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.