"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."