EFAW KOTEE'S DEN
Sylvia there! I bounded up as though some one had sent a galvanic
current through my body, exclaiming:
"Good Lord! How far, Smilax? Come quick, let's go!"
He answered each of my exclamations in sequence, a peculiarity he had:
"Yes, Lord good. Two mile, maybe some more. Plenty time, we go back
soon."
"But we couldn't have heard that axe two miles," I said incredulously.
"Still night, when wind on prairie right; yes, sometime."
"How are they camped? How many are there? Come, man, don't keep me
waiting!"
He drew himself up to full height and, with one arm pointing toward the
southwest, spoke deliberately as if realizing his importance, seeming to
choose his words--seeming, rather, to grope for them.
"Over there forest is little strip thick, maybe half mile; then come
water--Gulf. Me know um is Gulf; taste and find um salt. Close by shore
big island, close by um little island. More island all 'round. Too dark
to see much, but Efaw Kotee live on big island. Many cabin. On little
island Lady live. One cabin. She come to door and me get good look, for
light in cabin. Old woman live with her; Injun squaw; me know by way she
walk. Before day we go hide in good place on shore. Watch all day and
see. Must watch all day, or they see us if we leave 'fore dark. Now you
smoke; then we go 'sleep l'il while."
Sleep! How could I sleep while she was within three miles of me,
surrounded by ten or a dozen devils the combined virtues of whom would
not fill a gnat's eye! Of course, she had lived in this situation for
years, but I had not heard of it until very recently, and that makes a
world of difference.
But after we got back to camp and I had stretched out on my blanket to
let the telescope of my fancies pierce the realm of hopes, sleep did
come. I would not have believed it, but it did; for soon I realized that
some one was shaking my arm, while a voice said over and over:
"Time we go; time we go!"
It was yet night when I opened my eyes, but Smilax had lit a small
buttonwood fire and breakfast was waiting. While I stumbled to the pool
to drive the cobwebs from my brain he took the canteens and filled them
at the spring; for, in the all-day strain ahead of us--and few things
are more trying than to lie concealed and watch from the gray of dawn
till the black of night--we should need a liberal supply of water.
"Shall we take rifles?" I asked, when everything was ready and each of
us had our snack of food.
"No," he answered. "Too hard to crawl like snake. They no see us to-day.
We take l'il crack-crack."
"Little crack-crack" meant an automatic revolver, greatly admired by
Smilax and, since Tommy's coaching, handled by him with no mean skill.
So I swung one of these to the small of my back, into position when we
should begin crawling, and handed him the other; whereupon, without
further ado, we traversed the "island" and melted into the prairie.
Forty minutes later Smilax moving slowly and cautiously ahead, entered
the narrow strip of forest. Another ten minutes, and we got to our hands
and knees. In this way we proceeded perhaps a hundred yards when,
putting his lips close to my ear, he whispered:
"We hide here; come still like snake."
I put out my hand and felt the ragged edge of saw-palmetto, then slipped
in behind him, moving scarcely more than a yard a minute. Heaven help
us, I thought, if we had to lie on that torturous stuff for fifteen
hours! But Smilax was equal to every occasion. When we reached the far
side of the patch, leaving only a fringe of leaves to shield us from
those we came to watch, he worked a while with his hands, then
whispered: "Now lay down." Lo, the uncomfortable roots had been pressed
in other directions and the soft sand received my body. He remained,
however, long enough on his knees to make sure that none of the fronds
had been twisted out of line, else uncompromising daylight might show
our enemy that all here was not right.
The night remained very still and impenetrably black, though I think
that Smilax could see a little with his extraordinary catlike sight.
Then came a first sleepy bird note. The day, at last, was on the wing!
When from obscurity the saw-tooth stems took shape before my eyes and
the distance receded farther, I saw that we were near the edge of a
steep bank. Perhaps twelve feet below us lay the water, as a mirror on
which some one has breathed. A mist hung over it--and in that gossamer
shroud a little island floated whereon my Sylvia dwelt--where now she
slept.
A minute later the forest awoke with bird life; dawn came rapidly.
Islands took shape, trees stepped out from their obscurity and small
details drew into focus. First I sought her home and could hardly take
my eyes from it. Low and rambling, it stood two hundred feet away,
nestled in a most inviting shade of splendid trees. Flowers and climbing
vines were everywhere, touched with the rich coloring of poinsettia and
bougainvillea--although this very approach of day began to close the
fragrant moon-flowers and spelled death to the night-blooming cereus.
