the rest of the afternoon they fought their way toward the trees.
It was growing dark when they had won through. The ground beyond was
lower than the saw-grass land and seemed to be composed of oozy slime.
The growth that covered it was tangled and twisted as if thrown
together by a mad burst of storms. Dark, sinister and threatening the
interior loomed before them; and without needing to consult their maps
they spoke as one: "The Devil's Playground!"

As they trod down the grass for a camping spot a streak of white
gleamed in the gloomy nightmare of the garden and a flock of white
egrets swept gracefully out into the gilding rays of the setting sun.
A hundred in number, perhaps, they swerved in dignified fashion and in
their ineffably beautiful posture of flying, necks gently bent backward
and long legs trailing delicately, flew away to the west. They were
beginning to rise for a long flight when a harsh rattle of shots broke
the evening quiet. Pop-pop-pop! Repeating shotguns worked at full
speed. The flock crumpled and broke and a score of the beautiful birds
came crashing down in shapeless, broken lumps. And then, too late to
prevent the crime, darkness was upon the scene.

Dawn revealed the interior of the Devil's Playground apparently less
forbidding than in the gloaming, and Payne and Higgins plunged to their
task as soon as breakfast was over. A hard spit of land ran northwest,
from the saw grass and they followed it till it ended abruptly at a
narrow gully filled to the brim with liquid mud. Swiftly and
skillfully they bridged the space with saplings and branches, a process
which they were forced to repeat at intervals throughout the forenoon.
Luncheon they ate seated on cypress roots in water up to their knees;
and soon after Higgins put a bullet between the yellow eyes of a
panther which glared at them from its hiding place. Snakes and
alligators were in abundance; for miles there was no sign of other life.

"They named it right," panted Higgins in a pause.

"Yes; come on!"

Now they had come to the "flowerpots" of the Playground, beautiful
grass plots interwoven with delicate blooms and ringed about with water
lilies. Into the first one Payne went with a splash to his armpits;
the grass was only a treacherous skin above a hole of liquid mud, from
which Higgins with difficulty drew his employer.

For an hour or more they threaded their way, cautiously between these
beautiful traps. Then, th