saw them carrying him away too dead to skin.  Then we
+heard three quick shots, repeated three times down on the muck lands,
+and the shooting up here quit _pronto_.
+
+"After a while it got through my thick head what had happened.  Blease
+and I took in on the gallop back toward the ditches, but we were too
+late.  They'd jumped it already, a whole army of 'em, and real hard
+_hombres_.  Shoot?"  He held out his perforated sun helmet.  "I pushed
+that up on the stick for an experiment, and the guy that drilled it was
+two hundred yards away."
+
+"It was my fault," said Payne.  "Garman was too smart for me.  I played
+right into his hand by going down there.  He knew that's what I'd do,
+and he had this gang waiting and shot them over here as soon as he saw
+me coming."
+
+"That isn't all," continued Higgins.  "As soon as the boys saw
+Steamboat Bill run against his bad luck they left the job and ran for
+the brush like rabbits.  Blease says they won't come back; they always
+make tracks when white men start shooting."
+
+"You mean there's only two of us here now?"
+
+"Three.  Old Blease has put on the war paint."
+
+"Three isn't enough."
+
+"Not by a dozen, it isn't.  Did you learn what they're trying to do to
+you?"
+
+"They're trying to beat me out of the land by fixing up a false title.
+Now they've got possession, and their scheme is to carry me from court
+to court till I'm busted and tired out."
+
+As he spoke he realized fully what this meant.  Garman's wealth and
+influence and the pomp and honor of Senator Fairclothe's position would
+be arrayed against him.  He had seen and heard enough to appreciate
+that the vast territory of Southern Florida was in the hands of a set
+of powerful, fearless plunderers, with Garman the arch plunderer of
+them all.  And it was organized, protected plundering.
+
+A county sheriff was a petty pawn in the great game.  A county judge
+would be only slightly larger, and so on, up through state
+legislatures, the governor, congressman, state supreme court judges,
+and even up and into the sacred precincts of the United States Senate
+in the person of Senator Fairclothe.  How vast was the power of
+Garman's plunder organization might be estimated by the degree of
+ignorance in which the land-buying public throughout the country was
+kept concerning the true situation in the district.  Full-page
+advertisements in Sunday newspapers created a golden dream in the
+public mind concerning the Western Everglades; not one single news item
+crept into print revealing the truth.  Roger realized that for such a
+power to crush him in a court test would require merely that the
+machine created for such purpose be set in motion.  He realized also
+that the vicious nature of the desperados whom Garman had placed upon
+his drained land and the desperate measures which would be necessary to
+regain possession of his own.
+
+Yet he found, a little to his own amazement, that he could look upon
+the theft with entire calmness.  The fact was that it did not seem to
+concern him deeply.  His emotions were a throb from the memory of
+Annette in his arms.  He recalled little else of the meeting.  She had
+been in his arms.  And now his arms ached for her again with a
+poignance which made all other things insignificant.
+
+"Well?" said Higgins.  "Going to let 'em do it?"
+
+"Do what, Hig?"
+
+"Going to let them drag you into court and beat you because they've got
+possession of your land?"
+
+"It takes thinking over," mused Roger.
+
+"It takes fighting, that's what it takes," retorted Higgins.  "We've
+got to roust those hard guys out of there before they take root and put
+up buildings.  Some one's got to chase out to Citrus Grove and burn the
+wires up for about twenty tough fighting men to be delivered at Citrus
+Grove as quick as the trains will bring 'em.  Twenty fighting men, and
+twenty riot pump-guns, and a dark night, and I'll kick that bunch off
+the place and have the place back in your own hands by daylight."
+
+Roger laughed sharply.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Higgins, "got a better idea?"
+
+"Higgins, if you think Garman has left our back door open you don't
+half appreciate what the man is.  When were the ox teams due?"
+
+"Whew!" Higgins whistled.  "That's so; this is the day for 'em to show
+up.  They've been due since daylight."
+
+"And they've never missed their weekly schedule so far.  Ox teams are
+slow, Higgins, but they're darn sure."
+
+"You think Garman's cut us off then?"
+
+"Higgins, if you'd studied Garman half as hard as I have you'd know he
+wouldn't fail to do just that thing."
+
+At dark Blease came noiselessly to Roger's tent to substantiate this
+deduction.
+
+He had followed craftily after the party which he and Higgins had
+driven northward from the camp, and had found them encamped on Coon
+Hammock, across the ox trail, a scant mile from the camp.
+
+Roger lay on his cot that night calmly appraising his situation.  To
+the south of the camp Garman's henchmen were in possession of his land.
+To the eastward lay the trackless waters of the Everglades through
+which only the Seminoles cared to find a way; on the west--the only way
+out was through Garman's grounds which meant there was no way at all.
+Northward there was the ox trail, now closed, and the ghastly mud of
+the Devil's Playground.
+
+Garman's trap was quite complete.  Roger wondered when Garman would see
+fit to bring its jaws together.
+
+But Garman had contemplated and prepared a sport more pleasing to him
+than this.  The trap did not spring; day after day passed, and the
+situation remained the same.  The men on the muck lands guarded against
+trespass by day or night.  The moon was losing its radiance of nights,
+but sufficient light still prevailed to make an attempt to cross the
+ditched track plain suicide.  In the north the men on Coon Hammock
+followed the same policy.  No attack was made, but neither was there
+opportunity for any one to pass unobserved or unharmed.
+
+One of the negroes, weary of hiding in the swamp, tried it and came
+staggering back to the camp with a bullet hole in his foot.  Roger
+reasoned that Garman's cat-and-mouse tactics were calculated to break
+his nerve or to provoke a fight which could have only one result.
+Failing in this the trap had but to be maintained and the inevitable
+result would be surrender.
+
+On the first night when a slight cloudiness, promised considerable
+darkness Roger slipped out of his tent trained and primed for the
+ordeal of a passage through the Devil's Playground to Citrus Grove.  He
+crossed the open space of Flower Prairie while a cloudlet hid the moon.
+In the uncertain light a course through the jungle was not to be
+thought of.  He looked up, and, encouraged by the gathering clouds,
+slipped through his fence onto the sand prairie and ran northward.
+
+If he could reach unobserved the timber at the southern end of the
+Devil's Playground he felt he would be safe.  As he ran he prayed for
+the clouds to hold together until he reached the dark wood.  His prayer
+was answered.  He made out a trail running into the timber and plunged
+into the darkness.  The darkness lasted but a little while, however.
+Roger heard the whinny of horses on the trail ahead.  The clouds
+suddenly parted and the moonlight seemed to light the forest like day.
+He was in an open space in the forest, and Garman and Mrs. Livingstone
+and Annette were sitting their horses facing him a few paces away.
+
+"I figured it almost to the minute!" said Garman.  "Almost to the
+minute I figured when you were due to start through the Devil's
+Playground, Payne."
+
+He laughed shortly at the young man's amazement.  "Didn't know I knew
+about that, eh, Payne?  Well, I didn't until you bought that land from
+the Cypress Company.  Then I knew you'd found a new way out and I had
+it looked up.  No go now, Payne; the Devil's Playground is closed for
+traffic."
+
+Annette was sitting straight and firm in her saddle.  She turned on
+Garman with no fear or faltering in her attitude.
+
+"Is this what you brought me out here for?" she asked, so sharply that
+Mrs. Livingstone cried out protestingly:
+
+"My dear!"
+
+Garman lowered his head ominously and the taunting smile on his lips
+turned to a threat as he returned her look.  Even by the faint
+moonlight the sudden leap of anger and the desire to hurt were apparent
+in his countenance.  He controlled himself.
+
+"Yes, dear," he purred dangerously, "it is."
+
+Annette met his gaze fearlessly.  "Is there to be any more of the
+exhibition?"
+
+"Not unless you irritate me, dear.  Don't ride away.  Gaze upon Payne's
+young, star-eyed face, my dear.  Look upon it well; let it soak into
+your soul's memory, as it is now.  It is your last chance.  Next time
+you see him his face will not be the face of star-eyed youth at all!
+Preserve the memory, Annette!"
+
+"Have you quite done?" she said.
+
+"I?  Certainly, my dear."  Garman was nettled at her self-mastery.
