"Over there forest is little strip thick, maybe half mile; then come water--Gulf. Me know um is Gulf; taste and find um salt. Close by sh.o.r.e big island, close by um little island. More island all "round. Too dark to see much, but Efaw Kotee live on big island. Many cabin. On little island Lady live. One cabin. She come to door and me get good look, for light in cabin. Old woman live with her; Injun squaw; me know by way she walk. Before day we go hide in good place on sh.o.r.e. Watch all day and see. Must watch all day, or they see us if we leave "fore dark. Now you smoke; then we go "sleep l"il while."
Sleep! How could I sleep while she was within three miles of me, surrounded by ten or a dozen devils the combined virtues of whom would not fill a gnat"s eye! Of course, she had lived in this situation for years, but I had not heard of it until very recently, and that makes a world of difference.
But after we got back to camp and I had stretched out on my blanket to let the telescope of my fancies pierce the realm of hopes, sleep did come. I would not have believed it, but it did; for soon I realized that some one was shaking my arm, while a voice said over and over:
"Time we go; time we go!"
It was yet night when I opened my eyes, but Smilax had lit a small b.u.t.tonwood fire and breakfast was waiting. While I stumbled to the pool to drive the cobwebs from my brain he took the canteens and filled them at the spring; for, in the all-day strain ahead of us--and few things are more trying than to lie concealed and watch from the gray of dawn till the black of night--we should need a liberal supply of water.
"Shall we take rifles?" I asked, when everything was ready and each of us had our snack of food.
"No," he answered. "Too hard to crawl like snake. They no see us to-day.
We take l"il crack-crack."
"Little crack-crack" meant an automatic revolver, greatly admired by Smilax and, since Tommy"s coaching, handled by him with no mean skill.
So I swung one of these to the small of my back, into position when we should begin crawling, and handed him the other; whereupon, without further ado, we traversed the "island" and melted into the prairie.
Forty minutes later Smilax moving slowly and cautiously ahead, entered the narrow strip of forest. Another ten minutes, and we got to our hands and knees. In this way we proceeded perhaps a hundred yards when, putting his lips close to my ear, he whispered:
"We hide here; come still like snake."
I put out my hand and felt the ragged edge of saw-palmetto, then slipped in behind him, moving scarcely more than a yard a minute. Heaven help us, I thought, if we had to lie on that torturous stuff for fifteen hours! But Smilax was equal to every occasion. When we reached the far side of the patch, leaving only a fringe of leaves to shield us from those we came to watch, he worked a while with his hands, then whispered: "Now lay down." Lo, the uncomfortable roots had been pressed in other directions and the soft sand received my body. He remained, however, long enough on his knees to make sure that none of the fronds had been twisted out of line, else uncompromising daylight might show our enemy that all here was not right.
The night remained very still and impenetrably black, though I think that Smilax could see a little with his extraordinary catlike sight.
Then came a first sleepy bird note. The day, at last, was on the wing!
When from obscurity the saw-tooth stems took shape before my eyes and the distance receded farther, I saw that we were near the edge of a steep bank. Perhaps twelve feet below us lay the water, as a mirror on which some one has breathed. A mist hung over it--and in that gossamer shroud a little island floated whereon my Sylvia dwelt--where now she slept.
A minute later the forest awoke with bird life; dawn came rapidly.
Islands took shape, trees stepped out from their obscurity and small details drew into focus. First I sought her home and could hardly take my eyes from it. Low and rambling, it stood two hundred feet away, nestled in a most inviting shade of splendid trees. Flowers and climbing vines were everywhere, touched with the rich coloring of poinsettia and bougainvillea--although this very approach of day began to close the fragrant moon-flowers and spelled death to the night-blooming cereus.
The walls of her bungalow seemed to be tinted red, varying to purple, which gave a strange yet most pleasing effect in the setting of blossoms. Not till later did I learn that this was the rare Cat"s Claw wood, nowhere to be found but in southern Florida.
On the larger island, not over a hundred feet from us, were perhaps ten buildings of about the same size and plan, and presumably sleeping quarters. But in their midst stood a structure of some pretensions that we afterwards knew to be a dining hall. Quite off in the background were two small bungalows whose air denoted quality, but the roof of one had been fitted with a skylight which gave me the impression that here Efaw Kotee worked his trade at counterfeiting. Still beyond this was a tower rising above the low trees, perhaps intended for a lighthouse, although there had been no light burning when we came. But these were at best surmises that arranged themselves in my mind while noting everything in sight and awaiting a further sign of life.
Soon a hinge squeaked. A man stepped from one of the smaller huts, looked at the sky, yawned and stretched. A second appeared from another hut, walked away and came back with an armful of wood that he took into the dining hall. As they pa.s.sed there was scarcely a nod of greeting. A surly pair, I thought. After this smoke issued from the chimney, and other men, one by one from other huts, came dribbling out into the day, until altogether we had counted seven. The six now before us, after make-shift splashes in the basins beside their doors, went as the chap with the wood had gone; and shortly we heard sounds of knives and forks rattling on china.
