"Come
on, Pedro."

"No, you'll stay until we get to the high banks."

"What fer?"

"Davis did us a favor this morning, and I want to give him a chance for
a fair start. If you would tell me his business----"

"Ain't telling anything."

"All right. Take the wheel, captain. We're off."

The Cormorant backed out of the thicket of mangrove branches which held
her against the point, straightened out and started upstream.

"A little explanation and maybe we could be friends," suggested Payne.

"We're much obliged----" began the captain, and the scarred man
interrupted with:

"But we ain't explainin'."

"Cheer up, boys!" laughed Higgins. "We're doing you a favor, you know."

"Know you are."

"So you might tip us off about why it's going to be hard luck for us to
hit this place we're bound for."

There was no reply. The captain sullenly kept the boat's nose in the
deep channel, but beyond this the gang was apparently no more
responsive to words than the alligators which lay sunning themselves at
the water's edge. The river now grew narrower, its waters grew
clearer, changing from a yellow to a faint indigo.

"Getting into a limestone formation," called Higgins over his shoulder.
"But I don't see anything that looks like land yet. This stuff ought
to be sold by the gallon instead of the acre."

Soon, however, a change began to appear in the landscape. The
mangroves gave way to banks of solid land. A few scattering pines,
tall, straight, thin and branchless save for their crowns, reared their
tops high above the tropical growths.

"There's land there," said Roger. "Where there are pines there's
honest ground beneath, even if it's only sand. It's good to see them."

"You're right. I begin to feel at home again. That thick stuff is
pretty, but give me some real trees."

The sand area, and with it the pines, gave way to a stretch of muck and
saw grass, the saw grass to a jungle of elderberry trees so thick the
light barely filtered in. Blackbirds by thousands, large and plump and
glistening, swarmed about in the jungle; and on the thicker branches
the loathsome buzzards sat waiting, waiting.

Payne carefully inspected the shore before leaving the boat when the
landing was made at the high banks.

"Step ashore, Higgins, and see if there's a trail."

"Sort of a one-hog path, I guess. It looks all right."

"All right." Roger gathered their bags from the stinking hole forward
and followed.