+"Mrs. Livingstone, perhaps Annette has a word or two she wishes to
+speak to Payne.  Shall we ride on and give them a moment alone?"
+
+"I am sure Annette can have nothing to say to this Mr. Payne," replied
+Mrs. Livingstone quickly.
+
+"Don't you be so sure of that," said Garman curtly.  "Youth calls to
+youth!"
+
+Annette's riding crop fell suddenly upon her mount and she went past
+Roger on the gallop out onto the prairie.
+
+"Youth calls to youth!" repeated Garman staring after her with angry
+eyes.  "Mrs. Livingstone, don't you remember when you were young; when
+you had ideals and hopes of realizing them, and you could love, nobly
+and purely, without thinking of money?--ha, ha, ha!  Must you really
+follow Annette?  Really!"
+
+He pulled his horse close to Roger.
+
+"Well, Payne, how do you like my rat pit?  Hard to get out of, eh?
+Don't waste your time trying; I've made sure you're going to stay put."
+
+"I've been thinking," said Roger calmly, "that perhaps the best act of
+my life would be to pull the gun inside my shirt and shoot you through
+the head right here."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense; you can't; you're too civilized.  Besides--Hi,
+there!--Look behind you, Payne."
+
+Roger laughed without turning.
+
+"No, you don't get the drop on me with that old trick, Garman."
+
+"Speak, you back there--what's your name--Harney?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said a muffled voice in the shadows behind Roger.  "Ed
+Harney--Joe Harney's brother.  I've got him covered."
+
+"Ho hum!" yawned Garman.  "I must follow the ladies.  Especially,
+Annette--magnificent, tender, fiery little Annette!--Damn her!
+Something has happened; she's bold, defiant!  She needs taming.  Great
+sport, woman taming--in the swamp.  Good night, Payne.  Pleasant
+dreams!"
+
+
+A cloud bank floated across the moon, plunging the woods into Stygian
+darkness.  Out on the sand of the prairie the thud, thud, thud of
+Garman's galloping horse grew fainter and died away.  A rift in the
+clouds revealed the moon for an instant.  Roger whirled round, seeking
+to see the man who had called himself Harney.  The clouds closed up
+again, the woods were black; and a Southern whippoorwill chuckled
+foolishly.  Ahead, on the trail which he must follow to reach the
+Devil's Playground, Roger heard the footsteps of three men, and knew
+that Garman had taken all precautions to make good his assertion that
+the Devil's Playground was closed to traffic.
+
+The anger which was in his heart craved an outlet.  He moved toward the
+hidden men, then paused.  They were three to one; in the dark a fight
+would be folly.  Nothing would please Garman better than for him to
+plunge blindly into a hopeless battle.  As Roger thought over the
+situation his anger rose and clarified.  He realized now what a poor
+figure he had cut face to face with Garman, and he understood why.
+Garman had dominated him, and made him appear the baffled victim of
+Garman's superiority.  Garman had dominated him, had played with Mrs.
+Livingstone till she rode away, helpless, outraged.  But Annette had
+outfaced him, and Garman knew it!
+
+"Something has happened!"
+
+Roger recalled Garman's words, and a thrill shot along his spine.
+Garman did not dominate Annette; he did not hold her helpless by his
+hypnotic presence as formerly.  Something had happened.  Roger feared
+to think what, though hope whispered to him; and he turned back to camp
+not at all crest-fallen because the secret way through the Devil's
+Playground was closed.  He came into camp with an easy, swinging step,
+such as no defeated man should display, and Higgins, appraising him as
+he listened to Roger's brief statement of the case, said:
+
+"Hm.  Then you know about it, do you?"
+
+"About what, Hig?"
+
+"About Willie High Pockets!"
+
+"What!  Willy been here?"
+
+Higgins' thick brows met in a puzzled frown above his eyes.
+
+"Payne, do you mean to tell me that you go out and find we're shut in
+like rats in a pit and come back here stepping high, without knowing
+about our friend Willy?"
+
+"I don't know anything but what I've told you, Hig!  Garman has got us
+shut in.  Got us hopelessly cooped up.  That's all I know."
+
+"Well, you're a gamer bird than I thought, then.  But why so frisky?"
+
+"I figure he's got us about licked," replied Roger, ignoring the
+question.  "We've got one chance in a million.  We'll have it out with
+those birds on the muck land to-night after the moon is down.  We may
+roust 'em.  We may not."
+
+"By God!" swore Higgins swiftly.  "I'm almost sorry Willy High Pockets
+showed up.  Your idea is the one I've had in mind for days.  A fine
+fight we'd have given them, too.  And now that darned Injun cones along
+and spoils it.  We can't try it now."
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+"Why not?" demanded Roger.
+
+"Willy High Pockets came crawling into camp on his belly about ten
+minutes after you'd left.  He came with a message from that white
+side-kick of his he met in the swamp.  You can't guess who that guy is."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Davis."
+
+"What!  The fellow they tried to get on the Cormorant?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Is he some sort of a detective?"
+
+"I suspect so.  Willy ain't much on the tell.  He says that man has got
+Uncle Sam behind him!  And this Davis sends us serious word that we're
+to keep away from Garman's men.  Whatever happens we mustn't get into a
+fight.  We've got to stick right in camp and play safe, or we'll spoil
+two years' work for Uncle Sam.  The first dark night--to-morrow night
+probably--it will be over, whatever it is, and Davis will come here and
+explain.  That's what Willy High Pockets said, and if you'd seen him
+tell it you'd know it was a darn serious business.  By the great smoked
+fish, Payne, there's a big game being played round here.  I feel it in
+my bones.  And I'm sore because I haven't got a finger in the pie."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"You got me.  But whoever this Davis man is he's got Willy so he isn't
+afraid of Garman.  That means something big."
+
+"We'll give Davis to-night and to-morrow night," said Roger, after
+pondering the matter a moment.  "After that----"
+
+"Hell's delight!  And I almost hope that Davis falls down on whatever
+he's doing."
+
+On the narrow there was no sign to indicate that Davis or any one else
+was concerned in the affairs of the district.  The grim guards on the
+muck lands held their stations.  It was apparent that they had orders
+not to leave the tract or to seek trouble, but to be ready to shoot and
+shoot accurately at any one venturing to trespass.  Blease scouted
+northward on the ox-team trail and reported that Coon Hammock was still
+occupied.  Payne himself went through the elderberry and saw grass
+jungle and through his glasses saw men guarding the approach to the
+Devil's Playground.
+
+The strain was beginning to tell on all three men in the clearing.
+Each hour now seemed a day, each sight of a Garman man was a torture.
+
+"It ain't human," muttered Blease.  "I can't stand it."
+
+Higgins lay flat on his back in his tent, staring up at the canvas.
+
+"It had better be a dark night to-night," he said, with a grim smile.
+Roger silently agreed.  And he realized that this was what Garman had
+foreseen and planned for when he digged the pit--the sense of
+imprisonment and the desperate attempt to break out, regardless of
+consequences.
+
+"He's too smart to be just a man, Garman is," droned Blease; but Roger
+stopped him.
+
+"He's nothing but a man; nothing but a man who likes to hurt.  Don't
+let me hear you say he's anything but that."
+
+To Roger and Higgins the sudden, fierce sunset came as a benison,
+presaging the coming of the night.  There was no thought of food or
+sleep.  Narrowly they watched the sun go angrily down in the west and
+the night come rolling over the heavens from the east.  Clouds
+appeared, first a few scatterings of fleecy stuff, next solid cloud
+banks through which the waning moon strove in vain to send its rays.
+
+"It will be a dark one," said Roger.
+
+Higgins on his cot laughed harshly.
+
+"Come through, Davis; to-night or never."
+
+They lay out through the night, waiting, hoping for events, and they
+waited in vain.  The first purple-rayed warning of sunrise in the
+morning found them in a mood of despair.  As the second day came on
+with no sign of Davis they turned their steps toward the tents.
+
+"I don't wait any longer," said Higgins, loading his rifle.  "Soon as
+good shooting light comes I start doing business."
+
+The others followed his example, and Blease led the way by a tortuous
+path through the elderberry jungle to a point near Deer Hammock.  They
+crawled forward, ready to cover the pair of guards at the head of the
+canal.  Blease was in the lead.  Lying flat on his breast he thrust his
+rifle barrel out of the jungle, searching for his quarry.  Presently he
+rubbed his eyes.
