'I plan on doing just that. Come on, Beau,' I said, spinning around and marching out. Beau was at my side, but he wasn't enthusiastic.
'You really think we should go into the swamps, Ruby? I mean, if all these people who live here can't find him . . .'
'I'll find him,' I said firmly. 'I know where to look.' Jeanne's husband, James, was at the dock when we arrived. He shook his head and lifted his arms in frustration.
'It's impossible,' he said. 'If Paul doesn't want to be found, he won't be found. He knows these swamps better than he knows the back of his hand. He grew up in them. We're giving up for tonight.'
'No, we're not,' I said sharply.
He looked up, surprised. 'We?'
'Is that your boat?' I asked, nodding toward a dinghy with a small outboard engine.
'Yes, but . . .'
'Please, just take us into the swamps.'
'I just came back, and I assure you—'
'I know what I'm doing, James. If you don't want to go along, let us just borrow your boat,' I insisted.
'You two? In the swamps?' He smiled, sighed, and then shook his head. 'All right. give it one more sweep. Get in,' he said.
Beau, looking very uncomfortable, stepped into the dinghy after me and sat down. James handed us torches. Then we saw Octavious arriving with another group. His head was down like a flag of defeat.
'Paul's father is taking it very hard,' James said, shaking his head.
'Just start the engine, please,' I said. 'Please . . .'
'What do you expect to be able to do that all these other people, some of whom fish and hunt in here, couldn't do?'
I stared. 'I think I know where he might be,' I said softly. 'Ruby once told me about a hideaway she and Paul shared. She described it so well, I'm sure I could find it.'
James shook his head skeptically but started the engine. 'All right, but I'm afraid we're just wasting our time. We should wait for daylight.'
We pulled away from the dock and headed into the canal. The swamps could be intimidating at night, even to men who had lived and worked them all their lives. There wasn't enough of a moon to give much illumination, and the Spanish moss seemed to thicken and blacken to form walls and block off other canals.
The twisted cyprus branches looked like gnarled old witches, and the water took on an inky thickness, hiding tree roots, dead logs, and, of course, alligators. Our movement and the torches kept the mosquitoes at bay, but Beau looked very uncomfortable and even frightened. He nearly jumped out of the dinghy when an owl swooped alongside.
'Go to the right, James, and then, just as you come around the bend, bear left sharply.'
'I can't believe Ruby gave you such explicit directions,' he mumbled.
'She loved this spot because she and Paul spent so much time there,' I said. 'It's like another world. She said,' I added quickly.
James followed my directions. Behind us, the torches of other searches dimmed and were lost. A sheet of darkness fell between us and the house. Soon we could no longer hear the voices of men in the search party.
'Slower, James,' I said. 'There's something I have to look for and it's not easy at night.'
'Especially when you've never been here before,' James commented. 'This is futile. If we just wait until morning—'
'There,' I said, pointing. 'You see where that cypress tree bends over like an old lady plucking a four-leaf clover?'
'Old lady? Four-leaf clover?' James said.
'That's what Paul told Ruby all the time.' Neither James nor Beau could see the smile on my face. 'Just turn right sharply under the lower branch.'
'We might not fit under that,' he warned.
'We will if we bend down,' I said. 'Slowly.'
'Are you sure? We'll just get hung up on a rock or a mound of roots or—'
'I'm sure. Do it. Please.'
Reluctantly he turned the dinghy. We dipped our heads and slipped under the branch.
'I'll be darned,' James said. 'Now where?'
'You see that thick wall of Spanish moss that reaches the water?'
'Yeah.'
'Just go through it. It's the secret doorway.'
'Secret doorway. Damn. No one would know that.'
'That's what I meant by it being another world,' I said. 'You can cut the engine. We'll float on through and we'll
