He needed them, imperatively, for the scheme he was trying to swing ....

That was why he got Standish into his power, in the first place.

That was why he forced or wheedled him into this partnership.

The Standish house was built, in its original form, more than a hundred years ago.

In the days when Dade County and all this end of Florida were in hourly dread of Seminole raids from the Everglade country, and where every settler's house must be not only his castle, but--" "I'm sorry to have to remind you," she broke in, freezingly, "that I asked you not to speak to me.