+
+Roger crept close to him and searched the grass-covered expanse of
+drained land carefully with his glasses.  Then he stood up and stepped
+out into the open.
+
+The drained land was deserted.  Garman's guards were gone.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+The discovery brought neither relief nor elation to Roger.  Amazement
+smote him dumb for a moment, then came suspicion that this was only
+another of Garman's traps.  He strove to follow the man's psychology to
+an explanation of this move.  Was Garman merely playing with him again,
+arousing false hopes which would be diabolically crushed?
+
+That seemed the logical reason for the move.  What would Garman's next
+move be?
+
+"Looks like a trick, doesn't it?" said Higgins.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Roger strode down to the head of the main drainage ditch where two of
+the guards had held watch.  The forms where the men had lain in the
+soft black muck behind the spoil bank were still sharply defined.  Their
+departure must have occurred during the darkest hours of early morning.
+They had left behind them a flask full of colorless liquid, one whiff
+of which proved its contents to be moonshine whisky.
+
+"Queer thing," said Blease.  "Reckon they must have left in a hurry or
+they'd never have forgot their licker."
+
+Higgins and Roger preceded cautiously over the tract, making sure that
+no guards lay hidden in the ditches.  The trails left by the departing
+men were easily followed.  They led, not to the river or toward
+Garman's as might have been expected, but scattered and lost themselves
+to the southward in the tangle morass of the cypress swamp.  Here and
+there articles had been left behind in what savored of a flight;
+unopened canned goods, a deer carcass, a frying pan, a rifle and a pair
+of shoes.  Roger studied the tracks leading into the swamp and saw that
+several of them had been made on the run.  It was apparent from all
+signs that the guards had fled, driven by fear of something.
+
+"Blease," said Roger suddenly, "you scout up the ox trail and see if
+they're gone from Coon Hammock, too; and, Higgins, you slip up towards
+the Devil's Playground and see what you can see."
+
+He went on down the main ditch toward its junction with the headwaters
+of the Chokohatchee River, keeping a close watch for possible lurking
+danger beyond his line.  Near the mouth of the ditch he found a dugout
+evidently left behind in the flight of the guards.  In the dugout he
+paddled the rest of the distance down the ditch, hidden from sight by
+the spoil banks on the canal's sides.
+
+It was broad daylight when suddenly he checked the canoe at the
+entrance to the river.  The plop of a pair of paddles propelling a
+canoe upstream came from round a bend and Roger lay down flat on the
+bottom of the dugout, his rifle resting upon the prow.  The rifle
+covered the spot where the canoe must come round the bend.  He was on
+his own land, and he would not allow the guards to regain possession
+without a fight.  He saw the white prow of the canoe shoot out past a
+tuft of saw-grass on the bend, and laid his eye to the sights.  Another
+stroke of the paddles and the canoe was in full view, and Roger found
+his front sight bearing upon a button on the silken shirt which
+stretched taut across Garman's great chest.
+
+A roar like the bellow of an angered bull welled from Garman's throat
+as he recognized Payne, an inarticulate cry of rage, then a silence.
+The current carried the canoe back a trifle and with an oath Garman
+drove it forward with his paddle.  In the stern was Senator Fairclothe,
+dumb and helpless from fear.
+
+Garman struck his paddle in the bottom and held the canoe motionless.
+His eyes, usually lazy and indifferent, now blazed beneath the fleshy
+brows with the madness of rage.  He glared full in the eyes above the
+rifle barrel and bellowed:
+
+"Where's Annette!  ---- you, Payne, give her up!"
+
+Roger's heart leaped at the words.  He felt an impulse to jump up and
+shout; but he kept his cheek to the rifle butt and responded:
+
+"Keep to your own side of those stakes, Garman, or I'll sink your
+canoe."
+
+"Answer me!" hissed Garman.  "Answer me, or by God! the alligators will
+make a meal of you!"
+
+"You've got your answer.  Keep off and keep out of danger."
+
+"Give her up!  Do you hear: give her up or she'll be sorry she ever was
+born."
+
+Roger pondered a moment for the right answer.
+
+"Nothing doing," he said firmly.
+
+"You admit she's come here then?"
+
+"Keep your hands in sight, Garman," said Roger.  "I'm taking no
+chances--now."
+
+"You hear, Fairclothe?" demanded Garman.  "She's run away to this
+squirt.  She's been with him all night.  By----! when I get hold of her
+there won't be any talk of marriage--now."
+
+"You've got to come and get her first, Garman," retorted Roger.  If
+Annette had fled she had undoubtedly gone to get away from Garman.
+Garman had jumped to the conclusion she had gone to Payne.  She had
+not; and Roger reasoned that in some manner she had gone down the
+river, whence she would eventually reach civilization.  Every hour that
+he could delay Garman from turning to this surmise would be valuable.
+
+"You've got to come and take her," he repeated.  "I won't give her up
+now."
+
+"You hear him, Fairclothe?" sneered Garman.  "What do you think of your
+daughter now?  Nicely brought up, nicely watched, I must say.  You
+poor--fool!  You'd better jump in right here and drown yourself.  He's
+had your Annette all night; now he's going to keep her at the point of
+a rifle.  I suppose you intend to make the conventional restitution by
+marrying her, Payne?  By----!  I'll spoil that--I'll take her away from
+you.  I'll turn her back to you when I'm tired of her.  Then you can
+marry her, Payne!  Give her up.  I'll wipe you out, including her,
+before I'll let her get away like this."
+
+"Come and get her," repeated Roger.
+
+Fairclothe found his voice.
+
+"I demand that you return my daughter, young man."
+
+"I am not holding her against her will.  She is free to return to you
+if she wishes to do so."
+
+"I demand that I be allowed to speak to her."
+
+"I cannot grant that demand."
+
+"You refuse to allow me to communicate with her?"
+
+"If she wishes to communicate with you I won't prevent it."
+
+"You young scoundrel!"
+
+Roger did not reply.
+
+"If you have harmed my little girl, I warn you you will be punished to
+the utmost."
+
+"You talk like a parrot!" snarled Garman.  "Talk sense--if you can."
+
+Fairclothe cleared his throat.  "Did my daughter Annette come to you of
+her own free will?"
+
+Roger hesitated before replying.
+
+"No!" he said defiantly.
+
+"Ah!  Garman, Garman, what did I tell you--what did I tell you?  I knew
+Annette never would leave you of her own free will!"
+
+"You ---- impudent squirt!" said Garman, "You mean to tell me you----
+No, you wouldn't be man enough to steal her.  Who brought her to you?"
+
+Again Roger debated.
+
+"If you come and get her as you threaten to do, you may find out."
+
+Garman's rage was ghastly to behold.  The flesh of his face seemed to
+swell in puffs, his nostrils widened, his eyes seemed to recede beneath
+the fleshy brows.  He held up his great hairy hands, closing and
+opening them; but enough reason remained in his rage-drunken mind to
+comprehend the iciness of the blue eyes above the rifle barrel.
+
+"By----!  Fairclothe, I believe you did it yourself," he cried, venting
+his rage on the helpless Senator.  "Don't try to talk back.  I believe
+you did it, you and that dried-up, gold-digger of a sister.  But
+by----! if you have you'll be yanked out of the Senate and go to jail,
+Fairclothe!  Don't talk!  I'm sick of you."
+
+He jerked his paddle from the bottom and the current gently drew the
+canoe back downstream.  Roger forced a smile of false triumph upon his
+face.  He must not let Garman turn elsewhere to look for Annette.
+
+"Licked, eh, Garman?" he taunted.  "I'll go back and tell Annette about
+it.  We'll enjoy it together."
+
+The canoe was drifting down the bend.
+
+"And come in a hurry, Garman, if you intend to get her; because if you
+wait long you won't find her here."
+
+Garman appeared not to hear; but he swung the canoe round furiously,
+and paddled out of sight down the river.
+
+Higgins and Blease returned soon afterward, each reporting that the
+guards to the northward had departed, apparently in the same hurried
+fashion as those on the muck land.  Payne wasted no time in an attempt
+to puzzle out the reason for it.  If Garman had withdrawn the men to
+lay a new trap, it was obvious that Annette's flight had upset his
+plans.  For the time being at least his mind was too inflamed with rage
+over her daring in thwarting his will, to admit the consideration of
+any other problem.  He would be too obsessed with thought for
+gratifying his revengeful lust to trouble about Payne's land.
