The captain was in the wheelhouse above their heads, the
mulatto lounged on the deck near the cabin door; so they did not even
dare to whisper, but each knew the question the other would ask: Why
such terrific speed in a dirty craft like the Cormorant?

Through his precarious peekhole Payne caught glimpses of the water and
land that the Cormorant was leaving behind her. At first there was
little to see save blue water, for the mouth of the Chokohatchee was
more an estuary of the sea than a river. Far away on either side were
the low-growing tangled growths of mangrove which represented the
river's banks near the sea, and toward these banks, from both sides of
the wake, water birds could be seen winging their way, frightened from
their feeding ground by the Cormorant's rush. Great, clumsy pelicans
rose painfully and flew with surprising speed, once they were in the
air; small blue herons went shoreward in uncountable flocks, flying
high into the morning sun. Close to the water, ducks of many kinds
clove the air with business-like intent and speed.

The water itself seemed alive with an abundance of life. The black
back of a porpoise showed above the surface; far away the sun glinted
on the silver scales of a leaping tarpon. The red sides of a mangrove
snapper were seen as it tried in vain to escape the jaws of a
steel-gray barracuda, and a moment later half of the slim barracuda
flew into the air as the jaws of a shark, catching it in full flight,
snapped it in two.

The course of the Cormorant was shifted slightly, and by the muddy
color of the water Payne knew they were entering the river proper. The
stream here was perhaps two hundred yards across and over the stern, to
port and starboard, the banks were plainly visible. The land was low,
so low that it seemed but a little higher than the water level, but it
bore an amazingly abundant growth. The river seemed to flow through a
channel cut in the dense, solid vegetation. Great cypress trees
towered up from the water, enormously thick at the roots and rapidly
dwindling above. Between their rough trunks cypress scrub, sturdy
cabbage palms, mangrove, custard apple and other varieties of tropical
trees found space to grow; and between the trunks of the smaller trees
was a tangle of palmetto, saw grass, jungle vine, Virginia creeper and
the beautiful moon vine and its dainty flowers. Blue, yellow and red
flowers peeped from the tangle. Air plants bearing in