on'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.

XXXI

The discovery brought neither relief nor elation to Roger. Amazement
smote him dumb for a moment, then came suspicion that this was only
another of Garman's traps. He strove to follow the man's psychology to
an explanation of this move. Was Garman merely playing with him again,
arousing false hopes which would be diabolically crushed?

That seemed the logical reason for the move. What would Garman's next
move be?

"Looks like a trick, doesn't it?" said Higgins.

"Yes."

Roger strode down to the head of the main drainage ditch where two of
the guards had held watch. The forms where the men had lain in the
soft black muck behind the spoil bank were still sharply defined. Their
departure must have occurred during the darkest hours of early morning.
They had left behind them a flask full of colorless liquid, one whiff
of which proved its contents to be moonshine