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.