+
+Roger related briefly the fact of Garman's visit, omitting mention of
+Annette.
+
+"Then he'll be coming back to clean us up, you think?" asked Higgins
+hopefully.
+
+"I think so--I've got good reasons for believing so," replied Roger.
+"He won't come alone, but with a gang big enough to make sure of the
+job.  Blease, this isn't your scrap at all, and I suspect it's going to
+be a real one.  The ox trail is open and the mules can travel it, so
+you'd better take a span of them and drive your family out of danger."
+
+Blease deliberated.
+
+"Reckon I won't," he said at last.  "Family's safe in there in the
+elder bush.  I'll stay.  Mebbe get a chance to even up with Garman."
+
+Roger selected a high spoil bank near the center of the muck land as
+his post.  From there he could see any one who approached from the
+river or from the cypress swamp.  Blease took up a hidden position in
+the elderberry jungle, from which he could cover the open prairie
+toward Garman's, and Higgins secreted himself in the palmetto scrub of
+Flower Prairie.  Higgins awaited the expected onslaught merrily; Blease
+was hopeful of revenge; and Roger, as he lay with his rifle ready,
+smiled because Annette was out of Garman's power.  Wherever she was, he
+felt she was safe.  He pictured her as she had faced Garman fearlessly
+two nights before--straight, strong, self-reliant--and was confident
+that her absence was of her own doing, and that whatever the
+circumstances she was free of the influence of her aunt, of her father,
+of the drugging magnetism of Garman, and in control of her own destiny.
+
+As the hours dragged by and he broiled beneath the merciless sun with
+no sign of a move on Garman's part, his confidence waned.  Had Garman
+discovered that Annette was not at Payne's camp?  Had he discovered her
+whereabouts?
+
+Roger recalled the signs of an unpremeditated flight on the part of
+Garman's guards, and his heart sank.  Was it possible that their flight
+had some connection with Annette's disappearance?  They were all
+desperate men, the most vicious Of criminals, who had fled to safety in
+the cypress swamps because their savagery unfitted them for existence
+in a civilized environment.  Inflamed by moonshine whiskey they would
+be capable of anything, even of forgetting for the moment of Garman's
+dominance of them.
+
+Roger swore helplessly, and sought relief from his torturing thoughts
+in physical labor.  The direct rays of the subtropical sun had dried
+and heated the surface of the soft muck land until it radiated heat
+like a stone pavement.  With the butt of his rifle Roger dug deeply
+beneath the surface until he reached damp, cool earth and, scooping a
+hollow, stretched out full length to cool his burning body.  A buzzard
+soared lazily about in the cloudless sky, and his thoughts leaped back
+to the flight of the desperadoes.
+
+What a fool he had been to feel assured of Annette's safety merely
+because Garman was unaware of her whereabouts!  She rode out in the
+evening--probably alone.  And the rattlesnakes in the swamp were no
+more dangerous than the gang which Garman had scattered about the
+district!
+
+He rose, and with glasses to his eyes peered through the dazzling heat
+waves, hoping against hope to catch some sign that Garman was coming.
+He gave up hope.  Hours had passed.  Garman would have been back long
+ago if he was coming.  And he would have come if he had continued to
+believe that Annette was with Payne.
+
+Garman must have discovered the true circumstances of Annette's
+disappearance.  In no other way was his failure to return to be
+explained.  And Roger had been lying there in the dirt, waiting like a
+fool, while Garman was taking measures to get her in his power again!
+
+The dugout lay in the big ditch close to its junction with the river;
+and the river ran down to Garman's house.  Roger stepped into the craft
+and shoved off.  He was thrusting the boat out into the current of the
+river when a faint whip-like crack came to his ears.  He shoved back
+and leaped ashore.
+
+Higgins had fired a shot up on Flower Prairie.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+Roger lay hugging the ground, his finger on the rifle trigger, peering
+through the dancing heat waves and straining his ears for the crack of
+shots in reply.  He could not see Flower Prairie from his post, but
+Blease could; and he knew that the squatter was on the alert, ready to
+throw in aid of Higgins.  He kept his own position because all three
+had agreed that Garman's gang would attack from several directions.  If
+a single shot answered Higgins the latter could deal with his
+adversary; if it was a volley Roger and Blease would rush to his
+assistance.
+
+The tense, breathless seconds passed; they became minutes, but no
+second shot shattered the sultry silence.  Roger relinquished his rifle
+and picked up his glasses.  Again he scanned the muck land and its
+boundaries without result.  Presently he saw Blease emerge from the
+elderberry jungle.  The squatter stood staring toward Flower Prairie
+where the shot had been fired.  Then with a movement of relieved
+tension he threw his rifle over a shoulder and started to walk easily
+in the direction toward which he had gazed.
+
+Roger followed him on the run.  When he came to the little spring lake
+in the prairie he saw Blease squatting on his heels calmly regarding
+Higgins who, at the lakeside, was carefully washing the bloody shoulder
+of the Seminole, Willy High Pockets.
+
+"Darn it all, Willy, why didn't you sing out, why didn't you sing out?"
+the engineer chattered in deep self-reproach.  "Holy smoked fish!  I
+wouldn't have had this happen for a farm; you know that, Willy.  Hold
+steady; that's the stuff.  Hell, Willy, I'll kick myself for the rest
+of my natural!"
+
+"'Twon't hurt him none; a little bleeding's good in this weather,"
+drawled Blease.
+
+"You shoot _ojus_ quick," said the Indian.
+
+"I had to, Willy; I had to," protested Higgins.  "Couldn't make you
+out, and I couldn't risk any one getting the drop on me."
+
+"Shoot first; look who is by'm by.  _Holowaugus_.  No good."
+
+"I took him for one of Garman's gang," explained Higgins to Payne.  "I
+couldn't see for the brush."
+
+"Did purty well, consid'ring that," ventured Blease.
+
+"_Esoka--Bonus-che why-o-me_," said Willy.
+
+"What?"
+
+"_Why-o-me_--me want some."
+
+"Is that what you came for?" demanded Roger.
+
+The Indian shook his head.
+
+"_Chobee eestee hotkee_ (big white man) send me."
+
+"For whiskey?"
+
+"No.  _Chobee eestee hotkee_ come soon himself.  He say I go here.  I
+come.  Him shoot.  _Esoka--bonus--chee why-o-me_."
+
+"No.  No whiskey," said Roger.  "Who is this big white man, Willy?"
+
+"Him come _ojus_ soon.  _Etalitke_.  (Talk much)  Friend you.  Gimme
+tobacco."
+
+Later, while Higgins and Roger were sewing up the wound in Willy's
+shoulder, Blease suddenly uttered a warning whistle.
+
+"Some one coming--walking heavy--through the saw grass."
+
+"No shoot first, look by'm by!" protested Willy.  As the intruder broke
+out of the saw grass into plain sight he said: "Him _chobee eestee
+hotkee_."
+
+The visitor was bearded and ragged from dwelling in the swamp, but he
+strode up to the camp with a confident, even aggressive step, such as
+no true swamp denizen would use; and presently, beneath the beard, the
+matted hair and ragged clothes Roger recognized Davis, the man whom
+they had helped to escape from the Cormorant that first day on the
+river.  Davis' attention was concentrated upon Willy's wound.
+
+"What?" he said hopefully.  "Are there still some of them round?"
+
+When the accident had been explained he turned to Roger.
+
+"The United States Government missed by two hours last night the
+biggest round-up of egret shooters ever made.  Garman tried a gang of
+pugs first, and you cleaned them out.  Then he yanked his egret
+shooters out of the rookery and put them on the job.  It was the first
+time in two years' work that I'd known 'em to be in a bunch.  I got
+fifty government men assembled at Citrus Grove for a round-up; but the
+crooks down here got word of it somehow and streaked it into the
+cypress swamp.  We've got the rookery, got twenty good men hidden
+there; they'll never shoot there again; and the rest of the men are
+after the gang in the cypress swamp.  We lost out last night; but I
+think Garman's egret graft is broken up for good."
