Mr. Graham had the conductor stop the train a mile from the station and they dropped off into the woods. “Thought it would be just as well not to stir them up down there at the station,” he explained. “They may have some scouts on the lookout.”

Day was just breaking and they heard some wild turkeys gobbling over in the swamp. It was a tempting sound, but they were after bigger game this morning and held to their course at a round pace. Mr. Graham had explained his plan of campaign to them on the train and they traveled in silence now, each one busy with his own thoughts.

Scott would have doubted his ability to find that bateau, but Murphy was a regular hound in the woods, and he walked to it as confidently as though he were walking down a broad highway. Now and then Scott recognized some landmark and knew that they were on the right course. He could run a compass line with the best of them but Murphy never used a compass unless he was surveying. When they came to the edge of the swamp he glanced about him a moment and nosed through the brush right on to the old bateau.

“Good work,” Mr. Graham commented, and handed him one of the two paddles he had brought along. “You take the bow and limber up your gun. You sit in the center, Burton, and keep that rifle ready. Don’t shoot till I tell you, but when you do, don’t miss.”

The little bateau was quite steady with an extra man seated in the bottom of it and the two expert paddlers sent it skimming through the water at a great rate.

“Better get out your compass, Burton. Murphy is pretty good, but we want a double check on this.”

Long before Scott thought they ought to be anywhere near their destination a cabin suddenly loomed out of the mist quite a way to the left. He pointed it out silently to Mr. Graham, who signaled to Murphy to stop paddling. Murphy gazed incredulously at the cabin and shook his head.

“There is some difference in paddling with two paddles and poling with one pole,” he whispered; “but it does not seem as though that could possibly be the place. Looks like it, though.”

Mr. Graham thought it best to investigate and they started slowly toward the cabin, keeping the trees between them and it as much as possible. There was no sign of life, but it was nerve-racking work to sneak up on the blind side of the cabin never knowing when some unseen marksman might open fire. They stopped immediately back of the cabin and listened intently for a long time. There was no sound. Cautiously they pushed the bow of the boat around the corner, and Murphy, revolver in hand, took a peep at the front. The others could tell from the relaxation of his body that it was the wrong place. They knew it long before he spoke.

Murphy slipped his revolver back into its holster and resumed his paddle. The front window was broken and the door was gone. There was no landing stage and the whole place looked deserted. Mr. Graham had a look inside. There was nothing in it and it did not seem to have been occupied for years.

“Must have been somebody else in hiding some years ago from the looks of this place,” Mr. Graham remarked. “I could not imagine any one living out in one of these swamps unless he could not live anywhere else. Well, let’s make for the next station. I hope we have better luck there.”

Once more they started on their silent way. There did not seem to be any birds in the swamp in the daytime. An occasional squirrel was the only form of life except the cottonmouth moccasins which seemed to be holding a convention of some kind. They were gliding about everywhere in the water and crawling up on to the logs to sun themselves. Scott had never seen so many poisonous snakes in so short a time.

Murphy raised his paddle and pointed ahead and a little to the right. It was not very distinct but they finally made it out. The hazy outline of a cabin peeping through the maze of tall, gray tree trunks and long festoons of Spanish moss. There was no doubt about it this time. Scott recognized the surroundings and he also recognized a thin haze of smoke hanging about the cabin. There was some one in it.

A thrill went through the whole party and they straightened in their seats with every nerve a-tingle. No one knew just exactly what was going to happen, but they felt sure that there would be something and that quickly. Mr. Graham’s plan was to sneak up on the place from the rear. They could then wait in hiding till some one came out. If they could cover one of the party with a gun they might be able to force the surrender of the whole gang without rushing the cabin, which would be a very hazardous thing to do. There was very little chance to take advantage of any cover, and the attacking party would be almost completely at the mercy of the garrison till they could force their way inside.

With this plan in view they sent the bateau slowly and cautiously forward toward the back of the cabin just as they had done with the other cabin a little while before. They ducked nervously from tree to tree like an Indian scout. They were within a hundred yards of the cabin now and no one seemed to have noticed their approach. They were watching the cabin so intently that they did not think to look at anything else. It had not occurred to any of them that some of the occupants of the cabin might be out in boats.

Suddenly a faint sound off to the left of them caught Mr. Graham’s ear and he turned with a start. Not very far from them and headed for the cabin was another bateau. For a moment the cabin was forgotten. They all grasped their guns and gave their entire attention to the boat. It was manned by a single negro and he was paddling leisurely. He apparently had not seen them and did not seem to have a care in the world.

Mr. Graham was undecided whether to signal the negro and warn him away from the cabin, or to lie perfectly still and take a chance on his going on without seeing them. He reasoned that the people in the cabin must have seen the darky approaching from that direction, right in the path of one of the windows, and that to call him to them now would be inevitably to attract attention to themselves. He decided to keep still. It seemed like a poor chance, but about the only one he had. If he had known what the arrival of that negro at the cabin would mean he would probably have risked everything to stop him, for it was the belated George with Qualley’s message.

George stopped paddling every stroke or two to see what time it was. Not that he was in any hurry, far from it, but he was completely fascinated by his new gold watch. It was probably this infatuation which prevented him from seeing the other bateau. He seemed utterly oblivious of everything around him, and with another long look at his precious watch he disappeared around the corner of the cabin without seeing them. They were near enough to hear distinctly the voices which greeted him when he arrived at the landing.

Mr. Graham heaved a sigh of relief, and then suddenly seized his paddle with a new inspiration. These people would surely come out on the porch to see what the negro wanted, were probably out there now, and would be so taken up with him that it might be the best possible opportunity to catch them unaware. He signaled to Murphy and shot the bateau ahead with all his might. He went around the opposite end of the house from the one the negro had taken and ran the bateau close up beside the end of the landing stage.

The whole party was there in a group on the porch, five men and three women. They arrived just in time to hear Roberts swear viciously and angrily crumple up a piece of paper in his hand. The negro was the first to see them and it was the sight of his astonished gaze which caught the attention of the others. The surprise was so complete that for the fraction of a second they stared open-mouthed and motionless.

“Hands up!” Mr. Graham commanded sharply. “I have a warrant here for the whole bunch of you.”

Roberts saw that he was covered, caught in the open without his gun and taken completely at a disadvantage, but he was desperate. He was no coward and he knew that capture meant the penitentiary for him. With a ro............