He is absolutely their
boss.
"Why does he do it? Because there's money in it. How? There!" Davis
reached into his grub bag and threw on the ground the limp, snow-white
corpse of a beautiful egret. "That's one of the side issues. There's
money in it. Garman saw the rookeries, and couldn't keep his hands off
them. These snow-white birds, feeding young ones in the nest, are
worth money. Garman's gang gets a living, food, liquor and immunity
out of the slaughter, an average probably of one dollar a bird. Garman
gets the rest. And his boat Egret in his harvest time is nothing but a
damn slaughter house, the hold packed with the skins of thousands of
murdered birds."
"But I thought the Government had taken steps to stop the slaughter.
Aren't there guards about the rookeries?"
"There are. Who do you suppose got them their jobs? Garman--in
Washington. How do you suppose they guard? They guard so carefully
that nobody can get into the rookeries, not a soul except Garman's
gang. Officially the egret shooting is stopped. Actually it is an
industry and is in Garman's hands.
"But there are good, progressive men down here--men who really wish to
develop the country on a sound, honest basis," said Payne. "Why, don't
they get after this rotten business?"
"Few of them know anything about it.
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