The walls of her bungalow seemed to be tinted red, varying to purple,
which gave a strange yet most pleasing effect in the setting of
blossoms. Not till later did I learn that this was the rare Cat's Claw
wood, nowhere to be found but in southern Florida.
On the larger island, not over a hundred feet from us, were perhaps ten
buildings of about the same size and plan, and presumably sleeping
quarters. But in their midst stood a structure of some pretensions that
we afterwards knew to be a dining hall. Quite off in the background were
two small bungalows whose air denoted quality, but the roof of one had
been fitted with a skylight which gave me the impression that here Efaw
Kotee worked his trade at counterfeiting. Still beyond this was a tower
rising above the low trees, perhaps intended for a lighthouse, although
there had been no light burning when we came. But these were at best
surmises that arranged themselves in my mind while noting everything in
sight and awaiting a further sign of life.
Soon a hinge squeaked. A man stepped from one of the smaller huts,
looked at the sky, yawned and stretched. A second appeared from another
hut, walked away and came back with an armful of wood that he took into
the dining hall. As they passed there was scarcely a nod of greeting. A
surly pair, I thought. After this smoke issued from the chimney, and
other men, one by one from other huts, came dribbling out into the day,
until altogether we had counted seven. The six now before us, after
make-shift splashes in the basins beside their doors, went as the chap
with the wood had gone; and shortly we heard sounds of knives and forks
rattling on china.
It was at this moment that a thin line of smoke arose from the chimney
of Sylvia's bungalow. Longingly I watched it; tingling to my finger tips
I blessed it. A side door opened, but it was an Indian woman who emerged
with two pails and walked back of the house--doubtless to a tank of rain
water, because she returned with them full and went in, taking care to
close the door softly. The deference of her manner, the affection with
which she apparently guarded her mistress' sleep, strongly appealed to
me, and I knew that the Indian woman would be my friend.
The next move came again from the dining hall when a swarthy fellow
emerged wiping his mouth upon his sleeve. His hair was long and black,
reaching below his shoulders. With a rifle nested in the hollow of his
arm he disappeared toward the tower, and Smilax whispered:
"Him Injun."
Now to our surprise some one appeared to be looking down from the tower,
and a few minutes later the Indian was seen above the mangroves climbing
up to him. There must have been strips spiked crosswise to one of the
uprights, making a kind of ladder.
"So that's a watch tower," I said cautiously. "And he makes eight."
Smilax nodded.
The fellows talked a while, then the one who had been relieved came
down, going for his breakfast.
"What do you think of it?" I whispered.
"No see him before," Smilax looked grave. "Maybe one up in tree 'round
here."
"Gee, you think so?" It was not a comforting suggestion.
"No, maybe not," he answered, after a moment of thought. "They no look
for us by land; all by water. We all right. Look! Efaw Kotee have
breakfast!"
Two men left the dining hall, each bearing a tray of food, and we
watched until they entered the rather exclusive house next to the work
shop. This without doubt was the old scoundrel's headquarters, but why
did he have two trays? Could by any chance Sylvia be kept beneath the
same roof with him? Had Smilax been mistaken? The weight of my automatic
felt good just then.
When they came out, empty handed, one turned toward the watch tower but
the other went for still a third tray. This, which he carried with an
air of deference, was covered by a white cloth. He came to the boats
across from us and got into a punt, balancing his tray across the bow
while he paddled, standing, toward the little island. Now I became more
than ever tense, and perhaps I moved, for Smilax pressed my arm in
caution.
As the punt touched at the landing platform below Sylvia's house the
fellow did not get out, but gave the call of an ibis--a weird,
beautifully mystic call that is rarely heard and almost impossible to
imitate. Smilax appreciated this, for he grunted: "Good."
The door opened and the Indian woman looked out.
"Hey, there, Echochee," he said. "I got a present from the boss."
She slammed the door, and I do not know when in my life I was ever so
charmed by this simple act.
"Then you go to hell," he drawled. "But I tell yer this: the boss said
if no one come down to git it, for me to leave it in yer parler."
While Echochee had slammed the door she was evidently listening; for now
she came out again, a picture of fury, crying:
"Don't you put foot here!"
"Then come an' git it," he carelessly replied.
She hesitated.
"Lay um down, then go back. Me get um."
"Naw, old hatchet-face. Jest come on down an' git it yer own se'f, or
I'll bring it up."
"My Lady no let any one come here," she warned. "You go back quick!"
