So they decided to take over the flume and try to force us into letting them have it." "Here comes somebody!" Ba'tiste's grip tightened about the cant hook and he rose, squaring himself.

Houston seized the club and stood waiting a few feet in the rear, in readiness for any one who might evade the bulwark of blows which Ba'tiste evidently intended to set up.
Far in the woods showed the shadowy forms of three men, approaching steadily and apparently without any desire for battle.

Ba'tiste turned sharply.

"Your eye, keep heem open.

Eet may be a blind." But Houston searched the woods in vain.