my name before, Tony? Well, you never heard
anything bad in connection with it, I'll be bound. It's true that my
father did come into possession of ten thousand acres or more of land
and swamp, lying along this same little river a year or two ago. And
he's taken a notion that something ought to be done to make it more
profitable than it seems to be now. That's one of the reasons I'm down
here. My father don't like the idea of having squatters on his lands.
He wants to make a change."

Tony squirmed uneasily, and the look on his face was really painful to
see. At one instant it seemed as though defiance ruled; only to give
way to distress; as in imagination he saw these new-found friends, who
had been so very kind to him, in the hands of his infuriated clansmen,
and being roughly treated.

"Better not keep on down-river, sah!" he muttered. "They all knows
that name o' Lancing. Sure I've heard many a shingle-maker curse it,
an' say what he'd do tuh the new owner, if ever he dared show his face
on the river. An' what they'd do tuh your dad they'd like enough do
tuh you. That's why I asks yuh to turn aroun' an' go back, while yuh
has the chanct."

"Why, you don't mean to say your people would try to harm us?" asked
Larry, his round face showing signs of uneasiness.

"They sure would, if they knowed his name was Lancing," replied the
other, doggedly. "They's a tough lot, seein' as how they lead a hard
life, an' they think they got a right to the land they built ther
shanties on. More'n once the sheriff he tried tuh git his man down
yonder. Sho! they jest rode him on a rail, an' warned him if ever he
showed his face thar again they'd sure tar and feather him. An' let me
tell yuh, he ain't come back from that day to this'n."

"Well," Phil went on, coolly, "I've heard all those things from the
people of the town. They haven't one good word to say for McGee and
his tribe. But somehow I've got a notion that your folks ain't as
black as they're painted. And I'm banking on that idea just enough to
take the risk of going on down there, even if it is bearding the lion
in his den."

Tony shook his head dismally, and looked disappointed.

"Wisht yuh wouldn't," he muttered. "Yuh been good to me, an' I'd hate
tuh know anything happened."

"Oh! that's all right, Tony," said Phil, cheerfully. "Nothing's going
to happen--nothing bad, I mean. I'm not afraid to meet the terrible
McGee face to face. I just want t