"Why not?" demanded Roger.
"Willy High Pockets came crawling into camp on his belly about ten
minutes after you'd left. He came with a message from that white
side-kick of his he met in the swamp. You can't guess who that guy is."
"Who is he?"
"Davis."
"What! The fellow they tried to get on the Cormorant?"
"Exactly."
"Is he some sort of a detective?"
"I suspect so. Willy ain't much on the tell. He says that man has got
Uncle Sam behind him! And this Davis sends us serious word that we're
to keep away from Garman's men. Whatever happens we mustn't get into a
fight. We've got to stick right in camp and play safe, or we'll spoil
two years' work for Uncle Sam. The first dark night--to-morrow night
probably--it will be over, whatever it is, and Davis will come here and
explain. That's what Willy High Pockets said, and if you'd seen him
tell it you'd know it was a darn serious business. By the great smoked
fish, Payne, there's a big game being played round here. I feel it in
my bones. And I'm sore because I haven't got a finger in the pie."
"What can it be?"
"You got me. But whoever this Davis man is he's got Willy so he isn't
afraid of Garman. That means something big."
"We'll give Davis to-night and to-morrow night," said Roger, after
pondering the matter a moment. "After that----"
"Hell's delight! And I almost hope that Davis falls down on whatever
he's doing."
On the narrow there was no sign to indicate that Davis or any one else
was concerned in the affairs of the district. The grim guards on the
muck lands held their stations. It was apparent that they had orders
not to leave the tract or to seek trouble, but to be ready to shoot and
shoot accurately at any one venturing to trespass. Blease scouted
northward on the ox-team trail and reported that Coon Hammock was still
occupied. Payne himself went through the elderberry and saw grass
jungle and through his glasses saw men guarding the approach to the
Devil's Playground.
The strain was beginning to tell on all three men in the clearing.
Each hour now seemed a day, each sight of a Garman man was a torture.
"It ain't human," muttered Blease. "I can't stand it."
Higgins lay flat on his back in his tent, staring up at the canvas.
"It had better be a dark night to-night," he said, with a grim smile.
Roger silently agreed. And he realized that this was what Garman had
foreseen and planned for when he digged the pit--the sense of
imprisonment and the desperate attempt to break out, regardless of
consequences.
"He's too smart to be just a man, Garman is," droned Blease; but Roger
stopped him.
"He's nothing but a man; nothing but a man who likes to hurt. Don't
let me hear you say he's anything but that."
To Roger and Higgins the sudden, fierce sunset came as a benison,
presaging the coming of the night. There was no thought of food or
sleep. Narrowly they watched the sun go angrily down in the west and
the night come rolling over the heavens from the east. Clouds
appeared, first a few scatterings of fleecy stuff, next solid cloud
banks through which the waning moon strove in vain to send its rays.
"It will be a dark one," said Roger.
Higgins on his cot laughed harshly.
"Come through, Davis; to-night or never."
They lay out through the night, waiting, hoping for events, and they
waited in vain. The first purple-rayed warning of sunrise in the
morning found them in a mood of despair. As the second day came on
with no sign of Davis they turned their steps toward the tents.
"I don't wait any longer," said Higgins, loading his rifle. "Soon as
good shooting light comes I start doing business."
The others followed his example, and Blease led the way by a tortuous
path through the elderberry jungle to a point near Deer Hammock. They
crawled forward, ready to cover the pair of guards at the head of the
canal. Blease was in the lead. Lying flat on his breast he thrust his
rifle barrel out of the jungle, searching for his quarry. Presently he
rubbed his eyes.
Roger crept close to him and searched the grass-covered expanse of
drained land carefully with his glasses. Then he stood up and stepped
out into the open.
The drained land was deserted. Garman's guards were gone.