+
+"Garman?  Is he in that, too?"
+
+Davis smiled.
+
+"Payne, do you know anything round here that Garman isn't in?  He's
+boss of the egret graft down here."
+
+"Have you got evidence of that?"
+
+"I'll say we have.  A photograph of him trying out the gas gun he
+invented on a bunch of nests."
+
+"Then why don't you get him if he's the head of the gang--first of all?"
+
+Davis' lips came together in a bitter line.
+
+"Did you ever hear of a big man--one of the really big ones of the
+country--being got for anything?  No; the other big men, the whole gang
+of them up in Washington, won't let it be done.  They can't afford to,
+as a matter of self-protection."
+
+"Great Scott!  Garman isn't so big that the Government is afraid of
+him?"
+
+"How much do you know about Garman, Payne?"
+
+"Not much, I admit."
+
+"I'll give you his number: He has among a lot of other things, a home
+in Washington, an office in Jacksonville and the house here and the
+Egret.  When he is at home in Washington, some of the most powerful
+statesmen in this great nation regularly infest his house to prove what
+truly great poker players they are.  No statesmen ever lost any money
+there, for only those whom Garman can use and who will listen to
+business reason are invited.  No statesman accepts a vulgar bribe, but
+several who attend Garman's stags win heavily and consistently at poker.
+
+"At Jacksonville, in his suite of offices, there is one door without a
+name on it, and that is Mr. Garman's private office.
+
+"On his boat, the Egret, he has as his guests during the tourist season
+some of the most prominent people of the country.
+
+"When the season is over, or before it is on, he has no guests down
+here.  That is his vacation time, the time when Garman plays.
+
+"There are more criminal refugees in the wilds of this swamp country
+than anywhere else in this land.  There is no man in Garman's employ,
+white, black or red, who hasn't got a price on his head somewhere.
+There are bandits from Cuba, crooks from large cities, negroes escaped
+from chain gangs, men of unspeakable crimes, the most vicious men of
+mixed blood ever gathered together since the old pirate days; and these
+are Garman's playfellows of his vacation time.  He is absolutely their
+boss.
+
+"Why does he do it?  Because there's money in it.  How?  There!"  Davis
+reached into his grub bag and threw on the ground the limp, snow-white
+corpse of a beautiful egret.  "That's one of the side issues.  There's
+money in it.  Garman saw the rookeries, and couldn't keep his hands off
+them.  These snow-white birds, feeding young ones in the nest, are
+worth money.  Garman's gang gets a living, food, liquor and immunity
+out of the slaughter, an average probably of one dollar a bird.  Garman
+gets the rest.  And his boat Egret in his harvest time is nothing but a
+damn slaughter house, the hold packed with the skins of thousands of
+murdered birds."
+
+"But I thought the Government had taken steps to stop the slaughter.
+Aren't there guards about the rookeries?"
+
+"There are.  Who do you suppose got them their jobs?  Garman--in
+Washington.  How do you suppose they guard?  They guard so carefully
+that nobody can get into the rookeries, not a soul except Garman's
+gang.  Officially the egret shooting is stopped.  Actually it is an
+industry and is in Garman's hands.
+
+"But there are good, progressive men down here--men who really wish to
+develop the country on a sound, honest basis," said Payne.  "Why, don't
+they get after this rotten business?"
+
+"Few of them know anything about it.  Garman has the business
+monopolized; only a few shooters, those absolutely under his control,
+and the birds spirited away in the Egret.  All done so efficiently that
+few people believe there is any shooting done.  Formerly the egrets
+were to be counted by millions, they were uncountable.  They are good
+breeders.  But since their shooting has been 'stopped' officially there
+hasn't been any noticeable increase in their numbers, which certainly
+would have been the case if the shooting actually had been done away
+with.
+
+"Do you know why Garman wants to bust you?  Principally because your
+settling here and draining and developing that piece of drowned land
+would be the opening wedge in the settlement of the district.  You've
+shown what can be done with this land.  People would come flocking in,
+farmers, real settlers, not the fugitives nor the crooked real-estate
+men who so far have had a monopoly down here.  The outlaws would have
+to go.  Egret shooting would have stop.  Garman couldn't play king here
+any longer.  That's why he's out to bust you, Payne.  Keep your eyes
+skinned.  He'll try to smash you in a hurry now."
+
+"You are not going to try to get him then?" asked Roger slowly.
+
+"No use.  We'll break up his gang and stop the egret shooting, but
+Garman----"
+
+Davis shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Garman is too big!" said Roger.  "He will still be cock-o'-the-walk
+round here.  Is that it?"
+
+"Well, he won't have his gang," replied the detective.
+
+"But he will still be--Garman."
+
+"Well--you know what he is."
+
+Roger nodded.
+
+"He'll want to be boss of the district----  He'll try to hog your land."
+
+"Hog is a good word there," ruminated Roger.  But he was not thinking
+about his land.
+
+The arrival of Davis had in no way affected the situation as Roger had
+suddenly seen it just before Higgins' shot had attracted his attention.
+
+Garman had discovered that Annette was not at Payne's camp.  Otherwise
+he would have returned to get her.  And this discovery meant that he
+knew of her whereabouts and was taking steps to pursue her, to get her
+into his power again.  Perhaps he had even succeeded in doing so.
+
+Roger slipped away from camp while supper was being prepared, and
+returned to the dugout which he had left in the big ditch near the
+river.  Precious time had been lost through the arrival of Davis.
+Garman, for the nonce a jungle beast running wild with the reek of rage
+and lust about him, had had hours of opportunity to wreak his revenge.
+
+Roger leaped into the dugout and paddled down the river toward Garman's
+house.  The place seemed dead and deserted as he stepped onto the dock,
+and his heart sank with dismay.  The Egret was gone.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+In the boathouse a young sailor was loading several huge trunks into a
+small launch.
+
+"Closing up for the season?" asked Roger as casually as possible.
+
+"I dunno what they're doing," grumbled the man.  "Fine trick leaving
+one man to handle stuff like this."
+
+Roger lent a hand.  "What did they do, forget this when they left?" he
+asked.
+
+"They did not!" grinned the sailor.  "Mr. Garman didn't give them time
+to forget anything.  He loaded 'em onto the Egret and shot 'em down the
+river without giving them time to forget anything."
+
+"He must have been in a hurry to get away?"
+
+Roger's words were calm, but the beat of his heart was shaking his ribs.
+
+"Who?  Mr. Garman?  He didn't sail.  Just Senator Fairclothe and Mrs.
+Livingstone.  'Get aboard,' he says, and they got.  'Get to hell out of
+here!' he says to the captain.  'Where to?' says the captain.  'Get!'
+says Mr. Garman.  Talk about a temper!  There was blue lightning and an
+eighty-mile wind round here till they'd sailed."
+
+"Mr. Garman staying behind alone?"
+
+"Alone?" said the sailor with a colossal wink.  "Oh, I guess not--not
+so you could notice it."
+
+And the next moment he found himself picked up, flung against the wall
+and nailed there by a grip that cut to the bone.
+
+"Talk straight now, boy, if you value whole bones," said Roger.  "Is
+Miss Fairclothe here with Garman?"
+
+"Not here--nobody here but the cook and caretaker."
+
+"Where--then?"
+
+"Dunno."
+
+"Where!"
+
+"Mr. Garman rode away some place after the Egret had sailed."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Sure.  She wasn't here at all."
+
+Roger went up to the big house.  The caretaker, a pudgy little man with
+the stench of whisky on his breath, was waiting for him.
+
+"Mr. Payne?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A note for you, sir.  Mr. Garman said he expected, sir, that you would
+be round."
+
+The note was addressed to Garman in a clear feminine hand, and it read:
+"Garman: Am at the cottage on Palm Island; come to-night.  Annette."
+At the bottom in a huge masculine scrawl, were three words; "Poor
+Payne!  Garman."
+
+
+"Palm Island?" repeated Willy High Pockets.  "Garman got house on Palm
+Island.  Yes."
+
+"Do you know where it is?" asked Roger.
