The silence that followed was broken by Annette's laughter.
"What very pretty conduct!" she said.
Senator Fairclothe thrust out his chest pompously. Garman being gone
he saw himself as the dominant personality present.
"Men of great affairs, my dear Annette, cannot permit attention to the
petty details of conduct to disturb their purpose when a crisis
presents itself. The truly big man lets his results speak for
themselves. Mr. Garman exercises the privileges of the big man that he
is. It is a privilege to see such a man meeting and solving a problem."
"Do you know what it is about, father?"
"Not at all. Nor do I concern myself. I know Mr. Garman."
The girl leaned forward and peered in his eyes.
"Do you really, father? Ah! I see you do. You too, then? But how
you--a man?"
"Annette," called Mrs. Livingstone, "will you please come in?"
The meal that followed was a ghastly affair. One figure there alone
would have served to cast gloom over the table. Senator Fairclothe sat
crumpled in his chair, his white Vandyke beard crushed on his breast,
looking ridiculously helpless. He had shrunk from his daughter's
words. Not until he had drunk much champagne after the meal did he
begin to recover. And soon after he strutted out to a shaded chair and
fell asleep.
Said Mrs. Livingstone presently:
"Mr. Payne, I understand that Mr. Garman has given orders that the
Egret is at your disposal if you wish to go down the river. I believe
you had planned such a trip, had you not?"
"Are you going?" asked Annette suddenly.
"Yes. Our ditcher is down there at Gumbo Key. I'll feel safer if I
start him up the river myself."
Annette jumped up with a cry of relief.
"Get my sweater coat, Aunty. Get one for yourself. Father! Father,
wake up! We're all going for a nice, beautiful, cool ride down the
river."
"Annette!" gasped Mrs. Livingstone; but Annette carried all before her
like a young spring storm.
Payne had not contemplated a start until near evening, but within half
an hour he found himself beside the girl leaning over the port rail of
the Egret and watching the water curl away from her gleaming bows as
the boat slipped swiftly downstream toward Gumbo Key.
"I was suffocating back there," she explained. "I had to get away.
Yes, Aunty; I'll come out of the sun in a minute--Mr. Payne, I want to
thank you for the way you lied to my father about being satisfied with
your land. Why did you do it?"
He turned to her, intending to laugh the matter away, but as he met her
look, his eyes betrayed him.
"Why did you do it?" she whispered.
Payne looked away; and there was no need for him to speak.
"Oh, no!" she whispered. "Oh, no, no, no, no!"
There was a long silence. At last he heard her stifle a sob and looked
round. Annette was walking aft toward the cabin with slow, dragging
steps.
"My dear Annette!" cried Mrs. Livingstone and Senator Fairclothe
together as they saw her face, but she pushed past them and disappeared
in the cabin.
"Sir!" began the Senator indignantly. "May I ask you for an
explanation?"
"Lafe," interrupted his sister quietly, "will you go and see how
Annette is? I fear she stayed too long in the sun."
"I demand a father's right----"
"Yes, yes. Please do as I suggest. I am sure Annette is wanting you."
Alone, Mrs. Livingstone turned and faced Roger. Though she stood as
hard and motionless as adamant, the jet pendants in her ears trembled
and twinkled. And Payne, as he saw the hard lines about her mouth,
lines of fear, struggle, determination, felt sorry for her.
"What did you say to Annette?"
"Not one word," replied Roger.
"What did she say to you?"
"That is a secret."
"Why did she leave you--as she did?"
"That is another secret--and she's the only one who knows it."
For a moment they faced one another silently, then suddenly the woman
blazed out:
"How dare you interfere with my plans for her! Besides, let me inform
you, it is too late. She is engaged to Mr. Garman."
"She is to marry Garman?" asked Roger slowly.
"Yes."
"Then if it's settled--how can I interfere?"
"You can't. I will not permit it. And if you could, what could you
offer her? You've no money, no position, no influence. You're nobody.
She is Annette Fairclothe. She is the last hope of the family. I have
built our whole future upon her. There will be no interference with my
plans."
"She has a father----"
"Pooh! That doddering ass! Do you think it is he who has enabled us
to keep our position in Washington? And now he is going into his
dotage, and the big men won't dare to use him much longer. I'm not
blind, Mr. Payne; I can see as well as Garman. Let me speak seriously
to you: Your presence here spells danger to Annette--serious danger."
"Why?"
"Because, rather than risk failure for my plans, I will not stop at
anything in the world."
"Why in the world should you threaten me, Mrs. Livingstone?"
Mrs. Livingstone's lips parted in a terrible smile as she walked away.
"You? Why, I was not thinking of you at all."
Above the Egret a crippled white ibis, with a broken leg impeding its
flight, was flying clumsily across the river. Close above it, with
deadly intent, sailed a brown hawk. The hawk struck, but in spite of
its handicap the ibis swerved in time to escape the deadly talons.
Then pursued and pursuer disappeared in the jungle across the river.
At Gumbo Key the black, scowlike hull carrying the ditching machinery,
moving slowly in tow of a gasoline tug, was seen making headway across
the bay toward the mouth of the river. As the Egret curved gracefully
round the Key and came alongside the tug to place Payne aboard, Annette
came and stood by his side.
"You're not going back with us?" she asked.
"No. It's better that I shouldn't. Don't you think so?"
"Yes, I suppose it is." Her eyes looked out across the bay to the open
sea beyond. "Oh! I wish I weren't going back there; I wish I would
never see that place again."
"Do you mean that?"
"How can you doubt it!"
The Egret had completed her curve and with throttled engines was
creeping smoothly up to the ditching scow's side.
"You don't have to go back," said Payne. "The ditching can wait. I'll
have them moor the ditcher here. You can get aboard the tug and I'll
have them take you to Key West, to Fort Myers, Tampa--any place you
want to go. From there you can go anywhere, as far away as you wish to
go."
"Really?" she cried, "Oh, but that poor little tug--the Egret would
catch her in a mile."
"If you get on that tug I will see that you go wherever you wish to go."
"Once aboard the lugger and the girl is free!" she quoted. "No, no.
You don't understand. It isn't so simple as that. If it was merely a
question of getting away, do you think I would be afraid? It's more
than that. It's all in myself, all here." She struck her bosom with a
white clenched fist. "It is something in myself--it's something I've
got to settle all by myself. You must not try to interfere. Win or
lose, no one can help me--no one. That is why I must go back--though I
am afraid."
The Egret had crept past the length of the ditcher, disdaining to
approach its grimy hull with her immaculate sides. She was approaching
the squat little tug. Suddenly the girl held out her hand.
"Good-by," she said.
"Good-by?" he stammered, "Surely it isn't good-by?"
The Egret's starboard ladder was gently chaffing the tug's fender.
"It isn't good-by!" he said.
"I am afraid it is." She watched him as he went over the side onto the
tug's deck. The Egret, as if freed from a burden, shot sharply
forward. Annette leaned far over the rail.
"Good-by," she murmured. "Good-by!"