"That's all right 'bout yer Lady, but the boss says fer me to hand this
right in myse'f, an' what the boss says--goes! Yer git that, don't yer?
So come on down an' git this, an' that'll make two things yer git," he
laughed boisterously, adding: "It's a weddin' present, an' if yer don't
git a move on maybe the boss'll come his own se'f!"
I could see from the woman's face that she was in a towering rage, but
she went--lithely as a girl, for all her years--to the landing.
"That's what I call sense, old hatchet-face," he sneered, stepping
gingerly over the seat--for a punt is a tippy thing--and holding the
tray out to her.
With a snarl she jerked it from his hands, raised it quickly and brought
it down on his head. Of course, the cloth and everything beneath it went
scattering to the winds, while he tumbled backward into the water. Not
content, she picked up several of the various fruits the tray had held
and began to pepper him with such good aim that he hastily and profanely
splashed back to the other shore. Then the tray, its cover, and the
spilled fruits not already used in the form of ammunition, were
contemptuously tossed in his direction. After this she tied the punt as
though nothing had happened, went back into the house and closed the
door. Smilax was shaking with silent delight.
"Bully," I whispered.
"Good," he said. "Look--water not much deep. We 'member that." Though at
the time I did not see how this held any advantage for us, being
distinctly of less protection for Sylvia.
The man dragged himself up the oozy bank, cursing roundly, and started
post-haste for Efaw Kotee's bungalow. We could hear the water sloshing
in his shoes, and knew that he was quite as uncomfortable in mind as in
body. He did not go upon the porch, but stood below, hat in hand,
calling. Then I saw the old chief--the same man who had paid his supper
check with a new fifty-dollar bill. Smilax squeezed my arm, saying:
"Him boss on yacht."
I felt well satisfied at this identification, which was the first
definite assurance that the owner of the _Orchid_ and my neighbor in the
cafe were one and the same. He came out scowling, listened unmoved to
the fellow's recital and turned back without a word, while the aggrieved
one walked sulkily to his quarters.
But soon Efaw Kotee reappeared, this time with another man, and Smilax
became excited.
"Look," he whispered. "Him name Jess. Him bust Smilax head!"
It was the fellow who had drawn back when Tommy and Monsieur went to the
gambling rooms, but now without his uniform he seemed coarser and more
cruel.
"That makes ten, all told," I whispered.
"Whole lot," was the black's only comment.
They came slowly, talking in low tones. At the water's edge across from
us they halted and Jess, pointing to the punt, said something whereupon
the older man's face turned dark with anger.
"Echochee!" he called.
No answer; the door of Sylvia's dwelling remained closed.
"Echochee," he called again, and his voice grated hatefully on my
nerves, "bring that punt over here!"
Then the door did open, I thought reluctantly, and the Indian woman came
out.
"What you want?" she asked.
"Say: 'What you want, _Master_!'" he yelled at her.
"Why I say that?" she asked, a dull fire of hatred kindling in her eyes.
"Because it's so," he thundered, stamping the ground in fury while his
palsied head shook more noticeably.
"You lie," she replied. "You no master of my Lady or me, any more. We go
to Great Spirit any time now."
A chill ran over me. What, in God's name, did she mean? Was Sylvia
dying? Again Smilax touched my arm to caution prudence.
Efaw Kotee was, I think, trying to control himself, yet his long arms
and veiny hands were swinging, pendulum-like, to and fro across his
body. It was an uncanny indication of anger, suggesting rather a beast
than a human being. The captain was standing silent, with his arms
folded.
"Echochee," said the chief, "bring us that punt. We must see your Lady."
"My Lady see no one."
"I want that punt," he bellowed at her.
"You got plenty punt; me go in house," she replied stoically.
There were, indeed, three or four punts tied to the shore near by.
"Hold on, there," he commanded, "or it'll go bad for you! I want that
punt, there, understand?"
"Then get that punt there," she said indifferently.
"You damned old hag," he screamed, now quite beside himself, "one of
your rotten tribe's in that lookout tower, d'you understand? If you
don't bring that punt across I'll have him crucified before your eyes!
Hear me, hag?"
"All right," she said quietly. "Him no 'count; do him good."
She turned back to pass through the door, but was stopped by some one
coming out. Sylvia! Never more beautiful than now! Echochee put up both
arms to stop her and I noticed--for in tense moments one's eyes retain
some of the most insignificant details--how incongruously her brown old
bony fingers sank into the dainty folds of her lady's morning gown. But
Sylvia would not be stopped. She placed a hand on the woman's shoulder
and spoke a few hurried words, then raised her head and looked
imperiously at the men, saying:
"You shan't hurt any one because Echochee obeys me. Is the punt all you
want?"
