e fight was
over. Panting, grinning, their teeth and eyeballs gleaming, the
negroes stood aside awaiting orders.

"I'll be darned," said Roger, puzzled. "Boys, how did you ever come
here?"

"Dat white man"--a grinning negro pointed to where Blease had fired
from the jungle--"he say he shoot us if we don' come."

Higgins had searched the two strangers and taken a revolver from each.

"All right, boys," said Roger. "You can get right back to work. The
show's over."

From the opposite sides of the canal Roger and the leader of the trio
glared at one another.

"Well," said Payne, "you tried to run a bluff and it didn't work.
What's the idea?"

The man swore again and replied:

"What's the idear, huh? That's what I want to know. You'll get yours
for this--coming on people's land and starting a roughhouse."

Roger stared stupidly across the canal at the speaker, incomprehension
taking the place of anger. "Oh," he said at last, "it's all a mistake.
You got on the wrong tract: this is my land."

"Like ---- it is!"

"What?"

"Don't try to come that on us; don't waste your breath. Think we're
dummies? This is our land. We bought it last week. And I'm telling
you to keep off of it from now on. Oh, I got the right description; a
thousand acres west of a line from Deer Key there to the Cypress Swamp.
Want to look at the deed? Give you our lawyer's address if you do."

"Who is your lawyer?"

"Big Tom Connors, Washington, D. C. And if it'll make you feel any
better--why, he's a law partner of Senator Fairclothe."

"If you think you have really bought this land," said Roger slowly,
"you have been cheated."

"Huh! Do we look like easy marks? Listen, boh: you're the fish that
got hooked. You bought a bum title. Get that? Didn't know this
little piece of dirt was in the courts, eh? Well, it was; and Big Tom
got it, and we got it from him. Your title ain't worth the paper it's
written on. Now, you're guilty of tresp----Hold on!"

Roger had thrown his self-control to the winds. He leaped into the
canal and wallowed across.

"Get off, my land!" he growled. "Get off!"

The gunman was running for dear life down the spoil bank. On the
opposite side his companions were in full flight. Payne did not
follow. He stood and watched them, outraged to the marrow. "And keep
off, too!" he shouted grimly. "Tell your lawyer, tell your sheriff,
tell 'em all, keep off!"

XXVIII

"It's impossibl