by A. Stone
CHAPTER XIII
To watch the little "reef girl" among her flowers on the bleached,barren coral key was good for the eyes, and more interesting even thanthe startling information I got out of the Scotch engineer who hadbeen in the employ of Bulow & Co. for five years. I believed my findso important that I was willing to buy Black and White as long as hewould stand it or do anything else to keep his tongue wagging, butthis was not a hard task. He felt injured, his loyalty and pride weretouched--I only needed to rub the sore spots.
"Scotty, have you been discharged?"
"No, siree; I never was fired in me life," said he, stoutly, hisnatural caution oozing away.
"But you are thinking of quitting and going back to the Royal Navy?"
"That I am. The Old Highland is attacked, and I'm afraid by suchpeople as this very scum that's paying me now. I'm going to chancetelling ye. I begin to think there's something rotten here," said hegrimly, with the stoic anger of a Highlander examining his weaponsbefore a melee chancing his life. I pushed the bottle his way again.
"Scotty, are you willing to open up?"
"Yes--try me."
"Well, it's important for me to know the movement and cargo of allBulow and Company's ships, tugs and launches. Doing that is a thousandtimes more valuable than watching steam gauges in His Majesty's Navy."
A shrewd look came over Scotty's face. He placed a bony forefingersolemnly alongside his nose and his small eyes danced in anticipation.
"Have you got a wireless on your launch?" I began.
"No."
"The big steamers have?"
"Yes, all of them."
"Has Bulow and Company a private station anywhere?"
"I think they must have, or they couldn't know so much about the bigships coming in."
"Good! Now, Scotty, I'm going up to the Keys in the morning, and I'llbe down on the dock to-morrow night looking for work again. Stick toyour job and see what you can tuck in behind those lamps betimes," Isaid, edging out of the side door. I felt pretty sure of Scotty. Mylast glance into his eyes reassured me.
With Ike Barry's catalog, as big as an unabridged, the train stoppedagain at Canby's the next morning to let me off.
The little girl, evidently expecting me, smiled from behind a bank ofgeraniums--a natural, honest, sweet smile. Her face, framed by theflowers, I will remember forever.
"You see I am here as I promised," said I, saluting, and went downfrom the veranda to her among the flowers. She seemed delighted andheld out her dainty hand.
"I knew you would come!--and I told Daddy," she exclaimed. "He had toleave in the night again, but he told me to order everything we neededand give you the money," she said simply, with almost a sad lookreplacing her smile of welcome, at the same time watching the traingrow smaller and smaller as it sped toward the Everglades and theNorthland, as much a mystery to her as the life to come. Then sheresumed digging about the geraniums.
"How were you guided in laying out your flower beds? There is adisorder about them that finally appeals."
"Oh, yes; I understand what you mean," she replied after hesitation."Well--this end looks like a little room in Nereid." Her eyes weredreamy as she straightened up.
"Nereid--Nereid----" I encouraged, "why, Nereids are of the sea.Belong to Neptune. Is that why----"
"Maybe so; Daddy named it and he has good reasons for everything. Heknows so much."
"But you didn't tell me where Nereid is."
"Oh, yes," she replied absently, as if arousing herself from a dream."Nereid is in the water,--a heavenly place. I found it about fiftyfeet down. It's a great, big cave with an entrance so small that evenafter Daddy blasted it with a 'terror' I could only wriggle in."
"What is a 'terror'?" I asked, wondering if she was really dreaming orwas possessed of a delightful talent for romancing.
"That's one of Daddy's inventions and we sell lots of them to thespongers. It's a stick of dynamite with a grabhook on it so it can befastened to most anything and not wash away. A wire is attached sothat it may be fired from the boat after the spongers come up. I willshow you one inside. You see," she explained, "rocks and coral downthere are in the way of getting the best sponges."
"How far is the Nereid?"
"It takes the _Titian_," said she, looking at the big launch at anchorbeyond the warehouse, "about an hour to go there. You know, the bottomof the sea is much more beautiful than the land--the land around hereanyway--it's even more beautiful than my flowers. It has greatvalleys, cliffs, caves and forests, all kinds of varicolored trees,all for the fish, and the sponge divers are the only people who eversee them. Daddy says one place is five miles deep. Oh, I would like togo down there, but I can't."
"Tell me more about Nereid. I am anxious to know."
"Oh, yes. After I could get in we got the most wonderful sponges and Iwould hand them out to Daddy. We went there for months and I was glad.I love to go and always hated to leave, for it was such a beautifulplace. You see, I got so I could stay down longer than Daddy and thesharks could not get in and so I would just rest. Sharks are bad hereand we have to keep moving every second or they attack. I could see alight there, but it was not like the sun. It made everything in thecave so bright and I could hear music at times that made me dream. Itwas heavenly. There were gold, green and other colors I can'tdescribe, the sides and roof looked like diamonds and colored stones Inever saw before. The long halls and rooms farther back I was unableto enter."
"Your father was never able to get into Nereid?"
"No; that's why he won't let me go any more. I would stay so long hewould have to give me oxygen to bring me to. Then the beautiful thingsand music would become plainer and I hoped I never would come out. Iwould imagine I was in the North country about which Daddy tells me,where you live, where everyone hears sweet music, thousands of voicessinging, a long way off but plainly. I--I thought my mother was amongthem. I imagined I saw rows of wonderful books, and pretty pictures,beautiful women, and grand-looking men all dressed up who kneweverything--isn't that the way things are in great cities, with finehouses, tall buildings that reach the sky, and beautiful parks?"