Jess moved uneasily, but there was no trace of embarrassment in the
bearing of Efaw Kotee.
"No, it's not! We want to cross to you!"
"No one comes on this island," she said.
"I've had enough of your nonsense," the old fellow cried. "I believe yet
you steered that bunch of pups after us, in spite of hell I believe it;
but, whether you did or didn't, I've had enough of bowing and scraping
like a nigger, and begging to be allowed to go over there! Enough, I
tell you!"
"Then don't try any more," she indifferently replied, turning to go in;
but he checked her with another threat--and by the way she flinched I
knew that he meant it.
"If you go in that door till I'm through," he bellowed, "that crucifying
comes off in ten minutes--right on this spot where you can hear the
beggar squeal!"
She stopped and looked at him, and I realized that we had come in the
nick of time for some great crisis which was enveloping her.
"Now, see here," he continued, in a calmer voice, "you've kept this up
since yesterday morning, and it's unreasonable. Why don't you let us
come over and have a talk? I've been a good father to you! You've had
everything you want--and just bought six trunks full of clothes in
Havana last week! Why do you keep us--keep me--away?"
While absorbedly listening, I was struck by the oddity of a girl in this
wilderness buying six trunks full of clothes; but it then occurred to me
that Efaw Kotee would encourage extravagant buying of all things, when
the _Orchid_ visited a city, in order that he might get bona fide change
for his spurious bills. At least there was good reason for her gown to
be modern, smart, and becoming, as Havana's best Americanized shops are
quite continental.
"I keep you away," she answered icily, "because you're planning to
marry me to an unprincipled scoundrel."
"A what?" Jess yelled.
"Shut up!" the old one snapped at him.
"An unprincipled scoundrel," she answered evenly, "who's as loathsome as
an ape. And I shan't be married to that kind of thing, or any one else.
You've had my warning. If you, or he, or any of your beastly men come to
this island, you'll get only my dead body. And Echochee, dear soul, is
going with me. What's more, if you start any tortures, we'll die before
witnessing them."
"Then, by God," he screamed, "you and your damned hag'll begin to starve
from this day! With no more provisions sent over we'll see who obeys me!
And in three more days if you don't come to your senses I'll crucify an
offering to your dead body--head down on the spot I stand!" He had been
raving, but now his tone quickly changed to one of whining entreaty, as
he added: "I hope you understand how it pains your dear old father to
threaten you, my child!"
It was so maudlin an exhibition that I wondered if he were sane.
"Dear old father," she repeated, giving a short laugh of contempt.
I did not know how much of this was real and how much acting on her
part, although it did seem genuine enough when she could not be looking
for relief. Yet, as she stood there calmly mistress of herself while
Efaw Kotee writhed beneath her scorn, I was reminded of an angler who
had hooked an ungainly fish--she with intellect at one end, he at the
other representing brute strength, fear, cunning; both connected by a
barely visible thread that in this case was not a line, but Fate. For
another moment she let him writhe, then turned and went in.
Jess laughed.
"Shut up, you clown," the old chief turned on him.
"Clown yourself," the captain snarled. "I'll have you know I won't take
any of your lip!"
"Then I back out of our bargain, that's all!"
"If you say that again I'll twist off your palsied head with these two
hands," Jess held them under Efaw Kotee's nose and wriggled his fingers,
until the old man shrank back, cowering. "The men'll follow me when I
tell 'em you play double, an' you know it! You swine, I'm sick of this
place! I'm going to take my share of the stuff, an' the girl, an' clear
out! It's been fifteen years since we raised these cabins--more'n that!
An' what have we got? Plenty of the slickest money ever printed--an' the
other stuff, too--an' you afraid to take a chance. Three times I've
stopped a mutiny for you, an' you'd be dead an' buried if I hadn't. Then
came this last when things went wrong. You say the girl peached, but
'tween you an' me I say you tried to turn State's evidence--don't deny
anything," he held up his hand when the other would have interrupted.
"That's passed now. But I've agreed to forget it, to keep the mutinies
stopped for keeps--by marrying the girl. You agreed, too. Now you talk
of backing out. Is killing too good for you?"
"I don't want to, Jess; I don't, honest," Efaw Kotee said, with a whine.
