I watched the boys salting the swamp with ballots for awhile,bummed a Lucky off one of the counters,surveyed the dirt track that cut through the jungle to this spot.A Brinks Truck was parked nearby,back hatch standing open.That must be how the ballots got here.First class treatment right up to the point they got dumped in the swamp.Right next to the truck was a blue Corvair with a sour-looking character slumped behind the wheel. "Where to from here?" I asked the big stogy-smoker."Relax" he smiled,"what's the hurry?You wanted to meet the Mudcat didn't you?" A distant hum caught my attention.I could see almost 1 1/2 miles of green water broken by soggy hummocks of mangrove.At the far edge,a fan boat appeared.As it approached,the ballot boys turned it up a notch..."BushBushGoreBushGoreGore",and as the boat slid up to the bank I recognized Sherry Aims in the cockpit,decked out in camouflage fatigues and flanked by two thong-clad sunglassed beauties who were oblivious to everything but the sun and their Pina Coladas."Hi Baby,"I said."Looking for me,I heard," she said,tying the bow off to a palm trunk."Yes ma'am.Thanks for making my job so easy." She walked up to me,standing close enough that I could see my face smiling goofily back in her mirrored shades."You're a nosy,dumb bastard Blake,"she breathed,"and now you're ass deep in alligators."I grinned at myself in her lenses."But I'm just here to drain the swamp." She shook her head and said "get in the boat.I've got one more passenger."She slipped her first and fifth fingers between her lips and blew a sharp note.At this,the lanky sourpuss in the Corvair emerged toting a battered Samsonite briefcase with several coffee-stained papers sticking out at the latch."You know"he said,"that contraption wreaks havoc on the water hyacinths and other floating vegetation..."

"Just shut up and get in the boat, Ralph," she said," and polish the little speech you've prepared that explains why you didn't get the matching funds,and why we won't get our cut."Ralph and I climbed in and took seats next to the sun-tanned female mannikins while Sherry cast off.I had a half-pint of Four Roses in my hip-flask,but Ralph waved it off as we picked up speed,ripping a great emerald swath through the hyacinths.