And he recalled Claire's unspoken plea that he say nothing to Standish about his chance discovery of it.

He remembered, too, the night-song of the mocking bird from the direction of that path, and the advent of Rodney Hade from it.
Milo had unlocked the boat-house, and was at work over a fifteen-foot steel motorboat which was slung on chains above the water.

A winch and well-constructed pulleys-and-chains made simple the labor of launching it in so quiet a sea.
Out they fared into the gleaming sunlit waters of the bay.
Far to eastward gleamed the white city of Miami, and nearer, across the bay from it the emerald stretch of key with Cape Florida and the old Spanish Light on its southern point and the exquisite "golden house" of Mashta shining midway down its shoreline.

Miles to eastward gleamed the gray viaduct, the grain elevator outlines of the Flamingo rising yellow above a fire-blue sea.
"I used to hear great stories about this region years ago," volunteered Brice as the launch danced over the transparent water past Ragged Keys and bore southward.

"I heard them from a chap who used to winter hereabouts.