their hearts
scarlet orchids clung to the trunks of hoary live oak, and the Spanish
moss, fragile, listless, drooping, hung like delicate drapery over all.

The stream grew narrower and the turtles upon the shore became visible.
A water turkey, though the boat was past, fell clumsily off its perch
into the water and after frantic efforts flopped away. Alligators lay
here and there along the banks; and a wild hog plowed about in the
matted water-hyacinths, unconcernedly seeking food, not alarmed by the
alligators or the boat or by the fierce brown Mexican buzzards--the
killing variety--which contemplated him from the dead cypress branches
above.

VI

For two hours the Cormorant drove upstream without missing a stroke of
her engines. Then the speed was diminished. Through the crack in the
door Payne caught glimpses which showed that the stream had narrowed
suddenly and began to wind. In another hour the captain shouted back
an order. The engineer's head popped up from the engine pit near the
stern, his expression indicating that the order had taken him by
surprise.

"What'd you say, cap? Stop at Mangrove Point?"

"Yep. Boss' orders."

The engineer disappeared in the pit and the boat began to slow down as
its course was altered to bring it in shore. Presently leaves brushed
against its side and the craft came to a dead stop.

The mangrove branches on the bank were pushed aside, revealing a creek,
and a long Seminole dugout, bearing two rough-looking men, slipped like
a snake out of the jungle and up to the Cormorant's bow. The two men
vaulted easily over the low rail onto the deck.

"Where is he?" asked the hideously scarred leader. "The boss said we
should take him to Palm Island and leave him tied."

"My way would be to knock 'im in the head an' sink him in an alligator
hole," grumbled the captain. "He's hard as nails; he'll be hard to get
tied."

"You're too lazy to live. Call 'im out; we want to be going."

The speaker and his companion took up a position on the port rail; the
captain and the mulatto lounged to starboard.

"Oh, Davis," called the captain, drawing a revolver. "Give us a hand
here, will you?"

Davis emerged from the engine room, wiping his hands on a wisp of
waste, saw by the eyes of the four men that he was trapped, and looked
steadily at the captain.

"What's the idea, cap?"

"Stick up them hands!"

"What is it, I say?"

"Guess you know. You wanted to get in