VI
For two hours the Cormorant drove upstream without missing a stroke of
her engines. Then the speed was diminished. Through the crack in the
door Payne caught glimpses which showed that the stream had narrowed
suddenly and began to wind. In another hour the captain shouted back
an order. The engineer's head popped up from the engine pit near the
stern, his expression indicating that the order had taken him by
surprise.
"What'd you say, cap? Stop at Mangrove Point?"
"Yep. Boss' orders."
The engineer disappeared in the pit and the boat began to slow down as
its course was altered to bring it in shore. Presently leaves brushed
against its side and the craft came to a dead stop.
The mangrove branches on the bank were pushed aside, revealing a creek,
and a long Seminole dugout, bearing two rough-looking men, slipped like
a snake out of the jungle and up to the Cormorant's bow. The two men
vaulted easily over the low rail onto the deck.
"Where is he?" asked the hideously scarred leader. "The boss said we
should take him to Palm Island and leave him tied."
"My way would be to knock 'im in the head an' sink him in an alligator
hole," grumbled the captain. "He's hard as nails; he'll be hard to get
tied."
"You're too lazy to live.
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