The sand area, and with it the pines, gave way to a stretch of muck and saw grass, the saw grass to a jungle of elderberry trees so thick the light barely filtered in. Blackbirds by thousands, large and plump and glistening, swarmed about in the jungle; and on the thicker branches the loathsome buzzards sat waiting, waiting. Payne carefully inspected the shore before leaving the boat when the landing was made at the high banks. "Step ashore, Higgins, and see if there's a trail." "Sort of a one-hog path, I guess. It looks all right." "All right." Roger gathered their bags from the stinking hole forward and followed. "Now," he said, turning to the men on the boat, "we don't want to leave you with any hard feelings. We'll pay for our ride. Will ten dollars be about right?" He plucked two five-dollar bills off a roll and handed one each to the scarred man and the captain. "Hey!" called the latter. "You won't say anything about being on this boat to anybody?" "Not if it will be a favor not to. I'm not particularly proud of sneaking a ride." "We won't say anything if you don't." "I thought you wouldn't. Now you just lay up here for half an hour and don't try to pass us. Business is business and I'm playing safe. So long." There was no reply. The crew on the boat watched silently as the pair marched out of sight. VIII "Nice boys, those fellows," said Higgins after a while. "I wonder where they cut throats for a living? Can you make 'em out?" Roger shook his head. "I've heard there were a lot of bad men hiding out down here, and, strange, but I never believed it. Apparently it's true; and it seems we've stepped right into the midst of them." "They called Davis a 'snooper.'" "Well, I'm not worrying about Davis. From what I saw of him he's quite able to take care of himself." "I'll say he is. You too. You've come pretty near making pals of the fellows we were fighting a little while ago." "That was business. I don't want a whole lot of enemies strung out along the river between me and civilization." "Well, it looks as if the captain was honest about the trail at least," said Higgins, leaping over a pool of quivering mud. "It's fair, but not good." A cotton-mouth water snake, short, thick as a man's arm and indescribably loathsome, wriggled on top of the mud as Roger prepared to leap. "Whoa, boy!" cried Higgins, glancing back. "Stand still while I get a club." He broke off a thick branch from a custard apple tree. "My God! what wood!" he exclaimed in disgust. "It's light as paper." However, he managed to creep up behind the snake and slash off at a blow the foul, flat head that reared itself above the slime. "And I suppose this swamp is full of those things." "Probably. But my land isn't in the swamp, remember; it's beyond the head of the river." "There's some real ground ahead; I can see the tops of some pines."