the boat were quite different from Garman. I knew they
would take a bluff, or I'd never have let you pull your gun. If you
had done the same here there would have been shooting or else you'd
have had to put your gun away and back down. It's one thing to pull a
gun on a bunch of river rats, and another on a man like Garman. I
don't want any shooting round here."

"Neither do I."

"Then never make a gun move with Garman round. You can't beat a man
like him with a gun."

"No, I'll say he's a real he-devil."

"I'm here on a business proposition. It's a question of brains, not
guns, in a fight with Garman."

"And he's got a few of them too."

"Decidedly. Therefore, no rough work."

Higgins laughed skeptically.

"No rough work, eh? How about little Willy High Pockets? I've seen a
few men here and there who've been manhandled, but I've never seen on
with the fear of the devil driven into him as hard as Willy. What in
the name of black hell could they have done to the poor buck?"

Payne shook his head.

"I give it up. Sorry, too, because I was responsible for his getting
mixed up with us."

"Not entirely so."

Higgins refrained from mentioning the girl's connection with the
matter, and Payne was grateful for his delicacy. Garman, of course,
had learned that it was the girl of the Egret who had bidden Willy
Tiger guide the two to their destination. How greatly this had angered
Garman was apparent by the fashion in which he had visited
punishment--whatever it had been--on the inoffensive Seminole. What
was Garman to the girl?

"Poor Willy was the goat," said Higgins. "But go back a little: Garman
seems to me to be the big boss of this district. Is that the way you
figure it out?"

"Certainly."

"There's a whole lot of hard-boiled eggs round here, and they're scared
fightless about some one, and he's it. A man doesn't get that sort of
a grip without rough work, and he's not pleased with your proposition
here; and I don't see him changing his method much in dealing with you."

"Perhaps not. It's going to be hard for him to find an excuse though.
I'm here on a business proposition, as I say, and business is going to
be supreme on the job, and rough work a mere incident--if at all."

"Fair enough. What's your first move?"

"To find a way out of this country without troubling friend Garman."

"Sure. The dugout was the first answer. You let that go without
winking an eyelid. That means y