veral who attend Garman's stags win heavily and consistently at poker.

"At Jacksonville, in his suite of offices, there is one door without a
name on it, and that is Mr. Garman's private office.

"On his boat, the Egret, he has as his guests during the tourist season
some of the most prominent people of the country.

"When the season is over, or before it is on, he has no guests down
here. That is his vacation time, the time when Garman plays.

"There are more criminal refugees in the wilds of this swamp country
than anywhere else in this land. There is no man in Garman's employ,
white, black or red, who hasn't got a price on his head somewhere.
There are bandits from Cuba, crooks from large cities, negroes escaped
from chain gangs, men of unspeakable crimes, the most vicious men of
mixed blood ever gathered together since the old pirate days; and these
are Garman's playfellows of his vacation time. He is absolutely their
boss.

"Why does he do it? Because there's money in it. How? There!" Davis
reached into his grub bag and threw on the ground the limp, snow-white
corpse of a beautiful egret. "That's one of the side issues. There's
money in it. Garman saw the rookeries, and couldn't keep his hands off
them. These snow-white birds, feeding young ones in the nest, are
worth money. Garman's gang gets a living, food, liquor and immunity
out of the slaughter, an average probably of one dollar a bird. Garman
gets the rest. And his boat Egret in his harvest time is nothing but a
damn slaughter house, the hold packed with the skins of thousands of
murdered birds."

"But I thought the Government had taken steps to stop the slaughter.
Aren't there guards about the rookeries?"

"There are. Who do you suppose got them their jobs? Garman--in
Washington. How do you suppose they guard? They guard so carefully
that nobody can get into the rookeries, not a soul except Garman's
gang. Officially the egret shooting is stopped. Actually it is an
industry and is in Garman's hands.

"But there are good, progressive men down here--men who really wish to
develop the country on a sound, honest basis," said Payne. "Why, don't
they get after this rotten business?"

"Few of them know anything about it. Garman has the business
monopolized; only a few shooters, those absolutely under his control,
and the birds spirited away in the Egret. All done so efficiently that
few people believe there is any shooting done. Fo