+
+It was night, and he had called Willy High Pockets away from the camp
+to ask him the question.  The time intervening from the receipt of the
+note at Garman's and the present had been like a nightmare.  He had
+wandered in the jungle and laughed aloud at himself for a sentimental
+fool.  Garman was right: dreams, ideals, high hopes were only
+illusions, only lies, fairy-like mirages to lead a man into the barren
+desert of experience.  The note in his pocket proved it.  He read the
+note over and over again.
+
+"Come to-night, Annette."
+
+His laughter each time he scanned the words was a mirthless expression
+of despair.  Garman was right.  Garman had won.
+
+"Willy," he asked, "where is Palm Island?"
+
+"Little lake in woods down there."  Willy pointed into the darkness
+toward the timber line that marked the western boundary of the sand
+prairie.  "Island in lake."
+
+"Is it far?"
+
+"Yes, many mile in woods."
+
+"All right, Willy.  Go to bed."
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+Roger came upon the little lake in the woods just as the dawn was
+coating its waters with a thick purple.  He saw a canoe pulled upon the
+beach and paddled out to the island.  A circle of stately royal palms,
+their tops gorgeously golden in the sun's first rays, their smooth
+trunks still black, with the darkness of night, ringed the island
+round.  Within the circle of palms was a luxurious tangle of tropical
+plants, of flowers, of lazily drooping vines.  Payne followed a winding
+path through the odorous jungle and came to the tiny bungalow hidden in
+the heart of it all.
+
+"Garman!" he called hoarsely; and by the manner in which his voice
+echoed in the stillness he knew no living being was about the place.
+
+He entered softly, almost fearing to find the signs he sought.  One of
+Garman's large cigars, lighted and thrown away after a few puffs, lay
+on the verandah.  The place inside was a wreck.  Broken furniture,
+shattered glass, torn curtains and bedding, lay about in aimless
+disorder, as if some wild animal had run amuck there tearing and
+trampling to pieces all it touched.  Windows and frames had been
+smashed with terrific blows.  There were dents in the floor where it
+had been beaten furiously with an iron bedpost.
+
+Roger came out and tried to think.  What had happened?  Had Garman
+deliriously celebrated his triumph in an orgy of destruction?  There
+was no sign of a struggle.  He left the island hurriedly.
+
+
+The morning sun was high in the heavens when Roger emerged from the
+woods onto the prairie on his way back to Garman's house.  He followed
+no path.  He was running head down, seeing and hearing nothing.  He
+smashed through a clump of palmetto scrubs into an opening of barren
+white sand, and from another thicket came Garman, a rifle in his hands,
+plunging toward him, blind and deaf, maddened and purple-faced with
+rage.
+
+They were almost face to face when they saw one another.
+
+There was no time to think of weapons, no time to think at all.  They
+sprang at one another with a cry that was old when man invented the
+cleft-stick stone ax.  There is a note of joy in that cry as well as
+that of rage.  Roger leaped primitively to grapple and break his enemy
+with bare hands.  Garman tossed his rifle away and came on intent upon
+the same purpose.
+
+They clinched; and the moment Roger felt those vast soft hands
+tightening upon him the shock brought back to him a sort of reason.
+Garman was the stronger.  His right hand caught Roger's clenched fist
+within an inch of his chin, and his gorilla grip held the fist
+helpless.  His huge hand encased Roger's fist as one might hold a
+baseball; and slowly, surely, gloatingly he bent the arm.
+
+Garman was the stronger.  This was the thought which now monopolized
+Roger's mind.  By natural law Garman would be the victor in this
+primitive struggle; and considering the man and the circumstances,
+Roger had no illusions as to what this would mean to him.  So far as
+his own entity was concerned the mental picture of himself as Garman's
+victim did not disturb him greatly; he had lost all that man may hope
+for in life; no fear came into his heart as he realized how much Garman
+was his physical superior.
+
+An impulse to throw himself madly upon his opponent regardless of
+consequences followed the picture; but with a sudden determination he
+controlled it.  A few wild, reckless spasms and he knew the fight would
+be over.  Once those terrible hands, with their fat, suctionlike palms,
+found a vital hold they would not let go; and Garman was an experienced
+fighter, and wild fighting would soon present him the opportunity which
+he would see and seize.
+
+Roger placed himself wholly upon the defensive, and while he skillfully
+resisted Garman's efforts to end the struggle at once, he fought with
+himself a struggle for calm reason.
+
+He could not win.  That was the basis from which he began to reason.
+Garman was the stronger man, so much stronger that against him Roger's
+powerful young body thrust as against the trunk of an immovable tree.
+For a moment the pair had held motionless, Garman's bulk and might held
+for the instant by Roger's impetuous rush, but now the Plunderer's
+strength was telling and he was slowly thrusting his victim back.
+
+As he retreated before the irresistible strength that was dominating
+him, Roger was winning a battle with himself.  All the youth and pride
+and strength of him were rebelling at even momentary subjection, but
+his will was swiftly gaining the ascendancy within him.  The body cried
+for a swift and terrible struggle; the mind demanded patience.  For
+though he could not win he would if he could, before he succumbed, hurt
+Garman so terribly that victory would be too dearly purchased to be
+enjoyed.
+
+The first clash was over; Garman, contented at having proved himself
+the stronger, had ceased to thrust against Roger, and in a moment the
+pair came to a standstill.  Roger's left fist was still held helpless
+in Garman's grip while with his right he fended away the Plunderer's
+hand at his throat.  Garman was not striking; his great left hand like
+a wide-open claw came forward seeking a throttling grip, while the wild
+light in his eyes and the ghastly smile on his face showed how sure he
+was of an easy triumph.
+
+"I've got you, Payne!" he roared.  "Let that sink into your soul.  I've
+got you.  Out here nobody will come or hear you when you begin to
+shriek for mercy.  Oh, you're going to shriek, all right; don't have
+any doubt about that.  I know how to do it; I'm going to have some fun
+out of this mess after all.  Yes, enough fun to pay for all the damage
+you've done me.  I'm going to play with you, sonny; I'm going to show
+you tricks you never heard of.  I'm going to make you last a long time
+after you begin to shriek and beg me to kill you, and every minute of
+it will be to me like a dream come true.  Buck me, will you?  Then come
+to me!"
+
+The last words were accompanied by a sudden jerk.  Garman's arms licked
+out viciously and Roger found himself clasped to his enemy's breast.  A
+horror possessed him such as he had never imagined, for Garman's whole
+body seemed like his hands, soft, clinging, destructive; and Roger put
+all his strength in the effort and broke free.
+
+He must not let Garman get him like that again, he thought as he fought
+back.  It had cost him too much energy to break the hold.  Garman had
+been a trifle too assured, not realizing fully his opponent's strength;
+and the next time he would make sure that there was no escape from his
+gorilla-like arms.
+
+"Come to me, Payne," he repeated softly, reaching for another grip.
+"I've got you; feed your soul on those words.  So young and full of
+life; but I've got you out here in the swamp where nobody can see or
+hear.  Why, sonny, I doubt if they'll ever find you, or what's left,
+after I get through."
+
+Roger, calm again after his sudden effort, watched for an opening and
+shot his left like a bullet against the huge, gross mouth.  Almost in
+the same second he side-stepped and brought his right in an arc to the
+mark above Garman's belt and leaped back out of danger.  Garman did not
+stir, and though the blow on the mouth cut it did not efface the sneer
+on his lips.
+
+"Or what's left after I get through," he repeated.  "Let your mind take
+hold of that, sonny.  It won't be pretty to look at, but never mind;
+you won't be able to see it.  All alone, out here in the swamp and the
+buzzards will be waiting."
+
+He lunged and Roger slipped by his guard, smashed his fist into the
+mouth again and pivoted to safety.
+
+"The buzzards will be waiting, Payne," continued Garman in his
+monotone.  "Big hungry one, up there in the cypress.  But the Mexican
+Buzzards, the little brown fellows, will come down from the trees
+first--fierce little Mexican buzzards--not afraid to tackle a thing
+still living a little and groaning!"
+
+Roger scarcely heard the last words, for Garman was on him like a fury,
+striking, clawing, cursing.
+
+"Hit me, will you!  Try your boxer's tricks on me, eh?" he roared.
+"I'll stamp your head into the ground."
