The Plunderer | Page 6

was shaking herself. "There; I'm awake now. There are no dangerous wild animals here. There are only--people. It--it was just--just moonshine."
"Do they make a little of it round here, miss?" Higgins winked eagerly and with such energy that his ears and hat moved.
"Oh, Higgins!" groaned Roger; but the girl threw back her head and laughed with relief and gratitude for the chance of merriment until the virgin morning seemed filled with song. Higgins' hair-trigger laughter rumbled deep accompaniment; and, as always, the engineer's merriment forced itself upon Roger, and he joined in, while the silver of the girl's tones pealed above both, tinkling in the sun-kissed palms above, rolling out over the purple water, out to the mooring of the immaculate Egret.
"We were on the Swastika, and rose early," explained Roger.
"You're land buyers?"
"Yes, I've invested in a big tract way up the river."
"You're going up to-day?"
"Yes."
"Then--are you going right back after seeing your land--like the others?"
"I plan to develop that land--if it is anything like what it was represented."
Her manner changed. She grew thoughtful.
"Whom did you buy your land from--if it isn't too impertinent?"
"From Senator Fairclothe's company."
"From Senator----! Why, that's----" she stopped.
"Tell me, please; how was that land represented?"
"Prairie land. Soil reports and surveys were furnished. I discounted them fifty per cent, and still thought it a good investment."
"Did the fact that--Senator Fairclothe recommended the land influence you?"
"Why, certainly. He's a United States Senator."
She turned swiftly toward the Egret, but not swiftly enough to hide the flush that rushed to her cheeks.
"I hope--I do hope you are not disappointed," she said.
Her laughter of a moment before, penetrating to the cabin of the Egret, had brought a tall, thin woman, the sun glinting on the diamond pendants in her ears, out from a stateroom forward.
"Ah, my dear Annette!"
"Aunty! You awake so early?"
"The climate has made me young. Come aboard, dear. We sail at once."
The girl hesitated. Her tone was indefinable as she asked: "Is--Mr. Garman----?"
"He's up at his place, and his boat is at our disposal. Come, dear; come inside. The mornings are damp in spite of their gorgeous beauty."
The girl looked back at Payne from the door of the stateroom. One glance. He tried in vain to fathom it. Then she disappeared.
A few minutes later the Egret's softly purring engines were edging her away from the pier, when:
"Cormorant, ahoy!" called a man from her engine room.
"Hey?" responded a gruff voice from a shack on shore.
"Got that extra drum of gasoline there?"
"Yep."
"Bring it up on the Cormorant when you come."
"Aw-right."
The Egret was well away from shore now. Her sharp white bow cleaved the blue water of the way with slow, irresistible power. Her speed increased. In a few minutes twin waves of blue were curling away from her cutwater as, smoothly and swiftly, she raced across the bay and out of sight round the first bend of the wide mouthed Chokohatchee River.
Roger Payne stood looking up the river long after the boat was out of sight. He was in a daze; but he was very glad that he, too, was going up the river.

IV
Aboard the broad-beamed Swastika life was beginning to stir. The odors of cooking food from her galley spread briskly upon the virgin morning air. Shoes clattered upon the deck; a chatter of voices developed. The score or more of land-seekers aboard were awake and preparing early for the great day upon which they should behold their promised land.
Up with the earliest of them, rosy, clean shaved, soberly and richly dressed and ministerial in dignity, was Granger, the agent, the expert leader of this confiding flock.
Fate had created Granger for a fisher of men; greed had sent him into the South Florida land business. His bland self-possession, his impressive physique, his confidence-winning voice and bearing constituted a profitable stock in trade. In the slang of his craft--shall we say "graft"?--he "played the church game strong." Under the sway of his hypnotic personality God-fearing, bank-fearing old couples brought forth hidden wealth to place in his dexterous hands; school-teachers wrecked their savings to invest with Granger. And Granger turned the receipts over to the great masters of his company, minus his large commission. Granger was only one tentacle of the company, one machine for extracting money from na?ve, land-hungry citizens. The powerful, cunning men--or man--behind it had many machines.
Senator Lafayette Fairclothe was the most expensive of these machines. It had cost much money and political trading to get his name on the Company's literature, but it was worth more.
"The future in this country belongs to the producer; I recommend this investment to my fellow citizens. Lafayette Fairclothe, United States Senator."
It was worth millions. For this was in the heyday of the Florida land boom; and the Paradise Gardens Colony, a branch of the Prairie Highlands Association, was one of the organizations