yne 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 be