+
+The rush carried them back to the fringe of palmetto scrub, and at the
+touch of sharp leaves on his back Roger leaped to one side and away
+from the scrub.  So swiftly did he move that Garman was unable to turn
+with him, and Roger flung his arms about the raging enemy's middle and
+lifted him in the air.  Then Garman laughed softly, for his paws
+dropped upon Roger's wrists, as he threw himself face downward upon the
+ground.  Roger was on top but for a moment he was helpless, his wrists
+imprisoned beneath Garman's body.
+
+"The Mexican buzzards, sonny; the little fierce fellows.  I've got you;
+I've got you sure this time."
+
+Roger relaxed in apparent defeat; then bending his supple body like a
+bow he managed to drive a knee with all his power into the small of
+Garman's back.  The upper part of the huge, gross body came up with a
+jerk; a cry of mingled pain and rage escaped Garman; his grip relaxed
+and Roger tore himself free.
+
+The terrific wrench of the back would have prostrated any normal man,
+but Garman, rolling swiftly, came to his feet and rushed again with new
+fury.
+
+The fight raged across the clearing and back again, Garman striving to
+drive his agile opponent into the brush and entangle him, Roger
+carefully avoiding this danger which would have enabled Garman to come
+to grips.  Time after time the latter rushed and each time Roger eluded
+his grasp.  When a safe opportunity offered Roger struck and leaped to
+safety, refusing to permit Garman's taunts to rouse him to reckless
+fury.
+
+"Run, why don't you, sonny?  Turn and beat it.  You're fast; you might
+get away."
+
+Roger did not reply to these efforts to provoke him; he circled just
+out of reach, watching with icy eyes for the big man's next move.  And
+when it came he was ready to meet it.  His mind was clear and cool; one
+chance he had and one only,--that Garman would tire himself.  As the
+fight went on and it became obvious that Garman, despite his efforts,
+was as fresh as ever, Roger abandoned this hope; and now he became more
+calm, more icy-eyed than ever.
+
+It was a fight to death and his only purpose now to die hard and
+fighting to the last breath.  A grim satisfaction, a pride, almost a
+joy, in the perfect condition of body, of his strength and agility,
+began to grow in him.  The joy of life, the purposes and hopes of a
+man's existence; the hope of love, all that had been put away; and he
+had become the stark fighting man, single of idea, barren of hope, but
+efficient.  The intoxication of battle began to creep upon him.  From
+the toes of his light strong feet to the top of his head his body
+thrilled with the strong man's joy in his own strength; and only his
+iron will, which had consecrated his strength to the uttermost possible
+harming of Garman, prevented him from shouting exultantly.  Instead he
+stepped in when the opportunity presented itself and swung his right
+with all his power to Garman's long, heavy jaw.  The blow would have
+felled any other man like a pole-axed ox, but Garman's head merely
+rolled back on its thick neck and that was all.
+
+A new gleam of craftiness in Garman's eyes warned Roger to
+extraordinary alertness, and when the other, pretending to seek a
+moment's rest, suddenly lashed out a kick for the groin, the young man
+threw himself away, escaping with a blow on the hip.  Anger flamed in
+him anew, the anger of the fair fighter at a treacherous trick, and at
+the sight of the change in him Garman permitted himself a little smile,
+and Roger again forced himself to grow calm.  He retreated, striking,
+ducking, side-stepping, he circled the clearing.  Once his foot slipped
+on the barrel of Garman's rifle, and he kicked it to one side.  As he
+did so Garman kicked again, at the knee this time; but now Roger was
+ready, he caught his foot behind the other's heel, heaved up and threw
+the big man heavily.
+
+"God--you!" bellowed Garman as he sprang up, and the smile was gone
+from his face.
+
+The fighting now became bestial, brutal, animal-like in its unreasoning
+fury.  Driven wild with humiliation over the heavy throw, Garman
+lowered his head and charged like a mad bull, butting, striking,
+kicking.  His blows were wild, but their power was irresistible;
+Roger's guard was beaten down, he tried in vain to escape; and one of
+the blows went home on his forehead and knocked him into the palmetto
+scrub.  With both feet he kicked viciously at the huge head that was
+rushing at him; Garman's rush stopped sharply; and Roger was on his
+feet and out in the open ere his opponent had recovered.
+
+Garman was insane with rage; Roger was icy calm.  They had been
+fighting so long now and so furiously that he knew the end could not be
+long delayed.  He realized how narrowly he had escaped; had his kick
+missed Garman would have been on top of him.  He must not go down again.
+
+His heart was thumping so his ribs shook, and his breath was coming in
+gulps between parted lips.  Garman's lips were smashed beyond all
+resemblance to a mouth, and the heaving of his great chest told how the
+pace was telling.  His first kick had done the work, however.  A
+numbness was spreading over Roger's right leg.  In the heat of combat
+he had not realized how severe was the kick that had been dealt him,
+but now the fact came home.
+
+He was slowing up.  Well, he would do all the damage he could before
+the stiffening limb permitted Garman to catch him in that horrible
+gorilla grip.  And then Garman spoke:
+
+"You got the girl you ---- young pup, but I've got you."
+
+New strength coursed through Roger's heart.  His lightninglike feint
+drew Garman's guard low; he swung his right in an over-hand blow full
+upon his opponent's hawk-like nose.  Garman's mouth opened wide as he
+struggled for breath, and Roger knew the damage he had done.  Again he
+feinted, again he swung--and a bone in his right hand snapped as the
+fist went home on the top of his enemy's suddenly lowered head.
+
+
+Garman laughed through the welter of his broken face, and rushed, and
+Roger's straight left stopped him.  Again the left flashed into the
+battered face, and again.  Roger was fighting with the desperation of
+his last remnants of strength.  One hand was useless, his leg was
+stiffening rapidly, but his left worked havoc with the other's features.
+
+Garman drew back.  His eyes gleamed with comprehension and triumph.
+Maddened and reckless Roger rushed and struck and got away; and then
+suddenly, in one uncontrollable spasm of rage Garman went wild.  His
+tone became an animal roar of rage, his fighting that of a beast.  And
+as Roger side-stepped and dodged he knew that the end had come.  He
+floundered and stumbled; his right leg was fast becoming useless.
+
+Garman had only to keep on rushing.
+
+Roger slipped on something hard and realized that it was the rifle.  As
+he leaped up and away he saw Garman's eye catch a glint of the weapon.
+With a terrific effort Roger lunged forward.  Too late.  Garman had
+stooped to dig the weapon from the trodden sand.  Roger struck with the
+desperation of life or death behind his blow.  His fist landed full on
+the neck below the ear; Garman grunted bestially and pitched forward on
+his face.  The sight seemed to flood Roger's body with unbounded
+strength, the strength of hope reborn after despair has held sway.  He
+jerked the rifle from his opponent's hands.  Garman was on his hands
+and knees, sneering grotesquely at Roger's face above the leveled
+barrel.  And suddenly Roger swung the rifle round and threw it out of
+reach in the palmetto scrub.
+
+"Get up!" he panted hoarsely.  "I've got you now."
+
+Garman rose on tottering legs and came on.  He could not fight any
+longer, but he could blaspheme, and the foulest curses rolled from his
+lips.  Finally he uttered Annette's name.  Roger set himself and drove
+his fist to the point of the heavy, fat jaw.  And as a marionette falls
+when its suspending strings are cut, so Garman collapsed and lay a
+huge, shapeless heap in the reddened sand.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+Hours later Roger found himself on the bank of the river far below
+Garman's house.  He had wandered wildly, avoiding paths, dodging
+clearings, holding to dark, shaded jungle-land, like a hurt animal
+seeking to hide its wounds from the light of day.  The joy of victory
+over Garman glowed steadily in his bosom, yet though he knew that
+Garman now was a broken man and that he no longer would attempt to play
+king in the district, he also knew that the fruits of the victory were
+like ashes upon his tongue.  He felt old and defeated, like a man
+suddenly robbed of his illusions.  Garman had been right; he had been
+dwelling in the Fool's Paradise of Youth, accepting dreams for
+realities.  Now, he had "torn the mask of illusions from the face of
+Life and seen the old hag as she really is."
+
+Garman's phrases kept ringing in his ears, and with repetition they
+came to hold a note of mocking triumph.
