great
bubbles were bursting upward through the blue-green troubled waters.
Some mysterious action of the currents, stirred by the tides, was the
unquestioned cause; yet both of us were stirred by the same fancy. It
was as if some great, air-breathing sea-monster was exhaling beneath the
waves.

CHAPTER VI

The next two weeks sped by as if with one rise and fall of the tides. I
spent the time in locating the various fields of game: the tall
holly-trees where the wild turkeys roosted, the sloughs where the bass
were gamest, and marked down the cover of the partridge. In the meantime
I collected specimens for the university.

It came about that I didn't always go out alone. The best time of all to
study wild-life is in late twilight and the first hours of dawn--and at
such times Edith was unemployed. Many the still, late evenings when we
stood together on the shore and watched the curlews in their strange,
aerial minuet that no naturalist has even been able to explain; many the
dewey morning that we watched the first sun's rays probe through the
mossy forest. She had an instinctive love for the outdoors, and her
agile young body had seemingly fibers of steel. At least she could
follow me wherever I wanted to go.

Once we came upon the Floridan deer, feeding in a natural woods-meadow,
and once a gigantic manatee, the most rare of large American mammals,
flopped in the mud of the Ochakee River. We knew that incredible
confusion and bustle made by the wild turkeys when they flew to the
tree-tops to roost; and she learned to whistle the partridge out from
their thickets.

Of course we developed a fine companionship. I learned of her early
life, a struggle against poverty that had been about to overwhelm her
when her uncle had come to her aid; and presently I was telling her all
of my own dreams and ambitions. She was wholly sympathetic with my aim
to continue my university work for a higher degree; then to spend my
life in scientific research. I described some of the expeditions that I
had in mind but which seemed so impossible of fulfillment--the
exploration of the great "back country" of Borneo, a journey across that
mysterious island, Sumatra, the penetration of certain unknown realms of
Tibet.

"But they take thousands of dollars--and I haven't got 'em," I told her
quietly.

She looked out to sea a long time. "I wish I could find Jason's treasure
for you," she answered at last.

I was used to Edith's h