t leaves for
the moisture that was in them.

"I'll climb that tree and have another look round," said Roger.

"All right. While you're there I'll try out the mats I made last
night."

They looked together up toward the top of the dead cypress, and Higgins
swore. The buzzards were still waiting.

Roger climbed to the branch which offered a perch high up on the tree
trunk and once more searched the landscape for a sign of fresh water or
a solid path through the mud. The scene below him now resembled
nothing so much as a painter's palette streaked and splashed with all
the bright primary colors and all their possible hues, shades and
variations.

The black mud field was livid with a coating of most somber purple shot
with angry streaks of carmine and orange. On the foliage of the tiny
islands which dotted the expanse the sun was rosy. To the westward the
matted mass of the mangrove swamp seemed to be sheathed with a liquid
coat of gold. The mists of morning were rising above the swamp and
upon it the dawn played its full palette of colors with delicate
rainbow effect. Above the mists the sky was flushed and hectic; and in
the east the garishness of the sunburst was like the clang of a brazen
gong.

Payne moved his glasses inch by inch upward, scanning minutely the
treacherous ground over which they were soon to venture. Had there
been running water within sight the searching sun must have revealed
it. He saw none, nor did he catch any signs that indicated a
watercourse.

The mud and the tiny islands stretched northward to the blue streak on
the horizon, which might be timber highland or only mist.

"It works!" called Higgins from below.

By the time Payne had descended from his perch the engineer was out on
the mud, demonstrating the efficiency of the mats of thin saplings and
creepers which he had woven the evening before. While standing upon
one mat, which supported his weight and prevented him sinking into the
mud, he tossed a second one ahead, stepped upon it, drew the first mat
after him, and repeated the process. It was slow work, for the mud
clung to the mats, necessitating a heavy tug to free them, but it was
sure--so long as a man's strength remained. Payne followed tediously
in Higgins' trail and presently by virtue of greater length of leg and
arm, had caught up with him. They reached the first island at the same
time and found it no island at all, but a clump of mangrove trees
inextric