+
+Garman was whipped, yet he had won.  His words remained to cut and
+torture.  In his state of semidelirium Roger began to doubt that he had
+won over Garman.  The doubt became a certainty.  Defeat, not victory,
+was his portion.  Garman's was the victory, the victory of bitter
+knowledge over the vaporish ideals of youth.
+
+Roger stooped to drink from a clear pool at the river's brink and
+shrank back at the reflection he beheld in the water.  A strange, lined
+face stared up at him.  He shut his eyes as he drank, then plunged his
+head into the pool.  Cooled off and cleansed, he again studied his
+reflection.  The traces of dust and combat were washed away, and he saw
+how little they had to do with the transformation.  The change was
+deeper than the skin, deeper than the flesh.  It had bitten into the
+spirit; and the bitterness and hate in his eyes, the cynical sneer that
+leered up at him, sprang from the change that had taken place in his
+soul.
+
+Garman was still winning.
+
+Roger laughed aloud, and at the sound of his voice checked himself
+abruptly.  He turned away from the pool, cursing it for what it had
+revealed, and stumbled back into the darkness of the jungle.
+
+In time he came to the spot where he and Garman had fought.  His enemy
+was gone.  It was some minutes before Roger realized how this
+disappointed him.  He had returned to tell Garman he was right.  He no
+longer hated Garman.  Garman made him see the truth.
+
+Later, as he sat near the spot where his foe had fallen, he saw that
+others had visited the spot recently.  There were a multitude of fresh
+tracks in the sand about the palmetto scrub.  He regarded them
+indifferently until he saw the deep marks of Higgins' hunting boots.
+Besides these he saw other men's tracks, including the marks of Willy
+High Pocket's bare feet.  And then he saw that which sent the blood
+racing to his head.
+
+Clearly outlined in the sand were the marks of a girl's tennis
+slippers, and he knew they were Annette's.
+
+He searched the sand like a hound now, seeking signs of what had
+happened.  He saw where the tracks had come into the clearing--Higgins,
+Willy High Pocket and Annette.  They had been running.  Then he saw how
+they had scattered, searching the country round, and had returned to
+the spot where Garman lay.  From there they had gone toward the path
+leading to Garman's house.  There were tracks of half a dozen men.
+Garman's was among them.  He had, apparently, been helped to his feet
+and led away.
+
+As the last rays of the setting sun were gilding the palm tops Roger
+pushed aside a curtain of moon vine and looked out upon Garman's house
+and the little lake beyond.  To his surprise the Egret lay at the dock,
+the captain on the bridge, ready to start downstream.  Higgins, Davis
+and Willy High Pockets were standing near the pergola looking toward
+the house.  Presently they turned and walked slowly out of sight and
+hearing.
+
+Garman came tottering out of the house onto the walk leading to the
+dock.  He was freshly clad and extensively bandaged.  Beside him walked
+Annette, supporting him with the strength of her tall young body.
+Garman was broken physically, but his spirit remained strong.
+
+Suddenly he halted, painfully freeing his arm from her supporting hand.
+
+"No," he mumbled through his bandages, "I can't let you do that."
+
+"But I want to help you to the boat," she protested.  "You're very
+weak, you know."
+
+Garman tottered, yet he gestured her away.  He spoke slowly, each word
+an effort.
+
+"Might it occur to you that even in my present condition I might be
+capable of feeling a sense of humiliation at being helped away--by you?"
+
+"I wouldn't want you to feel that," she replied.
+
+"Ha!" he laughed faintly, "The magnanimity of victorious youth toward
+the conquered.  Star-eyed youth has won, and----"
+
+"Oh, please don't take up that old strain, Mr. Garman.  You are badly
+hurt; you must think of getting to a doctor at once."
+
+"Can the leopard change his spots?" he said.  "No.  He doesn't want to.
+I was very weak a moment ago.  My strength is returning.  But I am not.
+A strong man leaves and forgets the scene of his defeat, and the
+defeat.  You will never see me again.  Can you bear up under that?"
+
+"I'm very sorry to hear you say things like that."
+
+Garman swayed like a broken tree, but despite it he smiled sardonically.
+
+"You had hoped I had changed?"  His voice was little more than a
+painful whisper.  Swaying drunkenly, almost falling, he drove himself
+on to speak.  "That the leopard's spots had become whiter than snow?
+My dear Miss Fairclothe, people don't change like that.  Behold
+yourself: even the jungle and sun, even I, couldn't change you.  The
+flesh wavered, but the soul held true.  I won't play the hypocrite and
+say I am glad you were too strong for me.  I am not.  I wish I could
+have made you like myself.  Now I'm going away and forget you and all
+this, and the whole affair of civilization.  If you feel sorry for me
+your emotion is wasted.  On the whole it will be a relief for me.
+Business, and so on--I was getting pretty well bored with the whole
+thing."
+
+He staggered grotesquely toward the dock and halted.
+
+"And don't you worry about Payne.  You'll find him.  Trust the woman to
+find the man she's marked for her victim!  No, no!  Don't grow
+indignant; I'll change 'victim' to 'mate.'  There's really little
+difference.  Payne's all right."  A quiver of pain convulsed him.
+"He's got some brains, too.  Not too much, but enough.  You two are too
+perfectly matched for anything to keep you apart, and, having joined
+one another, too perfectly matched to avoid fighting."  He chuckled
+faintly behind his bandages.  "Oh, yes, you'll fight, my dear girl,
+take my word for that; he's got a will of his own, too.  But your
+fights will be embraces in disguise."
+
+He tottered toward the river and again turned.
+
+"Will you shake hands with me before I go?" he asked.
+
+"Why, yes," she said.  "Of course."
+
+Garman chuckled, but turned away without touching her proffered hand.
+
+"I merely wanted to know," he said, and went staggering on his away
+aboard the Egret.  He mumbled an order and an oath to the captain.  The
+Egret slipped swiftly down the river.
+
+Annette watched until the yacht had gone.  When she turned round Roger
+was coming toward her.  She cried out, a cry of relief, of happiness,
+of love.
+
+"Annette!" he whispered, and came close to her.
+
+"Wait, wait!" she said.  "There are things to be explained."
+
+"I know."  He moved back a step.  "I was a brute, too."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Garman----"
+
+"Oh--that!  It was terrible, I know, but you were not the aggressor.  I
+mean about the note."
+
+"Do notes--or things like it--matter now?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; they matter very, very much.  I wish to explain.  I--I went out
+there to Palm Island to fight out my fight with myself."
+
+He looked at her radiant young face and said: "You won."
+
+"Yes, that is the wonderful part of it: I didn't know whether I would
+win when I went there.  Garman was so terribly strong.  He dominated
+me, and seemed to control my thoughts and feelings.  But--do you
+remember what you said in the path there the other day--when I asked
+you to go away--when Garman spied on us?"
+
+"What was it?" he asked.
+
+"Oh!  Don't you remember?"
+
+"Let me see--I called Garman a cad."
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!  You remember you said--you said----"
+
+He looked in her eyes and understood.
+
+"I said I loved you."
+
+"Yes.  That's what saved me.  I knew.  I felt it here in my heart how
+you loved me.  Roger, I felt it from the moment we met."
+
+"Yes," he said, "I loved you from that moment, Annette."
+
+"And I you, Roger.  But it seemed so impossible.  I used to think it
+must be a dream.  Aunty, father, Garman and all the selfishness; and
+then in the midst of it all finding such a love--such a love as girls
+dream of, Roger.  And I was afraid Garman had me in his power.  So I
+went to the island and fought it out.  And then I knew it was all
+right--because all I thought of was you.  So I sent him that note.  I
+was a little afraid of him, and I wanted to lure him away, so I
+could--well, I wanted him away."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I can't tell you, dear."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Please don't make me tell.  I'm ashamed."
+
+"Very well then."
+
+She turned her flushed face up toward him.
+
+"Do you really want to know?"
+
+"If you wish to tell me."
+
+"I wanted him away--so I could come to you.  I hurried straight to your
+camp.  Am I shameless, Roger?  Then we hunted for you.  Roger----"
+
+"I am not worthy of you," he said, "but I love you."
+
+"Roger?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Do you think we will really fight?"
+
+They laughed together, the joyous laughter of youth, her head upon his
+breast and his arms about her.
+
+"Probably," he said.
+
+And they laughed again.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plunderer, by Henry Oyen
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLUNDERER ***
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