This question was asked pleadingly, revealing a deep longing for thebig world outside, a world of mystery to her, "but maybe it was only adream," she added, with a plaintive little sigh.
"Yes, the world is full of good men and women and beautiful things, ifwe see them rightly," I replied, as I walked beside her to the stepsof the veranda, marveling at her simplicity. "I think you must have awonderful father," I concluded, as we went up the steps.
"Oh, he is indeed; we talk so much about everything and especiallyabout the time I must leave him and go to school. I will be solonesome for him--I do so love my Daddy. But if you are to get thattrain, the same as yesterday, I will have to hurry, as there are a lotof things we need to order."
"Why does your father go away so early? Does he do that every day?" Iasked, getting Ike Barry's catalog and opening it on the verandatable.
"Yes, about. You see, several years ago he had an accident. A sharkcharged him just as he was coming up, tired, to rest a moment. I sawthe shark just in time, dived and ripped him open with my knife but hegot Daddy's knee in his mouth, anyhow. It was so stiff he couldn'tswim much and he wouldn't let me go down alone. So we added to thestore and got more goods. Then Daddy persuaded all the sponge men tofish for sharks and porpoise, and shoot 'gators, the hides and skinsbeing worth so much more now. Then, instead of selling them green, hestarted a place away up the country in the woods, where he tans andthen sells the leather. Then he buys sponges and sells them, too.That's what keeps him so busy. I will show you some of the leatherdown in the warehouse when we're through. I'll go and get the list ofgoods Daddy and I made out last night."
I was puzzled indeed. This child was frankness itself. She, verylikely, talked and thought in the same terms as her father, from longand constant companionship. There was no evidence of anything toconceal. I felt sure he was not smuggling or in contraba
nd trade. As Iwalked about the veranda, waiting for her, I noticed for the firsttime what appeared to be a very old and battered wreck, barelyvisible, lying behind the coral reef that protected the little harbor.
"You have had a wreck here, I see?" I observed enquiringly, as shereturned with the list.
"Oh, yes. That's been there longer than I can remember. We have someawful hurricanes at times coming in from the Gulf, and as they come upso quickly the spongers get caught once in a while," she replied,taking a chair opposite me at the table, ready to read her list."That's why we need such fast boats--to race for shelter. My boat, the_Titian_, is very swift. I can even pass the _Sprite_, Daddy's big,new boat. You see, he gave me the _Titian_ when he got the _Sprite_.The _Sprite_ is much bigger, but I can beat it," she chatted,laughingly recalling the fun they had racing.
I started at the first page of Ike's catalog, and ended up at thelast. The little thing gave me a long order, I was afraid too much,amounting to more than they would be able to pay. But I was mistaken.When through she asked me to tell her how much it was. It took me along time to total it for it was new to me. I told her it was overfour thousand dollars, watching for a big surprise.
Not so. She staggered me. She got pen and ink and made out the checkCanby had signed and gave it to me, also shipping directions; when Ilooked at the check it was on one of the very large banks in downtownNew York.
But my hardest work was to come. I wanted a peep in the warehouse,that interested Bulow and Company so much, and was afraid she wouldforget her promise to show me the sharkskin leather. But she didn't.She got a key from the store and as we walked down the wharf shetalked of the North, and how she longed to go to school, every timecoming back to the fact that she hated to leave Daddy.
Once in the warehouse, I discovered it was much larger than itappeared from outside. What I saw amazed me. Sharkskins, tanned aswhite as snow and soft as fine kid, were piled, with various sizestogether, higher than my head; porpoise, as thick as elephant's hide,were stacked to the cross beams. Tanned alligator hides, arranged alsoin sizes, filled half the warehouse. There must have been tens ofthousands of dollars' worth. Keenly delighted at her father'sachievements, she told me about each kind and for what purpose theywere used.
In one corner were a lot of tanned sharkskins individually rolled andbound securely with sisal cords. They seemed extra heavy as they laidthere in a big pile. I passed my hand over them. Evidently they werewrapping something very heavy, ingots of lead or copper.
"That's the way he ties them up for shipping so they won't take muchroom," she volunteered, noting my interest, and I wondered if she wasas innocent as she seemed of their contents.
"Do you feel safe with such valuables around? This warehouse is onlycorrugated iron," I suggested. My intention was to lead up to thevisit of the Bulow boat, and the subsequent shooting.
"Well"--she hesitated as though recalling a discussion with herfather--"the fishermen are all honest. As rough as they are, theywould not take a pin. We have never been bothered at all, exceptonce--just lately."
I encouraged her by arching my brows inquiringly.
"One morning I was in my room that faces this way, cleaning my rifle.Don was over on the other side of the reef skinning a 'gator I hadjust shot, when I noticed a big cutter swing up with three men. Twogot out and came in the store. I was going down at first, but somehowI stayed at the top of the stairs and listened. They talked awfullyrough, and at the same time were looking all over the place. They wentout to the warehouse and the fat man tried to pry off the padlock,and kept on trying. I didn't want to hurt him, but he had no right tobreak in, so I shot him through the hand. I hoped I had justfrightened him, but blood spots were found on the wharf after they gotin their boat to go away. Father said I did just right," she ended, ina dubious tone.
I now saw the train coming, and had to hurry, telling her I hoped tosee her again. As I swung on board she stood watching and waving herhand with a longing, wistful expression.