"But you see yourself how she is! If we rush the place, day or night,
she'll kill herself. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it!"
"You've done about all you can for a while," Jess grumbled, adding: "If
she don't run away."
"Where'd she run to?" the other sneered.
"Well, some kind friend might show her!"
"You're crazy," the chief contemptuously exclaimed.
"Crazy or not, you just see that she doesn't. Then, if starving three
days doesn't bring her, maybe crucifying _you_ head down might do the
trick."
"Wha--what d'you mean?" The old fellow sprang around and stared at him,
seeming to have grown hollow and gray.
"Oh, nothing," Jess grinned. "Just a little idea I had--worth keeping in
mind, though. It might be healthy for you to see she can't run off,
that's all."
Efaw Kotee looked at the captain suspiciously, and said:
"I'll guarantee she doesn't run off--and your other little ideas aren't
pleasant. Let's go back and have a drink."
When they had entered the bungalow a silence fell over the settlement. I
did not see a man anywhere. But I drew a long breath of relief because
Sylvia was for a little while safe, even while I raged at the
realization of her danger. My body was cramped, and cautiously I
stretched my legs. Smilax had not moved.
"It looks like we got here just in time," I whispered. "But what shall
we do?"
He relaxed then, and slowly answered:
"Me think 'while. Echochee good old woman; always kind to l'il black
boy."
"You know her?" I could hardly have hoped for that stroke of luck.
"Me know all Seminole; not many left. 'Echochee' mean what white man say
'li'l deer.' She old woman when me l'il black boy in Reservation. Me
think 'while; you, too."
Schemes of every wild kind, daring and impossible plans of rescue,
raced through my brain; seeming reasonable enough at the time, but
Smilax quickly found the flaws in each until I had exhausted my supply.
Finally he spoke, and I knew that he spoke with judgment.
"To-night," he said, "we watch and see if they put out guard. Maybe they
do, after what Jess said 'bout Lady run off. When dark come, me swim to
l'il island and give owl call--two times, then stop soft in middle. Long
'go in Injun village that mean: 'panther, come quick, gun,' Echochee
will hear and 'member. Good. Then we talk and fix all up. First we see
if Efaw Kotee put out guard."
This was so different, so tame, to the brilliant, suicidal dashes into
the thick of rescue and glory--and doubtless destruction--as my plans
ran, that I almost felt ashamed. Smilax could neither read nor write;
his vocabulary might have been held in the hollow of one's hand, but in
many respects he was the sanest creature I ever met.
"Do you suppose Echochee will trust us to get them away?" I whispered.
"If Lady say come, she come," he answered.
This set me thinking, and I decided to write a note that Smilax could
deliver. Sylvia might then feel assured that she was not being abducted
by a negro whom Echochee had known only in childhood. But, on second
thought, I wondered if she would risk escape with an unknown white man;
if she would not rather face the supreme issue, once and for all, than
perhaps be forced into it later by an over-zealous stranger! In her
distracted state of mind I feared she would find the rescue too
precarious--too easily offering the same danger that beset her now, and
lacking her present weapon of defense. Yet if she refused to come--what
then? I could always rush the camp, if but to die with her. Having gone
over these possibilities, I whispered to Smilax:
"She'll come easier if she doesn't know I'm here. Echochee will remember
you, and reassure her. You might tell Echochee that you were hunting
this way and saw her beat the chap over the head with the tray.
Understand? After that you saw the rest and realized how much trouble
she was in. How about it?"
"Good," he grunted. "That good. To-night me tell Echochee get ready, and
to-morrow night we run 'way--maybe to Reservation. But we come by camp
and find you; then all work 'round to yacht. Good."
"Well," I demurred, "that isn't the way I meant, for I intend to stay
here and help. Some of those devils might get busy!"
"That good, too. Now we eat; then you go sleep."
While tackling our rations we discussed the plan again and again. I did
not want to leave Sylvia another night within the grasp of those fiends,
but Smilax insisted; explaining that she was practically safe for three
days, at any rate. Of course, each twenty-four hours would make her and
Echochee weaker from starvation and, as they would need strength, we
dared not wait too long. Immediate help from the _Whim_ was all but a
forlorn hope. The rescue had come suddenly up to us, and it must be met
without a thought of failure.
But as the tiresome afternoon wore on without further incidents to keep
us aroused, my fancies drifted from rescues to the rescued; and after a
while I whispered:
"I'll take that nap now,"--scarcely hearing him reply:
"Good."