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?"