Don't be unreasonable."

"Unreasonable, hell! We're on our way, aren't we? Going to let 'em
stop us?"

"We've got no quarrel with these men. We'll use a little reason."

"Go ahead, you're the boss." Higgins retired to the starboard rail,
but he did not sheath Old Betsy.

"Can you tell me the reason you are afraid to go on?" asked Roger.

"Ain't afraid to go there. It's you that stops us."

"Why can't you take us there?"

"Got orders not to."

"From whom?"

A sullen silence followed the question.

"Anybody connected with the Land Company?"

"Save your wind," growled the scarred man. "We ain't telling."

Roger debated a moment and decided that he had indulged in enough
irregularity and violence for one day.

"Now, talking as man to man, how much would it hurt you to take us up
there?"

The captain's bleak face cracked in a slight smile of despair and
hopelessness that left no need for words as an answer.

"Well, what is it?" blurted Higgins. "Can't you tell us what you're
afraid of?"

"You look like a pretty stiff man, mister," said the scarred man after
appraising Higgins, "but I'll bet if you was in our boots you wouldn't
do different'n us."

"Can you beat it?" gasped Higgins. "They don't look like Sunday-school
kids either."

Roger, running his eyes over the hard faces, smiled at the comparison.

"How far is it up to this terrible place from here, captain?"

"It's four miles from this point."

"By air line or river?"

"River."

"How's the walking?"

A look of relief in his hard eyes betrayed the hope that the question
aroused in the captain.

"Fair--I won't say good, but fair. Right here she's swampy. A mile up
the high banks start, and there's sort of a trail right into the place."

"All right. You'll run us up to the high banks. We'll get off and
walk the rest of the way. You'll lay up at the banks for half an hour
after we've started."

"What for?"

"I guess you're all right, but I play safe. I don't know anything
about what you're afraid of up there, but I don't want you to get in
ahead of us and accidentally break the news of our coming."

"Good!" cried Higgins admiringly. "And Old Betsy here, she'll throw a
slug clean through that wheelhouse wall, captain, in case you should
get impatient and try to run by."

The captain looked inquiringly at the scarred man, who nodded sullenly.

"All right."

"We'll be hitting back into the swamp," said the scarred one.