Over the jungle there was a vapour rising up from the depths of the swamp. There was stillness all around, with a slow pulsing beat to it, like the stillness of a fever laden hospital ward. This was Devil's Island. Charles Payonne had just come here from France. He didn't like what he saw, but then he hadn't expected to like it. He was here precisely because this was a bad place, and so he lost no time getting to the Governor's mansion to explain his mission as a Salvation Army Officer.