The Plunderer | Page 9

Easy--but work fast!"
A minute or two of swift anxious paddling and they had whisked the boat down the shore, round the mangrove promontory into the seclusion of a tiny bay. And then:
"Hell!" said Higgins.

V
A clean-cut, solidly built man in a suit of greasy overalls was standing on the shore of the bay, looking steadily up at the reddened sky. Payne followed the direction of the man's gaze. Up against the multi-hued red of the morning was a gently undulating streak of dazzlingly snowy white. Roger had often seen white of the purest sort in the untracked snows of northern forests, but never a white so pure, so soft, so warm as this. And then he saw by the undulations of the streak that it was a flock of long, graceful birds moving in single file from west to east. Shimmering in the brassy dawn sun, they rode like dream birds upon a vermilion sea, their slow movements so graceful, so rhythmic as seemingly to represent no effort, as if the birds merely floated along, their beauty and grace the ultimate expression of the spirit of the scene. They flew with their delicate necks bent back upon their bodies, as swans afloat upon still water, their long legs held motionless and straight behind; yet they moved rapidly, moved steadily and to a definite goal some place eastward up the river.
"Beautiful! A dream worth the trip alone!"
To Roger's amazement the man in overalls started at the words with something like alarm in his expression; but as his shrewd blue eyes took them in they showed relief.
"What are they?" asked Roger.
The man's expression took upon itself a mask of disinterest, almost sullenness.
"What you talking about?"
"Those birds up there?"
"Didn't see any birds. Looking to see if it would rain."
"Well, look now. What are they?"
The man refused to look.
"Donno. Donno anything about birds."
Payne looked at him closely and was puzzled. The man's obvious appearance of intelligence rendered such a reply unnatural.
The stranger returned the scrutiny, appraising the pair with a lazy air of indifference, which did not quite conceal his shrewdness.
"What you-all doing here? Fishing?"
"Hiding."
"Come on the Swastika?"
"Yes."
"She's sailing."
"Yes; that's why we're hiding. We're not going back on her." Roger's eyes had not left the man's. Each had appraised the other and given a favorable verdict. "We're going up the river. I've got some land I've got to look at up there."
"How d'you figure to go?"
"On the Cormorant; we know she's going up. We're going on her--by force, if necessary."
"I'm engineer on the Cormorant."
"Well, your clothes'll 'bout fit me. Maybe she's going to have a new engineer."
They laughed together.
"Buddy," said Higgins suddenly, "you don't belong down here, do you?"
The engineer did not reply.
"I see you don't. And we ain't crackers either."
"I see that. Where is your land?"
"At the head of the river. Prairie land."
"What? In Garman's---- Who did you do business with?"
"The Prairie Highlands outfit--Senator Fairclothe is its president. Do you run up there?"
"No. It's bad enough to get up to what they call the Colony; never been there myself," said the stranger, "but you're beyond that. We don't go there ourselves."
"How far up do you go?"
"To what's on the maps as the Colony. Get there at about noon."
"My land is Sections 16 and 17."
"That prairie tract is beyond the headwaters. Do you know this country--anything about the people, and so on?"
"All I know is that I've got some money invested in some land up the river and I'm going up to have a look at it."
The stranger had made up his mind. He looked round to make sure he was not observed or overheard.
"There's a little cabin on the foredeck of the Cormorant," he said. "It isn't used nowadays. Nobody on board. Move fast."
He wheeled and was gone.
Payne and Higgins slipped swiftly through the jungle to the farther side of the key where the Cormorant lay moored. A rush into the water and they were on the starboard side of the boat and hidden from the shore. In another moment they were over the low rail onto the deck and crawling into the lower cabin and forward beneath the wheelhouse.
"Whew!" Higgins sniffed at the strange odor that greeted them. "What is it--arsenic?"
"Shut the door. Good! Things are working fine."
"It's a darn funny way to go looking at land."
"But it's a way, and that's what we're after."
"Smells like a morgue in here."
"Ssh!"
With his eyes at a crack in the door Roger saw the crew coming aboard. The engineer was in the lead; behind him came the captain, a tall man of vicious appearance, and a half-naked mulatto deckhand.
"Hard eggs, those two; that engineer doesn't belong in their company."
"Nope; he doesn't belong here at all," whispered Higgins. "He tries to look the part and doesn't quite make it. Wonder what his game is?"
"There goes the Swastika."
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