It was at this moment that a thin line of smoke arose from the chimney of Sylvia"s bungalow. Longingly I watched it; tingling to my finger tips I blessed it. A side door opened, but it was an Indian woman who emerged with two pails and walked back of the house--doubtless to a tank of rain water, because she returned with them full and went in, taking care to close the door softly. The deference of her manner, the affection with which she apparently guarded her mistress" sleep, strongly appealed to me, and I knew that the Indian woman would be my friend.
The next move came again from the dining hall when a swarthy fellow emerged wiping his mouth upon his sleeve. His hair was long and black, reaching below his shoulders. With a rifle nested in the hollow of his arm he disappeared toward the tower, and Smilax whispered:
"Him Injun."
Now to our surprise some one appeared to be looking down from the tower, and a few minutes later the Indian was seen above the mangroves climbing up to him. There must have been strips spiked crosswise to one of the uprights, making a kind of ladder.
"So that"s a watch tower," I said cautiously. "And he makes eight."
Smilax nodded.
The fellows talked a while, then the one who had been relieved came down, going for his breakfast.
"What do you think of it?" I whispered.
"No see him before," Smilax looked grave. "Maybe one up in tree "round here."
"Gee, you think so?" It was not a comforting suggestion.
"No, maybe not," he answered, after a moment of thought. "They no look for us by land; all by water. We all right. Look! Efaw Kotee have breakfast!"
Two men left the dining hall, each bearing a tray of food, and we watched until they entered the rather exclusive house next to the work shop. This without doubt was the old scoundrel"s headquarters, but why did he have two trays? Could by any chance Sylvia be kept beneath the same roof with him? Had Smilax been mistaken? The weight of my automatic felt good just then.
When they came out, empty handed, one turned toward the watch tower but the other went for still a third tray. This, which he carried with an air of deference, was covered by a white cloth. He came to the boats across from us and got into a punt, balancing his tray across the bow while he paddled, standing, toward the little island. Now I became more than ever tense, and perhaps I moved, for Smilax pressed my arm in caution.
As the punt touched at the landing platform below Sylvia"s house the fellow did not get out, but gave the call of an ibis--a weird, beautifully mystic call that is rarely heard and almost impossible to imitate. Smilax appreciated this, for he grunted: "Good."
The door opened and the Indian woman looked out.
"Hey, there, Echochee," he said. "I got a present from the boss."
She slammed the door, and I do not know when in my life I was ever so charmed by this simple act.
"Then you go to h.e.l.l," he drawled. "But I tell yer this: the boss said if no one come down to git it, for me to leave it in yer parler."
While Echochee had slammed the door she was evidently listening; for now she came out again, a picture of fury, crying:
"Don"t you put foot here!"
"Then come an" git it," he carelessly replied.
She hesitated.
"Lay um down, then go back. Me get um."
"Naw, old hatchet-face. Jest come on down an" git it yer own se"f, or I"ll bring it up."
"My Lady no let any one come here," she warned. "You go back quick!"
"That"s all right "bout yer Lady, but the boss says fer me to hand this right in myse"f, an" what the boss says--goes! Yer git that, don"t yer?
So come on down an" git this, an" that"ll make two things yer git," he laughed boisterously, adding: "It"s a weddin" present, an" if yer don"t git a move on maybe the boss"ll come his own se"f!"
I could see from the woman"s face that she was in a towering rage, but she went--lithely as a girl, for all her years--to the landing.
"That"s what I call sense, old hatchet-face," he sneered, stepping gingerly over the seat--for a punt is a tippy thing--and holding the tray out to her.
With a snarl she jerked it from his hands, raised it quickly and brought it down on his head. Of course, the cloth and everything beneath it went scattering to the winds, while he tumbled backward into the water. Not content, she picked up several of the various fruits the tray had held and began to pepper him with such good aim that he hastily and profanely splashed back to the other sh.o.r.e. Then the tray, its cover, and the spilled fruits not already used in the form of ammunition, were contemptuously tossed in his direction. After this she tied the punt as though nothing had happened, went back into the house and closed the door. Smilax was shaking with silent delight.
"Bully," I whispered.
"Good," he said. "Look--water not much deep. We "member that." Though at the time I did not see how this held any advantage for us, being distinctly of less protection for Sylvia.
The man dragged himself up the oozy bank, cursing roundly, and started post-haste for Efaw Kotee"s bungalow. We could hear the water sloshing in his shoes, and knew that he was quite as uncomfortable in mind as in body. He did not go upon the porch, but stood below, hat in hand, calling. Then I saw the old chief--the same man who had paid his supper check with a new fifty-dollar bill. Smilax squeezed my arm, saying: