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diff --git a/19348-h/19348-h.htm b/19348-h/19348-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90a0027 --- /dev/null +++ b/19348-h/19348-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13720 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + Gideon's Band by George W. Cable</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body.c5 {font-family : serif; margin-left : 10%; margin-right : 10%;} + div.c3 {text-align: justify; text-indent : 1em} + span.c2 {font-variant : small-caps;} + div.c1 {text-align: center} + span.c6 {letter-spacing : 1em;} + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1.5em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2.5em; } + .poem p.i5 { margin-left: 3.0em; } + .poem p.i6 { margin-left: 3.5em; } + .poem p.i7 { margin-left: 4.0em; } + .poem p.i8 { margin-left: 4.5em; } + .poem p.i10 { margin-left: 5.5em; } + .poem p.i12 { margin-left: 6.5em; } + .poem p.i20 { margin-left: 10.5em; } +</style> +</head> + +<body class="c5"> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gideon's Band, by George W. Cable + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Gideon's Band + A Tale of the Mississippi + +Author: George W. Cable + +Illustrator: F. C. Yohn + +Release Date: September 22, 2006 [EBook #19348] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIDEON'S BAND *** + + + + +Produced by Rudy Ketterer, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + <div class="c1"> + <h1>GIDEON'S BAND</h1> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <a href="images/cover01.jpg"><img src="images/cover01s.jpg" alt="Book Cover" border="0"></a> + </div> + + <p><br></p> + + <table border="0" align="center" summary="Books by George W. Cable"> + <caption> + BOOKS BY GEORGE W. CABLE + </caption> + + <tr> + <th colspan="3"><span class="c2">Published by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</span></th> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Gideon's Band.</strong> Illustrated. 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Posson Jone' and Pere Raphael.</strong><br> + Illustrated. 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Kincaid's Battery.</strong> Illustrated. 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Bylow Hill.</strong> Illustrated. 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.25</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>The Cavalier.</strong> Illustrated</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>John March, Southerner.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Bonaventure.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Dr. Sevier.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>The Grandissimes.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><span class="c2"> The Same.</span> Illustrated. Crown 8vo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$2.50</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Old Creole Days.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><span class="c2"> The Same.</span> Illustrated. Crown 8vo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$2.50</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Strange True Stories of Louisiana.</strong><br> + Illustrated. 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.35</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Strong Hearts.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.25</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>The Creoles of Louisiana.</strong><br> + Illustrated. Square 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$2.50</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>The Silent South.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$1.00</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>The Negro Question.</strong> 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$ .75</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>Madame Delphine.</strong></td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$ .75</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><strong>The Cable Story Book.</strong><br> + [<em>Scribner Series of School Reading.</em>]<br> + Illustrated. 12mo</td> + + <td><em>net</em></td> + + <td align="right">$ .50</td> + </tr> + </table> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div><a name="col01" id="col01"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <a href="images/col01.jpg"><img src="images/col01s.jpg" alt="Ramsey" border="0"></a> + <br>Ramsey + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <h1>GIDEON'S BAND</h1> + + <h2>A TALE OF THE MISSISSIPPI</h2> + + <h3>BY</h3> + + <h2>GEORGE W. CABLE</h2> + + <h4>ILLUSTRATED BY</h4> + + <h4>F. C. YOHN</h4> + + <h5>NEW YORK<br> + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br> + 1914</h5> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <p><span class="c2">Copyright, 1914, by</span><br> + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p> + + <p>Published September, 1914</p> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>TO</h2> + + <h2>EVA</h2> + </div> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div> + + <table border="0" align="center" summary="Index"> + <caption> + CONTENTS + </caption> + + <tr> + <th>CHAPTER</th> + + <th> </th> + + <th>PAGE</th> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">I.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#I">The Steamboat Levee</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">1</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">II.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#II">"The Votaress"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">5</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">III.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#III">Certain Passengers</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">9</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">IV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#IV">The First Two Miles</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">13</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">V.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#V">Ramsey Hayle</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">17</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">VI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#VI">Hayles's Twins</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">25</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">VII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#VII">Supper</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">31</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">VIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#VIII">Questions</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">37</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">IX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#IX">Sitting Silent</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">43</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">X.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#X">Peril</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">50</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XI">First Night-Watch</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">57</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XII">Hugh and the Twins</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">68</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XIII">The Superabounding Ramsey</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">75</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XIV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XIV">The Committee of Seven</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">83</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XV">Morning Watch</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">90</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XVI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XVI">Phyllis</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">95</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XVII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XVII">"It's a-Happmin' Yit—to We All"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">106</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XVIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XVIII">Ramsey Wins a Point or Two</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">113</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XIX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XIX">This Way to Womanhood</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">122</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XX">Ladies' Table</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">131</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXI">Ramsey and the Bishop</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">138</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXII">Basile and What He Saw</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">147</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXIII">A State of Affairs</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">152</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXIV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XIV">A Senator Enlightened</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">158</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXV">"Please Assemble"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">164</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXVI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXVI">Alarm and Distress</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">173</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXVII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXVII">Pilots' Eyes</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">180</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXVIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXVIII">Words and the "Westwood"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">186</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXIX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXIX">Studying the River—Together</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">195</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXX">Phyllis Again</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">203</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXI">The Burning Boat</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">211</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXII">A Prophet in the Wilderness</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">222</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXIII">Twins and Texas Tender</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">229</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXIV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXIV">The Peacemakers</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">234</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXV">Unsettled Weather</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">246</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXVI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXVI">Captain's Room</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">252</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXVII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXVII">Basile Uses a Cane</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">260</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXVIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXVIII">The Cane Again</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">272</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XXXIX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XXXIX">Fortitude</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">280</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XL.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XL">Ramsey at the Footlights</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">289</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLI">Quits</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">299</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLII">Against Kin</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">306</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLIII">Which from Which</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">313</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLIV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLIV">Forbearance</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">319</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLV">Applause</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">327</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLVI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLVI">After the Play</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">331</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLVII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLVII">Insomnia</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">337</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLVIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLVIII">"California"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">347</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">XLIX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#XLIX">Kangaroo Point</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">354</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">L.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#L">"Delta Will Do"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">365</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LI">Loving-Kindness</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">374</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LII">Love Runs Rough but Runs on</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">383</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LIII">Trading for Phyllis</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">393</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LIV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LIV">"Can't!"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">404</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LV.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LV">Love Makes a Cut-Off</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">412</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LVI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LVI">Eight Years After</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">425</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LVII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LVII">Farewell, "Votaress"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">436</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LVIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LVIII">'Lindy Lowe</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">443</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LIX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LIX">"Conclusively"</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">446</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LX.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LX">Once More Hugh Sings</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">460</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LXI.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LXI">Wanted, Hayle's Twins</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">469</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LXII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LXII">Euthanasia</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">478</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="right">LXIII.</td> + + <td><span class="c2"><a href="#LXIII">The Captain's Chair</a></span></td> + + <td align="right">493</td> + </tr> + </table> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div> + + <table border="0" align="center" width="66%" summary="Illustration index"> + <caption> + ILLUSTRATIONS + </caption> + + <tr> + <td><em><a href="#col01">Ramsey</a></em></td> + + <td align="center"><em><a href="#col01">Frontispiece</a></em></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td> </td> + + <td align="center">FACING<br> + PAGE</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><em><a href="#col02">"Stop!... Stop! the safest place for you on this boat now is right + where you are standing—Phyllis"</a></em></td> + + <td align="center"><a href="#col02">258</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><em><a href="#col03">"My heavenly Father wouldn't 'a' had to call me in out of the + storm"</a></em></td> + + <td align="center"><a href="#col03">334</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><em><a href="#col04">"For I believe that we belong to each other from the centre of our + souls, by a fitness plain even to the eyes of your brothers"</a></em></td> + + <td align="center"><a href="#col04">420</a></td> + </tr> + </table> + + <div class="c1"> + <hr width="75%"> + </div><a name="I" id="I"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h1>GIDEON'S BAND</h1> + + <h2>I</h2> + + <h3>THE STEAMBOAT LEVEE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Saturday, April, 1852. There was a fervor in the sky as of an August noon, although the + clocks of the city would presently strike five.</p> + + <p>Dazzling white clouds, about to show the earliest flush of the sun's decline, beamed down + upon a turbid river harbor, where the water was deep so close inshore that the port's unbroken + mile of steamboat wharf nowhere stretched out into the boiling flood. Instead it merely lined + the shore, the steamers packing in bow on with their noses to it, their sterns out in the + stream, their fenders chafing each other's lower guards.</p> + + <p>New Orleans was very proud of this scene. Very prompt were her citizens, such as had + travelled, to remind you that in many seaports vast warehouses and roofed docks of enormous + cost thronged out so greedily to meet incoming craft that the one boat which you might be + seeking you would find quite hidden among walls and roofs, and of all the rest of the harbor's + general fleet you could see little or nothing. Not so on this great sun-swept, wind-swept, + rain-swept, unswept steamboat levee. You might come up out of any street along that mile-wide + front, and if there were a hundred river steamers in port a hundred you would behold with one + sweep of the eye. Overhead was only the blue dome, in full view almost from rim to rim; and all + about, amid a din of shouting, whip-cracking, scolding, and laughing, and a multitudinous + flutter of many-colored foot-square flags, each marking its special lot of goods, were swarms + of men—white, yellow, and black—trucking, tumbling, rolling, hand-barrowing, and "toting" on + heads and shoulders a countless worth of freight in bags, barrels, casks, bales, boxes, and + baskets. Hundreds of mules and drays came and went with this same wealth, and out beyond all, + between wharf and open river, profiled on the eastern sky, letting themselves be unloaded and + reloaded, stood the compacted, motionless, elephantine phalanx of the boats.</p> + + <p>The flood beneath them was up to the wharf's flooring, yet their low, light-draught hulls, + with the freight decks that covered them doubled in carrying room by their widely overhanging + freight guards, were hid by the wilderness of goods on shore. Hid also were their furnaces, + boilers, and engines on the same deck, sharing it with the cargo. But all their gay upper + works, so toplofty and frail, showed a gleaming white front to the western sun. You marked each + one's jack-staff, that rose mast high from the unseen prow, and behind it the boiler deck, high + over the boilers. Over the boiler deck was the hurricane roof, above that the officers' rooms, + called the "texas." Above the texas was the pilot-house, and on either side, well forward of + the pilot-house and towering abreast of each other and above all else—higher than the two + soaring derrick posts at the two forward corners of the passenger and hurricane decks, higher + even than the jack-staff's peak—stood the two great black chimneys.</p> + + <p>And what a populace teemed round and through all! Here was the Creole, there the New + Englander. Here were men of oddest sorts from the Missouri, Ohio, and nearer and farther + rivers. Here were the Irishman, the German, the Congo, Cuban, Choctaw, Texan, Sicilian; the + Louisiana sugar-planter, the Mississippi cotton-planter, goat-bearded raftsmen from the swamps + of Arkansas, flatboatmen from the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky; the horse trader, the + slave-driver, the filibuster, the Indian fighter, the circus rider, the circuit-rider, and men + bound for the goldfields of California.</p> + + <p>More than half the boats, this April afternoon, flew from the jack-staff of each, to signify + that it was her day to leave, a streaming burgee bearing her name. A big-lettered strip of + canvas drawn along the front guards of her hurricane-deck told for what port she was "up," and + the growing smoke that swelled from her chimneys showed that five was her time to back out.</p> + + <p>In the midst of the scene, opposite the head of Canal Street—the streets that run to the + New Orleans levee run up-hill and get there head first—lay a boat which specially belongs to + this narrative. A pictorial poster, down in every café and hotel rotunda of the town, + called her "large, new, and elegant," and such she was in fair comparison with all the craft on + all the sixteen thousand navigable miles of the vast river and its tributaries. Her goal was + Louisville, more than thirteen hundred miles away. Her steam was up, a velvet-black pitch-pine + smoke billowed from her chimneys, and her red-and-white burgee, gleaming upon it, named her the + <em>Votaress</em>.</p> + </div><a name="II" id="II"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>II</h2> + + <h3>THE "VOTARESS"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Her first up-river trip! The crowd waiting on the wharf's apron to see her go was larger and + included better types of the people than usual, for the <em>Votaress</em> was the latest of the + Courteney fleet, hence a rival of the Hayle boats, the most interesting fact that could be + stated of anything afloat on Western waters.</p> + + <p>So young was she, this <em>Votaress</em>, so bridally fresh from her Indiana and Kentucky + shipyards, that the big new bell in the mid-front of her hurricane roof shone in the low + sunlight like a wedding jewel. Its parting strokes had sounded once but would sound twice again + before she could cast off. Both pilots were in the lofty pilot-house, down from the + breast-board of which a light line ran forward to the bell's tongue, but neither pilot touched + the line or the helm. For the captain's use another cord from the bell hung over the hurricane + deck's front and down to the boiler deck rail, but neither up there on the boiler deck nor + anywhere near the bell on the roof above it was any captain to be seen.</p> + + <p>At the front angle of the roof's larboard rail a youth, quite alone, leaned against one of + the tall derrick posts to get its shade. He was too short, square, and unanimated to draw much + attention, although with a faint unconscious frown between widely parted brows his quiet eyes + fell intently upon every detail of the lively scene below.</p> + + <p>The whole great landing lay beneath his glance, a vivid exposition of the vast, half-tamed + valley's bounty, spoils, and promise; of its motley human life, scarcely yet to be called + society, so lately and rudely transplanted from overseas; so bareboned, so valiantly preserved, + so young yet already so titanic; so self-reliant, opinionated, and uncouth; so strenuous and + materialistic in mind; so inflammable in emotions; so grotesque in its virtues; so violent in + its excesses; so complacently oblivious of all the higher values of wealth; so giddied with the + new wine of liberty and crude abundance; so open of speech, of heart, of home, and so blithely + disdainful of a hundred risks of life, health, and property. And all this the young observer's + glance took in with maybe more realization of it than might be looked for in one not yet + twenty-one. Yet his fuller attention was for matters nearer and of much narrower compass.</p> + + <p>He saw the last bit of small freight come aboard and the last belated bill-lading clerk and + ejected peddler go ashore. He noted by each mooring-post the black longshoreman waiting to cast + off a hawser. He remarked each newcomer who idly joined the onlooking throng. Especially he + observed each cab or carriage that hurried up to the wharf's front. He studied each of the + alighting occupants as they yielded their effects to the antic, white-jacketed mulatto + cabin-boys, behind whom they crossed the ponderous unrailed stage and vanished on their + up-stairs way to the boiler deck, the cabin, and their staterooms. Had his mild scrutinizings + been a paid service, they could hardly have been more thorough.</p> + + <p>By and by two or three things occurred in the same moment. A number of boats above Canal + Street and several of lesser fame below sounded their third bell, cast off, and backed out into + the stream. The many pillars of smoke widened across the heavens into one unrifted cloud with + the sunbeams illumining its earthward side. Now it overhung the busy landing and now, at the + river's first bend, it filled the tops of the dark mass of spars and cordage that densely lined + the long curve of the harbor's up-town shipping.</p> + + <p>At the same time, while the foremost boats were still in sight, the two pilots in the + pilot-house of the lingering <em>Votaress</em> quietly took stand at right and left of the + wheel with their eyes on a distant vehicle, a private carriage. It came swiftly out of Common + Street and across the broad shell-paved levee. As quietly as they, the youth at the derrick + post regarded it, and presently, looking back and up, he gave them a slight, gratified nod. + Through the lines of onlookers the carriage swept close up to the stage and let down two + aristocratic-looking men. The taller was full fifty years of age, the other as much as + seventy-five, but both were hale and commanding.</p> + + <p>As they started aboard the younger glanced up brightly to the unsmiling youth at the roof's + rail and then threw a gesture, above and beyond him, to the pilot-house. One of the pilots + promptly sounded the bell. Down on the forecastle a dozen deck-hands, ordered by a burly mate, + leaped to the stage and began, with half as many others who ran ashore on it, to heave it + aboard. But a sharp "avast" stopped them, and four or five cabin-boys gambolled out on it + ashore. A smart hack came whirling up in its own white shell dust, and a fledgling dandy of + seventeen sprang down from the seat of his choice by the driver before the vehicle could stop + or the white jackets strip it of its baggage.</p> + </div><a name="III" id="III"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>III</h2> + + <h3>CERTAIN PASSENGERS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>From his dizzy outlook the older youth dropped his calm scrutiny upon the inner occupants as + they alighted and followed the boy on board. First came a red-ringleted, fifteen-year-old + sister, fairly good-looking, almost too free of glance, and—to her high-perched + critic—urgently eligible to longer skirts. Behind her appeared an old, very black nurse in + very blue calico and very white turban and bosom kerchief; and lastly a mother—of many + children, one would have said—still perfect in complexion, gracefully rounded, and + beautiful.</p> + + <p>This was the first time he on the hurricane deck had ever seen them, but he knew at once who + they were and looked the closer on that account. The self-oblivious elation with which the slim + lass gave her eyes and mind to everything except her own footing caused him to keep his chief + watch on her. He even beckoned a black deck hand to do the same. Wherever her glance went her + gay interest went with it, either in a soft soliloquizing laugh or in some demonstration less + definite though more radiant; some sign of delight from her lips, her eyes, her brow, her + springing step, dancing curls, or supple arms. The youth on the roof's edge deepened his frown. + At a point on the stage where its sheer, naked sides spanned the narrow chasm through which the + waters swept between boat and wharf, her feet strayed too near one perilous edge, and just then + her eyes went up to him. The two glances had barely met when she tripped and staggered. With a + dozen others aboard and ashore, he gave a start. She sent him a look of terror, then turned + from deadly pale to rosy red and gasped her thanks to the smiling deckhand, whose clutch had + saved her life. The next instant she was laughing elatedly to her horrified nurse, and so + disappeared with her kindred on the lower deck and front stairs.</p> + + <p>The mellow boom of the third and last parting signal diverted the general mind, and a glance + behind him showed the youth the close and welcome presence of that superior-looking man in + answer to whose gesture the pilot had tolled the earlier bell. But this person was closely + preoccupied. Now his capable glance ran aft along every marginal line of the boat, now it + dropped below to where the big stage lay drawn in athwart the forward deck from guard to guard. + Now he gave short, quiet orders to wharf and forecastle, now a single word or two to the + pilot-house. Far below, the engine bells jingled. The bowline was in. A yeast of waters ran + forward from the backing wheels, the breast line slacked away in fierce jerks, and the + <em>Votaress</em> began to depart.</p> + + <p>Meantime there was an odd stir on shore. A cab whirled up furiously and two more youths, + shapely, handsome, and fashionable, twins beyond cavil and noticeably older than their twenty + years, visibly rich in fine qualities but as visibly reckless as to what they did with them, + sprang out, flushed and imperious, to wave the <em>Votaress</em>. One of her guards was still + rubbing along the steamer beside her, but before the pair could dash aboard this other boat and + half across her deck, a gap had opened, impossible to leap. They halted in rage as the more + compact youth on the moving steamer's roof, catching their attention, pointed a good two miles + up the river front. Yet what he said they would not have known had not her mate repeated from + the forecastle:</p> + + <p>"Post forty-six! Drive up thah! We stop thah fo' a load of emigrants!"</p> + + <p>They fled back to the cab. Aboard the receding boat the ruthless engine bells jingled on; + the broad waterside and the city behind it seemed, from her decks, to draw away into the + western clouds, and the yellow river spread wide its shores in welcome to her swinging form. + Now its mighty current seemed to quicken and quicken as she gradually overcame her down-stream + drift, the ship-lined shores ceased to creep up-stream—began to creep down—and her black + crew, standing close about the capstan, broke majestically into song:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "Oh, rock me, Julie, rock me."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>From the forecastle her swivel pealed, her burgee ran down the jack-staff, a soft, + continuous tremor set in among all her parts, her scape-pipes ceased their alternating roars, + her engines breathed quietly through her vast funnels, the flood spurted at her cutwater, white + torrents leaped and chased each other from her fluttering wheels, her own breeze fanned every + brow, and the <em>Votaress</em> was under way.</p> + </div><a name="IV" id="IV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>IV</h2> + + <h3>THE FIRST TWO MILES</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>The youth whom we have called short, square, and so on crossed to the starboard derrick + post. Several passengers had come up to the roof, and one who, he noticed, seemed, by the many + kind glances cast upon her, to be already winning favor, was the tallish lass with the red + curls.</p> + + <p>The nurse was still at her back. She drew close up beside him and stood in the wind that + ruffled her hat and pressed her draperies against her form. Her servant betrayed a faint + restiveness to be so near him, but the girl, watching the steamer's watery path as it seemed of + its own volition to glide under the boat's swift tread, ignored him as completely as if he were + a part of the woodwork. The very good-looking man who was "taking out" the boat returned from a + short tour of the deck and halted by the great bell over the foremost skylights; but soon he + moved away again in mild preoccupation. The maiden's frank scrutiny followed him a step or two + and then turned squarely to the youth. Her attendant stirred uncomfortably and breathed some + inarticulate protest, but in a tone of faultless composure the girl spoke out:</p> + + <p>"Is that the captain yonder?"</p> + + <p>"No," he said, equally composed, though busy thinking that but for his eye she would at this + moment be lying, in all these dainty draperies, as deep beneath the boiling flood as she now + stood above it. "That's not the captain."</p> + + <p>"Then why is he running the boat?"</p> + + <p>"He owns her."</p> + + <p>"Oh!" The girl's soft laugh was at herself. Presently—"Where's her captain?"</p> + + <p>"Ashore, in the hospital."</p> + + <p>"What's he got?"</p> + + <p>"Missy!" murmured the dark woman beseechingly.</p> + + <p>But missy gave her no heed. "Got cholera?" she ventured, "the Asiatic cholera?"</p> + + <p>"No, a broken leg."</p> + + <p>"Oh! Is that all he's got?"</p> + + <p>"No, he has another, not broken." The speaker was so solemn that, with mirth in every drop + of her blood, the inquirer contrived to be grave, herself.</p> + + <p>"How'd he get it—I mean get it broken?"</p> + + <p>"He was superintending——"</p> + + <p>"And fell? When'd he fall?"</p> + + <p>"This afternoon, about——"</p> + + <p>"Where'd it happen?"</p> + + <p>"Down on the lower deck as he——"</p> + + <p>"Which is the lower deck?"</p> + + <p>"The deck you came aboard on."</p> + + <p>"They told me that was the freight deck!"</p> + + <p>"It is."</p> + + <p>"Then, why—?" She ceased, pondered, and spoke again: "Is there any deck lower than the + lower deck?"</p> + + <p>"None."</p> + + <p>She mused once more: "Why—that's strange."</p> + + <p>"Yes," he said, "strange, but true."</p> + + <p>"Then how could the captain fall——" Again she ceased and yet again pondered: "Are the + boilers—on the boiler deck?"</p> + + <p>"No, the boiler deck is just over the boilers."</p> + + <p>"Then why do they—" Once more she pondered.</p> + + <p>"The boilers," said the youth, "are down on the freight deck."</p> + + <p>The questioner brightened. "Do they ever put any freight on the boiler deck?" she asked.</p> + + <p>Before he could say yes, and without the slightest warning, a laugh burst from her tightened + lips. He could not have called it unmusical and did not resent it, although he did regard it as + without the slenderest excuse. Her eyes and brow, still confronting his in a distress of mirth, + confessed the whim's forlorn senselessness, while his face returned not the smallest sign of an + emotion. As the moment lengthened, the transport, so far from passing, spread through all her + lithe form. Suddenly she turned aside, drew herself up, faced him again, and began to inquire, + "Do they ever—" but broke down once more, fell upon the old woman's shoulder with a silvery + tinkle, shook, hung limp, threw one foot behind her, and tapped the deck with her toe. A + married couple drifting by, obviously players and of the best of their sort, enjoyed the + picture.</p> + + <p>"Why, missy!" the nurse softly pleaded, "yo' plumb disgracin' yo'seff! Stop! Stop!"</p> + + <p>"I can't!" whined the girl, between her paroxysms, "till he stops looking like + <em>that</em>." But as the youth was merely looking like himself he saw no reason why he should + stop.</p> + + <p>To avoid the current the steamer suddenly began to run so close beside the moored ships that + the continuous echo of all her sounds—the flutter of her great wheels, the seething of waters, + the varied activities of her lower deck—came back and up to the three voyagers with a nearness + and minuteness that startled the girl and drew her glance; but just as her dancing eyes + returned reproachfully to the youth the big bell at her back pealed its signal for landing and + she sprang almost off her feet, cast herself into the nurse's bosom, and laughed more + inexcusably than ever.</p> + + <p>The woman put an arm about her shoulder and drew her a few steps back along the rail to + where four or five others were gathered. The young man gave all his attention downward across + the starboard bow. The engine bells jingled far below, the wheels stopped, the giant chimneys + ceased their majestic breathing, and the boat came slowly abreast of a ship standing high out + of the water.</p> + </div><a name="V" id="V"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>V</h2> + + <h3>RAMSEY HAYLE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>The flag of Holland floated aft of a deck crowded with a sun-tanned and oddly clad + multitude. The Dutch sailors lowered their fenders between the ship's side and the boat's + guards, lines were made fast, a light stage was run down from the ship's upper deck to the + boat's forecastle, and in single file, laden with their household goods, the silent aliens were + hurried aboard the <em>Votaress</em> and to their steerage quarters, out of sight between and + behind her engines.</p> + + <p>Up on the boiler and hurricane decks her earlier passengers found, according to their + various moods and capacities, much entertainment in the scene. The girl with the nurse laughed + often, of course. Yet her laugh bore a certain note of sympathy and appreciation which + harmonized out of it all quality that might have hurt or abashed the most diffident exile. + Childlike as she was, it was plain she did not wholly fail to see into the matter's pathetic + depths.</p> + + <p>The youth at the derrick post, scrutinizing each immigrant that passed under his eye, could + hear at his back a refined voice making kind replies to her many questions. He knew it as + belonging to the older of the two men for whose coming aboard the <em>Votaress</em> had delayed + her start. Between the girl's whimsical queries he heard him indulgently explain that the Dutch + ensign's red, white, and blue were no theft from us Americans and that at various periods he + had lived in four or five great cities under those three colors as flown and loved by four + great nations.</p> + + <p>Amazing! She could not query fast enough. "First city?"</p> + + <p>First in London, where he had been born and reared.</p> + + <p>"And then?"</p> + + <p>Then in Amsterdam, where he had been married.</p> + + <p>"And then?"</p> + + <p>Then for ten years in Philadelphia.</p> + + <p>"And then?"</p> + + <p>Why, then, for forty years more, down to that present 1852, in New Orleans, while + nevertheless, save for the last ten, he had sojourned much abroad in many ports and capitals, + but mainly in Paris.</p> + + <p>The girl's note of mirth softly persisted, irrepressible but self-oblivious, a mere accent + of her volatile emotions, most frequent among which was a delighted wonder in looking on the + first man of foreign travel, first world-citizen, with whom she had ever awarely come face to + face. So guessed the youth, well pleased.</p> + + <p>Presently, as if she too had guessed something, she asked if the boat's master was not this + man's son.</p> + + <p>He now running it? Yes, he was.</p> + + <p>"And was he, too, born in England?—or in Holland?"</p> + + <p>"In Philadelphia, 1803."</p> + + <p>"And did he, too, marry a—Dutch—wife?"</p> + + <p>"No, a young lady of Philadelphia, in 1832; an American."</p> + + <p>"Did you ever see Andrew Jackson?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, I knew him."</p> + + <p>"Were you in the battle of New Orleans?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, I commanded a battery."</p> + + <p>"Did you know anybody else besides Jackson? Who else?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, I knew them all; Claiborne, Livingston, Duncan, Touro, Sheppard, Grimes, the two + Lafittes, Dominique You, Coffee, Villeré, Roosevelt——"</p> + + <p>"I know about Roosevelt; he brought the first steamboat down the Mississippi. My grandfather + knew him. Did you ever have any grandchildren?"</p> + + <p>Yes, he had had several, but before she could inquire what had become of them the attention + of every one was arrested by the second approach of the cab bearing the two hotspurs who had + missed the boat at Canal Street. All the way up from there their labored gallop, by turns hid, + seen, and hid again, had amused many of her passengers, and now, as the pair shouldered their + angry way across the ship's crowded deck and down the steep gang-plank, a general laugh from + the boat's upper rails galled them none the less for being congratulatory. So handsome and + dangerous-looking that the laugh died, they halted midway of the narrow incline, impeding the + stream of immigrants at their heels, and sent up a fierce stare in response to the propitiatory + smiles of the boat's commander and the youth standing near him. Only one of the twins spoke, + but the eyes of his brother vindictively widened till they gleamed a flaming concurrence in his + fellow's high-keyed, oath-bound threat:</p> + + <p>"We'll get even with you for this, Captain John Courteney. We warn you and all your + tribe."</p> + + <p>The old nurse on the roof, to whose arm her slim charge was clinging with both hands, moaned + audibly: "Oh, Lawd, Mahs' Julian! Mahs' Lucian!"</p> + + <p>The girl laughed, laughed so merrily and convincingly—as if to laugh was the one reasonable + thing to do—that most of the passengers did likewise. Even the grave youth whose back was to + her inwardly granted that the lamentable habit could make itself useful in an awkward juncture. + While he so thought, he observed the unruffled owner of the <em>Votaress</em> motion to the + chagrined young men to clear the way by coming aboard, and as they haughtily did so he heard + the commander's father say to the girl still at his side:</p> + + <p>"I believe those are your brothers?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," she responded, for once without mirth, "my brothers," and the peace-loving but + conscientious nurse added with a modest pretence of pure soliloquy:</p> + + <p>"One dess as hahmless as de yetheh."</p> + + <p>The bell boomed. The last transatlantic stranger shuffled aboard, wan and feeble. Now to one + wheel, now to the other, the pilot jingled to back away, then to stop, then to go ahead, then + to both for full speed, and once more the beautiful craft moved majestically up the river. Her + course shifted from south to west, the shores for a time widened apart, the low-roofed city + swung and sank away backward, groves of orange and magnolia grew plainer to the eye than + suburban streets, and the course changed again, from west to north. Soon on the right, behind a + high levee and backed by a sombre swamp forest, appeared the live-oaks and gardens of + Carrollton, and presently on the left came Nine-mile Point and another bend of the river + westward. As the boat's prow turned, the waters, from shore to shore, reflected the low sun so + dazzlingly that nearly all the passengers on the roof moved aft, whence, ravished by the + ascending odors of supper, they went below.</p> + + <p>But the handsome old man, the sedate youth, the girl, the nurse, remained. Captain Courteney + came along the deck and crossed toward the four, eyed from head to foot by the girl even after + he had stopped near her. But her gaze drew no glance from him.</p> + + <p>"Well, Hugh," he said.</p> + + <p>The youth turned with a smile that bettered every meaning in his too passive countenance: + "Well, father?"</p> + + <p>"Oh!" breathed the startled girl. She looked eagerly into the three male faces, beamed round + upon her dark attendant, and then looked again at grandfather, father, and son. "Why, of + course!" she softly laughed.</p> + + <p>"John," said the older man, "this young lady is a daughter of Gideon Hayle."</p> + + <p>"I thought as much." The benign captain lifted his hat and accepted and dropped again the + dainty hand proffered him with childish readiness. "Then you're the youngest of seven + children."</p> + + <p>Her reply was a gay nod. Presently, with a merry glint between her long lashes, she said: + "I'm Ramsey."</p> + + <p>The captain's smile grew: "That must be great fun."</p> + + <p>The girl looked from one to another, puzzled.</p> + + <p>"Why, just to be Ramsey," he explained. "Isn't it?"</p> + + <p>She gave him a wary, sidewise glance and looked out over the water. "My three married + sisters all live near this river," she musingly said; "one in Louisiana, two in Mississippi." + Her sidelong glance repeated itself: "I know who it would be fun to be—for me—or for + anybody!" Her eyes widened as her brother's had done, though in an amiable, elated way.</p> + + <p>"Your father?" asked the captain.</p> + + <p>She all but danced: "How'd you know?"</p> + + <p>"I saw him—in your eyes," was the placid reply. "Your father and I, and your grandfather + Hayle, and this gentleman here——"</p> + + <p>"Ya-ass, ya-ass!" drawled the nurse in worshipping reminiscence, and Ramsey laughed to Hugh, + and all the while the captain persisted: "We've built and owned rival boats——"</p> + + <p>"Fawty yeah'!" murmured the nurse. "Fawty yeah'!"</p> + + <p>"Yes, yes!" chirruped the girl. "Pop-a's up the river now, building the <em>Paragon</em>! + We're on our way to join him!"</p> + + <p>"Law', missy," gently chid the nurse, made anxious by a new approach which Ramsey was trying + to ignore, "dese gen'lemens knows all dat."</p> + + <p>Ramsey twitched her shoulders and waist. Her lips parted for a bright question, but it was + interrupted. The interrupters were the restless twins, whose tread sounded peremptory even on + the painted canvas of the deck, and the fineness of whose presence was dimmed only by the hardy + lawlessness which, in their own eyes, was their crowning virtue.</p> + + <p>"Ramsey," drawled one of them, who somehow seemed the more forceful of the two. He spoke as + if amazed at his own self-restraint. She whisked round to him. He made his eyes heavy: "Have + you had any proper introduction to these—gentlemen?"</p> + + <p>A white-jacket, holding a large hand-bell by its tongue, bowed low before the captain, + received a nod, and minced away. With suspended breath the girl stared an instant on her + brother, then on the captain, and then on his father; but as her eyes came round to Hugh his + solemnity caught her unprepared, and, with every curl shaking, she broke out in a tinkling + laugh so straight from the heart, so innocent, and so helpless that even the frightened old + woman chuckled. Ramsey wheeled, snatched the nurse round, and hurried her off to a stair, + hanging to her arm, tiptoeing, dancing, and carolling in the rhythm of the supper-bell + below:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Ringading tingalingaty, ringadang ding,</p> +<p class="i6"> Ringading tingalingaty, ringadang ding."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Red and dumb, the questioner glared after them until, near one of the great paddle-boxes, + they vanished below. But his brother, the one who had the trick of widening his eyes, found + words. "Captain Courteney," he said, "by what right does your son—or even do you, sir—take + the liberty, on the hurricane-deck of a steamboat, to scrape acquaintance with an + unprotec——?"</p> + + <p>The captain had turned his back. "Hugh," he affably said, "will you see what these young + gentlemen want?" And then to the older man: "Come, father, let's go to supper." They went.</p> + </div><a name="VI" id="VI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>VI</h2> + + <h3>HAYLE'S TWINS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Hugh was grateful for this task in diplomacy, yet wondered what mess he should make of + it.</p> + + <p>He was here for just such matters, let loose from tutor and books for the summer, to study + the handling of a steamboat, one large part of which, of course, was handling the people + aboard. Both pilots, up yonder, knew this was his rôle. Already he had tried his + unskill—or let "Ramsey" try it—and had learned a point or two. She had shown him, at least + twice, what value there might be in a well-timed, unmanageable laugh. But a well-timed, + unmanageable laugh is purely a natural gift. If it was to come to his aid, it would have to + come of itself. Lucian, the twin who had asked the last question, turned upon him.</p> + + <p>Hugh smilingly lifted a pacifying hand. "You're entirely mistaken," he said. "Nobody's tried + to scrape acquaintance." In the midst of the last two words, sure enough, there broke from him + a laugh which to him seemed so honest, friendly, well justified, and unmanageable that he stood + astounded when his accuser blazed with wrath.</p> + + <p>"You lie, damn you!" was the answering cry. "And then you laugh in my face! We saw you—all + three of you—just now!" The note was so high that one of the pilots began to loiter down from + the pilot-house.</p> + + <p>Hugh crimsoned. "I see," he said, advancing step by step as the frenzied boy drew back. "You + really don't want a peaceable explanation, at all, do you?"</p> + + <p>The other twin, Julian, arrested his brother's back step by a touch and spoke for him: "No, + sir, we don't. You can't 'peaceably explain' foul treatment, you damned fool, and that's all we + Hayles have had of you Courteneys this day. We want satisfaction! We don't ask it, we'll take + it! And we'll get it"—here a ripping oath—"if we have to wait for it ten years!"</p> + + <p>This time Hugh paled. "It needn't take ten minutes," he said. "Come down to the freight + deck, into the engine room, and I'll give both of you so much of it that you won't know + yourselves apart."</p> + + <p>"One more insult!" cried Lucian, the boy who so often widened his eyes, while Julian, + narrowing his lids, said in a tone suddenly icy:</p> + + <p>"That classes you, sir, on the freight deck."</p> + + <p>"We don't fight deck hands," said Lucian.</p> + + <p>"Nor emigrants!" sneered his brother. "And when we fight gentlemen we fight with weapons, + sir, as gentlemen should."</p> + + <p>Hugh's awkward laugh came again, and the pilot who had come down from beside his fellow at + the wheel inquired:</p> + + <p>"What's the fraction here?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, nothing," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Everything!" cried Julian. "And you'll find it so the first time we get a fair chance at + you—any of you!"</p> + + <p>The pilot was amiable. "Hold on," he suggested. "See here, my young friend, what do you + reckon your father'd do to this young man"—touching Hugh—"if he should rip around on a Hayle + boat as you're doing here?"</p> + + <p>"That's a totally different matter, sir!"</p> + + <p>The pilot smiled. "Don't you know Gideon Hayle would put him ashore at the first + wood-yard?"</p> + + <p>"He'd be wrong if he didn't," gravely said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Do you mean that for a threat?—either of you?" snapped Lucian.</p> + + <p>"No," said the pilot, "I was merely trying to reason with you. Come, now, go down to supper. + It's a roaring good one: crawfish gumbo, riz biscuits, fresh butter, fried oysters, and coffee + to make your hair curl. Go on, both of you. You've had—naturally enough—last day in the + city—a few juleps too many, but that's all right. A square meal, a night's rest, and you'll + wake up in the morning with Baton Rouge and all the sugar lands astern, the big cotton + plantations on both sides of us, you feeling at home with everybody, everybody at home with + you."</p> + + <p>"Many thanks," sneered Julian. "We'll go to our meals self-invited. Good evening."</p> + + <p>Hugh granted the pair a slight nod. As they went, Lucian, looking back over Julian's + shoulder with eyes bigger than ever, said: "We'll wake up in the morning without the least + change of feeling for this boat's owners, their relatives, or their hirelings."</p> + + <p>The relative and the hireling glanced sharply at each other. But then Hugh said quietly: "A + man can't quarrel with boys, Mr. Watson."</p> + + <p>"No," mused the pilot aloud as he watched the pair go below, "but he can wait. They'll soon + be men."</p> + + <p>"And this be all forgotten," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Not by them!" rejoined Mr. Watson. "They'll remember it ef they have to tattoo it—on their + stomachs."</p> + + <p>"I should have managed them better," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Lord, boy, nobody's ever managed <em>them</em> sence they was born." The speaker sauntered + back toward the pilot-house, coining rhetoric in his mind to relieve his rage. "It's only the + long-looked-for come at last," he thought, "and come <em>toe</em> last." As he resumed the + bench behind his partner his wrath at length burst out:</p> + + <p>"Well, of all the hell-fry I ever come across——!"</p> + + <p>"And they 'llow to keep things fryin'," said his mate.</p> + + <p>Which made Watson even more rhetorical. "Yes, it's their only salvation from their rotten + insignificance." He meditated. "And yet—hnn!" He was about to say something much kindlier when + suddenly he laughed down from a side window upon the twins returned. "Well, I'll swear!"</p> + + <p>"We heard, sir," said Julian with a lordly bow.</p> + + <p>"And you," chimed Lucian, "shall hear later." Rather aimlessly they turned and again + disappeared, and after a moment or two the man at the wheel asked, with playful softness, with + his eyes on the roof below:</p> + + <p>"D'you reckon yon other two will ever manage to offset the tricks o' Hayle's twins?"</p> + + <p>His partner rose and looked down. The old nurse and the third Hayle brother stood side by + side watching the beautiful low-lying plantations unbrokenly swing by behind the embankments of + the eastern shore. The level fields of young sugar-cane reposed in a twilight haze, while the + rows of whitewashed slave cabins, the tall red chimneys of the great sugar-houses, and the + white-pillared verandas of the masters' dwellings embowered in their evergreen gardens, still + showed clear in the last lights of day. But the query was not as to the nurse and the boy. Near + them stood Ramsey, with arms akimbo, once more conversing with Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Oh!" said the glowing Watson. "If that's to be the game, Ned, I'm in it, sir! I'm in + it!"</p> + + <p>"Just's well, Watsy. You're in the twins' game anyhow."</p> + + <p>Meantime Ramsey's talk flowed on like brook water, Hugh's meeting it like the brook's + bowlders:</p> + + <p>"Guess who's at the head of the table!"</p> + + <p>"Who? my grandfather?"</p> + + <p>"No, he's 'way down at the men's end."</p> + + <p>"Well, then, father?"</p> + + <p>"Yes! And who's sitting next him—on his right?"</p> + + <p>"Your mother?"</p> + + <p>"Yes! And guess who's going to sit at the head of the children's table. You!"</p> + + <p>"How do you know that?"</p> + + <p>The reply was chanted: "I asked the steward to put you there." She laughed and glanced + furtively at her unheeding brother. Then her eyes came back: "And I'm to be the first on your + right!" She spread her arms like wings.</p> + + <p>"Why, Miss Ramsey!" protested the nurse.</p> + + <p>Hugh blushed into his limp, turn-down collar. "I don't believe you'd better," he said.</p> + + <p>"I will!" said Ramsey, lifting her chin.</p> + </div><a name="VII" id="VII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>VII</h2> + + <h3>SUPPER</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Deep in love with the river life was Ramsey.</p> + + <p>She had tried it now, thoroughly, for an hour, and was sure! The twenty-four hours' trip + down from her plantation home, on the first boat that happened along, a rather poor thing, had + been her first experience and a keen pleasure; but this, on the <em>Votaress</em>, was + rapture.</p> + + <p>One effect was that her mind teemed with family history. Her grizzly, giant father, whom she + so rarely saw, so vehemently worshipped, son of a wild but masterful Kentucky mountaineer who + had spent his life floating "broadhorns" and barges down the Ohio and Mississippi, counted it + one of the drawbacks of his career that so few of his kindred cared for the river. One of his + brothers was an obscure pilot somewhere on the Cumberland or Tennessee. Another, once a pilot, + then a planter, and again a pilot, had been lost on a burning boat, she knew not how nor when. + The third was a planter in the Red River lowlands. Her three sisters, as we have heard her + tell, were planters' wives, and the father's home, when ashore, was on a plantation of his + Creole wife's inheritance, four or five miles in behind the old river town of Natchez.</p> + + <p>There Ramsey had been born and had grown up, knowing the great Mississippi only as a remote + realm of poetry and adventure out of which at intervals her mighty father came to clasp to his + broad breast her sweet, glad mother, tarry a few days or hours, and be gone again. She, + herself, had seldom seen it even from the Natchez bluffs, yet she could name all its chief + boats apart, not by sight but by the long, soft bellow of their steam-whistles, wafted inland. + But now, at last, she was a passenger on its waters. As Hugh, so well grown up as to breadth + and gravity, took his seat at the head of the dazzling board that filled the whole middle third + of the cabin, and as she sat down next him with all the other adolescents and juveniles in + places of inferior dignity, the affair seemed the most significant as well as most brilliant in + which she had ever taken part.</p> + + <p>Most significant, because to love the river for itself would be to find herself easily and + lastingly first in her father's love and favor—her only wish in this world. And most + brilliant: without an angle or partition the cabin extended between the two parallel lines of + staterooms running aft through the boat's entire length from boiler deck to stern guards. Its + richly carpeted floor gently dipped amidships and as gently rose again to the far end, where + you might see the sofas and piano of that undivided part sanctified to the ladies. Its whole + course was dazzlingly lighted with chandeliers of gold bronze and crystal that forever + quivered, glittered, and tinkled to the tremor of the boat's swift advance. It was + multitudinously pilastered, gleamingly white-painted and shellacked, profusely gilded and + pictorially panelled, and it bewilderingly reflected itself and Ramsey from mirrors wide or + narrow wherever mirrors wide or narrow could be set in.</p> + + <p>A new decorum came into her bearing. She ceased to ask questions. She waited for them to be + put to her—from the head of the table—and smiled where an hour earlier she would have + laughed. Above all, she felt in her spirit the same dreamy strangeness she had so lately felt + in her bodily frame when the boat first began to move: a feeling as if the young company about + her were but stayers behind on a shore from which she was beginning to be inexorably borne + away. The wide river of a world's life, to which the rillet of her own small existence had been + carelessly winding, was all at once clearly in sight. She could almost have written verse! She + yearned to tell her whole history, but not one personal question could she lure from Hugh. + Silently she recalled the story of her Creole grandmother, married at fifteen—her own present + age. That young lady had met her future husband just this way on Roosevelt's famous <em>New + Orleans</em>, earliest steamboat on the Mississippi. But there sat Hugh, as square, as solid, + and as incurious as an upended bale of cotton. And still she kept her manners.</p> + + <p>It was but the custom of the time and region that the most honored guest of the + <em>Votaress</em>, wife of her owner's most formidable competitor, with her family, not only + should enjoy her journey wholly without cost, but that she should receive every attention + courtesy could offer. The heat of the contest counted for nothing. And so, while Ramsey ate and + talked with Hugh, his grandfather, near by in the ladies' cabin, at her left and at Hugh's + back, conversed with her mother on a sofa. It was a heavenly hour. The resplendent boat kept + her speed with no inward sign of her ceaseless ongoing except the tremor of her perfect frame, + the flutter of her hundred-footed tread, and the tinkle and prismatic twinkle of her pendent + glass, all responsively alternating with the deep breathings of her stacks, and with no sign of + her frequent turnings but the softly audible creepings of her steering-gear.</p> + + <p>While never failing duly to receive and return Hugh's rather stiff attentions, and while + doing superb justice to the repast, Ramsey, with side glances from her large, unconscious eyes + emotionally enriched by long auburn lashes, easily and with great zest contemplated her + mother's charming complexion, so lily-white and shell pink for a Creole matron, as well as the + lovely confidingness of her manner, so childlike yet so wise. It was not for her to know that + her mother, while hanging on every word of the courtly old man, was closely observing both her + and Hugh.</p> + + <p>The grandfather, too, her blue-and-auburn glances took in sidewise, as their closer scrutiny + had earlier done pointblank on the hurricane-deck. He was small, unmuscular, clean-shaven, + erect, placid. She noted again his snowy, waving hair, thin only on his pink crown. It shone + like silk. He still kept a soft flush of unimpaired health and an air of inner cleanness equal + to that which showed outwardly from gaitered shoes to the bell-crowned beaver in his hand. She + observed the wide cambric ruffle that ran down his much-displayed, much-pleated shirt-front. + His stiff, high stock was tied with a limp white bow-knot. His standing collar covered half of + either cheek. He wore a jewelled breastpin and a heavy gold fob-chain and seal. In his too + delicate hand, along with the beaver and his gloves, was a stout, gold-headed cane, and from + his coat skirt his handkerchief painstakingly peeped out behind. All of which seemed quite + natural on him and well related to the highly attractive attire of the lady beside him.</p> + + <p>Yet suddenly Ramsey had a painful misgiving. Hugh was remarking upon some matter on the + other side of the world, when she asked him as abruptly as a boat might strike a snag: "Is your + grandfather a Whig?"</p> + + <p>"He is," said Hugh. They laid up their napkins.</p> + + <p>"Oh!" sighed Ramsey, but then laughed. "Is your father a Whig, too?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, my father, too."</p> + + <p>"Not a Henry Clay Whig?" she hopefully prompted.</p> + + <p>"Yes, a Henry Clay Whig yet."</p> + + <p>Self-consciously she dropped her head over the back of her chair to be rid of her curls. "My + father," she musingly observed, "is a Democrat."</p> + + <p>"Yet we can be friends," said Hugh, "can't we?" wondering, when he had asked, why they need + be.</p> + + <p>Ramsey did not say. With her chin in her collar she looked herself over carefully while she + brokenly remarked, "All our men folks—four men—three boys—are—red-hot Democrats."</p> + + <p>But on the last word she checked and hearkened, and they smiled together at the far-away + whistle of another steamer, deep-toned, mellowed by distance, and long sustained.</p> + + <p>"That's a Courteney boat," quietly began Hugh, but Ramsey was up and off.</p> + + <p>"<em>The Empress!</em>" she called to her mother as she flew.</p> + </div><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>VIII</h2> + + <h3>QUESTIONS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Out forward of the texas and close beside the great bell, Ramsey halted, alone in the + boundless starlight and rippling breeze on the cabin roof. The stately <em>Votaress</em>, with + her towering funnels lost in the upper night, was running well inshore under a point, wrapped + in a world-wide silence broken only by the placid outgo of her own vast breath, the soft rush + of her torrential footsteps far below, and the answering rustle of the nearer shore. Even on + that side the dark land confessed no outline save the low tree tops of two or three + plantation-house groves, from each of which shone a lighted window or two, tinier and lonelier + than a glowworm.</p> + + <p>Across the point, between its groves, the flood revealed itself at intervals in pale + shimmerings, and just beyond one of these gleams, in mid-river, shone the nearing boat, her + countless lights merged into a single sheen brokenly repeated in the water beneath her. Hugh + came to the girl's side at a moment when a wood on the point's extreme end concealed the + steamer's approach; but in the next the fleet comer swept out of hiding, an empress in truth to + Ramsey, jewelled, from furnace doors to texas roof, with many-colored lights as if in + coronation robes.</p> + + <p>"That is how we look to her," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>But his words were lost. With a startled laugh the girl shrank low over the bell, clutching + it as if a whirlwind had struck them, while its single, majestic peal thundering, "I pass to + starboard, hail! farewell!" drowned speech and mind in its stupendous roar. Mirth, too, was + drowned in awe. And now the vast din ceased, and now the <em>Empress</em>, every moment more + resplendent, responded, first with her bell, then with the long, solemn halloo of her whistle, + and presently with huzzas from all her glittering decks as she passed within a cable's + length.</p> + + <p>Ramsey gazed entranced. Not until the fading vision had dwindled down and around the great + bend did her tread realize again the quivering deck, or her sight reawaken to the wonder of the + ever coming, parting, passing flood, its prostrate, phantom shores, and the starry hosts and + illimitable deeps of the sky. Even then she was but half-way back to earth, unconscious that + she had stepped down forward to the captain's chair and into a group including Hugh and his + grandfather, her mother and youngest brother.</p> + + <p>"Oh!" she cried, turning, "it's as if—" and found herself face to face not with Hugh but + his father.</p> + + <p>"As if—what?" smilingly asked the boat's master.</p> + + <p>"As if," she said more softly, "we'd left one world and were hunting another."</p> + + <p>His smile grew. Her own resented it. "I know what you're thinking," she said, and glanced + away. Her curls twitched, her chin tilted, and she sent down from it one of those visible waves + that ended at her feet, as if they were the cracker of the whip. When he spoke, her eyes came + back at him sidelong.</p> + + <p>"I was thinking only," he rejoined, "that at your age it's always as if we'd just left one + world and were seeking another."</p> + + <p>Her eyes—and lashes—were sceptical. "Weren't you going to say it would seem more so if we + should blow up?"</p> + + <p>"No," he laughed, "nothing like it."</p> + + <p>She began absently to scrutinize his entire dress. It was like the old man's though without + the jewelry and ruffles. "Were you ever in an explosion?" she asked. The words came of + themselves. She was backsliding from her table decorum.</p> + + <p>"No," he replied, "I was never in an explosion."</p> + + <p>"Ah, my child!" broke in the mother, "questions again? And even to Captain Courteney?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey laughed, gave the deck a wilful scuff, and demanded of the captain: "Were you ever on + a burning boat?"</p> + + <p>Madame Hayle flinched, gasped, and drew her from him as he replied: "Yes—once—I was."</p> + + <p>The mother started again. "There!" she cried; "so! you 'ave it! Now, go"—she laughingly + pushed the querist—"go, talk with Hugh—allong with yo' brotheh."</p> + + <p>The girl, as she backed away, turned to the grandfather: "Was Hugh on the boat—when it + burned?"</p> + + <p>Her mother smiled with new pain, but while the captain bowed himself away the old man + replied: "Come, Miss Ramsey, sit down with me and I'll tell you the story—if we may, + madam?—Hugh—some chairs, will you?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey sprang to Hugh's aid, but her brother had a mind for mutiny. "You told me," he + accused his mother, "that I could go watch them play cards!"</p> + + <p>"Yes?" she asked in a pretty irony; "well, then, of co'se, sisteh or no sisteh, you muz' + instan'ly go!" The steady tinkle of the sister's laughter as she passed with a chair provoked + her own: "Yes, go! Me, I'll rimmain with her till Joy"—the nurse—"ritturn from suppeh."</p> + + <p>The boy went, flinging back for a last word: "You want to hear the story as bad as Ramsey + does!"</p> + + <p>"'Tis true!" she brightly said to the old gentleman. "Since all those nine year', me, I've + want' to hear the Courteney side of that!"—little supposing that this was what neither she nor + Ramsey would then or ever quite lay hold upon.</p> + + <p>"No," laughed the irrelevant girl to the old man, "you sit here." She faced him up-stream, + her mother on his "stabboard," as she said, herself on his "labboard," and Hugh on her left, + "labboardest of all." But—to Hugh—"now, wait—wait! If I'm on your stabboard—how can you + be—on my lab'—? Oh, yes, I see!" She dropped into her chair and, to Hugh's great weariness, + laughed till her curls fell on her cheeks, larboard and starboard by turns.</p> + + <p>Yet she ceased sooner than any one had hoped and the four sat silent while several ladies + sauntered past on the arms of escorts, all highly entertained to see such cordiality between + any Hayles and the Courteneys. One trio that paused near by to catch some Hayle or Courteney + utterance praised aloud the enchantment of the night and of the boat's speed, and as they + strolled on again, having caught nothing, Ramsey breathed softly to the old man:</p> + + <p>"They can't describe it! Nobody can! I've tried!"</p> + + <p>Through four or five breathings of the giant chimneys she waited for the story she was not + to hear, and at length herself broke silence. "I think," she said, "this boat is the most + wonderful thing in the world."</p> + + <p>No one rejoined that it was or was not. "Don't you?" she airily challenged the "labboardest + of all," defensively letting herself realize how nearly a woman she was, how merely a boy was + he.</p> + + <p>"It's very wonderful," replied Hugh indulgently, as one so nearly a man should to one so + merely a child. "I've never seen anything in this world that wasn't."</p> + + <p>"Neither have I!" cried the girl and clapped her hands.</p> + + <p>In that moment, for the first time, each thought how admirable the other, as yet so absurd, + was—some day—probably—going—to be, and right there arose between them a fellowship more + potent than either would recognize for a length of hours or days which is here best left + unstated. Their two seniors saw; saw, but kept still—<em>mais pourquoi non?</em>—and why + not?—while the great steamer breathed on, quivered on, breathed and quivered, on and on.</p> + + <p>Ramsey transiently forgot them. "Do you, too," she asked her "labboardest," "feel yourself + widen out of yourself and down and round into all this wonderful boat till you are it and it's + all—you?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," Hugh confessed, and they in turn were still, even though the seniors resumed + converse, one mildly telling which sugar estates along the shore had been whose and the other + recounting how their heirs had intermarried.</p> + </div><a name="IX" id="IX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>IX</h2> + + <h3>SITTING SILENT</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Thus they sat, Hugh and Ramsey, not recognizing that sitting silent is a symptom.</p> + + <p>They sat and together felt their consciousness, his and hers, wing and wing, widen beyond + their own frames to a mightier embodiment in this great cloud-white structure breasting the air + that cooled their brows and cleaving unseen the flood so far beneath them. Together in this + greater self they felt the headway of the long, low hull, the prodigious heart glow of the + hungry fires, the cyclopean push of steam in eight vast boilers, the pulsing click and travail + of the engines—whisper of valve and cylinder, noiseless in-plunge and out-glide of shining + rods—the ten-foot stroke of either shaft and equal sweep of crank, the nimble beat of + paddle-wheels and tumble of their cataracts, the tranquil creep of tiller-ropes, and the + compelling swing and sage guidance of the helm.</p> + + <p>In this vaster consciousness, by a partnership which had to be tacit or instantly perish, + they easily lifted and carried the abounding freight, of every form and substance, destined for + the feeding, apparelling, or equipment of thousands awaiting it in homes and families whose + strivings and fortunes helped to make that universal wonder of things which kept Hugh grave and + Ramsey laughing. Especially the teeming human life of the great craft did these two jointly + draw into this magnified self. They drew on deck-hands, mates, watchmen, firemen, engineers, + and strikers, each with some aspiration and some appetite. They drew in stewards, cooks, + chambermaids, and cabin-boys, every one with yearnings and sacrifices; pilots, clerks, and mud + clerks, full of histories and dreams. Down in dim spaces behind the engines and between the two + wheels they drew in the immigrant deck passengers, so mutely sad for the distant homes behind + them, so mutely hopeful and fearful for the distant homes before. And on the deck above these + exiles they took in the cabin passengers—ladies who told their lives over their knitting or + embroidery in floods of lamplight and the cushioned ease of feminine seclusion; children here + and there battling against sleep or yielding to it in stateroom berths; the ruder sex at + card-tables in the forward cabin—from which, oddly, the twins were refraining; three or four + tipplers at the fragrant bar, and one or two readers under the chandeliers. Outside, scores of + non-readers sat in tilted chairs, their heels breast-high on the guard-rails and their minds + tobacco-lulled to a silent content with the breezy lanternlight of the boiler deck, the + occasional passing of a downward-bound flatboat or steamer, the gradual overhauling of some + craft that had backed out earlier at New Orleans, and the wide, slow oscillations of the + unbounded starlight overhanging land and flood.</p> + + <p>These too the young pair included. All these were parts of their blended consciousness as + the alert Ramsey noticed that the grandfather's talk had turned upon Hugh and boats.</p> + + <p>"He and the <em>Quakeress</em> were the same age," he was remarking, when Ramsey's laugh + jingled.</p> + + <p>"Both," she broke in, "built the same year!" Her curls switched backward at the old man. She + faced Hugh. "Where were you born?"</p> + + <p>But he only signed for her not to interrupt. In the dim light she made a wry face at him and + jingled again while her mother said: "On the <em>Quakerezz</em>!—end of trial trip!—whiles + landing at New Orleans! Me, I was there, ad the landingg! Yes! on the boat of my 'usband, the + <em>Conqueror</em>—also trial trip—arrive' since only one hour biffo'!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey, with her eyes roaming over Hugh, faintly kept up her laugh, yet parallel with it her + mother managed to continue: "Yes, that was in eighteen-thirty-three, Janawary. Because that was + the winter when Jackson he conquer' Clay in the election and conquer' Calhoun in the + nullification, and tha'z the cause why my 'usband he name' his boat the <em>Conqueror</em>. Ah, + veree well I rimember that; how the <em>Quakerezz</em> she came cre-eepingg in, out of that + fog, an' like the fog so still an' white, cloze aggains' the <em>Conqueror</em>. And the firz' + news they pazz——"</p> + + <p>The old nurse reappeared, laid thin shawls on the mother and daughter, and sat down on the + deck close below Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Firz' news they pazz," resumed the speaker, "'tis that Captain Courteney he's got with him + his wife, from Philadelphia, and——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey broke in merrily: "Was <em>she</em> the Quakeress? Was the <em>Quakeress</em> named + for her?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, and she's juz' have, they say, a li'l' son! An' my 'usband he di'n' like that! + Because——"</p> + + <p>"But you had three little girls!" said Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Girl', they di'n' count! Because those girl', you know, they can' never run those + steam<em>boat</em>'."</p> + + <p>"I don't see why," said Ramsey. Hugh might sit silent if he chose; her silent sitting was + over.</p> + + <p>"They di'n' count," repeated the lady. "And so my 'usband he di'n' want those Courteney' to + be ahead of those Hayle' in having boys!"</p> + + <p>"He little knew what was coming," said Ramsey, and wondered why the remark was ignored, + especially when——</p> + + <p>"Me," said the pretty matron, "I was nearly ready to 'ave those twin', but Gideon Hayle he + di'n' know they was goin' be twin', an' he di'n' know those twin' goin' be boys!" She gently + laughed. The daughter stared as if in no light—or shade—could those twins be a laughing + matter, but the mother spoke on gayly: "Never I 'ear my 'usband swear so hard—an' so manny + way'—like that day—at everything—everybody. Not because that li'l babee—if that be all; but + because he see that <em>boat</em>, that she's the mo' fine boat, that <em>Quakerezz</em>, an' + when they ripport her run from Loui'ville, he's already affraid—to hisseff—that she's goin' + to be the mo' fas'."</p> + + <p>"And was she?" asked the girl.</p> + + <p>"Barely," said the grandfather. "It took years to prove it and by that time your father had + built another boat."</p> + + <p>"The <em>Chevalier</em>!" she exclaimed.</p> + + <p>"Yes, which beat the <em>Quakeress</em> once or twice nearly every season until the + <em>Quakeress</em> burned."</p> + + <p>"Burned!" cried Ramsey, while Hugh, stirred to rise, yet remained. "Was it the + <em>Quakeress</em> that—?" But the old man was telling earlier history and she sank repiningly + in her seat. "You're going backward," she softly whined.</p> + + <p>"In 'sixteen," he said, "I built the <em>Huntress</em>, and——"</p> + + <p>"We already know about that," sighed Ramsey, bracing her feet in old Joy's hands. "I know it + from old nursie."</p> + + <p>"Ramsey!" murmured her mother.</p> + + <p>"In 'seventeen," said the chronicler, "Miss Ramsey's grandfather built the <em>Hunter</em>. + In 'twenty he built the <em>Charioteer</em>——"</p> + + <p>"Ain't we ever going to hear about the burning?" laughingly whimpered the girl, but the + narrator kept on:</p> + + <p>"In 'twenty-one I built the <em>Shepherdess</em>——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey all at once revived. "And did the <em>Shepherdess</em> outrun the + <em>Charioteer</em>?"</p> + + <p>"A trifle, yes."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" she said to herself, and twice again, on a higher key and with a grimace at Hugh, + "humph!"</p> + + <p>"But in 'twenty-five the <em>Charioteer</em> was run into and sunk, and the Hayle boat that + came next," continued the historian, "was the best ever seen till then on these waters, of the + hundred and sixty-five steamers launched."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Madame Hayle, "and the firz' boat what my 'usband was captain."</p> + + <p>Ramsey started wildly. "The <em>Admiral</em>!" she cried at Hugh. She whisked round on his + grandfather. "And then—to beat the <em>Admiral</em>—you built——?"</p> + + <p>"My son built—the <em>Abbess</em>."</p> + + <p>"And did the <em>Abbess</em> beat the <em>Admiral</em>?"</p> + + <p>"Not for a long time. But in 'thirty-three the <em>Conqueror's</em> very first run broke the + <em>Abbess's</em> record."</p> + + <p>But madame was not to be outdone in generosity. "Ah, yes," she cried, "but that same day the + <em>Quakerezz</em> she beat the <em>Conqueror</em>!" At which the teased Ramsey, suddenly + seeing that all this was but a roundabout peacemaking where she could discern no strife, + laughed herself so limp that she all but tumbled into old Joy's lap.</p> + + <p>"That's where we began!" she commented.</p> + + <p>"True," said the old man to her mother, "but in 'thirty-eight came your husband's + <em>Chevalier</em>——"</p> + + <p>"Came—yes! only to get beat racing yo'"—the name eluded her——</p> + + <p>"<em>Ambassadress</em>," prompted Ramsey. "Everybody knows about that—'way back in the + country—even the dates. The <em>Ambassadress</em> beat the <em>Chevalier</em>, the Autocrat + beat the <em>Ambassadress</em>, the <em>Empress</em> beat the <em>Autocrat</em>, the + <em>Regent</em> beat the <em>Empress</em>, te tum, te tum, te tum! Didn't the + <em>Quakeress</em> ever burn up, after all?"</p> + + <p>"Ramsey——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, well! this forever sitting silent! I——!"</p> + + <p>"Ramsey!——"</p> + </div><a name="X" id="X"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>X</h2> + + <h3>PERIL</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Ramsey clutched the old man's arm, pressed curls and brow against it, and laughed in a + rillet of pure silver.</p> + + <p>Hugh bore it, sitting silent, while the great boat, so humanly alive and aglow in every + part, ceaselessly breathed above and quivered below, and the ruffling breeze as ceaselessly + confirmed her unflagging speed. The mere "catalogue of the ships" had lighted in him a secret + glow that persisted. In his roused imagination the long pageant of the rival steamers still + moved on through the rudely thronging, ever-multiplying fleet of the boundless valley's yearly + swelling commerce, ocean-distant from all disparaging contrasts of riper empires; moved, + yeasting, ruffling, through forty years of a civilization's genesis, each new boat, Hayle or + Courteney, more beautifully capable than her newest senior, and each, in her time and degree, + as cloud-white by day, as luminous by night, and as rife with human purpose and human hazards + as this incomparable <em>Votaress</em>.</p> + + <p>The girl's mirth faded. From behind the four a quiet tread drew near. From another quarter + came two other steps, lighter yet more assertive. The one was John Courteney's; the two, that + halted farther away, meant again the twins.</p> + + <p>"Well, captain?" mildly said the grandfather.</p> + + <p>"Well, commodore?" said the captain, declining his son's chair.</p> + + <p>"Oh, good!" cried Ramsey, and rose with her nurse. "I didn't know anybody but my father was + called commodore!"</p> + + <p>"Yes," replied the captain, "my father too."</p> + + <p>"Where've you been?" asked the fearless girl.</p> + + <p>His answer was mainly to her mother: "I've been making myself acquainted in the ladies' + cabin. This is no Hudson River boat, you know—whole trip in a day's jaunt."</p> + + <p>"Ah, 'tis a voyage!" said madame.</p> + + <p>"So it's well to know one's people," added he. He looked up into the night. "What a sky! + Miss Ramsey, did you ever see, through a glass, the Golden Locks of Berenice?"</p> + + <p>"The gold—" she began eagerly—"no-o! What are the golden—?" But there she checked, fell + upon old Joy, and laughed whimperingly, "That's a dig at my red hair!"</p> + + <p>One of the twins gravely accosted his mother, but she and the captain were laughing at + Ramsey while the grandfather said: "My dear child, your hair is beautiful."</p> + + <p>With face still hid on Joy's bosom, the girl shuffled her feet, then turned upon the old man + and playfully intoned:</p> + + <p>"I'm not a child!"</p> + + <p>"Ramsey!" said the mother, and "Missie!" said the nurse.</p> + + <p>"Hugh," said the captain, "suppose you take Miss Ramsey up to the pilot-house and show her + the——"</p> + + <p>The girl laid a hand on his arm. "Do you want to tell mom-a something you don't want me to + hear?"</p> + + <p>"Why—" began the captain, and laughed. "On second thought, no. I want to tell your mother + and the commodore something before any one else can, and before I tell any one else; but you + may hear it if——"</p> + + <p>"If I won't get frightened. Has anything happened to the boat?"</p> + + <p>"Ramsey!" "Missie!" lamented matron and servant again.</p> + + <p>"Mother," with much dignity pleaded the twins.</p> + + <p>"Oh, no," said the captain, "not to the boat."</p> + + <p>"I want to stay and hear it," whined Ramsey, jerking up and down. "I won't get scared."</p> + + <p>"'T'u'd be de fust time sence she wuz bawn ef she did," audibly mused the nurse, and Hugh + said: "I believe that."</p> + + <p>The girl stared round at him and then back at his father, her eyes wide with merriment. "No + Ramsey to the pilot-house with him if he can help it!" she managed to say, and fell over her + mother and nurse, down into her chair and across its arm, her laughter jingling like a basket + of glass rolling down-stairs. Suddenly she hearkened. The captain was speaking to her + mother:</p> + + <p>"Must you reach Loui'ville as quickly as you can?"</p> + + <p>"Ah!—well? yes? we muz' do our possible. My 'usband he—Ramsey!"</p> + + <p>The girl had turned face down in a play of collapse. "Nobody," she piped, "finishes what he + starts to tell!"</p> + + <p>"Ho!" playfully retorted the mother, "an' you muz' go?—cannot wait? Well, good night." But + no one went.</p> + + <p>Her mother turned again to the captain. "There is something veree bad—on the boat?" Ramsey + sat up alert.</p> + + <p>The captain's reply was heard by none but her mother and the grandfather, but evidently the + twins knew whatever there was to tell. "It was no time to take deck passengers at all!" said + one of them to the other, in full voice, while the grandfather was asserting:</p> + + <p>"We are as wholly at your command, madam, as if this were Gideon Hayle's boat. Our one + thought is your safety."</p> + + <p>"And comfort of mind," added the captain, about to go.</p> + + <p>Ramsey guessed the trouble. "We are veree oblige'," said her mother; "we'll continue on the + <em>Votarezz</em>."</p> + + <p>"Goody!" murmured the daughter to old Joy, to Hugh, and to the captain as he left the group. + "Goody!"</p> + + <p>"Mother!" protested the twins, "you must not!"</p> + + <p>"Oh-h! you?" she radiantly inquired, "you rather go ashore, you, eh? Veree well. Doubdlezz + the captain be please' to put you." Her smile grew stately as Ramsey laughed. She turned to the + grandfather. "Never in my life I di'n' ran away from sicknezz. I billieve anybody can't die + till his time come'. When his time come' he'll die. My 'usband he billieve that, too."</p> + + <p>"Don't the Germans come from Germany?" asked Ramsey, but no one seemed able to tell her.</p> + + <p>"And also," pursued the lady, "I billieve tha'z a cowardly—to run away from those sick." + She looked around for the twins but they were conferring aside. "And also I billieve, me—like + they say—to get scare'—tha'z the <em>sure</em> way to catch that kind of sicknezz. 'Tis by + that it pazz into the syztem! My 'usband he tell me that. He's veree acquaint' with medicine, + my 'usband, yes! And——"</p> + + <p>"Is Germany in Asia?" Ramsey drawled, but nobody seemed to know anything.</p> + + <p>"And I billieve," persisted madame, "to continue on the boat, tha'z also the mo' safe. + Because if we leave the boat, where we'll find one doctor for <em>that</em> maladee-e? An' if + we <em>find</em> one doctor, who's goin' nurse us in that maladee?"</p> + + <p>"Is Asia—?" tried Ramsey again, but hushed with a strange thrill as her ear caught, + remotely beneath her, a faint sawing and hammering.</p> + + <p>"Mo' better, I billieve," continued her mother, "we continue on the boat and ourselve' nurse + those sick. When the Mother of God see' that she'll maybe privent from coming our time to + die."</p> + + <p>"If Germany—" whined Ramsey, but huddled down in her seat as the sawing and hammering came + again——</p> + + <p>"What, my chile?"</p> + + <p>Light at last! She instantly sat up: "Why do they call it the Asiatic cholera if—?" She + stopped short. From the open deck far below rose an angry cry:</p> + + <p>"Stop that fool! Stop her!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey darted so recklessly to the low front guard that Hugh darted also and held her arm as + she bent over, while close upon the cry came a woman's long, unmistakable wail for her dead. + Twice it filled the air, then melted out over the gliding waters and into the night, above the + regardless undertones of the boat's majestic progress. Grandfather, nurse, mother, brothers + pressed after the girl and Hugh. Clutched by the nurse, released by him, she still looked + wildly down, seeing little yet much. At their back the great bell boomed. The boat's stem began + to turn to the forested shore. A glare of torches at the lower guards crimsoned the flood under + the bows. She flashed round accusingly upon Hugh:</p> + + <p>"What are we landing in the woods for?"</p> + + <p>He met her gaze and it fell. Her mother tried to draw her away but she dropped to her knees + at the rail and bent her eyes upon a dark group compacting below. Hugh muttered to his + grandfather:</p> + + <p>"She'd better leave the boat. She'd rather."</p> + + <p>Catching the words, she leaped and stood, her head thrown high. "I wouldn't! I won't!"</p> + + <p>She glared on him through brimming tears, but something about him, repeated and exaggerated + in the twins as she whipped round to them, reversed her mood. She smote her brow into her + mother's bosom and, under the stress of a silvery laugh that would not be stifled, hung to the + maternal neck and rocked from side to side.</p> + </div><a name="XI" id="XI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XI</h2> + + <h3>FIRST NIGHT-WATCH</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Often through the first half of that night, while many other matters pressed on them, the + minds of the three Courteneys turned to one theme. Ramsey's inquiries had called it up and the + presence and plight of the immigrants, down below, kept it before them: the story of Hugh's + grandmother, born and bred in Holland.</p> + + <p>With Hugh standing by, the girl had drawn its recital from his grandfather; as whose bride + that grandmother had been an immigrant, like these, though hardly in their forlorn way and with + Philadelphia, not New Orleans, for a first goal. Thence, years later, with husband and child, + she had reached and traversed this wild river, when it was so much wilder, and had dwelt in New + Orleans throughout her son's, John Courteney's, boyhood. Thence again, in his twenty-first + year, she had recrossed the water to inherit an estate and for seven years had lived in great + ports and capitals of Europe, often at her husband's side, yet often, too, far from him, as + he—leaving his steamboats to good captains and the mother to her son—came and went on + commercial adventures ocean-wide. It was these first seven years of John Courteney's manhood, + spent in transatlantic study, society, public affairs, and a father's partnership, that had + made him—what Ramsey saw.</p> + + <p>The tale was fondly told and had made Hugh feel very homespun compared with such + progenitors. But Ramsey had looked him up and down as if he must have all his forebears' + beautiful values deep hid somewhere in his inside pockets, and had wondered, as she tossed away + to the pilot-house, if he was destined ever to show the father's special gift of winning and + holding the strongest and best men's allegiance. A very mature thought for her, but she + sometimes had such, and had once heard her father frankly confess that therein lay the + Courteneys' largest advantage over him, he being signally able to rule the rudest men by a more + formidable rudeness, but not to command the devotion of men superior to that sort of rule.</p> + + <p>At length the stars of midnight hung overhead. The amber haze of Queen Berenice's hair + glimmered to westward. Where the river had so writhed round on itself as to be sweeping + northeastward, the <em>Votaress</em>, midway of a short "crossing" from left shore to right, + was pointing southwest. An old moon, fairly up, was on the larboard quarter, and in the nearest + bend down-stream the faint lights of a boat recently outstripped were just being quenched by + the low black willows of an island. In the bend above shone the dim but brightening stern + lights of the foremost and speediest of the five-o'clock fleet. A lonely wooded point beneath + the brown sand of whose crumbling water's edge the poor German home-seeker had found the home + he least sought lay miles behind; miles by the long bends of the river, miles even straight + overland, and lost in the night among the famed sugar estates that occupied in unbroken + succession College Point and Grandview Reach, Willow Bend, Bell's Point, and Bonnet + Carré. Past was Donaldsonville, at the mouth of Bayou Lafourche, and yonder ahead, that + boat just entering Bayagoula Bend, and which the <em>Votaress</em> was so prettily overhauling, + was the <em>Antelope</em>.</p> + + <p>"Fast time," ventured the watchman to the first mate.</p> + + <p>"Yes, fast enough for a start."</p> + + <p>No word from either as to any trouble aboard.</p> + + <p>A cub pilot risked a remark to his chief: "'—Chase the antelope over the plain,' says the + song, but I reckon we won't quite do that, sir."</p> + + <p>No, they wouldn't quite do that. Not a breath as to any unfortunate conditions anywhere. But + on every deck, wherever equals met, the fearful plight of the queer folk down nearest the water + was softly debated. Distressing to feminine sympathy was the necessity of instant burials, + first revealed up-stairs by that woman's cry of agony down on the lower gangway. But masculine + nerve explained that such promptness would save lives and might confine the disease to the + lower deck. Was no physician on the boat? No, one would be taken aboard in the morning. Of + course you could ask to be set ashore, but, all things considered, to stay seemed wiser. Where + was Madame Hayle? Few passengers knew, none of the boat's "family" chose to tell, and at + bedtime the majority "retired." So much for the surface of things.</p> + + <p>But beneath the surface—"Good God, sir! if any one is to go ashore, why shouldn't it be + <em>they</em>—the foreigners?"</p> + + <p>For the full bearing of this speech let us recount certain doings in this first half of the + night. The Hayle twins, coming aboard at "Post Forty-Six," had begun, by the time the boat + backed away, to offer exchanges of courtesy with such men on the boiler deck as seemed best + worth while, and this they kept up with an address which, despite their obvious juleps, + unfailingly won them attention. Even a Methodist bishop, who "knew their father and had known + his father, both stanch Methodists," was unstintedly cordial. No less so was a senator.</p> + + <p>"Know Gideon Hayle?" He had "known him before they had! Hoped to know him yet when his sons + should be commodores." Was on the <em>Chevalier</em> when the <em>Chevalier</em> outran the + <em>Quakeress</em>. One twin heard the tale while the other brought the bishop.</p> + + <p>"Senator, you already know Bishop So-and-So?"</p> + + <p>"Senator, we'd like you to know Judge So-and-So, sir."</p> + + <p>Judge, senator, and bishop were pleased. The senator reminded the judge that they had met + years before for a touch-and-go moment as one was leaving and the other boarding the + <em>Autocrat</em>—or was it the <em>Admiral</em>—a Hayle boat at any rate—how time does fly! + The brothers took but a light part in the chat and were much too wise to betray any degree of + social zeal. Each new introduction was as casual as the one before it. Sometimes they were + themselves introduced but only those here named stayed in the set. Chairs were found for four, + and Julian, stepping aside for a fifth chair, came upon another worthy, as well juleped as + himself and carrying his deck load quite as evenly.</p> + + <p>"Bishop So-and-So, this is our father's boyhood friend, General So-and-So. Judge + So-and-So—Senator So-and-So—you both know the general?" The general accepted Lucian's chair, + and presently Lucian, with two more chairs, brought one more personage, tall and solemn.</p> + + <p>"Senator, have you never met Squire So-and-So?"</p> + + <p>The senator had long wished to do so, the judge was well acquainted, the general shook hands + grandly, and the bishop blithely said the squire had the largest plantation on the Yazoo River. + The squire was too thirsty to smile but said he hoped the bishop would not feel above joining + the others as his guest at the bar. The bishop declined, but kept the seats of all till their + return. They came back talking politics, having found themselves of one democratic mind, + southwestern variety, and able to discuss with quiet dignity their minor differences of view on + a number of then burning questions now long burned out with the men who kindled them: Webster, + Fillmore, Scott, Seward, Clay, Cass, Douglas, Garrison, Davis, and others.</p> + + <p>By and by, without a break in the discussion, the seven walked back into the cabin and stood + where, on the first tap of the supper bell, each could snatch a seat near the upper end of the + table and so collectively assume among the hundreds on the boat that separate and superior + station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitled them. The squire had his + motherless children aboard but could leave them to a sister and brother-in-law. Which reminded + the twins to look after their sister, on the roof, as hereinbefore set forth. But both the + bishop and the senator were thoughtful for them and when they came tardily to the board they + found the group close about the old commodore, their own places saved and the judge and the + general sustaining the squire's rather peppery assertion to the courteous but vilely + inconvincible commodore, that certain new laws of Congress must be upheld with all the national + power, Yankee mobs be squarely shot into and their leaders hanged, or the Federal Union would + not long be worth a rap.</p> + + <p>The senator had almost thought of something tactful to say and the bishop had just the right + word on the end of his tongue, when Julian, with very good manners in a very bad manner, asked + leave to speak, and the squire, ignoring the commodore, said: "Certainly, Mr. Hayle, sir, + do!"</p> + + <p>"One thing to be stopped at all cost," said Mr. Hayle, "is this deluge of immigration. Every + alien who comes to New Orleans, and especially every alien who passes on up this river into the + West, strengthens the North and weakens the South commercially, industrially, and politically, + and corrupts the national type, the national speech——"</p> + + <p>"The national religion,"——prompted the bishop.</p> + + <p>"The national love of law and order,"——said the judge.</p> + + <p>"And of justice and liberty,"——put in the general.</p> + + <p>"And the national health," said the youth. "New Orleans should refuse every immigrant + entrance to the country, and every steamboat on the Mississippi ought to decline to carry him + to his destination!"</p> + + <p>The commodore smiled to reply, but the senator broke in with an anecdote, long but good, of + a newly landed German. The judge followed close with the story of a very green Irishman; and + the general, with mellow inconsequence, brought in a tale to the credit of the departed Jackson + and debit of the still surviving Clay. A new sultriness prevailed. The judge's palliative word, + that many a story hard on Clay was older than Clay himself, relieved the tension scarcely more + than did Lucian's inquiry whether it was not, at any rate, true beyond cavil that Clay had + treated Jackson perfidiously in that old matter——</p> + + <p>That old matter's extreme deadness reminded the group that the repast was over and Whiggism + amply squelched. Besides themselves only the ladies'-cabin people and the captain, away aft, + lingered. The long, intervening double line of mere feeders was gone and the cabin-boys were + setting the second table. The commodore rose and the seven drifted out again, with their seven + toothpicks, to the boiler deck. There men who had passed the salt to each other at table were + giving each other cigars, some standing in knots, others taking chairs about the guards. Almost + every one had related himself to some other one or more as somehow his or their guest and host + combined, and had taken his turn or was watching his chance to recognize the captain as social + and civil autocrat and guardian angel over all. The conspicuousness of the twins led to + stories, in undertone, of the long Hayle-Courteney rivalry.</p> + + <p>"Remarkable, how it's run on and on without their ever locking horns, eh?"</p> + + <p>"Mighty nigh did it when the <em>Quakeress</em> burned."</p> + + <p>"Oh! do you really think so?"</p> + + <p>"I know it, sir!" He who knew spat over the rail, and the one who had dared to doubt moved + on. Between stories there were debates on the comparative merits of the two types of hull + favored respectively by the rival builders: the slim Hayle model and the not so slim of the + Courteneys.</p> + + <p>"After all, sir," asserted a man of eagle eye, "a duck flies faster than a crane."</p> + + <p>"I doubt that, sir," said one with the eye of a stallion. "Not that I question your word, + but——"</p> + + <p>Their friends had to separate them.</p> + + <p>At that point along came the <em>Empress</em>, as we know, a sight only less inspiring on + this deck than to Ramsey on the roof; shining, saluting, huzzaing, then fading round the bend. + When the card-tables were set out our group of seven fell into three parts. The squire and the + general sat down to a game with a Vicksburg merchant and a Milliken's Bend planter, who + "couldn't play late," their wives being on the boat. The twins, ceasing to tell the senator and + the bishop what damnable things <em>some</em> boats were known to have done for the sake of + speed, went down-stairs to take a glance at the safety-valve, following a few steps behind the + captain. For him they had just seen, as he came down from the roof to their deck and met an + unexpected messenger from the engine-room, promptly turn with him and go below. But their + needless glance at the safety-valve they never took. They saw only two or three poor women + sobbing like babes, the dead body of a young man being prepared for burial, and the carpenter + finishing his coffin. When the captain, as will be remembered, went back to the hurricane-deck + to tell their mother, they went too.</p> + + <p>The boat's torches enabled all on the various decks to view the burial. It ended the game of + cards. During the swift ceremony and long after it the twins consulted the squire, the general, + the Vicksburger, the senator, the bishop, the judge, and the planter from Milliken's Bend as to + what ought to be done. They took care to advance their questions and suggestions singly and + according to the nature of each hearer's inflammability, and as each one kindled they brought + him close to another, Julian always supplying the hardihood, Lucian the guile. Here were men, + they said, and soon had others saying—the squire to the merchant, the general to the + Milliken's Bend planter—here were men, gentlemen, scores on scores, not to say hundreds, who + at all times and everywhere could take the chances of life like men, like gentlemen, native + American gentlemen. But here also were women and children, the families of many of these + gentlemen. Such risks were not for such women and children. Was no step to be generally agreed + upon? Was it to be supinely assumed that the owners of the <em>Votaress</em>, now mainly + preoccupied in overhauling the <em>Antelope</em>, knew all that was best to do and would + punctually do it all?</p> + + <p>The twins did not originate half the inquiries or replies, they merely started the ferment + and kept it working. "You saw at table, did you not, the positive contempt the commodore—who + is a foreigner himself—showed for the direst needs of our country?" To be sure that had little + to do with the management of the boat, but it made it easier to think that the Courteneys, the + captain himself being half Dutch in his origin, might incline to do more for those people + down-stairs than was just to those above them—every way above them. The general called it a + criminal error to plant the victims of a deadly contagion along a great national highway, like + fertile seed in a fertile furrow. The bishop counted it no mercy to the aliens themselves to + keep them aboard when they could be set ashore in a rough sort of roofless quarantine on some + such isolated spot as Prophet's Island, which should be reached by sunrise, was heavily wooded, + and lay but six miles below the small town of Port Hudson.</p> + + <p>Nor could he call it a mercy to consult the immigrants' wishes. How could they be expected + to view the matter unselfishly?</p> + + <p>A deputation of seven elected itself to wait on the captain. The masterful twins, finding + themselves not of its number, sought him in advance, alone. But their interview was brief. We + pass it. The first <em>watch</em> turned in. The men who had served through the first two + hours' run came again on duty as "middle watch," and in their care, after their four hours' + rest, the shining <em>Votaress</em>, teeming with slumberers, breasted the strenuous flood as + regally as ever.</p> + </div><a name="XII" id="XII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XII</h2> + + <h3>HUGH AND THE TWINS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>In the captain's chair, between the derricks and the bell, far above and behind which the + chimneys' vast double plume of smoke and sparks trailed down the steamer's wake, sat Hugh + Courteney, quite uncompanioned.</p> + + <p>So his father had just left him, leaving with him the thought, though without hint of it in + word or tone, that some night, on some boat as deeply freighted with cares as this one, he must + sit thus, her master. The wonder of it, with the wonder of the boat herself and all she + carried, sounded a continuous stern alarum through his spirit like a long roll sounding through + a camp: "Be a man! Make haste! See even those Hayle twins, with all their faults, and up! Make + haste! Rise up and be a man!" Had the wonder-loving Ramsey been there she must have laughed + again; looking into his round, heavy visage was so much like looking into the back of a + watch—one saw such ceaseless movement of mind yet learned so little from it. Amid his + wonderings he wondered of her; not only where at that moment she might be, but what a child she + still was, and yet in how few years—as few as two or three—she would be a woman, might be a + bride.</p> + + <p>But soon a bride or never, the boat was full of matters only less remarkable and he gently + let the girl out of his thought by looking behind him. The windows of the captain's + room—between the chimneys—front room of the texas—gave shining evidence that somewhere the + captain was yet astir. From the rayless pilot-house above it faint notes of speech showed that + some one was up there with the pilot, but at the same time a near-by tread drew Hugh to his + feet with quick pleasure and again his father stood before him, looking at the lights of the + <em>Antelope</em>, a few hundred yards ahead.</p> + + <p>"She'll soon be astern," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"We can't keep her so," replied the captain, accepting his chair. "We must land too often. + Where's your crony?"</p> + + <p>"The commodore? He's turned in." After a pause—"Father, you've shipped a lot of + trouble."</p> + + <p>"Yes," was the light response, "counting Hayle's twins."</p> + + <p>"I wish you'd give me full charge of them."</p> + + <p>"Do you?" laughed the father. "Take it. You hear them, don't you?"</p> + + <p>They were easy to hear, down on the forward freight deck, dancing round a bottle of liquor, + and——</p> + + <p>"Singing 'Gideon's Band,'" said Hugh listening.</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the amused captain, "after pledging me on their honor to go straight to bed." + Hugh started away so abruptly that his father asked: "Where are you bound?"</p> + + <p>"I'm going to send them to bed."</p> + + <p>"Both of them?" smilingly asked the captain.</p> + + <p>"Yes, both."</p> + + <p>"Not both at once?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, both at once. Do you know where their sister is?"</p> + + <p>"Why, abed and asleep long ago, is she not?"</p> + + <p>"I don't know," said Hugh, going; "I doubt it."</p> + + <p>On his way he glanced about for her. Taking charge of the twins seemed logically to involve + a care of her. Where the mother was he knew. Down in the after parts of the lower deck, between + the ceaseless torrents of the wheels, most of the people from overseas had spread their beds + wherever they might, while in one small place apart some five or six lay smitten with the + deadly contagion, two or three in agony, one or two in painless collapse, under the unskilled, + heartbroken care of a few terrified kindred. There, by stealth at first and by the captain's + helpless leave when he found her there, attended by a colored man and maid from the cabin + service, was Madame Hayle, ministering, now with medicine, now with the crucifix, amid the + hammer's unflagging din. To this Hugh was reconciled; but it would never, never do, he felt, to + let the daughter share such an experience. Better to find her, even at that hour, on the boiler + deck.</p> + + <p>But on the boiler deck he found only its wide semicircle of chairs quite empty and no one + moving among the high piles of trunks and light freight under the hanging bunches of pineapples + and bananas. He looked into the saloon. It was bright though with half its lamps cold, but the + barber's shop and the clerk's office were shut, and double curtains of silk and wool cloistered + off the ladies' cabin. The fragrant bar stood open, and at two or three card-tables sat + heavy-betting, hard-chewing quartets, but no one else was to be seen; even the third Hayle + brother had gone to bed. Halfway down the double front stairs to the lower deck, on a landing + where the two flights merged into one, Hugh paused. All about beneath him forward of the + wheels, clear out to the capstan and jack-staff, slept the deckhands, except a few on watch, a + few more who with eager crouchings, snapping fingers, and soft cries gambled at dice in the red + glare of the furnaces, and one who had become an amused onlooker of the Hayle twins—the negro + who, six hours before, by merely putting out a hand had saved their sister's life.</p> + + <p>And there, close before Hugh, at the stairs' foot, under the open sky, were the twins. In + their hunger for notice, their equal disdain of the captain and the deputation of seven, and + their belief that the gayest defiance of the plague was its best preventive, they had set their + bottle on the deck and in opposite directions were daintily pacing round it in a long ellipse + and chanting to a camp-meeting tune their song of Gideon:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "O, Noah, he did build de ahk,</p> +<p class="i6"> O, Noah, he did build de ahk,</p> +<p class="i6"> O, Noah, he did build de ahk,</p> +<p class="i6"> An' shingle it wid cinnamon bahk.</p> +<p class="i7"> Do you belong to Gideon's band?</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6"> Here's my heart an' here's my hand!</p> +<p class="i6"> Do you belong to Gideon's band?</p> +<p class="i8"> Fight'n' fo' yo' home!"<a href="#A">[1]</a></p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>A glance at Hugh gave them new life. Singing on, they halted at opposite ends of the beat, + patted thighs, called figures, leaped high, crossed shins, cracked heels, cut double-shuffles, + balanced, swung round the bottle, lifted it, drank, replaced it, and resumed their elliptical + march to another stanza:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "He couldn't tote de whole worl' breed,</p> +<p class="i6"> He couldn't tote de whole worl' breed,</p> +<p class="i6"> He couldn't tote de whole worl' breed,</p> +<p class="i6"> He los' de crap, but he save' de seed!</p> +<p class="i8"> Do you belong to Gideon's band?</p> +<p class="i6"> <span class="c6">. . . . . . . .</span></p> +<p class="i10"> Fight'n' fo' yo' home!"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Hugh moved on down. "Both at once," he had said, but on every account—their mother's, her + daughter's, his father's—it must be both at once without a high word from him. On the bottom + step he was about to speak, when a tall, flaxen-haired German in big boots and green cap and + coat, meek of brow and barely a year or two his senior, came out from behind the stair and + stepped between the dancers, silent but with a hand lifted to one and then to the other.</p> + + <p>"No," said Hugh to him. The alien's meekness vanished. He motioned toward the sick. His blue + eyes flashed. But in the same instant he was jolted half off his feet by the lunging shoulder + of one of the Hayles marching to the refrain:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Do <em>you</em> belong to Gideon's band?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>His answer was a blow so swift that Hugh barely saw it. The singer fell as if he had slipped + on ice. Yet promptly he was up again, and from right and left the brothers leaped at their foe. + But while men rushed in and hustled the immigrant aft the negro who had saved Ramsey caught one + twin as lightly as he had caught her, and Hugh, jerking the other to his knees, snatched up the + bottle and whirled it overboard. A moment later he found himself backing up-stairs, followed + closely by the pair. These were being pushed up from below by others, and, in lofty phrases hot + with oaths, were accusing all Courteneys of a studied plan to insult, misguide, imperil, + assault, and humiliate every Hayle within reach and of a cowardly use of deckhands and Dutchmen + for the purpose.</p> + + <p>His replies were in undertone: "Come up! Hush your noise, your mother'll hear you! Come on! + Come up!"</p> + + <p>On the boiler deck they halted. The crowd filled the stair beneath and he marvelled once + more as he gazed on the two young Hectors, who, true to their ideals and loathing the + obliquities of a moral world that left them off deputations, blazed with self-approval in a + plight whose shame burned through him, Hugh Courteney, by sheer radiation.</p> + + <p>"And as sure," said Julian, "as sure as <em>hell</em>, sir, your life's blood or that of + your kin shall one day pay for this! To-night we are helpless. What is your wish?"</p> + + <p>"My father's wish is that you go to your stateroom and berths and keep your word of honor + given to him."</p> + + <p>"That, sir, is what we were doing when a hired ruffian——"</p> + + <p>"Never mind the hired ruffian. Charge that to me."</p> + + <p>"Oh, sir, it is charged!" said the two. "And the charge will be collected!" They went their + way.</p> + + <p><a name="A" id="A"></a>[Footnote 1:<br /> <a href="images/music-1.jpg"><img src="images/music-1.png" alt="[Music]" border="0"></a>]</p> + <p style="text-align:right;font-size:70%;"><a href="music/music-1.mid">[Listen to a midi file of this music]</a></p> + + </div><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XIII</h2> + + <h3>THE SUPERABOUNDING RAMSEY</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>In his hurricane-deck chair, with eyes out ahead on the water, John Courteney gently took + his son's hand as the latter, returning to his side, stood without a word.</p> + + <p>"Tucked in, are they, both of them?"</p> + + <p>No reply.</p> + + <p>"Hugh, I hear certain gentlemen are coming to ask me to put our deck passengers ashore."</p> + + <p>"You can't do it, sir."</p> + + <p>"Would you like to tell them so?"</p> + + <p>"I'd like nothing better."</p> + + <p>"Now that you've tasted blood, eh?"</p> + + <p>No reply.</p> + + <p>"It wouldn't be a mere putting of bad boys to bed, my son. It would be David and Goliath, + with Goliath in the plural."</p> + + <p>"Can't I pass them on to you if I find I must?"</p> + + <p>"Of course you can. Hugh, I'm tempted to try you."</p> + + <p>"I wish you would, sir."</p> + + <p>"With no coaching? No 'Polonius to the players'?"</p> + + <p>"I wish you would."</p> + + <p>The father looked into the sky. "Superb night," he said.</p> + + <p>Again no reply.</p> + + <p>"Were you not deep in the spell of it when I found you here awhile ago?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, I was."</p> + + <p>"My son, I covet your better acquaintance."</p> + + <p>"You mean I—say so little?"</p> + + <p>"You reveal yourself so little. Even your mother felt that, Hugh."</p> + + <p>"I know it, father. And yet, as for you——"</p> + + <p>"Yes—as for me——?"</p> + + <p>"I've never seen you without wanting to tell out all that's in me." The pair smiled to each + other.</p> + + <p>"And you say that at last, now, you can do it?"</p> + + <p>"Did I say that, sir?"</p> + + <p>"Not in words. But you seem all at once to be seeing things—taking hold of things—in a new + way."</p> + + <p>"The things themselves are new, sir. They're small, but—somehow—they've helped me on."</p> + + <p>"Couldn't I guess one of them?"</p> + + <p>"I hardly think so, sir; they're really such trifles."</p> + + <p>"Well, for a first attempt, Ramsey."</p> + + <p>"Yes. How did you guess that?"</p> + + <p>"She's such a persuasive example of perfect openness."</p> + + <p>"Her mother's a much lovelier one."</p> + + <p>"No, Hugh; allowing for years, Miss Ramsey's even a better. But—another small thing—shall + I mention it?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, please."</p> + + <p>"All these Hayles, to-night, bring up the past—ours."</p> + + <p>"Yes!" said Hugh, and said no more, as if the remark had partly unlocked something and then + stuck fast.</p> + + <p>The questioner tried a smaller key. "What were you thinking," he asked, "when I joined you + here to-night?"</p> + + <p>"When you—? Oh, nothing we're thinking of now."</p> + + <p>"At the same time, what was it?"</p> + + <p>"Why—something rather too fanciful to put into words."</p> + + <p>"All the same, let's have it."</p> + + <p>"Well, for one thing, seeing and feeling this boat, with all its light and life, speeding, + twinkling on and on through the night like a swarm of stars, the thought came—and I was + wishing I could share it with you——"</p> + + <p>The elder hand pressed the younger.</p> + + <p>"The thought that since infinite space—" The thought seemed to stall, take breath, and + start again—"since infinite space is lighted only by the stars, the rush and roll of this + universe through space is forever and ever—in the large—a night scene—an eternal starlight. + Is that absurd—to you?"</p> + + <p>The father smiled: "Why, no. I merely—doubt it. All starlight is sunlight—near enough + by."</p> + + <p>"Yes. But between stars there is no near-by, is there?"</p> + + <p>"That depends on who's looking, I think. We mustn't impute human eyes to God—or angels—or + saints. You remember the word: 'Darkness and light are both alike to thee'?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," pensively said Hugh, rejoicing in this converse yet wondering why it made him feel so + childish to speak his best while Hayle's twins showed up in so manly a fashion when they spoke + their worst. "Yes, I thought of that, too. Yet I was glad to believe there will always be + plenty of starlight for those who love it——"</p> + + <p>"Wow!" yelled Ramsey in his ear.</p> + + <p>With a gulp he whirled and faced her where, limp with laughter, she hung and swung on the + captain's chair. Its occupant quietly rose. The old nurse wrung her hands, and Ramsey, in an + agony of mirth and dismay, cringed back on her. Suddenly the maiden stood at her best height + and with elaborate graciousness said:</p> + + <p>"I <em>hope</em> I haven't interrupted!"</p> + + <p>The father's hand appeasingly touched the son's while playfully he said: "You have a hopeful + nature, Miss Ramsey." And then, as her disconcerted eyes widened, he asked: "Where did you come + from just now?"</p> + + <p>He saw that if she spoke she must weep. Instead she jauntily waved a whole arm backward and + upward to the pilot-house. Then, her self-command returning, she remarked, for Hugh in + particular: "It's nice up there. They don't snub you." She twitched a shoulder at him, made + eyes to his father, and once more tinkled her laugh, interiorly, as though it were a + door-bell.</p> + + <p>The captain was amused, yet he gravely began to ask: "Does your mother——?"</p> + + <p>"Know I'm out? She doth. First time I've been out o' bed this late in all my long and + checkered career."</p> + + <p>"If she does, Miss Ramsey, will you go up to the pilot once more and tell him to land the + boat at the wood-yard just this side of Bonnabel plantation?"</p> + + <p>Her mouth fell open: "Who, me? Tell the—?" She swept the strategist with a quick, hurt + glance, but beamed again beneath his kind eyes. "<em>I get your idea</em>," she said, snatched + the nurse's arm, and hurried off with her, humming and tripping the song she had quoted.</p> + + <p>The captain looked again into "infinite space." The wide scene was shifting. High beyond the + <em>Votaress's</em> bow the stars of the west swung as if they shifted southward. The moon + crossed her silvering wake from larboard quarter to starboard. The <em>Antelope</em> shone + close ahead. "To me, Hugh," he lightly resumed, "this boat, full of all sorts of people, isn't + so much like your swarm of stars as it is like just one little whole world."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the son, facing him sidewise so that no Ramsey might again surprise them: "I see + it that way too. Father"—the father had stirred as if to leave him—"I want to tell you some + things about our past. But I can't tell them piecemeal. I must find some time when you're off + watch."</p> + + <p>"And when Miss Ramsey's asleep?"</p> + + <p>"Yes."</p> + + <p>"Why have you never told me before?"</p> + + <p>"I've tried for years. The power wasn't in me. I've had to grow up to it. But, as you say, + 'now, at last,' I can do it."</p> + + <p>The captain turned away and looked up to the dim pilot-house. Out of it came the tranquil + voice of the pilot who earlier had talked with the twins: "Caving bank above has planted snags + at that wood-yard, sir. Whippoorwill Ferry's a better landing, on t'other side, head o' the + crossing."</p> + + <p>"Well, Mr. Watson, land there."</p> + + <p>The boat was sweeping close by the west-shore village of Bayagoula, that lay asleep where + the stream for a brief space widened to a mile. Her veering jack-staff hid the north star a + moment, then crept to right of it and pointed up a five-mile reach of dim waters and dimmer + shores, hard on the heels of the panting <em>Antelope.</em> But the captain's eye lingered + behind and above him. Between him and the pilot-house, softly veiled by its moonlight shadow, + stood in unconscious statuesqueness on the front overhang of the texas roof, between the + towering chimneys, Ramsey.</p> + + <p>Her rippling curls and slim shoulders stood above the shade that enveloped the rest of her + form and showed dark against the feeble light of the moon at her back. As he looked she uttered + a droll sound—fair counterfeit of the harsh note a mocking-bird speaks to himself before his + nightly outburst—and then broke forth in a voice as untrained, but as fresh and joyous and as + reckless of reproof or praise, as the bird's:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'O, the lone, starry hours give me, love,</p> +<p class="i6"> When still is the beautiful night——'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>At sight of a second and third figure he moved that way, while below the singer's feet + sounded a mother's moan: "Ramsey! mon Dieu! my chile! come down from yondeh!"</p> + + <p>The girl's eyes stayed in the sky, but one mutinous foot so keenly smote the roof that her + nurse, approaching behind, stopped short, and from Hugh came a laugh, a thin, involuntary + treble, which caused Ramsey visibly to flinch.</p> + + <p>"Ramsey!" entreated her mother again, but——</p> + + <p>"Just this one moment, beloved mom-a! Listen, oh, listen, everybody! to my midnight + thought!" The rhapsodist struck a stiffer pose and began with all her voice, "Since infinite + space is lighted only by the stars! their rush and roll—te rum te riddle, te rum te + ree——"</p> + + <p>"Ramsey!"</p> + + <p>"—Is an eternal starlight!" The girl hugged and kissed her black nurse: "Oh, mammy Joy! is + that absurd to you?"</p> + + <p>"Ram-zee!" cried the mother. But a toll of the great bell silenced her. Another solemnly + followed, and when a third completed the signal to land, the staggering footsteps of the + vanished girl dragging old Joy with her in full retreat were a relief to every ear. As madame + turned to say good night a last bleat came out of the darkness:</p> + + <p>"Please don't, anybody, tell about the <em>Quakeress</em> to-night!"</p> + </div><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XIV</h2> + + <h3>THE COMMITTEE OF SEVEN</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Hitherto," said the senator, in his stateroom, to the bishop and the judge, "there really + has been no need to take any assertive step."</p> + + <p>He was explaining his slowness as head of the deputation and was glad, he said, to have a + word apart with these two. The room could not seat seven and for the moment the other four were + at the bar, where standing was so much easier than elsewhere.</p> + + <p>Their business, the seven's, he added, was with the captain, and officially the captain had + gone off duty at eight o'clock and was on again only now, at midnight, in the "middle watch." + Even yet there need be no hurry; what they wanted done could not be done before early morning, + at Prophet's Island.</p> + + <p>The bishop approved. "Don't cross the bridge till you get to it," he quoted.</p> + + <p>The judge—whose elderly maiden sister was aboard and abed but awake and alarmed and amazed + and astounded that he should be so helpless—assented, too, but thought there was now no call + for further delay; Prophet's Island was nearer every moment and the sooner "those people" were + well ashore the safer—and easier—for everybody.</p> + + <p>"I was giving our numbers time to grow," remarked the senator.</p> + + <p>"And the cholera time to spread?" queried the judge.</p> + + <p>"We're but a small minority yet," persisted the senator.</p> + + <p>"A minority always rules," smilingly said the bishop.</p> + + <p>The senator smiled back. "There are two or three hundred of those deck passengers alone," he + responded.</p> + + <p>"Senator," said the judge, "what of that? We've taken upon ourselves to speak for all the + cabin passengers on this boat, whether as yet they agree with us or not. They are as numerous + as those foreigners, sir, and, my God! sir, <em>they</em> are our own people. Self-preservation + is the first law!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, surely you know," protested the senator, "I'm with you, heart and soul! We must + extricate these people of our own from a situation whose desperateness most of them do not + recognize. We'll go to the captain now, as soon as—as we must. But let us agree right here + that whatever we require him to do we also require him to do of his own free will. He must + shift no responsibility upon us. You have, of your sort, bishop, a constituency quite as + sensitive as the judge's or mine, and we don't want to give any one a chance to start a false + story which we might find it difficult to run down. And so we can hardly be too + careful——"</p> + + <p>The absent four had returned while he spoke. "Sir," interrupted the general, whose th's were + getting thick, "ththat is what we have been—too careful!"</p> + + <p>The hearts of the four were on fire. A chance word of the barkeeper, they said, had sent + them to the stateroom of Hayle's twins, who, with tears of wrath, had confessed themselves + prisoners; prisoners of their own word of honor—"after being knocked down——"</p> + + <p>"What?" cried senator, judge, and bishop.</p> + + <p>"Yes, sirs, one of them literally knocked down by the acknowledged minion of one Courteney, + for having ventured to differ politically with another and for daring to mention the pestilence + to a third."</p> + + <p>The seven poured out to the guards and started for the roof. The bell up there tolled for + the landing at Whippoorwill Ferry. About to ascend a stair, they uncovered and stood aside + while Madame Hayle and a cabin maid passed down on their way back to the immigrants' deck. By + the time the roof was reached the boat was close inshore. The captain had begun to direct her + landing. The engine bells were jingling. Tall torch baskets were blazing on the lower-deck + guards, and another burial awaited only the running out of the big stage. Now it hurried + ashore, a weirdly solemn pageant. The seven, looking down upon it, regained a more becoming + composure. When the swift task was done, the torches quenched, and the boat again under way and + her movements in control of the pilot, they once more looked for the captain. His chair was + empty, but his room was bright and its door ajar. Within, however, was only the wholly + uninspiring figure of Hugh, at a table, where he was just beginning to write. He rose and + seemed sedately to count his visitors.</p> + + <p>"We are looking for the captain," said the senator.</p> + + <p>"He's down on the after lower deck, sir."</p> + + <p>"Oh!" The bushy brows of the inquirer lifted. "Will you send for him? We can't very well go + down there."</p> + + <p>"That's true, sir," said Hugh, feeling the irony, "unless you wish to help." He looked from + one to another, but none of the seven wished to help.</p> + + <p>"Do you mean to say," broke in the general, "ththat we can't sssee ththe captain of ththis + boat unless we nurse the cholera?"</p> + + <p>"No, sir, I don't mean that, though he's very much occupied. If you will state your business + to me I will send for him unless I can attend to it myself."</p> + + <p>"Why, my young friend," said the senator, "does that strike you as due courtesy to a + delegation like this?"</p> + + <p>"No, sir, ordinarily it would not be, sir. But my father—I am the captain's son—knowing + you were coming and what you were coming for, waited for you as long as he could. Just now he + is extremely busy, sir, doing what he can—short-handed—for the sick and dying." The captain's + son, in spite of himself, began to warm up. "Those hundreds of people down yonder, sir, are + homeless, friendless, dumb—you may say—and in his personal care. He has left me here to see + that your every proper wish has every attention. Gentlemen, will you please be seated?" He + resumed his own chair and at top speed began again to write.</p> + + <p>It was a performance not pleasant for any one. He felt himself culpably too full of the + resentful conviction that this ferment, whose ultimate extent nobody could predict, was purely + of those Hayle twins' brewing, and he knew he was speaking too much as though to them and them + alone. He was the only Courteney who could do this thing so badly, yet it must be done. Still + writing, he glanced up. Not a visitor had stooped to sit. He dipped his pen but rose up again. + "What can I do for you, sirs?"</p> + + <p>"We have told you," said the senator. "Send for the captain!"</p> + + <p>"Will you please say what you want him for?"</p> + + <p>"No, sir! We will tell him that when he comes!"</p> + + <p>"He'll not come, sir. I shan't send."</p> + + <p>The senator glared steadily into the youth's face, and the youth, forgetting their disparity + of years, glared as steadily back. The bishop blandly spoke:</p> + + <p>"Senator, will you allow me, for an instant—? Mr. Courteney, you will admit that this + steamboat is not your property?"</p> + + <p>"She's as much mine as anybody's, sir. I am one third owner of her."</p> + + <p>The bishop's pause was lengthy. Then—"Oh, you are! Well, however that may be, sir, your + father ought to realize—and so ought you, sir—that we cannot consent to conduct an affair + like this in a second-handed way."</p> + + <p>"It really isn't second-handed, sir; but if you think it is and if you're willing to put + your request in writing and will dictate it to me, here and now——"</p> + + <p>The senator exploded: "Damn the writing!" He whirled upon the bishop: "Your pardon, + sir!"</p> + + <p>"Some one had to say it," jovially answered the bishop. Everybody laughed. Hugh dipped his + pen once more.</p> + + <p>"Shall I put that down, also?" he asked, looking to the bishop and the senator by turns.</p> + + <p>"Put what?—down where?" they asked. "What are you writing there, anyhow?"</p> + + <p>"Our conversation."</p> + + <p>The senator stiffened high: "For what, sir?"</p> + + <p>And the bishop asked, "A verbatim report to the captain?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir, and the newspapers."</p> + + <p>"Insolence!" exclaimed the general, but was hushed by the squire, though the squire's own + brow lowered.</p> + + <p>"Who will vouch for your accuracy?" loftily asked the senator.</p> + + <p>"I'll send now for witnesses." The youth reached toward a bell-cord. But the senator lifted + a hand between:</p> + + <p>"Stop, sir. There will be nothing to witness. Nevertheless you know, of course, that this is + not the end."</p> + + <p>"I see that, sir."</p> + + <p>"When your passengers awake in the morning, your real, your cabin passengers, they will, + they <em>shall</em> awake to the deadly hazard of their situation. Gentlemen, there will be + available landings beyond Prophet's Island. We shall reach Turnbull's Island by noon and + Natchez Island before sundown. Meantime, sir, this mortal peril to hundreds of our best people + is wholly chargeable to your captain."</p> + + <p>"Captain and owners," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Captain and owners! Good night, sir."</p> + + <p>"Good night, gentlemen."</p> + + <p>For half an hour the <em>Votaress</em> headed west. Then the north star crept forward from + starboard beam to bow and then back from bow to larboard beam. Plaquemine town, bayou, and bend + swept past, and as she laid her course east for Manchac bayou, bend, and point a tranquil voice + came up to the pilot-house from the darkness forward of the bell: "Where is Hugh, Mr. + Watson?"</p> + + <p>"He's just turned in, sir."</p> + </div><a name="XV" id="XV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XV</h2> + + <h3>MORNING WATCH</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + Twinkled quite away were the four hours of middle watch. + + <p>All the gentler turnings of the journey's first hundred miles were finished and the many + hundred miles of its wider contortions were well begun. One winding of thirty-five miles had + earned but twelve of northward advance. But at any rate that was now far downstream. Baton + Rouge, the small capital of the State, crowning the first high bank you reach, was some six + miles astern. In the dark panorama of the shores, decipherable only to a pilot's trained sight, + the unbroken procession of sugar estates was broken at last and the shining <em>Votaress</em>, + having rounded a point from north to west, was crossing close above it with Seven Lakes and the + Devil's Swamp on her starboard bow. The <em>Antelope</em> glimmered a short mile behind.</p> + + <p>It was the first mate's watch. On the hurricanedeck he paced at ease across and across near + the front rail, where at any instant his eye could drop to its truer domain, the forecastle. + The westerly moon hung high over the larboard bow. Now the boat ran so close along the lowland + that in smiting the water each bucket of her shoreward wheel drew a separate echo from the + dense wood, as if a phantom boat ran beside her among the moss-draped cypresses. Ramsey! what + thrills you were missing!</p> + + <p>She knew it. In her sleep she lay half consciously resenting the loss. Under the next point + a close turn led into a long northeastward reach, and as the <em>Votaress</em> bore due north + across it the morning star, at one flash, blazed out on the dark world and down the flood. + Through her stateroom's high window its silvery beam found Ramsey in the upper berth and opened + her eyelids with a touch. Staring on the serene splendor, she would soon have slept again, but + just then the many lights of a large steamer glided out of the next bend above and Ramsey + sprang to an elbow to watch its swift approach and await her own boat's passing call and the + other's reply. Now the <em>Votaress</em> tolled a single stroke, as if to cry: "Hail, friend, + we take the starboard."</p> + + <p>With bird-like speed the shining apparition came on, and after a few seconds—that seemed + endless—its soft, slow note of assent floated over the waters. Crossing the star's slender + path on a long oblique, the wonder came, came on, came close, glittered by, and was gone; now + lowland and flood lay again in mystic shadows, and the heavenly beacon of dawn, shedding a yet + more unearthly glory than before, swung nearer and nearer to the <em>Votaress's</em> course + until it vanished forward of the great wheel-house as she headed northeast.</p> + + <p>The very pilot at the helm was not more awake than the reclining Ramsey as she pondered the + hours, each one a year, that had passed since she came aboard. All their happenings, dark and + bright; all their speeches; all their faces, male, female, aged, adolescent, juvenile, danced + through her fancy with a variety and multiplicity of values which seven such little + country-girl minds as hers, thought she, could hardly make room for. It seemed as though a + shower of coined gold were overflowing her wee muslin apron of an intelligence and dropping + through it. She could scarcely remain in the berth. Listen! Was her mother awake, in the lower + one? The boat veered a trifle back northward and suddenly again, hovering over dim water and + shore and blazing like a herald angel, was the morning star, a scant point or so to + "stabboard." She chuckled, softly, at the word.</p> + + <p>Gently her name was called, beneath her: "Ramsey?"</p> + + <p>She let her face into the pillow and shook with the fun of it. If she should squeak half a + note of reply she would be ordered to stay abed. Soon the mother rose and began stealthily to + dress. No doubt it was to return to those poor Germans below. The thought was very sobering. + Ramsey yearned to go with her, but knew she might as well ask leave to ride in the white yawl + which, night and day, so incessantly, invitingly skimmed, zigzagged, foamed, and bounded after + the <em>Votaress</em>, holding on to her fantail by its jerking painter.</p> + + <p>The yawl reminded her of the boy Hugh. He seemed to belong to the boat in much the same way + as it. He <em>was</em> a boy, nothing else—humph!—pooh!—though he seemed to think himself + the elephant of the show. A boy, and yet with what a mind! Not that she should ever want one + like it—whoop! what would she ever do with it? No wonder she had laughed in his face. Without + laughter she would have been his tossed and trampled victim. Laughter was her ladder; the + ladder up which the circus girl runs to sit on the elephant's shoulder.</p> + + <p>The lock of the stateroom door whispered. Her mother was going! Now she was gone! The + daughter rose enough to look out on the gliding flood. It was day. But, night or day, how it + intensified existence, this perpetual, tremulous passing of heaven and earth over and round and + by and beneath one! Every least incident, indoors or out, was large and vivid, and a mere look + from a window became a picture in the memory, to hang there through life. Nay, a sound was + enough, too much. The remote peck-peck of that carpenter's hammer smote into her mind the + indelible image of the only thing he could be making at such an hour. Trying to be deaf, she + thought of Joy—timely thought! At any moment the old dear might steal in. She dropped from her + berth, and when the actual invasion came, when Joy appeared, Ramsey was at the wash-stand, + splashing like a canary, while strewn about the cramped place lay a lot of fresh attire, her + Sunday best, brightest, longest.</p> + + <p>"Now, you needn't say one word!" she cried.</p> + + <p>The old woman bridled to say many, but before she could speak there was a fervent challenge + to answer:</p> + + <p>"Do you realize all I've got to attend to to-day?"</p> + + <p>The nurse's mouth opened but another question was shot into it: "Has anybody told about the + <em>Quakeress</em>?"</p> + + <p>There was a limit to forbearance. "Now, Miss Ramsey Hayle, ef dey is tell it, aw ef dey + hain't—to yo' ma—dat's all right an' beseemly. But fo' you, dat ain't no fitt'n' story fo' + you to heah!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey stared from her towel with lips apart. "Why, you—I'm going to hear it!—all!—this + day!—or, anyhow, this trip!—from—from—" She fell upon the nurse's shoulder, convulsed.</p> + + <p>"F'om who' is you gwine hear it? Stop, missie, stawp! Dat's madness, dat laughteh. De Bible + say' so! F'm who'—? Lawd! yo' head's a-wett'n' my breas'-han'kercheh!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey drew up, her eyes dancing, but went into a new transport as she replied: "From the + baby elephant!"</p> + + <p>"No, you don't, Miss Ramsey Hayle! No, you don't! An' besides, befo' you heah de story o' de + <em>Quak'ess</em> you want to heah de story o' Phyllis."</p> + </div><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XVI</h2> + + <h3>PHYLLIS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>From earliest childhood the Hugh whom it gave Ramsey such rapture to nickname had + unconsciously worn the dim frown that seemed to her so droll because at once so scrutinous yet + so appealing.</p> + + <p>To others that faint shade had never meant more than an inborn mental painstaking; a mind as + steadily at work as the pulse; seemingly sluggish, really active. But Ramsey, in her stateroom, + letting Joy dress her for all the Sabbath could mean afloat or ashore, could not accept such a + thought. A feminine eagerness to read the masculine brow had promptly imputed to Hugh's a depth + of mystery for which her romantic young soul demanded a romantic interpretation. Hence, mainly, + her hunger for the story of the <em>Quakeress</em>. She had perceived, she thought, a relation + between it and the clouded brow, and was bent on finding for the brow's owner as amazing a part + in the tale as could be contrived by any piecing together of its facts which did not absolutely + mutilate them. And these facts already she had begun to collect when by the mention of this + "Phyllis" she discovered that old Joy had at least a share of the facts and under due pressure + would yield them up.</p> + + <p>"Phyllis?" asked Ramsey, "who was Phyllis?"</p> + + <p>"Humph! Neveh hear o' Phyllis? Well, dey wuz reason fo' dat, too. Phyllis wuz de likeliest + yalleh gal I eveh see, not-in-standin' she wuz my full fus' cousin."</p> + + <p>Now, one could be as dark as a sloe and yet have a cousin as yellow as a marigold, but + Ramsey did not see it so. "How can that be?" she laughed, "when you are so out and out black?" + The bare idea seemed too comical for human endurance.</p> + + <p>"I ain't no blackeh'n Gawd made me—oh, Lawd! missie, how I gwine button you up ef you shif' + an' wriggle like dat? Phyllis wuz nuss to all de Co'teney chil'en. 'Caze dat same day when de + new <em>Quak'ess</em> come down de riveh wid dis same Mahs' Hugh, new-bawn, dah wuz yo' pa on + his new boat, de <em>Conjuror</em>——"</p> + + <p>"Ow! the <em>Conqueror</em>!"</p> + + <p>"Yass'm, dat's what I say. And dah wuz yo' ma, an' me, o' co'se, and dah wuz Phyllis, my + full fus' cousin—now, ef you cayn't stop a-gigglin' an' wrigglin' long enough fo' me to finish + dis——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey was too unnerved to heed. "How could—" she insisted—"how could a—a mulatto girl be + your first cousin?"</p> + + <p>"Now, you dess neveh min' how! Phyllis wa'n't no mullatteh, nohow. She wuz a quadroom! Heh + mullatteh motheh wuz my own sisteh!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, you mean half-sister!"</p> + + <p>"I means whole sisteh! Miss Hayle, betteh you dess drap dat subjic' now, an' thaynk Gawd fo' + yo' ign'ance!"</p> + + <p>"All right! all right! whole sister! go on! were you twins?" The querist gave a wild start + of surprise at herself and sank to the floor.</p> + + <p>"Missie," sighed the old woman, "y'ain't neveh in yo' life stopped to think dat niggehs is + got feelin's, is you?"</p> + + <p>The speech was hardly begun before the girl was up and about the protester's neck: "Hush! + ple-ease hush! You've said it before, you've said it before, you've said it before, + before!"</p> + + <p>The nurse's eyes filled: "Yass, an' what use it been? De wuss thing I know 'bout good white + folks—an' when I says 'good' I means de best!—dat is, dat dey don't <em>believe</em> niggehs + is got feelin's!" It was hard to speak on, for Ramsey had pushed her into a chair and was in + her lap.</p> + + <p>"They do! they do, mammy Joy, they do!" She fell to kissing her, first slowly, then wildly + as Joy insisted:</p> + + <p>"No, dey don't. Ef dey did, Phyllis 'ud neveh 'a' come to de pass she came to. But dey + don't! Some o' de bes' <em>believes</em> dey believes, dat's all. Oh, I 'llow you, lots o' + white folks is got—oh, Lawd! <em>don't</em> spile my breas'-han'kercheh!—is got mo' feelin's + dan some niggehs; but lots o' niggehs is got <em>lots</em> mo' feelin's dan some white folks. + Mo' an' betteh! Now, my sisteh, my yalleh sisteh——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, never mind, there's the rising gong! I know your yellow sister must have had feelings. + Tell about Phyllis—and the Courteneys—and the <em>Quakeress</em>."</p> + + <p>"Well, I will! Yo' plumb sot on gitt'n' de thing, an'——"</p> + + <p>"Yes, and it's not a fit story for me to ask <em>him</em> about and you know I'll ask him if + I have to! And besides, I just know mom-a's told you to keep me off the hurricane roof any way + you can and as long as you can—listen! the big bell! we're meeting a boat, maybe half a dozen! + And we're passing to labboard. Come! Come on!"</p> + + <p>At their own door they espied the passing craft: a single boat, not six; a tiny, cabinless, + one-funnelled, unclean, crawling thing, dimly made out in the early dusk of the forested shore + which it servilely hugged as if doing all it could to hide its grimy name and identity.</p> + + <p>"The <em>Fly-up-the-Creek</em>!" gasped Ramsey. "Oh, that <em>can't</em> be all!" She sprang + up a stair, dragging the old woman after, and on the hurricane-deck, near a paddle-box, stood + for a moment in the wide glory of water, land, and early sky, agape again at the squalid + object. Then, as the full humor of the thing struck her—but her behavior may as well go + undescribed. Yet it could not have been so very bad, for the pilot high above at the wheel, + Watson's "partner," glancing down from his side window, enjoyed it much; silently, it is true, + unsmilingly; yet so heartily that he took a fresh bite of tobacco, chewed with energy, and + thought of home.</p> + + <p>When the fit was over, old Joy had been pressed into a chair and the theme was once more + Phyllis.</p> + + <p>"Why did they bring her to New Orleans?" was the question.</p> + + <p>"Who, Phyllis? She wuz fotch down fo' to be sold."</p> + + <p>Ramsey's gaze was roaming every sky-line, but at that word it flashed back: "How, sold? + Pop-a's told me, himself, he never in his life sold one of his negroes!"</p> + + <p>"Is I said he did? Is I call' heh his niggeh? Ain't I done say she wuz a quadroom?"</p> + + <p>"Why," laughed Ramsey, "a quadroon's a negro!"</p> + + <p>"Not in de sight o' Gawd! My Lawd, dat's de shame on it!—dat de likes o' my baby kin say de + likes o' dat! Oh, you kin <em>make</em> a niggeh out'n a simon-pyo' white gal ef you dess raise + heh wid de niggehs and treat heh like a niggeh; but——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey flushed: "Oh, I don't believe that!"</p> + + <p>"Look hyuh, chile! I ain't choosin' to tell about dat, but—I's seen it done! Time an' + ag'in! An' Phyllis she see it done! Dat's how come Phyllis to be de kind o' Phyllis she come to + be!"</p> + + <p>"What kind? Good, or bad? I don't want to hear about her if she was good."</p> + + <p>"She was bofe. But I ain't hawngry to tell about heh, naw 'bout de <em>Quak'ess</em>." The + narrator shut her lips tight.</p> + + <p>The morning air was like a sparkling wine. Ramsey squared her slim shoulders and drank it. + The turbid waters next the sunrise showed a marvellous lilac hue, their myriad ripples tipped + with pink, silver, and gold. Up-stream the river opened widely to the west, but the + <em>Votaress</em> bore northward across the foot of the reach, and soon it was plain that she + was about to enter a "chute," whose vividly green, low, wooded shore on her larboard bow was a + large island: an island of swamp and jungle, ancient fastness of an Indian prophet, hiddenly + swarming with all the ravening and venomous brute, reptile, and insect life possible to the + region. Prophet's Island, it was, yet no senator, bishop, general, judge, or squire was in + sight.</p> + + <p>Ramsey had seen it on her down trip, when the boat, as required by law when descending the + stream there, went eight miles round it in the main river. She had heard with awe that bit of + history—not this history,—the drowning, by collision of a steamboat and a ship, of four + hundred Creek Indians who were being deported to make room for the white man, and had felt + herself grow older while she listened. But now what unmixed raptures awaited her in the narrow + short cut! The recent presence of the <em>Fly-up-the-Creek</em> away over here on this morning + side of the flood was made clear; she had run the chute, where she had no right to be, coming + down-stream.</p> + + <p>"My!" cried the girl, "I wish—oh, my, my, <em>my</em>, I wish I could be five people at + once!"</p> + + <p>For here the boat's watchman sauntered by—a boat's watchman must be a world in himself! + Yonder at the forward rail the first mate still paced athwart the deck. By the captain's chair + stood both the elder Courteneys, their enthralling conversation all going to waste. Here rushed + and quivered all the beautiful boat, her great human menagerie still unviewed, her cabin-boys + laying her breakfast table, her cook-house smelling of hot rolls, the miracles of machinery + pulsing on her lower deck, and down there an awful tragedy going on, with the sweet mother + playing angel—oh, my, my!—and here, up yonder, was the pilot, by whose side one might + presently look right into the narrow chute's greenwood walls and out over their tops—"Go on, + mammy Joy, I can't ever listen to you, once we're in the chute!"</p> + + <p>"I ain't bust'n' to tell noth'n'. Phyllis ain't belong to yo' pa, nohow. She belong' fust to + yo' grampa Hayle, same like my sisteh do, my yalleh sisteh—aw rutheh to yo' gramma. Yo' gramma + she own' a place back o' Vicksbu'g, same like <em>us</em> got back o' Natchez, whils' yo' + grampa he stick to de riveh, same like yo' pa do now. But yo' grampa he outlive' yo' gramma + nigh twen'y-five yeah'. An' 'bout two yeah' ayfteh yo' gramma die' my sisteh, my yalleh sisteh, + she housekeep fo' yo' grampa—a shawt spell. Yo' ma she soon bruk dat up."</p> + + <p>"Why, that was a funny thing for mom-a to do."</p> + + <p>"H-it wuz a right thing! Dat's what it wuz."</p> + + <p>"But, mammy, grandpa died before I was born!"</p> + + <p>"An' what dat got to do wid de price o' beeswax? Yo' a-mixin' me up a-puppose! Afo' yo' + grampa die'—well, I'll stop tell you quits de giggles.... Afo' he die', when Phyllis wuz + growed up, an' 'bout a yeah ayfteh y'uncle Dan—de bacheldeh—de pilot—quit de riveh a spell + fo' to run de Vicksbu'g plantation, yo' ma, down on de Natchez place, she speak up ag'in, an' + ax' yo' grampa fo' to loan Phyllis to she. An' yo' grampa, sho' enough, sawnt heh down, bofe + Phyllis an' de chile."</p> + + <p>"Chi—you skipped! You're skipping! like fury!"</p> + + <p>"Ef I skips I skips fo' de good o' yo' soul."</p> + + <p>Ramsey stared. "Why did mom-a borrow her?"</p> + + <p>"'Caze she couldn' buy heh. Yo' gramma she die' leavin' dat whole Vicksbu'g place an' + people, bawn an' unbawn, to yo' grampa, fo' to pass, when he die', to y'uncle Dan, an' y'uncle + Dan he wouldn' even 'a' loan' Phyllis ef he could 'a' perwent. Humph-ummm! he tuck on 'bout his + 'rights' like a sett'n' hen."</p> + + <p>"But what did mom-a <em>want</em> to borrow her for?"</p> + + <p>"Well, I mowt say, fo' heh beauty; but ef I don't skip noth'n' I got to say she 'llow to + p'otect heh."</p> + + <p>Ramsey stared again and suddenly fell into that soft, rippling laugh, keen, merry, + self-oblivious, which forty excusing adjectives would not have excused to her nurse.</p> + + <p>"Protect her from—from wha-at?" She rippled again.</p> + + <p>"F'om herseff!—an' f'om him!—an' him f'om heh!—and de whole Hayle fambly an' de law o' + Gawd f'om bofe! An' she done it, yo' ma!—up to de wery day he meet his awful en' in dat + bu'nin' pilot-house, when——"</p> + + <p>"Ah-h-h! what pilot-house? You never told me——"</p> + + <p>"Anybody else eveh tol' you? No. Us Hayles-es ain't fon' o' dat story. What I ain't tell you + ain't be'n ripe to tell. I don't tell noth'n' 'tell it's ripe to tell, me!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, it's dead ripe now. Go on, go on!—Burning pilot-house—my uncle Dan—stop!... Hmm!... + That's funny.... Why, mammy, how could he be my uncle if he—was burnt up—before I was + born?"</p> + + <p>"Dat's yo' lookout. He wa'n't bu'nt up tell you wuz goin' on five. Yo' mixin' his las' en' + wid yo' grampa's."</p> + + <p>"Oh, I see-ee! He was lost on the <em>Quakeress</em>!"</p> + + <p>"Well, thaynky, ma'am! Yo' perceivin' powehs is a-gitt'n' ahead o' de hounds. I wuz a-comin' + to dat——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey interrupted. Her cry of ecstasy was not for the breakfast bell, which on the deck + next below rang joyously up and down both guards and died away in the ladies' cabin. It was for + a vision that rose before her and the <em>Votaress</em>; an illusion of the boat's whole speed + being lost to the boat and given to the shore. Suddenly the fair craft seemed to stop and + stand, foaming, panting, quivering like a wild mare, while the green, gray-bearded, + dew-drenched forest—island and mainland—amid a singing of innumerable birds, glided down upon + her, opening the chute to gulp her in without a twang of her guys or a stain upon her + beauty.</p> + + <p>"Go on!" cried Ramsey, her eyes enthralled by the scene, her ears by the story:—"Mom-a + borrowed Phyllis—go on!"</p> + + <p>"When yo' grampa gone," said Joy, "an' de will is read, yo' ma tell y'uncle Dan fo' to neveh + mine his rights aw his lef's; he kin go on ownin' Phyllis and de chile, but, all de same, he + cayn't have 'em. An' when he paw de groun' an' th'ow dus' on his back yo' pa dess—go an' see + him. Wheneveh yo' pa dess go an' see anybody, you know——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey knew. She tinkled with delight.</p> + + <p>"But den come wuss trouble. 'Caze 'bout dat time——"</p> + + <p>About that time Ramsey whisked round and stood so as to give Hugh Courteney, as he came on + deck, a square view of her young back. He noticed her better length of skirt.</p> + + <p>"Go on," she murmured. "Is he coming this way?"</p> + + <p>"Co'se he ain't. He gwine up to de pilot-house."</p> + + <p>"Humph, how <em>awful</em> busy! That's just for grandeur. Go on." And while the leafy jaws + of the chute drew them in and all the air was suddenly filled with the boat's sounds flung back + from every rippling bough, tree top, and mass of draping vines, the nurse went on:</p> + + <p>"'Bout dat time yo' pa he git de hahdess ovehseeh he eveh did git, an' you can't 'spute de + fact dat yo' pa he take' natchiully to hahd men, an' hahd men take natchiully to him. You kin + say dat to his credits."</p> + + <p>"Yes," replied Ramsey, "yes," sighing, gesticulating, whimpering in ecstasies of sight as + the walls of the watery lane cramped in to half its first width. They seemed to rush past of + their own volition, while out beyond them on either hand the whole dense gray-green interwoven + wilderness, with ceremonial stateliness, swung round on itself in slow time to the windy speed + of the <em>Votaress</em>.</p> + </div><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XVII</h2> + + <h3>"IT'S A-HAPPMIN' YIT—TO WE ALL"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Nevertheless, "Go on!" cried Ramsey. "How could the overseer be hard on Phyllis if Phyllis + was mom-a's maid?"</p> + + <p>"Phyllis fo'ce' him to it! 'Caze all dat time, while she sweet as roses wid yo' ma—so's to + keep in cahoots wid heh an' not have noth'n' to do wid niggehs o' no breed, pyo', half, + quahteh, aw half-quahteh—she so wild to git back to y'uncle Dan dat she——"</p> + + <p>"And to leave mom-a! The goosy-goosy! What for?"</p> + + <p>"Well, for one thing, by bad luck, f'om fus' sight, de ovehseeh he <em>fancy</em> Phyllis. + Y'un'stan'——"</p> + + <p>"I don't! I don't want to—Go on!"</p> + + <p>"Humph! Phyllis un'stan'. She un'stan' so well an' so quick dat de fus' drizzly night when + de rain 'u'd spile de trail—de scent—she up wid de chile an' putt out."</p> + + <p>"For my uncle Dan! Walnut Hills! Go on!" The moving scene was forgotten though the chute was + widening again.</p> + + <p>"Well, de ovehseeh, o' co'se, he <em>got</em> to run heh down an' fetch heh back. An' same + time de creeks an' bayous——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, now, that's the same old——"</p> + + <p>"Yass, oh, yass, de same ole! So ole an' common dat you white folks—what has all de + feelin's——"</p> + + <p>"Now, just hush! You don't know anything about it! Go on! Go on! The bayous were—what?"</p> + + <p>"Bank full, dat's all. One place Phyllis an' him nigh got swep' away an' he drap' de + chile."</p> + + <p>"Oh!... Oh!... Oh!"</p> + + <p>"He bleeged to do it, he tell yo' ma, fo' to save Phyllis—what ain't want'n' to be save'. + Whils' de chile—wuz—de chile wuz drownded." The old woman moved to rise, but the girl, with a + new expression in her face, prevented her.</p> + + <p>"Go on! What did mom-a do?"</p> + + <p>"Lawd, what could she do—widout yo' pa?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, I'd have done something. What did Phyllis do?"</p> + + <p>"Phyllis? Dess th'ash' de bed fo' th'ee days—eyes a-blazin' murdeh; th'ee days and de Lawd + know' how many night'. Yo' ma done one thing but you don't want to know dat, I reckon."</p> + + <p>"What did she do? Did she turn Whig?"</p> + + <p>"Wuss!—ef wuss kin be. She tu'n'—dat day—Abolitionless. Ain't neveh tell me, but—you ax + heh. Mebbe it wa'n't all 'count o' Phyllis. Mebbe it wa'n't plumb hoss-sensible nohow. But dat + day— You ax heh!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey flashed: "What are you telling me all this for?"</p> + + <p>"Lawd! An' how many time' is you say, 'Go on'?"</p> + + <p>"I meant about the <em>Quakeress</em>."</p> + + <p>"Well, ain't dis de story o' de <em>Quak'ess</em>? When——"</p> + + <p>"Stop! I'll tell it to you. I see it all."</p> + + <p>"You! Y'ain't see it de quahteh o' half a quahteh. Dat story is a-happmin' yit—to + we-all—on dis boat!"</p> + + <p>The breakfast-bell rang again, and Hugh started down from the pilot-house. But Ramsey would + ask the old woman one more question: "Is it happening to him, too?"</p> + + <p>"Co'se, him; all o' us; twins an' all. When us brung Phyllis down de riveh yo' ma wuz dead + ag'in sellin' heh, an' when us git win' dat de Co'teneys want' a nuss yo' pa he dat glad he + snap his fingehs. 'Us'll rent Phyllis to 'em!' he say. 'Dey's Hendry Clay Whigs; dey'd ought to + treat heh fine.' (Dat wuz his joke.) An' yo' ma make answeh: 'Ef dey don't, us kin take heh + back! Betteh dat dan sell heh! Nobody o' de Hayle blood shayn't do dat whils' I live.'"</p> + + <p>Hugh was near. "Good morning!" sang Ramsey. They met at the head of a stair. She turned away + and looked out beyond the jack-staff as radiantly as if she had just alighted on the planet. + The chute was astern. A new reach of open water came, sun-gilt, to meet them, and on either + hand the low, monotonous green shores crept southward a mile apart.</p> + + <p>She faced again to Hugh. "Isn't this God's country?"</p> + + <p>"In a way," the youth admitted with a scant smile.</p> + + <p>She glanced about. "Most beautiful river in the world!" she urged, and when he faltered she + cried: "Oh, you're prejudiced!" She turned half away. "I know one thing; I wouldn't let + <em>my</em> grandfather prejudice <em>me</em>."</p> + + <p>A new thought struck her: "Oh!... I've just heard all about it!... And it helps to + explain—you!"</p> + + <p>He enjoyed the personality. "Heard all about what?"</p> + + <p>"Phyllis!" She jerked up and down. His smile vanished; his lips set; he turned red.</p> + + <p>Ramsey was even more taken aback than he or old Joy. She knew the pilot was looking down on + her, the mate glancing back at her. Yet she laughed and prattled and all at once frowningly + said: "But one thing I just can't make out! What on earth had the <em>Hayle blood</em> to do + with any right or wrong of selling Phyllis? Do you know?"</p> + + <p>Hugh reddened worse, and in that instant, outblushing him, she saw the truth. "Never mind!" + she cried. "Oh, did I stop you? Go on!—I—I mean go on down—to breakfast!"</p> + + <p>"Won't you go first?"</p> + + <p>"No, thank you; go on! Please, go on!" Glancing up to the pilot and catching his amused eye, + she pointed distantly ahead. "What is that high bank on the—the stabboard shore?" she asked + him.</p> + + <p>"Why"—his tobacco caused but a moment's delay—"nothing much. They call that Port + Hudson."</p> + + <p>"Thank you!" She darted below, where Hugh was already gone. As she started she caught sight + of the twins. They had just come up on the far side of the boat and were approaching the mate. + Still flushed, but straight as a dart, at the stair's foot she turned on her attendant and with + brimming eyes said softly: "I don't want any breakfast. I'm going to the lower deck—to find + mom-a."</p> + + <p>"You shayn't! You'll git de cholera!"</p> + + <p>"Pooh, the cholera!—after what I've got!—I'm going to tell mom-a on you!"</p> + + <p>"On me—me! Good Lawd! Go on, I's wid you!"</p> + + <p>"You'd no right to tell me that story!"</p> + + <p>"Missie, I on'y tol' you fo' to stop you. You said yo'se'f you gwine ax him all about + it."</p> + + <p>"Oh, him!" The girl laughed, yet showed new tears. "I don't mind him; I mind the story! I + don't even care who it's about, Hayles or no Hayles!"</p> + + <p>"Why, den, what does you care——?"</p> + + <p>"I care <em>what</em> it's about." She suddenly looked older. "Oh, I'm all over bespattered + with the horrid——"</p> + + <p>"Y'ain't. Y'ain't de sawt fo' dat. Look at yo' ma. She have bofe han's in it. Is she all + oveh bespattud?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, you! You know nothing could ever bespatter mom-a!... I'm going to her to get + clean!"</p> + + <p>"Dat's good!" A shrewd elation lit up the black face. "Go on! As you say yo'se'f, go + on!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey started away but with an overjoyed gasp found herself in her mother's arms. She + pressed closer while the three laughed, and when the other two ceased she still mirthfully + clung in that impregnable sanctuary. Suddenly she hearkened, tossed her curls, and stood very + straight. Two male voices were coming down the stairs.</p> + + <p>"We cannot," said one, "submit to this alive!"</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the other, "we can. It's just <em>we who</em> can—till the day we catch them + where they've got us to-day!"</p> + + <p>"And what, now, is this?" smilingly inquired Madame Hayle as her twin sons halted before + her.</p> + + <p>The young men uncovered. They were surprisingly presentable after the night they had spent. + Julian, in particular, looked capable and proud of their waywardness.</p> + + <p>"Good morning," put in Ramsey, on her mother's arm. "See those little houses up on that + bank? That's Port Hudson. Up there they can see away down the river, past Prophet's Island, and + at the same time away up-stream. If we were on the hurric—" She made a start, but her mother, + while addressing the twins, restrained her.</p> + + <p>"Well," she asked, "you cannot submit—to what?"</p> + + <p>"We are ordered ashore!" said Julian.</p> + + <p>"At the next landing!" quavered Lucian—"Bayou Sara!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey slipped from her mother and gazed at the twins with her eyes as large as theirs. "You + shan't go!" she broke in. "Where's Hugh?" She darted for the cabin, old Joy following. Julian + glared after them.</p> + + <p>"See?" he said to his mother. "You don't see—the plot? It's a plot!—to compromise us!—you + and her included!"</p> + + <p>"Before this boat-load of witnesses!" chimed Lucian.</p> + + <p>Him the mother waved to a remote chair. "Bring me that," she said, for a pretext, and turned + privately to Julian, speaking too swiftly for him to reply: "Was it part of that plot that you + was both on that lower deck laz' night? No? But in the city those laz' two-three day' in how + many strenge place' you was—lower deck of the whole worl'—God only know', eh?—unless maybe + also the devil—an' the scavenger? That was likewise part of that plot aggains' us? No? But + anny 'ow that comity of seven—h-ah!"—she made a wry face—"that was cause' by the wicked + plotting of those Courteney'? An' that diztrac' you so bad this morning that you 'ave not + notiz' even that change' face on yo' brotheh?—or that change' voice, eh? An' him he's too + affraid to tell you how he's feeling bad! As faz' as you can, take him—to his room—his + bed—an' say you, both, some prayers. He's godd the cholera."</p> + </div><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XVIII</h2> + + <h3>RAMSEY WINS A POINT OR TWO</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>There was half an hour yet before the first mate's watch would end.</p> + + <p>He had risen from the captain's seat on the approach of that middle-aged pair who in the + first hour of the voyage had enjoyed seeing Hugh and Ramsey together; a couple whose home + evidently was far elsewhere—if anywhere—and who as evidently had seen the world to better + advantage than most of the <em>Votaress's</em> passengers. As he rose Hugh and Ramsey came up + near one of the wheels. Seeing them start directly for him, he made a heavy show of attention + to the married pair.</p> + + <p>While the quick step of the two younger people brought them near, the husband began to reply + to the mate: "Why, to the common eye, tiresome, I dare say. To the artist—I wonder! It's the + only much-travelled river in the world whose most imposing sight is always the boat."</p> + + <p>"It isn't!" whispered Ramsey to Hugh. Then openly, yet decorously, "Ahem!" she said as they + lapsed into waiting attitudes. But the mate was not to be ahemmed, and while he hearkened on to + the critic she could do no better than hammer the small of her back and smooth into it a + further perfection.</p> + + <p>"At the same time," continued the stranger, "it's immensely interesting; politically as to + its future, scientifically as to its past." He turned to his wife: "Look, for instance, at this + bit of it right here." A trained art in his pose and gesture caused Ramsey and old Joy to look + as he prompted. "This is Fausse Rivière Cut-off," he continued, and the mate said it + was—'False River'.</p> + + <p>"Yes. Now, barely two generations ago"—he animatedly took Ramsey into his glance—"this + stream suddenly abandoned twenty-odd miles of its own tremendous length and width and sprang + through this two-mile cut-off." There was such fervor in his tone, and in his wife's mien such + vivacity of interest, that the amazing event stood before Ramsey as if it had just + occurred.</p> + + <p>"You've read books about this river!" she said.</p> + + <p>"A few, drifting down it by flatboat."</p> + + <p>"Oh, by Christopher!" broke out the mate, "I remember you now! Yo're that play-actor! Yo're + the man, by gad! who hauled me into yo' skiff half roasted and half drownded when the + <em>Quakeress</em> was a-burnin'! By George, look here! What do you want on this boat, that you + ain't already got? Name it, sir, just name it! Oh, by hokey, sir, I——!"</p> + + <p>Smilingly the actor shook his head while his wife beamed delightedly. "We haven't a want + ungratified," he answered.</p> + + <p>"Oh, please!" put in Ramsey, "yes, you have—one!"</p> + + <p>"Have we, mademoiselle? Surely we have if you have."</p> + + <p>The mate interposed. "That's a daughter of Gideon Hayle, sir—as good a captain, by Joe, as + ever took out a boat——"</p> + + <p>The wife nodded gayly. "We know him," she said.</p> + + <p>"Oh!" laughed Ramsey, scanning the pair up and down.</p> + + <p>"What is it we want, worthy daughter of Gideon Hayle?" asked the player—"you and my wife + and I—and your—this is your brother, is he not?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey's mouth and eyes spread wide. She turned to Hugh and at sight of his heavy face + whisked round again with her handkerchief to her lips. The mate spoke for her:</p> + + <p>"That's Captain Courteney's son, sir."</p> + + <p>"What Miss Hayle wants—" began Hugh——</p> + + <p>"What <em>we</em> want," said Ramsey——</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Hugh, "what we want is the recall of——"</p> + + <p>"An order," broke in the mate. "I know; my order for them two twins to go ashore. You can't + have that, Hugh."</p> + + <p>"We can!" said Ramsey, with tears in her laugh.</p> + + <p>"No, sir-ee!" said the mate. "Ashore they go!"</p> + + <p>"Ashore they don't!" said Ramsey. "You just told this gentleman you'd do anything + he——"</p> + + <p>"I'd do anything he—yes, but"—the speaker looked beyond her—"Why, Mr. Play-actor, them + two young Americans come up here a-smellin' o' buckwheat cakes and golden syrup, when they and + some others—a general and a senator, wa'n't they?—had had some political tiff with + you——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, not political at all! There's a proposition—I had no idea it was theirs—to land our + deck passengers on——"</p> + + <p>"On Turnbull's or Natchez Island!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey breathed an audible amazement.</p> + + <p>"Exactly," said the player. "Well, I had the ill luck to call their scheme a bad name or + two."</p> + + <p>"Good! Now, sir, up they come here <em>a-demanding</em> o' me to put you ashore, 'where + he'll get himself lynched,' says they."</p> + + <p>"Oh, bless my soul!" cried the actor. "If that was all and you want to please us, just let + them alone."</p> + + <p>The mate smiled to Hugh and shook his head. "It wa'n't all. <em>You</em> know it wa'n't. + Gad, Mr. Hugh, they got to go!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, they must not!" begged both players. A few steps away the bishop and the judge were + holding an earnest conversation with the grandfather Courteney, and his eye tried to call the + mate. But Ramsey, holding to Hugh by his sleeve, gave the old gentleman a toss of her chin, a + jerk of her curls, and took the mate by a coat button. Her slim, silken figure intercepting + him, and his rude bulk smiling down into her upturned face with a commanding yet amiable + restiveness, made a picture to the players and to the distant pilot, but much more than a + picture to the captive himself. He had thought he had been fending off the banter of a child, + but now, suddenly, this was not a child. A being was here not entirely mundane nor quite + supernal yet surpassing all his earlier knowledge of feminine quality, something for which a + year's hard thinking would not have found him a definition. Holding his button, she spoke + low:</p> + + <p>"Please change that order." What mysterious compulsion there was in that "please"! Her + fingers tapped Hugh. "<em>He</em> wants it changed—for me. We'll be responsible!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, you will!" The big man did not look at Hugh; his smile broadened on their common + captor. Her answering eyes laughed, but even in them, deep down, he saw a pleading ardor at + once so childlike, so womanly, and so celestial that suddenly the deck seemed gone.</p> + + <p>"Please change it! quick!" she murmured again, "for us!"</p> + + <p>He felt an inward start and saw a vision—of the future—with those two in the midst of it. + His brightening glance went belatedly to Hugh, and verily there was more of Hugh also than he + had ever seen before, but the crass significance of his smile was quite lost on the pair.</p> + + <p>"Yes," insisted Ramsey, "<em>we</em> want it changed, him and me—I mean he and I!"</p> + + <p>The big man's laugh drowned hers. "Oh, it's plain either way. Well, by George! that + <em>is</em> an argument. You and him! Gad, the case is covered! You and him has got me—by the + hind leg!" He began to turn away, for yonder, apart from commodore, judge, and bishop, but with + Madame Hayle at his side, stood the captain, giving him a sign which he promptly passed on up + to the pilot. "By the hind leg," he repeated, whereat a titter broke from the averted face of + old Joy, while Ramsey stood agape at her success.</p> + + <p>"They <em>stay</em>—the twins—stay <em>aboard</em>?" she asked the actors, Hugh, and the + mate in turn.</p> + + <p>"Lord, yes!" said the latter.</p> + + <p>On tiptoes of gratitude she had parted her lips to say more, when the air overflowed with + the long bellow of the boat. "Oh," she cried protestingly in the din, "but that's to land!"</p> + + <p>His reply was unheard, but a shake of his head reassured her as he moved toward the elder + Courteneys, whom bishop and judge had left, and who now stood alone awaiting him. She faced + Hugh. He was telling the actor's wife that this landing was to get a physician. Ramsey touched + him and spoke low:</p> + + <p>"We're going to have an awful time. Don't you think so?"</p> + + <p>He did not say. The great bell tolled thrice. She waved him to look at the people ashore, of + all sorts and shades, coming down to the wharf-boat to see them, but suddenly, invited by a + glance from his father, he stepped away to him. "Humph!" she laughed to old Joy, and started to + join her mother, who was leaving the deck. But the mother motioned her back. "Where are you + going?" whined Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"To Lucian."</p> + + <p>The daughter halted, aghast. "Has he got it?" But her mother went on without reply. She + turned to the players and, when they smiled invitingly, rejoined them. When she inquired their + name they said it was Gilmore.</p> + + <p>"Will you tell me about the <em>Quakeress</em>?" she asked.</p> + + <p>The husband said he would. "But you don't mean now," he qualified, "when so many things are + happening?"</p> + + <p>"N-no," she replied grudgingly, and presently added: "I'm afraid my brother's got the + cholera." But then she brightened triumphantly. "Anyhow," she said, "the mate didn't know + that." The engine bells jingled, the wheels paused, and the shore appeared to drift down upon + them, pushing the crowded wharf-boat before it. "What d'you reckon this beautiful boat is + saying to herself right now?" she asked.</p> + + <p>"She ought to say," critically put in the bishop, behind her, to the senator, while she + turned and cast her head-to-foot scrutiny up and down the two, "that for the welfare of that + wharf-boatful of men and boys, and of the homes they live in, she'd best not land, after + all."</p> + + <p>"That's what she <em>is</em> saying!" defensively cried Ramsey, and, sure enough, while she + laughed the scape-pipes roared and the wheels backed till the wharf-boat stood still. At the + same time the pilots changed watch. The captain sauntered to the forward rail. The commodore, + with the mate and Hugh, went below. So closely did the actor's eyes follow them that Ramsey + asked: "What are they going to do?"</p> + + <p>"Going ashore in the yawl, I hope, for a doctor."</p> + + <p>"And medicines," added some one.</p> + + <p>"And for a priest," disparagingly said the smiling bishop as they moved to the shoreward + edge of the roof. "Large demands our deck passengers are making."</p> + + <p>"An outrage!" said the senator. "It's an outrage that they, who wouldn't have dared whimper + a month ago in their own country, should be allowed to behave this way here!"</p> + + <p>"It isn't!" said Ramsey, squarely in his face. There was a general start, old Joy groaned, + and Ramsey's eyes, though still in his, looked frightened; yet there was in her tone and + bearing something so pertinent and worthy, even so womanly, that she had nearly every one on + her side in a moment and the two players audibly murmured approval.</p> + + <p>The senator grew benign. "My fair young lady," he said, "if your father, Gideon Hayle, were + captain here he'd have those people off this boat in short metre."</p> + + <p>"He wouldn't!" said Ramsey. Her eyes flashed and widened. Then as they darted round upon the + actor her most tinkling laugh broke out, and she caught his wife's arm and rocked her forehead + on it, the laugh recurring in light gusts between her words as they came singingly: "He + wouldn't ... he wouldn't ... he wouldn't."</p> + + <p>"There they go," said a voice, and down on the waters directly beneath appeared the white + yawl like a painted toy, but full of men. The commodore was there and the mate. Beside the mate + sat the young German who had fought the twins.</p> + + <p>"That's the one they call Otto," said Ramsey, though how she knew is to be wondered; and + somebody, to amplify, added:</p> + + <p>"Otto Marburg. They're taking him along so the others will be quiet till he comes back."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" said Ramsey, arching her brows to old Joy and the Gilmores and by her own glance + directing theirs to the aftermost figure in the yawl. It was Hugh. He was steering.</p> + </div><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XIX</h2> + + <h3>THIS WAY TO WOMANHOOD</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Noon came with a beauty of sky as if it smiled back to the smiles of a land innocent of + pain, grief, or strife.</p> + + <p>It found the <em>Votaress</em> under full headway, with a physician aboard and Bayou Sara + one great reach and two great bends behind. In a stateroom of her texas, by madame's grateful + acceptance of the captain's offer, lay Lucian, torn with pain but bravely meek, with Julian in + close attendance, Ramsey excluded, and the mother looking in often, though very busy yet with + the doctor on the lower deck.</p> + + <p>In the middle of the forenoon, invited by the captain, the bishop had held divine service in + the ladies' cabin and, praying for his country, found himself praying also, resoundingly and + with tears, for the "strange people" down under his bended knees, while out on the boiler deck + the disputation concerning them steadily warmed and spread, the committee of seven feeling + themselves for the moment baffled but by no means beaten—baffled, for their casual brush with + Ramsey had most surprisingly, not to say unfairly, discredited their cause. "Gideon Hayle's + daughter" had become as universally known by sight as "John Courteney's son," and all about + among the male cabin passengers her method of debate—"It won't! They don't! He wouldn't! We + shouldn't!"—with a mirth often provokingly unlike hers—was the fashion and had won two or + three small victories.</p> + + <p>"The side that laughs, nowadays and hereabouts," agreed the two players, "wins." But they + said it aside from Ramsey, who, they had begun to fear, would be sadly spoiled, the juveniles + were so humbly looking up to her, and so many grown-ups sought her to draw out her brief but + prompt utterances upon the situation and repeat them elsewhere to those who liked their seats + so much more than anything else. They tried to keep her with them and off the absorbing theme + and were not without success.</p> + + <p>Just now the word had run all through the boat that the next turn would bring her into the + "Raccourci," or, as every one but the players called it, "Raccourci Cut-off." Counting + up-stream, it was the second of four great shortenings of the river, which, in the brief + century and a half since the country had become a white man's possession, had reduced a hundred + and twenty miles of its wandering course to half as many within a straight overland distance of + thirty. Wonderful to Ramsey was the story of it. The kindly Gilmore told it with a pictorial + and personal interest that made it seem as if he himself had planned and supervised the whole + work. One of the shortenings was Shreve's Cut-off, made only twenty-one years before this birth + year of the <em>Votaress</em>. Yonder it lay, just veering into the remotest view, where Red + River, over twelve hundred miles from its source in the Staked Plains beyond the Rocky + Mountains, swept, two thousand feet wide, into the Mississippi without broadening the "Father + of Waters" a yard.</p> + + <p>Yet why look there, so distantly, when here between, right here under the boat's cut-water, + was the Raccourci, barely four years old? The <em>Votaress</em> was in it, half through it, + before either Ramsey or Mrs. Gilmore could be fully informed, and now their attention was + beyond even their own command. For yonder ahead, miles away in Shreve's Cut-off, riding the + strong current under Turnbull's Island, came the <em>Regent</em>, finest and speediest of + Gideon Hayle's steamers.</p> + + <p>So late in the season her passengers were few and she was not utterly smothered in a cargo + of cotton bales, yet her freight deck showed a goodly brown mass of them, above which her snowy + form gleamed against the verdant background of the forested island, as dainty as a swan, while + her gliding stem raised on either side a silver ribbon of water that arched itself almost to + her gunwales.</p> + + <p>"Each to her own starboard," answered the <em>Regent's</em> mellow bell to the bell of the + <em>Votaress</em>. Her whistle whitened and trumpeted in salute, and on jack-staff and + verge-staff her rippling flags ran up and dipped, twice, thrice, to the answering flags of the + Courteney boat. Well forward on her hurricane-deck her captain, whom many on the + <em>Votaress</em> pointed out by name, stood alone. Amid-ships her cabin-boys lined her + cook-house guards. Her negro crew swarmed round her capstan with their chantey-man on its head + and sent over the gliding waters the same stalwart perversion of the wilderness hymn of + "Gideon's Band" to which the twins had danced the night before. Now the lone, high voice of the + leader sang:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Fus' come de animals, two by two,</p> +<p class="i6"> Fus' come de animals, two by two,</p> +<p class="i6"> Fus' come de animals, two by two,</p> +<p class="i6"> De elephantine and de kanguiroo,"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>and now, while he held the key-note through the refrain's whole first line, the chorus + rolled up from an octave below:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Do you belong to Gideon's Band?</p> +<p class="i6"> Here's my heart an' here's my hand!</p> +<p class="i6"> Do you belong to Gideon's Band?</p> +<p class="i8"> Fight'n' fo' yo' home!"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>No song is so poor that it may not thrill a partisan devotion. Ramsey stood on her toes. + Down in his berth and in torture the shut-in Lucian faintly heard, turned his gaze to his + brother, whispered "the <em>Regent</em>!" and listened for another verse. The boats were + passing widely apart, and when it came only memory made its foolish lines plain to his doting + ear:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Nex' come de hoss and den de flea,</p> +<p class="i6"> Nex' come de hoss and den de flea,</p> +<p class="i6"> Nex' come de hoss and den de flea,</p> +<p class="i6"> De camomile and de bumblebee.</p> +<p class="i8"> Do you belong to Gideon's Band?</p> +<p class="i6"> <span class="c6">. . . . . . . .</span></p> +<p class="i10"> Fight'n' fo' yo' home!"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>On the last line the singers were half a mile downstream, in Raccourci Cut-off, and Ramsey + and the <em>Votaress</em> were well started up the ten-mile reach from Red River Landing to + Fort Adams.</p> + + <p>How swiftly and incessantly the scene changed. Down in a stateroom near the boiler deck some + beginner on the horn was dejectedly playing "A Life on the Ocean Wave," but even with + pestilence aboard and a brother stricken with it what an exalted, exalting life was a life on + this mighty stream! Flat lands? Flat waters? It was the highest, widest outlook into the world + of nature and of man she had ever had. Monotonous?—when one felt oneself a year older to-day + than yesterday and growing half a month's growth every hour? In yesterday's childishness she + had begun at Post Forty-six to keep count of all the timber rafts and flatboats met, and here + in this long stretch came three more of the one and five of the other, with men hurrahing to + her from them—men as wild as the wilderness, yet with homes and families away back up the + great tributaries and their tributaries. And here were mile-wide cotton fields, with the black + people hoeing in them and looking no bigger than flocks of birds feeding. And here came another + steamboat—and yonder another! The very drift logs, so countlessly frequent, vast trees from + vast forests, some of them not yet dead, told to her sobering mind in tragic dumb show as they + came gliding and plunging by, the age-long drama of their rise, decline, and fall. Unbrokenly + green, yes, forever the one same green, were the low willow and cottonwood jungles of the + creeping shores; but while the "labboard" shore was still Louisiana the "stabboard" was now her + own native Mississippi.</p> + + <p>Yes, these wild shores were States—States of the great Union, the world's hope; Jackson's, + Clay's, Webster's Union, which "must and shall be preserved," "now and forever, one and + inseparable." Somewhere between these shores, moreover, and not behind but away on up-stream, + probably, Mr. Watson said, in Dead Man's Bend, was, once more, the <em>Antelope</em>. In the + long wait at Bayou Sara, where Hugh and the outlandish Otto—who could speak French—had found + the priest while the commodore and the mate were getting the doctor, the <em>Antelope</em> had + reappeared, swept up, and foamed by, and now was so far ahead that in hardly less than another + hundred and sixty miles could she be again overtaken. But to Ramsey, even without the + <em>Antelope</em> or any or all of the sights and facts of landscape and history, no moment + could go stale while the tale of Phyllis and the <em>Quakeress</em> waited like funds in a + bank, and while the commodore, the captain, and Hugh, the pilots, the mate, the Gilmores, the + judge, general, bishop, squire, senator, Otto Marburg in his green coat, and dozens and scores + of others were all over the boat, each more and more a story, a study, as hourly she grew + older.</p> + + <p>On the bench close behind her in the pilot-house a lady with needlework, a gentleman with + <em>De Bow's Review</em> (the squire's sister and brother-in-law), had begun to talk with the + Gilmores and presently mentioned the twins, speaking in such a tone of doom as to give Ramsey a + sudden panic.</p> + + <p>"It's fine!" said the husband, praising Julian's devotion to his stricken brother. "And they + are fine. Their faults—which you've had occasion to discover, sir—are spots on the sun; the + faults, madam, of all our young Southern gentlemen——"</p> + + <p>"Would you say of all?" asked the actor's wife.</p> + + <p>"No!" said the other lady, "no, not of all!" and her husband was glad to stand + corrected.</p> + + <p>"No," he admitted, "but still of almost all; faults of which we may almost say, sir, that we + may almost be proud!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, well," begged his wife, "please almost don't say it! They're the faults of our + 'peculiar institution' and I wish our 'peculiar institution' were—" She sewed hard.</p> + + <p>"In the deep bosom of the ocean buried," suggested her husband to the players. "Why, + honestly, so do I. But it's not, and can't be, and as long as it can't be we——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, well," said his wife, "don't let's begin on that."</p> + + <p>Reckless of institutions Ramsey turned. "Is my brother worse?" she broke in, but a + white-jacket entered with the dinner-bell and spoke softly to old Joy. "Yes," said Ramsey to + him, "I'm Miss Hayle. What is it? Is my brother worse?"</p> + + <p>"Miss Hayle, Mr. Hugh Co'teney make his comp'ments——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey laughed in relief.</p> + + <p>"Yass'm, an' say' cap'm cayn' come to de table an' yo' ma she cayn't come——"</p> + + <p>"I know she can't. Is my brother——?"</p> + + <p>"And de commodo' he at de gemp'men's table, an' so he, Mr. Hugh, he 'p'inted to de ladies' + table, an' will you please fo' to set in de place o' yo' ma?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, rid-ic-ulous! Who? me? I?" The laugh grew plaintive.</p> + + <p>"Yes, you; why not?" said the pilot at the wheel, with his eyes fixed far up the river.</p> + + <p>But Ramsey glanced at her short skirts and laughed to all by turns: "Oh, it's just some + ridiculous mistake!"</p> + + <p>"No, miss, 'tain't no mistake. All de yetheh ladies incline de place." Every one laughed. + "Oh, he on'y off' it to one! But when she say fo' to off' it to you den dey all say de same; + yass'm, sawt o' in honoh o' yo' ma."</p> + + <p>"They're afraid that seat'll give 'em the cholera," said the pilot in grim jest, still + gazing up-stream, but the ladies cried out in denial for all their sex.</p> + + <p>"I accept," said Ramsey, with a downward pull at her draperies. "How's my brother?"</p> + + <p>"Thank y'ma'am," was the bowing waiter's only reply. He tripped down the pilot-house steps + and away.</p> + + <p>"Your brother," said the squire's sister as they all followed, "isn't in nearly so much + pain, we hear."</p> + + <p>Ramsey flashed: "Does that mean better—or worse?"</p> + + <p>"Why—we—we can't always be sure."</p> + + <p>"Ringading tingalingaty, ringadang ding!" sang the festive bell up and down the deck to + which they began to descend by a narrow stair, old Joy at the rear. Madame Hayle, ascending by + another with the Bayou Sara priest, espied the nurse and beckoned her. The pilot, high above, + observed the three as they met, although his ear was bent to a speaking-tube. Now he answered + into it: "Yes, sir.... Yes, close above the point—Point Breeze, yes, sir."</p> + + <p>As he resumed his up-stream gaze he saw old Joy, still at the stair, stand as if lost and + then descend alone while madame and the priest moved toward the sickroom. The helm went gently + over and the <em>Votaress</em> rounded the point, but the priest waited outside where madame + had gone in, and when the door reopened enough to let one out it was Julian who grimly + confronted him, holding a pen, half concealed.</p> + + <p>"My brother declines to see you, sir."</p> + + <p>A flash came from the eyes of the priest, but the youth repeated: "My brother + <em>declines</em> to <em>see</em> you, sir."</p> + + <p>The visitor caught breath to speak, but the great bell pealed for another landing and + burial, and madame came out. She addressed him a few words in French, and with an austere bow + to Julian he humbly turned away at her side.</p> + </div><a name="XX" id="XX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XX</h2> + + <h3>LADIES' TABLE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Hugh stood at the head of the midday dinner-table, waiting for a full assembly of its + guests. The Vicksburg merchant and his wife, the planter from Milliken's Bend and his wife, + also stood at their places.</p> + + <p>The two ladies glanced about as if listlessly noting the cabin's lavish arabesques and + gilding, while each really studied and knew the other was studying the captain's son. For this + tale which we tell, they saw. It was "a-happmin'" before their eyes and, in degree, to + themselves. Hugh and his father, the commodore and madame, the first mate, the twins, Ramsey, + and the committee of seven—who, we shall see, were not taking discomfiture meekly—were + scarlet threads in the story's swiftly weaving fabric—cogent reasons, themselves, why these + two ladies had helped vote Ramsey to the seat next Hugh.</p> + + <p>His face, Hugh's, was not easy reading. Certain shadows cast on it by that part of his mind + just then busiest were quite unintelligible. Deciphered they would have meant a solemn joy for + his broadening accountability; an awesome anxiety and distressed eagerness to meet and fill + that accountability as fast as it broadened. He was just then recalling one of Ramsey's queries + of the evening before, when she had seemed so much younger than now, and when, nevertheless, a + germ of fellowship had sprung up between them; that word of hers about "feeling oneself widen + out of oneself," etc. He did not at present feel himself nearly so much as he felt things round + about him growing and growing.</p> + + <p>The <em>Votaress</em> had grown, grown wonderfully, and the story happening, the play being + acted on her three decks at once, was neither story nor play to him. Which fact was one of the + few things the two gentle students of his face made out to read. However, it quite rewarded + them; it went, itself, so well into the story.</p> + + <p>And certainly, as even the Gilmores would have said, it is not when our spiritual vision + sees things at their completest values that <em>all</em> the world's a stage and its men and + women <em>merely</em> players. Nor is it at our best that we discern our own story, as a story, + while it happens. It is a poor eye that sees itself. When Ramsey arrived at the table Hugh's + gaze was so big with the reality, not the romance, of things on all the three decks that she + had to laugh a little to keep her balance.</p> + + <p>Yet her question was an earnest and eager one: "Is my brother better, or is he worse?"</p> + + <p>The toll of the bell on the deck above—to land, as we have said, near Point Breeze—came + like a spectral reply, invoking, as it did, new trouble unknown to her though just beneath her + feet.</p> + + <p>"He's better not to be worse," said Hugh, and when she frowned whimsically he explained: + "His sickness is not quite the same as that on the lower deck."</p> + + <p>"How is it different?" she asked, unconsciously keeping the whole company of the ladies' + table on their feet. At the gentlemen's table, just forward of them and tapering slenderly away + in the long cabin's white-and-gilt perspective, that grosser majority who had come only to feed + were mutely and with stooped shoulders feeding like pigeons from a trough, and far down at its + end the white-haired commodore had taken his seat, with senator, judge, squire, general, and + the seventeen-year-old Hayle boy nearest him on his right and left. The bishop was not there. + He was at the ladies' table, paired with the judge's sister"—a leaden load even for a + bishop.</p> + + <p>"Your brother's illness is so much slower," Hugh said.</p> + + <p>"So, then—he—he had it when he came aboard?"</p> + + <p>"He had it when he came aboard," assented Hugh, moving for the group to be seated. + "But——"</p> + + <p>"Wait," said Ramsey. "Mustn't we all be as gay and happy as we can?" And when every one but + the judge's sister playfully said yes she turned to the Vicksburg merchant: "Then will you + change places with Mr. Gilmore?"</p> + + <p>Faith, he would! It paired him with the actor's wife, and his wife with the actor. Gayety + began forthwith. "And will you change—with—with you?" Ramsey asked the planter of Milliken's + Bend and the squire's brother-in-law.</p> + + <p>Indeed they would. The change not only paired each with the other's wife but brought the + brother-in-law next to Ramsey. Underfoot meantime the engine bells jingled, overhead the + scape-pipes roared, and in every part the boat quivered as her great wheels churned or was + strangely quiet as they paused for another signal. So all sat down, well aware what the landing + was for, and began blithely to converse and be waited on, as if the world were being run + primarily for their innocent delight.</p> + + <p>What a Sabbath feast was there spread for a bishop to say grace upon, and what travellers' + hunger to match it. Among Hugh and Ramsey's dozen, if no further, how the conversation rippled, + radiated, and out-tinkled and out-twinkled the fine tablewares. One almost forgot his wine or + that the boat and her wheels had stopped; might have quite forgotten had not certain sounds, + starting in full volume from the lower deck but arriving under the cabin floor faint and + wasted—emaciated, as you might say—stolen up and in. A diligent loquacity contrived to ignore + the most of them. The soft chanting of the priest as he walked down the landing-stage and out + upon the damp brown sands, followed by the bearers of the new pine box and by a short + procession of bowed mourners, perished unheard at the table; but many noises more penetrative + were also much more discomfiting, and it was fortunate that the talk of the bishop and others + could charm most of them away even from the judge's nervous sister, who, nevertheless, amid + such remote themes as Jenny Lind, Nebraska, coming political conventions, and the new speed + record of the big <em>Eclipse</em> in the fourteen hundred and forty miles from New Orleans, + could not help a light start now and then. It was good, to Hugh and to Ramsey, to see how the + actor, Gilmore, despite this upward seepage of ghostly cries—faint notes of horror, anguish, + and despair—attenuated groans and wailings of bodily agony—held the eyes of the ladies + nearest him with tales of travel and the theatre, and mention of the great cut-off of 1699, + which they would soon pass and must notice. But quite as good was it to the wives of Vicksburg + and Milliken's Bend to observe with what fluency Hugh, commonly so quiet, discoursed to Mrs. + Gilmore and to Ramsey on other river features near at hand: Dead Man's Bend, Ellis Cliffs, + Natchez Island, the crossing above it, Saint Catherine's Creek, and Natchez itself.</p> + + <p>"Where I was born!" said Ramsey. "Largest town in Mississippi and the most stuck-up."</p> + + <p>The other Mississippians laughed delightedly.</p> + + <p>"We stop there," said Hugh, "to put off freight."</p> + + <p>"Mr. Courteney," asked Ramsey, "what <em>is</em> a 'crossing'?"</p> + + <p>There were new lower-deck noises to drown and Hugh welcomed the slender theme. "The channel + of a great river in flat lands," he said, "is a river within a river. It frets against its + walls of slack water——"</p> + + <p>"I see!—as the whole river does against its banks!"</p> + + <p>"Yes. Wherever the shore bends, the current, when strong, keeps straight on across the slack + water till it hits the bend. Then it swerves just enough to rush by, and miles below hits the + other shore, swerves again, and crosses in another long slant down there."</p> + + <p>"Except where it breaks through and makes a cut-off!"</p> + + <p>"But a cut-off is an event. This goes on all the time, in almost every reach; so that + pilots, whether running down-stream in the current or up-stream in the slack water, cross the + river about as often as the current does."</p> + + <p>"Hence the term!" laughed Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"I think so. You might ask Mr. Watson."</p> + + <p>"No, I'll ask him what a reach is—and a towhead—and a pirooter—oh, don't you love this + river?"</p> + + <p>While the talk thus flowed, what delicacies—pastries, ices, fruits—had come in and served + their ends! But also against what sounds from the underworld had each utterance still to make + headway: commands and threats and cries of defiance and rage, faint but intense, and which all + at once ceased at the crack of a shot! The judge's sister let out a soft note of affright and + looked here and there for explanation. In vain. The Vicksburg merchant lightly spoke across the + table:</p> + + <p>"Shooting alligators, bishop?"</p> + + <p>"Oh!" broke in the judge's sister, aggrieved, "that was for no alligator." She appealed to a + white-jacket bringing coffee: "Was that for an alligator?"</p> + + <p>"I dunno'm. Mowt be a deer. Mowt be a b'ar."</p> + + <p>His bashful smirk implied it might be none of the three. Ramsey looked at Hugh and Hugh said + quietly to a boy at his back:</p> + + <p>"Go, see what it is."</p> + </div><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXI</h2> + + <h3>RAMSEY AND THE BISHOP</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"High water like this," casually said the planter, next to Ramsey, "drives the big game out + o' the swamps, where they use, and makes 'em foolish."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the bishop. "You know, Dick"—for he and the planter were old + acquaintances—"not far from here, those long stretches of river a good mile wide, and how + between them there are two or three short pieces where the shores are barely a quarter of a + mile apart?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," replied Dick and others.</p> + + <p>"Well, last week, on my down trip, as we rounded a point in one of those narrow places, + there, right out in mid-river, was a big buck, swimming across. Two swampers had spied him and + were hot after him in a skiff."</p> + + <p>"Oh," cried Ramsey, "I hope he got away!"</p> + + <p>"Why, <em>I</em> partly hoped he would," laughed the bishop, "and partly I hoped they'd get + him."</p> + + <p>"Characteristic," she heard the planter say to himself.</p> + + <p>"And sure enough," the tale went on, "just as his forefeet hit the bank—" But there Hugh's + messenger reappeared, and as Hugh listened to his murmured report the deer's historian avoided + oblivion only by asking:</p> + + <p>"Well, Mr. Courteney, after all, what was it?"</p> + + <p>"Tell the bishop," said Hugh to the boy.</p> + + <p>"'T'uz a man, suh," the servant announced, and when the ladies exclaimed he amended, + "leas'wise a deckhan', suh."</p> + + <p>"Thank Heaven!" thought several, not because it was a man but because the bells jingled + again and the moving boat resumed her own blessed sounds. But the bishop was angry—too angry + for table talk. He had his suspicions.</p> + + <p>"Did deckhands make all that row?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, no, suh; not in de beginnin', suh."</p> + + <p>"Wasn't there trouble with the deck passengers?"</p> + + <p>"Yassuh, at fus'; at fus', yassuh; wid dem and dey young leadeh. Y'see, dey be'n so long + aboa'd ship dey plumb stahve fo' gyahden-sass an' 'count o' de sickness de docto' won't 'low + 'em on'y some sawts. But back yondeh on sho' dey's some wile mulbe'y trees hangin' low wid + green mulbe'ys, an' comin' away f'om de grave dey make a break fo' 'em. But de mate he head' + 'em off. An' whilse de leadeh he a-jawin' at de mate on sho', an' likewise at de clerk on de + b'ileh deck an' at the cap'm on de roof——"</p> + + <p>"In a foreign tongue," prompted the bishop, to whom that seemed the kernel of the + offence.</p> + + <p>"Yassuh, I reckon so; in a fond tongue; yassuh."</p> + + <p>"About his sick not having proper food?" asked Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Yass'm—no'm—yass'm! An' whilse he a-jawin', some o' de crew think dey see a chance fo' to + slip into de bresh an' leave de boat. An' when de mate whip' out his 'evolveh on 'em, an' one + draw a knife on him, an' he make a dash fo' dat one, he—dat deckhan'—run aboa'd so fas' dat + he ain't see whah he gwine tell it's too la-ate."</p> + + <p>The bishop tightened his lips at Hugh and peered at the cabin-boy: "How was it too + late?"</p> + + <p>"De deckhan' he run ove'boa'd, suh."</p> + + <p>The ladies flinched, the men frowned. "But," said the querist, "meantime the mate had fired, + hmm? Did he—hit?"</p> + + <p>"Dey don't know, suh. De deckhan' he neveh riz."</p> + + <p>"Awful!" The bishop and Hugh looked steadily at each other. "So that also we owe to our + aliens!"</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"We don't," said Ramsey softly, yet heard by all.</p> + + <p>Across the board Mrs. Gilmore said "Oh!" but in the next breath all but the judge's sister + laughed, the bishop, as Hugh and he began to rise, laughing most.</p> + + <p>"Wait," said Ramsey, laying a hand out to each and addressing Hugh. "How are those sick + downstairs going to get the right food?"</p> + + <p>The cabin-boy almost broke in but caught himself.</p> + + <p>"Say it," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Why, dem what already sick dey a-gitt'n' it. Yass'm, dey gitt'n' de boat's best. Madam + Hayle and de cap'm dey done see to dat f'om de staht. H-it's de well uns what needs he'p."</p> + + <p>"But," said Ramsey, still to Hugh, "for sick or well—the right food—who pays for it?"</p> + + <p>"The boat."</p> + + <p>"Who pays the boat?" she asked, and suddenly, blushing, saw her situation. Except the bishop + and the judge's sister, who were conversing in undertone—except them and Hugh—the whole + company, actually with here and there an elbow on the board, had turned to her in such bright + expectancy as to give her a shock of encounter. But mirth upheld her, and leaning in over the + table she shifted her question to the smiling bishop: "Who pays the boat?"</p> + + <p>"The boat? Why—ha, ha!—that's the boat's lookout."</p> + + <p>"It isn't," she laughed, but laughed so daintily and in a gayety so modestly self-justified + that the group approved and the Vicksburg man asked her:</p> + + <p>"Who ought to pay the boat?"</p> + + <p>"We!" she cried. "All of us! It's in the Bible that we ought!" She looked again to the + bishop. "Ain't it?"</p> + + <p>"Why, I don't recall any mention of this matter there."</p> + + <p>"Nor of strangers?" she asked, "nor of sick folks?" and her demure mirth, not flung at him + or at any one, but quite to itself and for itself, came again.</p> + + <p>"Ah, that's another affair!" he rejoined. He felt her and Hugh, with half the rest, saying + to themselves, "It is not!" but was all the more moved to continue: "My fair daughter, you + prepare the way of the Lord. Brethren and sisters, I want you to gather with me here as soon as + those yonder are through"—a backhanded toss indicated the children's table, whose feasters + showed no sign that they would ever be through at all. "We must—every believer—and whosoever + will—on this passenger-deck—spend an hour—more if the spirit leads—in prayer for this + pestilence to be stayed." He fastened his gaze on Hugh; no senator was present to overtop him + now, and certainly this colt of John Courteney's should not. Yet the largeness with which the + colt's eyes stared through and beyond him was significant to all.</p> + + <p>"And we must do more!" he persisted.</p> + + <p>"We shall," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"We must!" said the bishop; "we must beseech God for a spiritual outpouring. We have on this + boat the stranger of our own land and the sick of our own tongue: the stranger to grace and the + sick in soul, who may be eternally lost before this boat has finished her trip; and as much as + the soul's worth outweighs the body's is it our first duty to help them get religion!"</p> + + <p>With her curls lowered nearly to the table Ramsey—ah, me!—laughed. Her notes were as light + as a perfume, but to the bishop all perfumes were heavy. He turned to the actor. "Isn't that + so, brother?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, bishop, you know a lot better than I do."</p> + + <p>"He doesn't," tinkled Ramsey, and, as the bishop swung back to her—"Do you?" she + ingratiatingly challenged him. "No, you don't! You know you don't!"</p> + + <p>The company would have laughed with her if only to save their face, and when he made a very + bright retort they laughed the heartier. They rose with Hugh. Ramsey said she wished she knew + again how her brother was, and Hugh sent his servant to inquire. As all loitered aft, the + bishop held them together a moment more.</p> + + <p>"You don't object to such a meeting?" he asked Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Not if you don't alarm or distress any one. The doctor forbids that." While Hugh so + replied, the circle was joined by the commodore. The bishop flared:</p> + + <p>"Doctors always forbid! How can we exhort sinners without alarming or distressing them?"</p> + + <p>Hugh's answer was overprompt: "I don't know, sir."</p> + + <p>But Ramsey, drawing the Gilmores with her, came between. "Just a bit ago," she said to the + bishop, "didn't you say yes, we must all be as gay and happy as we can?"</p> + + <p>"I did, verily. But surely that shouldn't prevent this."</p> + + <p>"Oh, surely not!" exclaimed both the players.</p> + + <p>"It needn't," said Ramsey. "But if we five"—Gilmores, Courteneys, and herself—"and some + others—help you with your meeting to-day will you help us with ours to-morrow?"</p> + + <p>"If I can, assuredly! But how will you help me to-day, my young sister?"</p> + + <p>On three fingers the young sister—so lately his daughter—counted: "First, we'll get the + people to come; we'll tell them you're not going to alarm or distress anybody. Second, if you + forget and begin to do it we'll remind you! And, third, we'll take up the collection!"</p> + + <p>The senator laughed so much above the rest that the bishop colored as he said: "I never + exhort and collect at the same time."</p> + + <p>"Oh-h!" sighed Ramsey. "We must collect, you know, to pay our share, each of us, for the + care of the sick. And we can't collect to-morrow; we'll all be so busy getting up our own + meeting." Her eyes wandered to the senator, so fervently was he urging some matter upon the + commodore.</p> + + <p>"What," asked the bishop, turning to the players, "is to-morrow's meeting to be for?"</p> + + <p>"Why," brightly said the wife, "just to keep every one as gay and happy as we can." But + Ramsey added: "And to raise money for the not-sick emigrants, to get them the right food."</p> + + <p>"Ho, ho! Another collection!"</p> + + <p>"No, only admission fees. Six bits for the play, four bits for the dance."</p> + + <p>Half offended, half amused, the bishop swelled. "And you ask me"—he laughed, but she had + turned away and he reverted to the players—"on top of our prayers for God's mercy upon our + bodies and souls you ask me to help get up a play and a dance!"</p> + + <p>Eagerly, amid a general merriment that was not quite merry, the Gilmores answered with + amused disclaimers for themselves and copious excuses for him. Ramsey's eyes, like Hugh's, were + on the commodore and the senator, who were starting off together. The commodore's nod called + Hugh and he moved to overtake them. The boy whom Hugh had sent to the texas, returning, sought + to intercept him, but Hugh passed on and the messenger found Ramsey. She had just been rejoined + by her old nurse, and to both servants her questions were prompt and swift. Their low replies + plainly disturbed her, and she wheeled to the bishop where he still stood addressing the + Gilmores and a dozen others in a manner loftily defensive. He forestalled her speech with + good-natured haste. "Now, if our gay and happy young sister will ask me to do something + befitting a minister of the gospel," he began——</p> + + <p>"Amen to dat!" said old Joy, and as Ramsey's eyes showed tears the speaker paused.</p> + + <p>"All right," she quietly said. "Come to my sick brother. Won't you, please?"</p> + + <p>"Why—why, yes, I—I will. Cer-certainly I will. Yet—really—if I'm forbidden to alarm + him"—his smile could not hide his sense of mortal risk.</p> + + <p>"Oh, he's already alarmed!"</p> + + <p>"He's turrified!" softly said old Joy.</p> + + <p>"Why, then, the moment we're through our meeting——"</p> + + <p>"Don't begin it!" said Ramsey. "It can wait heaps better than he can. He's waiting now and + begging for you. Come! You needn't be afraid; I'll go with you!" She laughed.</p> + + <p>"No!" cried Joy. "Lawd, Mahs' Bishop, she mus'n't!"</p> + + <p>"She need not," said the bishop. "But for me to go now, before I—why, I couldn't come back + and mingle——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, come!" The girl drew him by the sleeve. But the Gilmores held her back and he went on + alone, his face betraying a definite presentiment as he glanced round in response to a clapping + of hands.</p> + + <p>"Oh, thank you!" cried Ramsey. "Gawd bless you!" droned Joy. "We'll run your meeting while + you're gone!" called Ramsey. "And we'll pray for you! Won't we?" she asked the players, and + they and others answered: "Yes."</p> + </div><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXII</h2> + + <h3>BASILE AND WHAT HE SAW</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>For these twenty hours of constant activity one young passenger, save only when asleep in + his berth, had contemplated the <em>Votaress</em> and her swarming managers and voyagers with a + regard different from any we have yet taken into account. The Gilmores, softly to each other, + termed him "a type." To the face of nature he seemed wholly insensible. As the gliding boat + incessantly bore him onward between river and sky, shore and shore, he appeared never to be + aware whether the forests were gray or green, the heavens blue or gray, the waters tawny or + blue. No loveliness of land or flood could deflect his undivided interest in whatever human + converse he happened to be nearest as he drifted about decks in a listless unrest that kept him + singled out at every pause and turn. His very fair intelligence was so indolently unaspiring, + so intolerant of harness, as we may say, and so contentedly attuned to the general mind, mind + of the multitude, that the idlest utterance falling on his ear from any merest unit of the + common crowd was more to him than all the depths or heights of truth, order, or beauty that + learning, training, or the least bit of consecutive reasoning could reveal. Earlier he had not + lacked books or tutelage, but no one ever had been able to teach him what they were for. This + was Basile Hayle, the overdressed young brother of the twins. Now that his seventeen years had + ripened in him the conviction that he was entitled, as the phrase is, "to all the rights of a + man and all the privileges of a boy," he seemed yet to have acquired no sense of value for any + fact or thought beyond the pointblank range of the five senses. He could not have read ten + pages of a serious book and would have blushed to be found trying to do it.</p> + + <p>He was not greatly to blame. That way of life was much the fashion all about him, and he was + by every impulse fashionable. Moreover, as he measured success by the crowd's measure, it was + the way of life oftenest successful, the way of his father. He did not see the difference + between the father's toiling up that way and his idling down it. So, at any rate, agreed the + indulgent Gilmores, reading him quite through in a few glances, while all about the boat those + who thought they knew best pronounced him more like Gideon Hayle in his regard for "folks just + as folks" than were either the twins or the sister, from all three of whom his impulses kept + him amiably aloof.</p> + + <p>Of the three brothers certainly he had soon become the most widely acceptable among not only + the young people of the passenger guards but also the male commonalty of the boiler deck. In a + state of society which he, as "a type," reflected they saw themselves; saw their own spiritual + image; their unqualified straightforwardness, their transparent simplicity of mind and heart, + their fearlessness, their complacent rusticity, their childish notions of the uses of wealth, + their personal modesty and communal vanity, their happy oblivion to world standards, their + extravagance of speech, their political bigotry, their magisterial down-rightness, their + inflammability, and their fine self-reliance. They saw these traits, we say, reflected in him + as in a flattering hand-glass, perceived the blemishes rather plainer than the charms, and + liked them better.</p> + + <p>So it was that our friend the senator had early discovered Basile and later had found a + capital use for him. In him he saw a most timely opportunity, one not afforded by anybody + besides. He showed the youth marked attentions, affirming in him all the men's rights and boys' + privileges he had ever thought of, got him assigned to his sick brother's place at table, + presented him to the committee of seven, called him Gideon by mistake, and at the right moment + made him an instrument, not to say tool, by diverting his idle course through the crowd into a + highly successful soliciting of signatures to the committee's, or let us say his own, the + senator's, petition.</p> + + <p>Unlucky task! An exceptional feature of the <em>Votaress</em> was that her passenger guards + ran aft in full width all round her under the stern windows of the ladies' cabin. Beneath, the + lower deck ended in a fantail of unusual overhang, around whose edge curved the stout bars of + the "bull-ring," to fence it off from the billowing white surge that writhed after the rudder + blade and the trailing yawl, so close below. Among the petition's subscribers were several + pretty girls of an age at which their only important business was beauty and levity and who + gave small heed to the document's purport, readily assuming that nothing <em>they</em> were + asked to sign needed to be taken seriously. There was much laughter over the performance. They + turned it into a "Signing of the Declaration," patterned after the old steel engraving. One of + them, as the scroll lay open on the rail under her pen hand, unwittingly set foot in a + scrubbing bucket kept there with a line attached for bailing water from the river, and was so + unnerved by the fun of it that all at once the scroll flirted back into scroll form and fell + through the whirling air that eddied behind the boat. Yet it had the luck to drop upon the deck + below, and there presently an immigrant stood mutely gazing up with it in his lifted hand. Otto + Marburg came and stood looking up beside him.</p> + + <p>Dropping the bucket's line through the balusters under the rail, Basile stepped over the + guards and proceeded, while the girls acted out their girlish distresses, to let himself down. + The foolish exploit was sufficiently unsafe and painful to be its own reward, the rough line + cutting his hands and forcing him, as soon as he dared, to drop into the arms of the two men. + With them and others he passed from sight between the great wheels but soon was with the pretty + signers again, coming up alone by way of the cook-house and pantry. His hands showed ugly red + scars as he brushed away a few flies that liked his perfumery and had stubbornly followed him + from below.</p> + + <p>But the fun was over. It was not his galled palms but his pallid face that struck the young + company with a frank dismay. His whole bearing was transformed and betrayed him smitten with + emotions for which he found no speech. Had it made him ill, they asked, going down by that + dreadful rope? No, he was not ill at all. But when they vacantly proposed to resume the signing + he exclaimed almost with vehemence that he had names enough, and left them, to return the + petition to the senator.</p> + + <p>This was an incident of the forenoon. As he delivered the paper the senator spoke a pleased + word and then gazed on him in surprise. "Why, what's the matter? Sick?"</p> + + <p>"No, I'm not sick."</p> + + <p>"But, look here, where—where's your own signature?"</p> + + <p>"You can't have it."</p> + + <p>"Oh, you want to sign, don't you?"</p> + + <p>"No." A sudden anguish filled the boy's face. "Not for all the gold in California. God + A'mighty, sir, I've been down there and seen those people!"</p> + + <p>"Oh! my! dear! fellow! If we let mere sights and sounds—of things that can't be + helped—upset us—There's the dinner-bell—come, have a cocktail with me—a Rofignac!... Ah! + general—judge—wet your whistle with us?"</p> + + <p>The general and the judge, accepting, looked sharply at Basile. "Why—what's the matter? + Sick?"</p> + + <p>But he went with them to the bar and to the board.</p> + </div><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXIII</h2> + + <h3>A STATE OF AFFAIRS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Watson was in the pilot-house, though not at the wheel.</p> + + <p>So early of a Sabbath afternoon, in the middle of his partner's watch, he might well have + been in his texas stateroom asleep, but to a Mississippi River pilot Sunday afternoon, or any + afternoon, or forenoon, or midnight, or dusk or dawn, on watch or off, the one thing in this + world was the river. Else what sort of a pilot would he be, when the whole lore of its + thousands of miles of navigation was without chart, light, or beacon, a thing kept only in + pilots' memories, a lamp in a temple?</p> + + <p>Glancing down forward of the bell, he was reminded of a certain young lady the sight of whom + on the previous evening just after his brush with Hayle's twins, standing there before Hugh + Courteney with her arms akimbo, had led him to say: "If that's to be the game I'm in it." He + wished she were there now, or up here again in the pilot-house asking her countless questions + about this endlessly interesting world's highway. He would be answering that the mouth of Red + River was now twenty miles behind, the mouth of Buffalo Bayou ten and of Homochitto River four; + that right here they were in the great cut-off of a hundred and fifty-odd years before. He + would say they were passing up the west shore because the current was over yonder on the east + side, Palmetto Point, and that behind there, inland, lay the great loop of still water which + had once been part of the river. He would explain that now the slender Homochitto ran through + that still water lengthwise, for miles, until, within forty rods of the Mississippi, it + recoiled again to launch in at last farther down, opposite Black Hawk Point, still in sight + astern. And he would tell how, over here on this west side, Red River was yet only four miles + away and actually sent Grand Cut-off Bayou across into the Mississippi, but likewise swerved + away southward through seven leagues more of wet forest before it finally surrendered to the + mightier stream. All this would he tell, without weariness, to one who loved his great + river.</p> + + <p>Yet really he was in the pilot-house at this time not chiefly for the river, nor the girl, + nor the <em>Votaress</em>, though the <em>Votaress</em> was new, with kinks of character quite + her own and important to be learned. He was there because the stateroom given Hayle's twins in + the texas was next to his, and they, rarely in their life having restricted themselves to tones + of privacy and being now especially in a state of storm and stress, had made sleep impossible + even to a pilot off watch after a midday Sunday dinner. Lounging in his berth, he had overheard + things which ought to be told to one Courteney or another early, though, of course, + casually.</p> + + <p>Meantime he enjoyed not telling his partner, at whose back he quietly chatted while the + partner stood with hands and foot on the wheel and with eyes well up the river, holding the + jack-staff close to his "mark" far ahead in the next bend.</p> + + <p>"I couldn't stay," drawled Watson. "Noth'n' 'twixt the sick one an' me but a half-inch + bulkhead."</p> + + <p>"Cholery can't scratch through a half-inch bulkhead," said the partner.</p> + + <p>"Sounds kin. Funny what little bits o' ones kin. An' the sawt o' keen, soft way he hollas + an' cusses through his sot teeth an' whines an' yaps into his piller—why, he's suffered enough + by now to be dead five times over."</p> + + <p>"That sufferin', that ain't the peggin'-out stage."</p> + + <p>"No, I know that, an' I don't misdoubt but what he's a-goin' to git well."</p> + + <p>"Hmm!—sorry fo' that. What's goin' to kyore him?"</p> + + <p>"His simon-pyo' cussedness! He's so chuck full of it—looks like it's a-p'isonin' the p'ison + o' the cholery."</p> + + <p>"Pity!" said the partner.... "Humph! <em>Now</em> what's up?"</p> + + <p>To see what was up, Watson rose and looked down. On the roof below, evidently having come + there for privacy, were the commodore, the senator, and Hugh. Watson loitered from the + pilot-house and disappeared.</p> + + <p>Down on the roof the commodore and the senator conversed across Hugh's front. The statesman, + with heavy "dear sirs" and heavier smiles, was buttonholing the elder Courteney, who at every + least pause affably endeavored to refer him to Hugh. The grandson's turn to speak seemed not to + have arrived. The senator was trying to keep it from arriving and Hugh was glum. Hence it may + be doubted if the senator's cigar was really cocked as high, or that his silk hat was as dingy, + his very good teeth as yellow, his cheeks as hard, or his forehead as knotty as they appeared + to Hugh, or that his tone of superiority, so overbearing last night, so ingratiating to-day, + was any worse for the change. Hugh was biassed—felt bias and anger as an encumbering and + untimely weight. In self-depreciating contrast he recalled a certain young lady's airy, winning + way—airy way of winning—and coveted it for himself here and now: a wrestler's nimble art of + overcoming weight by lightness; of lifting a heavy antagonist off his feet into thin air where + his heaviness would be against him. His small, trim grandfather had it, in good degree; was + using it now. Would it were his own in this issue, where the senator held in his hand the + folded petition, having already vainly proffered it to the commodore, who had as vainly + motioned him to hand it to Hugh. Would the art were his! But he felt quite helpless to command + it, lacking the joyous goodness of heart which in the young lady so irresistibly redeemed what + the senator, the bishop, and the judge's sister, to themselves, called her amazing—and the + Gilmores to each other called her American—bad manners. It made Hugh inwardly bad-mannered + just to feel in himself this lack, and tempted him to think what a comfort it would be to apply + the wrestler's art physically and heave the senator overboard.</p> + + <p>Said that gentleman—"For you saw I wouldn't let the matter come up at the table. A lot of + those men who signed this paper—which your grandson suggested last night, you know—" He + smiled at Hugh. "Now, I am never touchy, and I know, commodore, that you're not. But, Lord, so + many of us—maybe Democrats a little more than Whigs—are! We take our politics, like our + bread, smokin' hot." He put away his smile. "My dear sir, to us the foreigner—as you saw last + night at supper—has become a political problem, a burning question. Yet I propose to keep this + whole subject so unmenacing to you personally, you owners of this boat, that I won't let a word + be risked where any one might take even a tone of voice unkindly."</p> + + <p>"So, then, Hugh can take care of it."</p> + + <p>The senator tossed a hand in amiable protest: "Oh, sir, you see it much too small! My half + of it is large enough for me, with forty times this young gentleman's experience. I don't see + just this one boat and trip and these few hundred native-American citizens in deadly contact + with a few hundred of Europe's refuse. I see—your passengers see—we view with alarm—a state + of affairs—and a test case!"</p> + + <p>The old commodore's eyes flashed to retort, but the senator forced a propitiative smile, + adding: "However, let that pass just now, here's something else."</p> + + <p>"Is it also in that paper?"</p> + + <p>"It is."</p> + + <p>"Tell it to Hugh—or let him read it."</p> + + <p>But as the old gentleman would have moved away, the senator, ignoring the suggestion, + stepped across his path:—</p> + + <p>"Last night, commodore, this matchless new boat"—he paused to let the compliment sink in, + his eye wandering to Watson, who had sauntered down from the texas roof—"this + <em>Votaress</em>, swept past everything that had backed out at New Orleans ahead of her."</p> + + <p>"Built to do it," put in Hugh while the commodore, by a look, drew Watson to them and the + senator flowed on.</p> + </div><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXIV</h2> + + <h3>A SENATOR ENLIGHTENED</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"But, lying at Bayou Sara this morning," said the senator, "everything worth counting left + us behind again."</p> + + <p>"For the time being," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Good for you," said the senator. "Mr. pilot, this paper, of a hundred signatures, petitions + this boat to put off her foreigners at Natchez Island. If that is refused, when and where are + we likely to overhaul the <em>Antelope</em>?"</p> + + <p>"<em>Antelope</em>? Let's see. We'd still be a-many a bend behind the <em>Antelope</em> at + sundown but fo' one thing. At Natchez she's got to discharge an all-fired lot o' casting an' + boilers, things she can't put ashore 'ithout han'spikes, block-an'-taickle an' all han's + a-cuss'n' to oncet. Like as not we'll catch her right there."</p> + + <p>"Good again; sundown!" said the senator. "Now, commodore, this petition begs——"</p> + + <p>The commodore tried to wave him to Hugh but the senator's big hand gently prevented. "It + begs," he went on, "and every friend of Gideon Hayle and John Courteney on this boat insists, + that Madame Hayle be required to leave this suicidal work she's doing and with her daughter and + youngest son be put aboard the <em>Antelope</em> to join her husband ahead of all bad news." + With his under lip pushed out he smiled into the commodore's serene face.</p> + + <p>Hugh spoke. "The <em>Votaress</em> being slow?" he inquired.</p> + + <p>"Not at all! But, my young friend, the <em>Votaress</em> can't hold funerals and outrun the + <em>Antelope</em> at the same time."</p> + + <p>The commodore had turned to Watson: "Want to see me?" The two moved a few paces aft.</p> + + <p>"Then it isn't," Hugh asked the senator, "that your hundred signers of this thing are afraid + madame will get the cholera?" He took the petition's free end between thumb and finger and + softly pulled. But its holder held on.</p> + + <p>"Why, yes," said the holder-on, "we fear that, too. Good Lord, she may have the contagion + now!" It gave him grim amusement to note that the grandson's face was as quiet as the old + man's, yet as hard and heavy as any of the <em>Antelope's</em> big castings. He thought how + much better it were to have this chap for an adherent than opponent.</p> + + <p>"Yet you're all willing," slowly pressed Hugh, while—with their pull on the paper + increasing—they here and the commodore and Watson yonder returned the bow of the bishop as he + came from below and passed on up to the sick-room—"you're willing to send the cholera aboard + the <em>Antelope</em>?"</p> + + <p>"Willing, my God, no, sir! compelled!—to risk it—for the sake of Gideon Hayle and his + people and of you and yours, in a great public interest centring in you and them." The speaker + smilingly tapped the hard-pulled document so lately urged upon the grandfather. "We couldn't + <em>write</em> that—in this paper. When I've explained <em>that</em> I'll hand you + <em>this</em>—don't pull it."</p> + + <p>"Well, then, let go of it," said Hugh, with a light jerk which put it wholly into his + possession.</p> + + <p>The senator's eyes blazed, but when he saw that Hugh's, though as much too wide as his own, + looked out of a face as set and hard as ever, he recovered his suavity, puffed his cigar, waved + it abroad, and said: "That's all right. Take that to the captain at once, will you?"</p> + + <p>"No," replied Hugh, the wrestler's nimble art being as far, far away from him as the "happy + land" of the children's hymn, which the cornet was essaying below.</p> + + <p>"No?" questioned the tolerant senator.</p> + + <p>"No." Small knots of passengers, the squire in one, the general in another, had drawn within + eavesdropping range and Hugh lowered his voice. "Not till I hear what you couldn't write," he + said. "When you've explained <em>that</em> I'll hand him <em>this</em>. No one's in his room, + come there."</p> + + <p>As they reached its door and the senator passed in, Hugh was joined by the grandfather and + Watson and detained some moments in private council, with Watson as chief speaker. Then the + commodore returned leisurely forward toward the captain's chair while Watson sought the texas + roof and pilot-house, and Hugh shut himself in with the senator.</p> + + <p>They sat with the writing-table between them. "I wish," said the senator, "I had a son like + you. I'd say: 'My son, the worst notion in this land to-day is that always the first thing to + do is fight, and that the only thing to fight with is hot shot. Don't you believe it! Don't + think every man's your enemy the moment he differs with you. He may be your best friend. And + don't think every enemy wants to stab you in the back.' But, Lord! I needn't offer a father's + advice to you, with such a father—and grandfather—as you've got.</p> + + <p>"Now, here we are. It's idle for me to tell you what we wanted to put in that paper and + couldn't, if you can't believe that maybe, after all, I'm a peacemaker and your friend, hunh? I + don't set up to be your only friend or only your friend or your friend only for your sake. + Frankly, my ruling passion is for the community as a whole; the old Jacksonian passion for the + people, sir. If I'm meddling it's because I see a situation that right on its surface threatens + one misfortune, and at bottom another and bigger one, to them, the people—a public misfortune. + I don't want to avert just the cholera, here to-day, gone to-morrow; I want to avert the + lasting public misfortune of a Courteney-Hayle feud. There, sir! That's my hand! Cards right + down on the table! Oh, I'm nothing if not outspoken, flat-footed! A lot of those signers don't + see that bottom meaning. They don't need to. But, sir, <em>you</em> know—your grandfather's + always known—that by every instinct the Hayles, even to the sons-in-law, are fighters. They + don't know any way to succeed, in anything, but to fight. It's the Old Hickory in them. Old + Hickory always fought, your Harry of the West has always compromised. The Hayles loathe tact. + They don't know the power of concession as you Courteneys do. And that's why your only way to + succeed with them is to <em>con</em>cede something. Not everything, not principle—good Lord, + not principle! yet something definite, visible, conciliatory, hunh?</p> + + <p>"Mind you, I hold no brief for them. I know those twins haven't behaved right a minute. But + no Hayle's been let into this affair, from first to last."</p> + + <p>The falsehood was so rash a slip that its author paused, but when Hugh's face showed no + change he resumed: "Sir, it is in your interest we ask you to put those foreigners off. If you + don't you'll rouse public resentment up and down this river a hundred miles wide for a thousand + miles. And if, keeping them aboard, you don't put Madam Hayle and her daughter on some other + boat, and anything happens to them on this one, you'll have Gideon Hayle and his sons—and his + sons-in-law—for your mortal enemies the rest of your lives, long or short—and with public + sympathy all on their side. Oh, I'm nothing if not outspoken! Why, my dear boy, if you don't + think I'm telling you this in friendship——"</p> + + <p>"Call it so. But stop it, at once."</p> + + <p>"Why—you say that—to me?"</p> + + <p>"I do. Stop it, at once, or we'll call it——"</p> + + <p>"Ridiculous! What will you call it, sir?"</p> + + <p>"Mutiny. The captain has so ordered—and arranged."</p> + + <p>The inquirer drew breath, leaned forward on an elbow, and stared. The stare was returned. + The senator began to smile. Hugh did not. The smile grew. Hugh's gaze was fixed. The smiler + smiled yet more, but in vain. Abruptly he ha-haed.</p> + + <p>"We'll call it that till you prove it's not," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Did you ever hear of a poker face?" asked the senator.</p> + + <p>"No, sir."</p> + + <p>"You've got one, now; youngest I ever saw. I wish I had it—haw, haw! Where'd you find it? I + doubt if ever in your life you've had any real contact with any real guile."</p> + + <p>"I have," said Hugh, very quiet, very angry, yet with a joy of disclosure, communicative at + last by sheer stress of so much kept unsaid. "And I've never got over it."</p> + + <p>"Well, well! When was that?"</p> + + <p>"All through the most important ten years of my life."</p> + + <p>"Of your life! Good gracious! Which were they?"</p> + + <p>"The first ten. A guile seemingly so guileless that yours, compared with it, is botch + work."</p> + + <p>The two were still looking into each other's eyes when the latch clicked and John Courteney + stepped in.</p> + </div><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXV</h2> + + <h3>"PLEASE ASSEMBLE"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Out from behind Fritz Island the <em>Votaress</em> swept northward into a deluge of light + from a sun just finishing the first half of his afternoon decline.</p> + + <p>Before her lay, far and wide, an expanse of river and shore so fair, without a noticeable + sign of man's touch, that one traveller of exceptional moral daring—conversing with the + Gilmores and Ramsey—personified the scene as "Nature in siesta." At the steamer's approach the + picture—or, as the daring traveller might have insisted, the basking sleeper—seemed to awaken + and in a repletion of smiling content to stir and stretch and every here and there to darken + and lighten by turns as though closing and opening upon the intruder a multitude of eyes as + unnumbered as those of a human sort that looked on the scene, the sleeper, from the beautiful + boat.</p> + + <p>So for several minutes. Then the <em>Votaress</em> curved into the west till the great twin + shadows of her chimneys crept athwart the pilot-house and texas, while more than one passenger + of the kind who tell all they know to whoever will hear said that yonder bright mass of + cottonwoods and willows, bathing in sunlight directly up the stream, with open water shimmering + all round it, was Glasscock Island; that Glasscock Towhead lay hidden behind it just above, and + that a towhead was an island in the making. The whole view was such a stimulus to the + outpouring of sentiment as well as of information, that one young pair, each succeeding flutter + of whose heart-strings was more tenderly entangling them, agreed in undertone that the river's + incessant bendings were steps of a Jacob's ladder with these resplendent white steamers for + ascending and descending angels.</p> + + <p>"Yonder comes another now," said both at once. They pressed forward to the foremost + boiler-deck guards, among the many sitters and standers who were trying to determine, by the + ornamental form of the stranger's chimney-tops or the peculiar note of her scape-pipes, before + her name might show out on paddle-box or pilot-house, whether she was the <em>Chancellor</em>, + the <em>Aleck Scott</em>, the <em>Belle Key</em>, or the <em>Magnolia</em>. To be either was to + be famous. The next moment she swept into view on the island's sunward side, as pre-eminent in + all the scene as though the sun were gone and she were the rising moon. The moon was not her + equal in the eyes of those beholders. On every deck, from forecastle to after hurricane roof, + there were big spots of vivid color, red, green, blue, never seen in the moon and which were + quickly made out to be a high-piled freight of ploughs, harrows, horse-mills, carts, and wagons + destined for the ever-widening Southern fields of corn and cotton, sugar and rice. The + passenger with the pocket spy-glass—there is always one—proclaimed that her boiler deck was + hung full—as no deck of the moon ever is—of the finest spoils of the hunt: geese, swan, + venison, and bear; while the nakedest eye could see at a glance that from forward gangway to + sternmost guard her bull railings were up, and a closer scrutiny revealed that the main load of + her freight deck was every farm-bred sort of living four-footed beast: horses, mules, beeves, + cows, swine, and sheep. She did not pass near though unaware of the distress she avoided; but + in courtly exaggeration she sent across the intervening mile a double salute, white plumes of + sunlit steam from her whistle—the new mode—and the gentler voice of her bell, the older form. + The course of the <em>Votaress</em> lay on the island's eastern side, and the hail and response + of the two crafts had hardly ceased to echo from the various shores, or hats to wave and + handkerchiefs to flutter, when the flood between them began to widen, a thousand feet to the + half minute, and they parted.</p> + + <p>At the same time, from the middle of the boiler deck floated a sound ordinarily most welcome + but at this time a distasteful surprise: the dinner-bell again. Not with festal din, however, + it called, but with each solitary note drawn out through a full second or more, church-steeple + fashion, and with a silken veil tied on its tongue to give each stroke a solemn softness and + illusion of distance. Small wonder that the most of the company, just risen from "a plumb + bait," turned that way and stared, seeing old Joy, with joyless face, tolling out the notes in + persistent monotone while in front of her stood the Gilmores at either side of a chair, and on + the chair, also standing, the daughter of Gideon Hayle. With her hands and eyes fastened upon a + written notice and with the bell tolling steadily at her back she tremblingly read aloud:</p> + + <p>"Fellow travellers: Please assemble at once in the ladies' cabin to supplicate the divine + mercy for a stay of the scourge on this boat, and in concerted worship to seek spiritual + preparation for whatever awaits us in the further hours of our voyage. In the absence of Bishop + So-and-So, who is ministering to the sick, and at his request, the meeting will be conducted by + the celebrated comedians Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore, late of Placide's Varieties, New Orleans."</p> + + <p>The art of advertising being then in its swaddling-bands, this specimen of it struck its + hearers as really creditable. While it was being read two or three men rose, and one, + uncommonly shaggy and of towering height, could hardly wait for the last word before he + responded with the voice of a hound on the trail: "By the Lord Harry, sis', amen! says I, + that's jest my size! I'm a Babtis' exhorteh an' I know the theâtre air the mouth o' hell, + but ef you play-acto's good enough to run a prah-meet'n, I'm bad enough to go to it. Come on, + gentle<em>men</em>, the whole k'boodle of us, come on."</p> + + <p>Some brightly, some darkly, a good halfdozen followed him into the cabin; but the most + remained seated, staring at Ramsey from head to foot and back again, some brightly, some + darkly, while the bell persevered behind her. She sunk to her knees in the chair. Gilmore + addressed that half of the company on his side of her: "Please assemble at once, will you, all, + in the ladies' cabin."</p> + + <p>And his wife, on her side, repeated: "Will you all please assemble at once in the ladies' + cabin."</p> + + <p>A few more rose, but still the many, brightly or darkly, only stared on, the bell + persisting. The kneeling Ramsey again began to read:</p> + + <p>"Fellow travellers: Please assemble at once in the ladies' cabin to supplicate the divine + mercy for a stay of the scourge on this boat, and in concerted worship——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, well!" some one laughingly broke in, "if that's your game—" and the whole company, in + good-natured surrender, arose and went in. But the "bell-ringers," as they were promptly + nicknamed, passed on to further conquests.</p> + + <p>When at length they turned to join the assemblage the four had doubled their number. With + Ramsey was the commodore. With the actor was Watson. With Mrs. Gilmore came old Joy, and, + strange to tell, due to some magic in the tact of the senior Courteneys, the senator, no longer + making botch work of his guile, walked with Hugh, displaying a good-natured loquacity which he + was glad to have every one notice and from which he ceased reluctantly as they parted, finding + no place to sit together. The player and his wife, over-looking the throng, complacently + discovered standing-room only, and the meeting which Hayle's daughter had pledged herself and + them to "run" was running itself. For hardly had they entered the saloon when, from a front + seat and without warning, the exhorter exploded the stalwart old hymn-tune of "Kentucky," and + soon all but a scant dozen of the company followed in full cry, though hardly with the fulness + of the leader's voice, that rolled through the cabin like tropical thunder:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Whedn I cadn read my ti-tle cle-ah</p> +<p class="i8"> Toe madn-shudns idn the-e ske-ies</p> +<p class="i6"> I'll bid fah-wedl toe ev'-rye fe-ah</p> +<p class="i8"> Adn wipe my weep-ign eyes.'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>From the chairman's seat the actor kept a corner of one eye on Ramsey and as the hymn's last + line rolled away he stood up. She had not sung, but neither had she laughed. No one could have + seen the moment's huge grotesqueness larger, yet to the relief of many she had kept her poise. + In her mind was the bishop, overhead in the texas, consciously imperilling his life to save her + brother's soul, and in the face of all drolleries she strenuously kept her ardor centred on the + gravest significancies of the hour, as if the bishop's success up there hung on the efficiency + with which this work of his earlier appointment should be done, down here, in his absence. She + saw in the exhorter a tragic as well as comic problem. Nor was he her only perplexity. Another, + she feared, might easily arise through some clash of any two kinds of worshippers each devoted + to its own set forms. Certain main features, she knew, had been carefully prearranged, yet as + the actor stood silent about to ask the Vicksburger to lead in prayer she tingled with all the + exhilaration a ruder soul might have felt in hunting ferocious game or in fighting fire. Her + soul rose a-tiptoe for the moment when the Presbyterians, who also had not sung, should stand + up to pray, while the few Episcopalians, kneeling forward, and the many Baptists and + Methodists, kneeling to the rear, should find themselves face to face—nose to nose, anxiously + thought Ramsey—with only the open backs of the chairs between. She was herself the last to + kneel, kneeling forward but doubting if she ought not to face the other way, hardly knowing + whether she was a Catholic or a Methodist; and she was much the last to close her eyes. But the + various postures were taken without a jar and the modest Vicksburger prayed. His words were + neither impromptu nor printed, but, as every one quickly perceived and Ramsey had known + beforehand, were memorized and were fresh from the pen of the actor. Diffidence warped the + first phrase or two, but soon each word came clear, warm from the heart, and reaching all + hearts, however borne back by the rapturous yells with which the exhorter broke in at every + pause.</p> + + <p>"And though to our own sight," pleaded the supplicant, "we are but atoms in thy boundless + creation, we yet believe that prayer offered thee in love, humility, and trust cannot offend. + Wherefore in this extremity of grief and disaster we implore thee for deliverance."</p> + + <p>Close at Ramsey's back, in the only seat whose occupant her diligent eye had failed to light + on, a kneeler heaved a sigh so piteous that it startled her like an alarum.</p> + + <p>But the prayer went on: "Drive from us, O Lord, this pestilence. Allow it no more toll of + life or agony. Have mercy on us all, both the sick and the sound."</p> + + <p>"Have mercy," moaned the suffering voice behind, and Ramsey, suffering with it, wished she + had been Methodist enough to kneel with her face that way.</p> + + <p>"Spare not our earthly lives alone," continued the supplicant, "but save our immortal souls. + Pardon in us every error of the present moment and of all our past. Forgive us every fault of + character inherited or acquired."</p> + + <p>"God, forgive!" sighed the voice behind, in so keen a contrition that Ramsey, while the + supplication in front pressed on, found herself in tears of her own penitence. The mourner at + her back began responsively to repeat each word of the prayer as it came and presently Ramsey + was doing likewise, striving the while, with all her powers, to determine whose might be the + voice which distress so evidently disguised even from its owner.</p> + + <p>"Enable us, our Maker," she pleaded in time with the voice behind, that followed the voice + in front, "henceforth to grow in thy likeness, and in thy strength to devote ourselves joyfully + to the true and diligent service of the world wherein thou hast set us. Grant us, moreover, we + pray, such faith in thee and to thee that in every peril or woe, to-day, to-morrow, or in years + to come, we may without doubt or fear commit all we have, are, and hope for, temporal or + immortal, alike unto thee. And, finally, we beg thee to grant us in this immediate issue a + courage for ourselves and compassion for all others which, come what may, living or dying, will + gird us so to acquit ourselves that in the end we may stand before thee unashamed and by thy + mercy and thy love be welcomed into thine own eternal joy."</p> + + <p>"Amen!" cried the exhorter and burst anew into song:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Chidl-dredn of the-e heabm-lye kiggn,</p> +<p class="i6"> As we jour-nye sweet-lye siggn.</p> +<p class="i6"> Siggn——'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>He ceased and flashed a glance, first up to Hugh, whose hand lay on his shoulder, and then + over to the standing player. A hush was on the reseated company, and its united gaze on Ramsey + and the mourner who with her had been audibly following the prayer. Two seats from her Mrs. + Gilmore vainly tried to catch her eye. The penitent was in his seat again. He bent low forward, + his face in his hands, and face and hands hid in his thick fair locks. Ramsey had turned toward + him with a knee in her chair, a handkerchief pressed fiercely against her lips, and her drowned + eyes gazing down on him. But as the actor was about to speak she wheeled toward him and stood + with an arm beseechingly thrown out, her voice breaking in her throat.</p> + </div><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXVI</h2> + + <h3>ALARM AND DISTRESS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"It's Basile!" she cried. Then, one after another, to the exhorter, to Hugh, to each of the + two Gilmores separately: "This is wrong, all wrong! You said we mustn't alarm or distress any + one—and we mustn't!" She tried to face her chair round to the bowed head, and Hugh, at a touch + from his grandfather, moved to her aid. Mrs. Gilmore too had started but was kept back by + others, whispering with her on the edges of their seats.</p> + + <p>"It's all wrong," insisted Ramsey to Hugh close at hand, "and we mustn't do it! You said we + mustn't!"</p> + + <p>The exhorter was gratified, not to say flattered. "H-it ain't none of it wrong, my young + sisteh," he called across. "Ef yo' bretheh's distress ah the fear o' damnation it's all right + and Gawd's name be pra-aised!"</p> + + <p>"Amen!" groaned one or two of the undistressed majority, while old Joy modestly pressed up + from the rear.</p> + + <p>"Please, good ladies an' gen'lemens," she said as she came, "will you please fo' to lem-me + thoo, ef you please? Dat's my young mahsteh, what I done nu's' f'om a baby. Ef you please'm, + will you please suh, fo' to lem-me pass, ef you please?" In gentle haste she made her way, many + eyes following, and heads swinging right and left to see around the heads that came between. + The goal was reached just as Ramsey, in her turned seat, leaned to lay fond hands on her + brother's locks. But Hugh interposed an arm.</p> + + <p>"No," he said, "we mustn't do that either."</p> + + <p>"No!" said Joy, "dat's right! Fo' de Lawd's sake tek heh clean away—ef you kin. An' ef you + please, good ladies an' gen'lemens, fo' to squeeze back a leetle mite——?"</p> + + <p>They squeezed the mite and she knelt by the boy. The sister knelt too, but as she left her + chair Hugh, taking it, put himself between her and her brother. The actor was the only one left + standing.</p> + + <p>"Sing, will you, please," he said—"and will you all sing</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "'There is a land of pure delight—'</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore, will you raise the tune?"</p> + + <p>But the exhorter was too quick for them and "riz" it before the request was fairly uttered. + All sang, and over all easily soared the voice of the zealot:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Thah is a ladnd o' pyo' de-light</p> +<p class="i8"> Whah saidnts ib-maw-tudl reigdn.</p> +<p class="i6"> Idn-fidn-ite day dis-pedls the-e night</p> +<p class="i8"> Adn pleas-u'es badn-ish paidn.'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Now he rolled his enraptured eyes and now his quid, spat freely on the rich carpet, beat + time on one big palm with the other and on the floor with one vast foot, while through the song + like a lifeboat through waves, undisturbed and undisturbing, cleft the steady speech of the + nurse to the boy. Regardless of the precaution just urged for Ramsey, her arm fell over his + bowed form.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Thah eveh-last-ign sprign a-bi-dns</p> +<p class="i6"> Adn nev-eh with-'rign flow-ehs—'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>—ran the hymn, and straight through it, heard everywhere, pressed mammy Joy's tearful + inquiry:</p> + + <p>"Is you got religion, honey boy, aw is you on'y got de sickness? Tell me, honey, which you + got? Is you got bofe?"</p> + + <p>The lad moaned, shook his head, and suddenly sat up, and cried to his kneeling and gazing + sister: "Neither! Great God, I'm not ready for either!"—his words, like old Joy's, cutting + squarely across the hymn as it continued:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Death like a nor-rah streabm di-vi-dns</p> +<p class="i6"> This heab'-mly ladnd frobm ow-ehs.'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Ramsey stood. "Well, don't be alarmed or distressed!" she half laughed, half wept, while the + nurse crooned:</p> + + <p>"Honey boy, ef you ain't yit got de sickness——"</p> + + <p>"I don't know!" he cried, so loudly that only the Methodists and Baptists sang on. He sprang + up and glanced round to the judge, the general, the squire, the senator, exclaiming: "I've been + right in it!—to get back that infernal petition of yours when I dropped it! I've all but + touched the dying and the dead! I've been handled all over by men who'd been handling them! + Whatever I've caught from them I'll know is a judgment! For at last I've got a sense of sin! + Right down under here behind this boat's engines I got it! I want you-all people to pray for + me! I've been an awful sinner for years!"</p> + + <p>"So have I!" wept Ramsey aloud.</p> + + <p>"Praise de Lawd!" said Joy, from her knees.</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore drew Ramsey backward and shared a chair with her. The exhorter and a stout few + hung to the hymn—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "'Whi-dle Jur-dan ro-dled be-tweedn,'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>—and the terrified boy talked on through everything, no one edging away from him as the + wise might in these days.</p> + + <p>"I'm not fitt'n' to die, Mr. Gilmore," he said. "That petition's not my worst sin—by + half—by quarter. But it's opened my eyes. You-all that got it up, and you-all that signed it, + it would open yours, one look below; and I want you-all, right here, now, to tell God you take + it back, before he lays his curse on me! You can manage that somehow, Mr. manager, can't you? + Can't somebody pray it? Or—or can't—can't you vote on it?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," broke in Ramsey, clung to by the player's wife but standing and glancing from the + player so directly to the senator that all looked at him, "vote! vote!"</p> + + <p>He gave the player the sort of nod one gives an auctioneer, and the singers stopped. "I + think we can," said the actor, "and that if the senator votes yea so will every one. All in + favor of withdrawing the petition raise the right hand. It is unanimous."</p> + + <p>The exhorter was up. "Mr. play-actoh, that's all right. I neveh signed that trick, nohow. So + fah so good, fo' a play-acto's church—ef you kin git sich a church into the imagination o' yo' + mind! But vot'n' ain't enough!" He pointed to Ramsey, fast in Mrs. Gilmore's arms, and to her + brother, in old Joy's. "Vot'n' don't take heh—naw him—out'n the gall o' bittehness naw the + bounds o' iniquity. Oh, my young silk-an'-satin sisteh, don't you want us to pray fo' you?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey's courage was tried. Many gazers, but particularly the judge's sister, seemed, by + their eyes, crouching to pounce on her whether she answered yea or nay. "I know," she said, in + tears again, and unconsciously wringing her hands, "I know I ought to, but—but I—I'm afraid + there isn't time. For I want—oh, I—I want to vote again! I want to vote to take up a + collection, and a big one, for those people down-stairs that mom-a's with. And then we can pray + for her—and for Captain Courteney. Mom-a's a Catholic but it's in her Bible the same as in + any: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.'" The last word was but a breath + on her quivering lip. Facing the actor she stood and waited. Joy was getting Basile away.</p> + + <p>"It is moved by the last speaker," said the player, "and seconded by"—he glanced + inquiringly about—"by several—that we make an immediate contribution for the benefit of our + deck passengers, who are in dire need, and that——"</p> + + <p>"That we make it a big one!" repeated Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"All in favor—" he said. "Unanimous. I will ask Mr. Courteney and Miss Hayle to take up the + collection."</p> + <hr width="50%"> + + <p>The dispersal of the meeting found the lady of Milliken's Bend with the judge's sister. The + judge, joining them, reported that the laughing Ramsey's collection was double that of the + solemn Hugh. The sister's eyes snapped as she put in: "She made me double my contribution." + Ramsey passed at a distance. "It's a shame to keep short dresses on a girl of that age and of + her—her——"</p> + + <p>"Spontaneity?" asked the judge. "I like spontaneity, even exuberance, at times."</p> + + <p>"Well, I don't," said the sister.</p> + + <p>"No," murmured the judge. These two, who were to get off at Natchez, were just beginning to + be enjoyed—as types. The sister was one who had all her life complained of "enlargement of the + spleen" and even oftener of a "bitter mouth." On which the judge's only comment was: "Hmm!" + Just now, as to Ramsey, he grew daring.</p> + + <p>"Her dress," he said, "is longer than it was yesterday."</p> + + <p>"It's a mile too short."</p> + + <p>"As much as that?"</p> + + <p>"I wish you were not going to leave us so soon," said the lady of the Bends, and then + bravely added, of Ramsey: "Her dresses are short by her own choice, old Joy says."</p> + + <p>"Shouldn't doubt it a moment."</p> + + <p>"Yes, she keeps them short to keep her mother young. I think that's right sweet of her, + don't you?"</p> + + <p>"No," replied the sister, and went to lock her trunks.</p> + </div><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXVII</h2> + + <h3>PILOTS' EYES</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Once more the hurricane deck. What space! What freedom! Again from the airy, sun-beaten + roof, that felt as thin underfoot as the levelled wing of an eagle, the eye dropped far below + to where the tawny waters glided to meet the cleaving prow or foamed away from the smiting + wheels. Again the dazzled vision rose into the infinite blue beyond clouds and sun, or rested + on the green fringes of half-drowned shores forever passing in slow recessional.</p> + + <p>Four in the afternoon. Esperance Point rounded and left astern in the east. Ellis Cliffs + there too, whitening back to the western sun. Saint Catherine's Bend next ahead, gleaming a + mile and a quarter wide where it swung down from the north. And the <em>Votaress</em> herself! + Once again that perfect grace in the faint up-curve, at stem and stern, of the low white rail + that rimmed the deck. Again, above the stained-glass skylights of the cabin, the long white + texas, repeating the deck's and cabin's lines in what Ramsey called a "higher octave," its + narrow doors overhung with gay scrollwork, and above its own roof, like a coronet, the pilot + house, with Watson just returned to the wheel. Once more the colossal, hot-breathing twin + chimneys, their slender iron braces holding them so uprightly together and apart, the golden + globe—emblem of the Courteney fleet—hanging between them, and their far-stretched iron guys + softly harping to one another in the breeze. All these again, and away out beyond the front + rail, with a hundred feet depth of empty air between, the jack-staff, high as a pine and as + slim for its height as a cane from the brake, its halyards whipping cheerily, the black + night-hawk at its middle, a golden arrow at its peak.</p> + + <p>John Courteney, coming up into this scene, laid a hand on his solitary chair at the forward + rail but then paused. Between the chair and the skylights behind it stood the squire's sister + and brother-in-law and Ramsey. Yes, they eagerly agreed with him, the view ahead was certainly + dazzling. Ramsey would have asked a question, but the husband remembered the contagion from + whose field below the captain had just come, the wife noticed that the presence of ladies would + keep the captain standing, and the three, remarking that such a scene was too brilliant to + confront, moved aft. As they went, Watson, up at the wheel, and Ned, his partner, lingering by + him, had a half-length view of them, their lower half being hid by the cabin roof, close under + whose edge their feet passed, where its shadow kept the deck cool. The wife still had her + embroidery, the husband his De Bow. By certain changes about Ramsey's throat and shoulders Ned + noticed that she was in yet another dress, whose skirt—such part as showed above the cabin + roof—was in flounces almost to the waist. He would tell that at home to his wife and daughter, + who now and then depended on him for fashions, with striking results. Watson, too, noticed + Ramsey, yet his chief attention remained, as steadily as his gaze, on his steering-mark far up + in the bight of the sunlit bend, at the same time including, here below, his seated + commander.</p> + + <p>"Cap' ought to be pootty tol'able tired, Ned."</p> + + <p>"Well, now, he jest ought!" The partner dropped back and perched on the visitor's bench, + whence he could still see the river though not the closely intervening cabin—and texas roofs; + and all the two said later was without an exchange of glances. Watson thought the captain would + "rest more now, on watch, than what he did before, off," having got matters running so much + smoother down below; though the cholera was "a-growin', straight along."</p> + + <p>Ned told of his pleasure in seeing Hugh conduct the senator down to the devotional services: + "Lard, they hev done him brown, ain't they?—atween 'em, Hugh and Hayle's girl?"</p> + + <p>"With some help," said Watson, modestly. "That petition—ef th's anything else aboard this + boat as dead as what it is"—he ran into inelegancies.</p> + + <p>Ned offered to bet it was not dead inside the senator, and Watson admitted that the + statesman would probably never forgive the "genteel" way he had been euchred; though like + euchre, he said, a lot of it was luck.</p> + + <p>"But, man! the bluff he <em>kin</em> put up! Couldn't believe my eyes when we'd passed the + hat an' adjourned an' I see him a-standin' at the fork o' the for'a'd stairs, ag'in the trunk + room, same ole bell-wether as ever, a-makin' a <em>bully</em> speech to Madame Hayle an' that + Marburg chap down in the gangway, foot o' the steps, an' a-present'n' him our 'oblations'—says + he—meanin' the swag!"</p> + + <p>"An' her a-translat'n' for him!" said Ned, fancying the scene, with the senator, under his + mask, "a-gritt'n' his tushes!" and Watson, to heighten it, told of Hugh and the actor at one + head of the double stair, and Mrs. Gilmore and Ramsey at the other—"a-chirpin' him on, an' the + whole b'iler deck, ladies and gents, takin' it in, solid!"</p> + + <p>The senator was long-headed. "Yes, an' yit Hugh's throwed him fair jest by main strength an' + awk'ardness."</p> + + <p>"I dunno!" said Ned. "It wuz long-headed, too, fo' Hugh an' the play-acto's to give him the + job."</p> + + <p>"It wuz long-headed in her who put 'em up to it."</p> + + <p>"Oh, look here! <em>She</em> didn't do that, did she?"</p> + + <p>"'Less'n I'm a liar," replied Watson, eyes front.</p> + + <p>"Hunh! Wonder which! Say, Wats'; on the b'iler deck—did she have on this gownd she's + a-wearin' now?"</p> + + <p>"No," said Watson, tardily, with eyes still up-stream.</p> + + <p>"Not wast'n' yo' words," said the inquirer.</p> + + <p>"No."</p> + + <p>"A short answer turneth away wrath, I s'pose."</p> + + <p>"It turneth away discussion o' ladies' gownds."</p> + + <p>"Lard! I don't discuss 'em to excess. Noticed hern—its upper works—an' a flounce or + two—an' sort o' wondered as to the rest of it, how much water it's a-drawin'. Anything + li-bell-ious about that?"</p> + + <p>"No, considerin' the source."</p> + + <p>Ned slipped from the bench to go, but Watson looked back with a light beckon of the head and + he turned to the wheel. Thence he glanced down over the breast-board, over the forward eaves of + the texas, down to the skylight roof and upon several persons. First, the boat's commander. He + was leaving his seat at the approach, from the head of a boiler-deck stair, of Madame Hayle and + the doctor. On the skylight roof, near the bell, were the two players, just greeting Hugh as + from the other side he reached the deck and stepped up to their level. On the same roof, midway + between these and the front of the texas, were the squire's sister and her husband returning + from their search for shade. And lastly, close after them, came Ramsey, a source of general + astonishment. For the gown she was in and whose lower possibilities had aroused Ned's avowed + and Watson's concealed interest was her mother's and swept the deck.</p> + + <p>Madame Hayle grew more beautiful as with a play of indignation which wholly failed to + disguise her pleasure she cried: "By what <em>per</em>-mission? by what <em>per</em>-mission + have you pud—my—clothes?"</p> + + <p>The girl would have flown to her arms but the doctor forbade, and for second choice she set + up a dainty tripping to and fro athwartships; dipping, rising, skipping, swaying, bridling, + like a mocking-bird on a garden wall. It made Ned and Watson themselves worth seeing. + Professional dignity set their faces like granite though every vein seethed with a riot of + laughter. But the laughter's chief cause was not Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Look at Hugh," muttered Watson, gently drawing down the wheel for the <em>Votaress</em> to + sweep round into a northward reach at whose head Natchez Island would presently show itself. To + look at Hugh took nerve, but in a moment——</p> + + <p>"Look at her," said Ned.... "There! she tipped her nose at him!"</p> + + <p>"She didn't!"</p> + + <p>"She did. Wats', yo' game ain't never goin' to work."</p> + + <p>"Ned, y'ain't got the sense of a loon."</p> + + <p>"Well, I swear I've got more'n Hugh—or her."</p> + </div><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXVIII</h2> + + <h3>WORDS AND THE "WESTWOOD"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Down on the roof, while Ramsey's mother started with the physician around the skylights for + the texas, and Hugh and Gilmore conversed with the captain, Mrs. Gilmore, her hands on Ramsey, + said to madame:</p> + + <p>"I want her now, to begin to make ready for tomorrow evening. My dear"—to the girl—"I've a + dozen dresses that will become you better than this one."</p> + + <p>"Long?" cried Ramsey. "I'll take the lot!" She felt Hugh distantly looking and + listening.</p> + + <p>"We won't trade on Sunday," laughed Mrs. Gilmore; "but you mustn't"—scanning her + approvingly—"ever put on a short dress again."</p> + + <p>"Ho-oh, I never will!" said Ramsey, with a toss meant for Hugh, who went by, hurrying aft to + meet a newcomer. She started after him. Madame Hayle, in that direction, had gone into the + sick-room, whence Ramsey's brother Julian, with barely a word to his mother, had come out. + Stepping down into the narrow walk between the roofs of cabin and pantry and glancing over his + shoulder upon the company about the bell, he winced at sight of his sister's attire. Yet he + kept his course and was well started aft before he saw that he was being met by some one in the + narrow way, and by whom but Marburg. It was that alien whom Hugh was hastening to reach and on + whom Ramsey was staring. He had come up from the engine room through the steward's department, + by the unguarded route which Basile's ascent had revealed, and now came face to face with a foe + where there was room only for friends to meet and pass. So said the eyes of each to each, but + just then a quick footfall on the cabin roof, behind and somewhat above him, caused Julian to + face round and he confronted Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hayle," was Hugh's word, "what will you have, sir?"</p> + + <p>"Nothing, sir, of you! What will <em>you</em> have of <em>me</em>, sir?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey glided by both and halted before the exile, whose scowl vanished in a look so + grateful and supplicating that her words, clearly meant to justify his presence, caught in her + throat: "What will you—have, sir? My mother?—back again?—and the doctor?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," he replied, and then added in German with an anguish of gesture which was ample + interpretation, "yes, for <em>my</em> mother! for my little brother! Ah, God! he is not dead! + He is yet alive! His arms are as supple as <em>these</em>. There is color still in his + cheeks!"</p> + + <p>She stood dumb with horror. Yet she woke to action as, close beside her, she heard her + brother snarl at Hugh:</p> + + <p>"I'll go where I please! Who stops me, God pity him!"</p> + + <p>She dropped nimbly from the skylights' overhang to the alien's level and with looks as + beseeching as his waved him back a step. Then with the same mute entreaty she faced Julian and + Hugh. But there was a ludicrous contrast, visible to all, between Hugh's phlegm and her + brother's pomp, and by a flash of feminine instinct she divined the best mood with which to + match it. Grimly elated, Hugh saw what was coming. Julian saw, and groaned a wearied wrath. The + captain, the commodore—for the commodore had returned—the Gilmores, the Yazoo couple, the + pilots overhead, all waited with lively and knowing gaze. She went limp, hid her face, swayed, + sank to one knee, and filled the whole width of the narrow passage with arms and draperies, the + meanwhile breaking into a laugh so wholly soliloqual that the two players became learners. But + again she sprang erect and had hardly thrown her curls back from her blushing face when her + mother, the bishop, and the doctor stepped from the sick-room, and madame addressed the + immigrant:</p> + + <p>"Ah, ritturn, if you ple-ease. Me, I am ritturning!"</p> + + <p>"Yes," chimed the bishop and the doctor; "yes, at once!" and the exile, with pleading looks + to Ramsey, to the others by turn and to her again, went below. Madame and the physician began + to follow.</p> + + <p>"How's Lucian?" called Ramsey after them.</p> + + <p>"Getting well," replied both. They passed behind the wheel-house and only the pilots knew + that at its corner Madame Hayle stopped where she could still see and hear. All others kept + their eyes on Julian, who was in a redder heat than ever, and on Hugh, who was addressing him + in a depth of tone that amused the Gilmores almost as keenly as it did Ramsey, who had rejoined + them at his back. Suddenly he faced around.</p> + + <p>"If Miss Hayle," he said, "would as soon go below——"</p> + + <p>Miss Hayle sang her reply, bugled it: "She would no-ot."</p> + + <p>Hugh stepped down into her brother's path and faced him again: "You have written your father + a letter——"</p> + + <p>Julian's head flew up but bent in slow avowal.</p> + + <p>"To be put aboard the <em>Antelope</em>," pursued Hugh——</p> + + <p>The head went higher: "Well, sir?"</p> + + <p>"To outrun this boat."</p> + + <p>"And—if—I—have, sir?"</p> + + <p>"Why, yes," murmured the squire's brother-in-law and sister, to the Gilmores, "suppose he + has?"</p> + + <p>"So have I," said Hugh to Julian. He glanced up to the Yazoo couple and then to the bishop + self-isolated near the sick-room door. Ramsey and the couple laughed. Hugh turned her way + again: "If Miss Hayle——"</p> + + <p>"She wouldn't," said Ramsey, laughing more.</p> + + <p>"Well, sir!" drawled the waiting Julian, to Hugh.</p> + + <p>Hugh waved a hand toward the bishop: "That gentleman has risked his life for your sick + brother."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Ramsey. The bishop scowled up the river. Julian scowled at Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Well, sir?" he once more challenged.</p> + + <p>"He was told he was wanted as a minister," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"<em>Well, sir?</em>"</p> + + <p>"He was wanted merely to get your letter off secretly."</p> + + <p>"You lie!"</p> + + <p>"Oh!" sighed the Yazoo pair. Ramsey shrank upon Mrs. Gilmore.</p> + + <p>"Not at all," said a quiet voice overhead and the eyes of Julian, blazing upward, met + Watson's blazing down.</p> + + <p>"Come," said the player's wife to Ramsey, "come away."</p> + + <p>"I won't," tearfully laughed Ramsey, and Mrs. Gilmore and the squire's sister had to laugh + with her.</p> + + <p>"The lie," said Hugh, "will keep. Your letter is such that the bishop declines to touch + it."</p> + + <p>The bishop swelled. Julian recoiled and, glancing behind him, confronted his mother.</p> + + <p>"My son," she began, but he whirled back to Hugh.</p> + + <p>"You keyhole spy!" he wailed; "you eavesdropping viper!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey came tiptoeing along the edge of the pantry roof to light down between them but he + imperiously motioned her off, still glaring at Hugh and gnawing his lip with chagrin. "Oh, + never mind!" was all he could choke out; "never you mind!" He ceased again, to catch what Hugh + was replying to him. Said Hugh:</p> + + <p>"I'll take your letter and send it with my own."</p> + + <p>"No, sir! No, you grovelling sneak!"</p> + + <p>"Mais, yass!" called Madame Hayle from her place, and Ramsey laughed from hers, but a new + voice arrested every one's attention. The bishop wheeled round to it with an exclamation of + dismay that was echoed even by Julian. In the sick-room door stood Lucian, half dressed and + feebly clinging to the jamb.</p> + + <p>"Let him do it, Jule!" he cried in a tremulous thin voice. "Take the whelp at his word! + Don't you see? Don't you see, Jule? We'll have him in a nine hole. It'll be hell for him if he + puts it through and worse if he slinks it!" He tried to put off the bishop's sustaining + arm.</p> + + <p>A light of discernment filled Julian's face. There was no time to ponder. He had always + trusted Lucian for the cunninger insight and did it now though Lucian lay in the bishop's arms + limp and senseless. He drew forth the letter. Gayly stooping over the skylights Ramsey reached + for it and passed it to Hugh. Julian sprang up to the bishop, who had borne Lucian into the + sick-room and now filled its door again, waving a cheerful reassurance.</p> + + <p>"A mere swoon," said the bishop; "all right again."</p> + + <p>"It may be all right up there," the squire's sister began to say to the actor's wife—and + hushed. But Ramsey had heard, as she watched her mother hurry below to the young Marburg + brother lying as limp and faintly pink in death as her brother up here in life; heard, and + thought of the perils in store for Hugh and his kin and her and hers unless this sweet, wise + mother could charm them away as sunlight charms away pestilence. Mr. Gilmore called her:</p> + + <p>"Come, we've lots to do."</p> + + <p>But how could one come just then? A slight turn of the boat's head was putting Natchez + Island close on her larboard bow and, seven miles away, bringing hazily into sight Natchez + herself, both on her bluffs and "under-the-hill." Nay, more; abreast the <em>Votaress</em> was + another fine boat. The <em>Westwood</em>, she was named. Her going was beautiful, yet the + <em>Votaress</em> was gradually passing her. The Yazoo pair knew her well. When they made + salute toward two men who stood near her forward skylights, one of them returned it.</p> + + <p>"Why should he be so solemn?" asked the wife.</p> + + <p>"Why shouldn't he?" laughed Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Because he's a mere passenger, on his wedding tour."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" said Ramsey. "Weddings are solemn things. Is that other man the captain?" she asked + the husband.</p> + + <p>"No, I regret to say, he's only her first clerk."</p> + + <p>"Why should you regret to say it?" inquired the girl; but the wife, too, had a question:</p> + + <p>"Do you think there's anything wrong?"</p> + + <p>"N-no, oh, no."</p> + + <p>The <em>Westwood's</em> clerk made a sign to Captain Courteney. The captain glanced up to + Watson, and the two boats, still at full speed, began to draw sidewise together. But Ramsey's + liveliest interest was in the <em>Westwood's</em> crew, who, far below about her capstan, were + paying their compliments to the newer, larger, speedier boat in song and refrain with stately + wavings and dippings of ragged hats and naked black arms. Now the boats' guards almost touched + and their commanders spoke so quietly together that she did not hear their words. But she noted + the regretful air with which John Courteney shook his head to the <em>Westwood's</em> clerk and + then to the passenger, and the <em>Westwood</em> began again to drop behind. Hugh came near, + paused, and glanced around.</p> + + <p>"Looking for the commodore?" she asked.</p> + + <p>"I thought you went down with Mrs. Gilmore," he replied, "to rehearse your part in the + play."</p> + + <p>"Commodore's down on the lower deck," she said; "freight deck—with mom-a—and the + bishop."</p> + + <p>Hugh showed astonishment. "The bishop?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, mom-a made him go." She laughed. "Some of the sick folks down there are Protestants + and were threatening to turn Catholic. Is anybody sick aboard the <em>Westwood</em>?"</p> + + <p>"No."</p> + + <p>"Then where's her captain?"</p> + + <p>Hugh made no reply but to meet her steady gaze with his own till she asked in a subdued + voice: "Cholera?"</p> + + <p>Hugh nodded. Each knew the other was aware of the song that floated up after them from the + boat behind.</p> + + <p>"What did the bridegroom want?" asked the girl.</p> + + <p>"Wanted to give us a thousand dollars to take his bride—with him or without him—aboard the + <em>Votaress</em>."</p> + + <p>"But when he heard how much worse off we are—" prompted she.</p> + + <p>"Yes."</p> + + <p>"But, Mr. Hugh——"</p> + + <p>"Yes?"</p> + + <p>"Anyhow, this boat hasn't got that boat's trouble!"</p> + + <p>"No," said Hugh, and knew they were both thinking of his father. Together they stood + hearkening to the last of the <em>Westwood's</em> song:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Ef you git dah befo' I do—</p> +<p class="i8"> <em>O, high-low!</em>—</p> +<p class="i6"> Jest tell 'em I'm a-comin' too—</p> +<p class="i8"> <em>John's gone to high-low!</em>'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + </div><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXIX</h2> + + <h3>STUDYING THE RIVER—TOGETHER</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>They did not tie to the wharf-boat at Natchez. At that stage of water there was good landing + a few yards below, where the sandy bank was not too wet to walk across to a higher one which + floods never reached, close under the bluff. Here had left the boat half a dozen passengers + including the judge and his sister. So good-by to that lady. Never would <em>she</em> have set + foot on the <em>Votaress</em> had she dreamed she was to be "dumped off" on such a spot. She + believed that girl of Gideon Hayle's had laughed as she went up the perilous stage plank. And + really there is no proof to the contrary.</p> + + <p>Another incident awoke in Ramsey no mirth. Yet she never forgot it. It occurred on the + upper, greener level that overlooked, across the river, a great sweep of Louisiana lowlands at + that moment bathed in a golden sunset. The same light fell upon the incident itself—the + Marburg lad's burial; fell upon the bent mother standing behind the priest and between her + elder son and Madame Hayle, surrounded by her fellow exiles, many of whom, with faces hidden + like hers, wept more for her bereavement than they had earlier done for their own. So the rude + pine coffin descended into the unhallowed ground. From the hurricane-deck Ramsey looked down + with wet eyes to the meek mourner returning aboard on the arm of her Otto. Thinking how easily + in the play of chance the lost brother might have been saved and her saved brother lost, and + recalling the plight of the <em>Westwood</em>, she suddenly realized that no one could tell who + might go next—"to high-low." Otto Marburg, glancing up, saw her tears, and would have paused + but for the sacred burden on his arm.</p> + + <p>At the same time, for eyes, even wet eyes, as lively as Ramsey's there were livelier things + to see. Hugh had gone ashore and up to the wharf-boat, crossed it, and boarded the busy + <em>Antelope</em> with several letters in hand, the twins' letter among them. Said the squire's + brother-in-law:</p> + + <p>"That boy must know the danger to him there is in that document," and the planter of + Milliken's Bend agreed.</p> + + <p>So did their wives. There was "everything in it he wouldn't want there and nothing he would + want."</p> + + <p>He was doing the "brave thing," they all said, and the wives called it too brave. The brave + thing, they thought, "ran a slim chance against Hayle's twins."</p> + + <p>"My dear ladies," said the planter, "it runs the only chance he has. The brave thing is the + only thing those two young fire-eaters have any respect for." He stopped short; Ramsey had + overheard. Yet she kept a pretty front.</p> + + <p>"Why do you call him 'that boy'?" she laughingly asked.</p> + + <p>"Well, really, because," replied the planter, twinkling, "he's so much more than a boy. + Don't you think so?"</p> + + <p>She gave him a sidelong glance, twitched her curls, and looked down ashore. Her mother was + there with the "boy's" grandfather. They were getting into a rickety hack. Now Hugh joined them + from the <em>Antelope</em>, and they went whipping up the steep road across the face of the + bluff and into the "stuck-up" Natchez atop the hill. She guessed their errand.</p> + + <p>Meantime the <em>Westwood</em> had reached the wharf-boat, put her bridal pair aboard the + <em>Antelope</em>, and backed out again so promptly that as the <em>Antelope</em> cast off and + started after her she had rounded Marengo Bend and was showing only her smoke across Cowpen + Point. And now reappeared Madame Hayle, the commodore, and Hugh, bringing with them—welcome + sight—two sisters of charity. The moment they touched the lower deck the <em>Votaress</em>, + with John Courteney on her roof, backed away, and soon, in the first bend above, any eye could + plainly see the <em>Westwood</em>, still less than four miles off across country though eight + by the river, with the <em>Antelope</em> four miles behind her and four ahead of the + <em>Votaress</em>. Said the pilot, Ned, to Ramsey, pulling the wheel down to head into the + crimson west:</p> + + <p>"Four 'n' four's eight, ain't it? Used to be. Can't tell what'll change on this river. When + Lake Concordia, over here in Louisiana, was part o' the river, an' Vidal's Island, in its + middle, was in the river, this bend wa'n't jest eight mile' round, it wuz twenty. These are + <em>the</em> bends. F'om here to Cairo we got to run one etarnal wriggle o' six hund'd 'n' + eighty mile' to make three hund'd 'n' seventy."</p> + + <p>"Oh, I'm glad of it! At least—ain't—ain't you?"</p> + + <p>He shook his head: "Not this run." The supper bell rang and Ramsey fled, but he repeated: + "No, not this run!" He turned and looked back upon Natchez bluff far behind the steamer's wake. + "I wished every last Hayle on this blessed boat wuz off o' her an' 'top o' you!"</p> + + <p>On that bluff, in colonial days, had stood Fort Rosalie, whose dire tragedy Ramsey, down in + the cabin, found Gilmore, at table, recounting to Hugh and others: murder of its French + settlers by Natchez Indians and the extermination of the Natchez tribe by the French from New + Orleans. He was brief, and for a good ending went on to recall his own first sight of the spot, + before the time of steamboats, when Natchez was a village; how, as his low broadhorn came + drifting down around this point close above it, the bold rise swung into view, crowned with + pines, its lower parts evergreen with the bay magnolia, and its precipitous front lighted up, + as now, with the last beams of day. He made it seem so fair and important that Ramsey's native + pride and a shame of her previous blindness almost drove her from the board to take a last look + at it from the stern guards; but she was again in her mother's seat and again very hungry. He + was good company to every one, the actor; always acting, yet always as natural as if acting and + nature were one; a quiet education to Hugh, an unfailing joy to his wife, and both to + Ramsey.</p> + + <p>After supper the players got out an old two-act play for the next evening's entertainment. + They cast Hugh and Ramsey for two small rôles, and for two larger ones found a young + brother and sister—of Napoleon—at the mouth of the Arkansas—who would have just time to act + them before leaving the boat. Supper had prevented its guests from seeing the <em>Votaress</em> + turn Giles's Bend and Rifle Point and meet another boat as glittering as she and pass Lake + Saint John and Fairchild's Bend—where the river widened to three miles about Fairchild's + double island. Wherefore the indulgent Gilmores, on Ramsey's pleading, elected to coach first + the brother and sister—of Napoleon—letting Hugh ascend to the starlight of the roof and + Ramsey follow attended once more by old Joy.</p> + + <p>She met Hugh at the foot of the pilot-house steps. "We are postponed!" she said, "you and + me—I!"</p> + + <p>"Yes. Do you know for what?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, because those other two parts are so much bigger than ours, and because—I d'n' + know—I believe they think I'm sleepy—ha, ha! I'm glad, for <em>I</em> want to study this + <em>river</em>, all I can, day and night. And you—must, mustn't you?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," he said, which was all he was to say in the play.</p> + + <p>Half-way up the steps she halted: "You're to be a captain on it yourself as soon as you're + fit, ain't you?"</p> + + <p>"If that time ever comes."</p> + + <p>"Phew! how modest" She stared an instant, turned her back, clasped the rail, and with her + forehead on her arms laughed till Hugh was weary—not necessarily long.</p> + + <p>He spoke: "Here come the <em>Westwood</em> and the <em>Antelope</em>."</p> + + <p>"Where?" She glanced round, sprang up the steps, and soon was making room for him beside her + at a larboard window behind Watson. Looking thence across the long, slim neck of Cole's Point + they saw the two boats coming back westward in the upper reach of the fourteen-mile eastern + loop they were running to make two miles into the north. Now the <em>Westwood</em> passed and + now the <em>Antelope</em>, their skylights glinting like fireflies through the intervening tree + tops, and Watson showed how to tell them apart by night. Presently they turned north again and + vanished, leaving the mighty stream to its three students.</p> + + <p>"It'll cut off this whole fourteen mile' some day," said Watson; but the other two, in their + dim nook, remained silent. He knew that sort of silence. When Ramsey by and by spoke, her words + were to Hugh exclusively and in undertone.</p> + + <p>"The <em>Quakeress</em>—Oh, I didn't mean——!"</p> + + <p>"That's all right," said Hugh. "The <em>Quakeress</em>——!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, I meant the <em>Antelope</em>! She'll soon be in the lead again?"</p> + + <p>"Yes."</p> + + <p>"With both those letters."</p> + + <p>"Both."</p> + + <p>"Ain't you glad I didn't mean the <em>Quakeress</em>?"</p> + + <p>"No."</p> + + <p>"Well, you're glad I didn't mean Phyllis, ain't you?"</p> + + <p>"No."</p> + + <p>"Would you really be willing to tell me about Phyllis?"</p> + + <p>"I would."</p> + + <p>"You wasn't willing—before—was you?—were you?"</p> + + <p>"No."</p> + + <p>"What's changed your mind?"</p> + + <p>"Lawd, missy!" sighed the forgotten Joy.</p> + + <p>But Ramsey insisted: "What's changed it?"</p> + + <p>"You, chiefly."</p> + + <p>"I haven't," very quietly said the girl.</p> + + <p>"You have."</p> + + <p>Ramsey glanced cautiously at Watson, but the pilot's eyes were a league ahead. Hers returned + to Hugh. "Wasn't it my brothers changed your mind—the twins?"</p> + + <p>"They helped."</p> + + <p>She looked him over absently: "I love my brothers."</p> + + <p>"I don't," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>She stared again and slowly remarked: "You haven't got to.... You're powerful queer, ain't + you?"</p> + + <p>"Not by choice."</p> + + <p>"I'm queer. Wish I wasn't—wa'n't—weren't—but I am."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Hugh, "you are."</p> + + <p>She tilted her chin, stepped to Watson's side, and called down over the breast-board to the + Gilmores, who had finished with their two pupils for a time and had taken chairs with a newly + found young married pair on the texas roof:</p> + + <p>"Oho, down there!"</p> + + <p>"Oho!" the group answered.</p> + + <p>"Do you want us to stay up here?" asked Ramsey. "'Cause if you do we'll come right down. Or + if you'd rather we'd come down we'll stay up here!" It was a new note.</p> + + <p>The players laughed. "It's the long dress says that," they observed to the other pair.</p> + + <p>"It certain'y is," replied they; which is Southern form for "probably."</p> + </div><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXX</h2> + + <h3>PHYLLIS AGAIN</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>About eleven o'clock that same Sunday evening the <em>Votaress</em>, at full speed, was in a + part of the river whose remarkable character sustained the son of John Courteney and the + daughter of Gideon Hayle in the theory that their interest in it was all that had brought them + to—all that detained them in—the unlighted pilothouse, on the visitors' bench, beside Watson. + Below, the passengers were for the most part once more in slumber. The exhorter had loudly sung + himself to sleep:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Mahch-ign thoo Im-madn-uedl's groudnd</p> +<p class="i6"> Toe fahr-eh wordlds odn high.'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Madame Hayle was in her stateroom and berth, deep in sleep under the weight of her toils and + assured by the players that Ramsey should go to bed when they did. Basile, too, slept, but + talked and tossed in his sleep, while old Joy, sent to him by Ramsey and the Gilmores, crouched + outside his door and dozed with an ear against it. The Yazoo squire, his children, his sister, + her husband, the Vicksburgers, and they of Milliken's Bend, purposing to be called up an hour + before day to leave the boat at their proper landings, had "retired" early, saying fond + good-bys and hoping to meet every one again. The ladies had astonished Ramsey with kisses, + given, doubtless, she thought, because her father was a hero and her mother a saint. The + squire's brother-in-law had assured her that her brothers, all three—as Southern boys always, + or almost always, did—would come out all right—every way; but on being asked for details he + had slipped away to give his De Bow to the commodore and his last good-by to Hugh.</p> + + <p>The actor and his wife, however, were as broad awake as Watson. Loving the lone starry hours + for the hours' own starry sake and having for Hugh and Ramsey a certain zeal unconfessed even + to each other, they were yet in view from the pilot's wheel and visitors' bench at this hour of + eleven, staying up as willingly as nightingales with the young husband and wife who had agreed + with them that somebody's mental radius "certain'y had" lengthened as suddenly as her gown.</p> + + <p>This young pair were expecting to go ashore within the next half-hour at "New Carthage," a + city of seven houses, nearly opposite another of equal pride called Palmyra, and some four + miles above the head of Hurricane Island, whose foot the <em>Votaress</em> was then passing. + They and the Gilmores were still down at the forward edge of the texas roof, the players + finding the Carthaginians very attractive: fluent on morals, cuisine, manners, steamboats, the + turf, fashions, the chase; voluble on the burdensomeness of the slave to his master, the + blessedness of the master to his slave; but sore to the touch on politics and religion—with + their religion quite innocently adjusted to their politics—and promptly going hard aground on + any allusion to history, travel, the poets, statistics, architecture, ornithology, art, music, + myths, memoirs, Europe, Asia, Africa, homœopathy, or phrenology. It entertained the + players just to see how many things the happy lovers knew nothing about and to hear them state + in some new form, each time they backed off a sand-bar of their own ignorance, that they had + seen the world, sucked the orange, yet found no spot of earth so perfect to live in as New + Carthage.</p> + + <p>The briefest sittings at such entertainment had been enough for Hugh, too much for Ramsey, + and had driven them back, twice and thrice, to that fairer world on high in the pilot-house, + where they could study the river undistracted. There and thence, now together, now apart, they + had gone and come all through Watson's watch, moved by Hugh's duties or her caprice. Their each + new meeting had been by accident, but it is odd how often accidents can occur—"at that stage + o' the game," thought the kind pilot, and on each recurrence he noticed that they had got a bit + farther on in the story of Phyllis.</p> + + <p>"How long is this island, Mr. Watson?" inquired Ramsey, as if islands were all she was + sitting up for.</p> + + <p>"Two mile' 'n' a half. D'd you ask me that before? I don't hear much behind me if it ain't + hove right at me." Stalest device of the sentimentalist—the self-sacrificing lie! But Watson + cared not for its staleness if it might promote the game. And the game, though as wanderingly + as the river, went on. Without strict order of time, now on the bench, now on the roof, early + and late, here is how it went:</p> + + <p>"You're not afraid of my brothers, are you? I'm not."</p> + + <p>"I'm afraid for them. And for my father and grandfather. And for your father and your + mother."</p> + + <p>"Good gracious!" laughed Ramsey, then mused, and then asked: "Ain't you afraid for me?"</p> + + <p>Hugh said nothing, and thenceforth her tone grew more maidenly though her words remained + childlike enough.</p> + + <p>"I know why you want to tell me about Phyllis," she added more softly. "You think if you + don't my brothers will."</p> + + <p>"They don't know the facts," murmured Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Don't they think they do? And ain't that the trouble?"</p> + + <p>"Yes." Hugh thought her insight surprising, while she enjoyed the spiritual largeness she + fancied she saw in his immobile features. "Yes," he repeated, "they think they do; that's the + trouble, much of it."</p> + + <p>"How do you know they don't?"</p> + + <p>"By what they believe and by what I know."</p> + + <p>"How do you know you know?"</p> + + <p>"By my own eyes and Phyllis's own lips."</p> + + <p>"Would she tell you things she never told any one else?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, things she never dared tell any one else."</p> + + <p>Ramsey pondered, laughed, and pondered and laughed again: "Why, most of that time you + was—you were—nothing but a little toddler. Didn't she love you?"</p> + + <p>"She hated me."</p> + + <p>Ramsey flinched but quickly laughed a bright unbelief to the youth's face, a face which + might as well have been a wood-carving. "Oh," she cried, "how ridiculous!"</p> + + <p>"She used to flog me, cruelly."</p> + + <p>Ramsey gasped: "And you never told? Oh, why—why——?"</p> + + <p>"She said she'd kill me—and my mother. And she'd have done it, somehow."</p> + + <p>"But she's been dead ten years!"</p> + + <p>"Has she?"</p> + + <p>"Why, of course! Wasn't she on the <em>Quakeress</em> when——?"</p> + + <p>"So was I."</p> + + <p>Ramsey flinched worse and stared away with lips apart, wondering if that was what gave him + that look.</p> + + <p>"But Phyllis," she resumed, "was lost."</p> + + <p>"Was she?"</p> + + <p>"Why ... wasn't she? Mammy Joy says my uncle—in the blazing pilot-house—did you know my + uncle Dan?"</p> + + <p>"Yes. That night, half an hour before the burning——"</p> + + <p>"Oh! was it at night?"</p> + + <p>"Yes. I was sitting with Phyllis, behind him, with him at the wheel, as we're sitting now + behind Mr. Watson."</p> + + <p>"Uncle Dan didn't hate you, did he?"</p> + + <p>"No, indeed."</p> + + <p>"Then why didn't you tell him about Phyllis? He was her master, you know."</p> + + <p>"I did. He wormed it out of me. He was like you—in some things."</p> + + <p>The questioner flashed and stared but then dropped her eyes. "Did he—have red curls?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, redder than yours."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" ... She mused.... "I'm tired here. Let's go down by the Gilmores and + walk—'thortships!"</p> + + <p>They went. "Well?—about Phyllis? What did she whip you for? Being bad?"</p> + + <p>"Bad or good was all one to Phyllis."</p> + + <p>"Wasn't—weren't—weren't you ever bad, Mr. Hugh?"</p> + + <p>"Frequently."</p> + + <p>"How were you bad?—steal jam?—eat green plums?"</p> + + <p>"Yes; had fights, went in swimming—in snake holes——"</p> + + <p>"D'd you tease your sisters?—pull their hair?—let the sawdust out o' their dolls?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, yes, all that."</p> + + <p>"Hmm! that's nothing. Basile and I—Ain't you going on? Of course, if you don't want to I—I + shan't worm. Why did Phyllis—oh, pshaw!"</p> + + <p>With the exclamation came such one-sided mirth that Mrs. Gilmore looked round. But her + husband said there would never be anything to look round for while "that laugh" kept its + quality.</p> + + <p>Presently Hugh found himself murmurously "going on" and Ramsey listening. It was a great + moment in both lives. If we cannot see it so, no matter; but in still depths of perception + below all formulated thought both the youth and the girl were aware, separately, that the story + of Phyllis was not the largest fruit of the hour.</p> + + <p>Phyllis, Hugh said, had not hated him alone. In her heart had burned a pure flame of wrath + against every member—save one—of the fair race to which she belonged by three-fourths of her + blood but by not one word of human law. Wronged for the race she disclaimed, she hated the race + that disclaimed her. Hated even the mothers of Hugh and Ramsey, who abhorred slavery, a slavery + enthralling men, women, children in whose veins ran not four only but eight and sixteen times + as much masters' blood as slaves'. She hated them because all their sweet abhorrence found no + deliverance or revenge for her. Mitigations there were, but mitigations she loathed. The + uncompromising quality of her hatred was one thing that had made dissimulation easy, and + through all Hugh's childhood she had practised it perfectly in every relation and direction on + every one but him. Another easement had been her indomitable, unflagging triple purpose to be + free, to be reunited to her master, and to be revenged.</p> + + <p>And a third, craftily won through the trustfulness of Hugh's Quaker mother, had been the + opportunity to wreak the frequent overflow of her resentments on him. The fact that he was + almost of the exact age of her own lost offspring had forever goaded her, and to him, with each + maltreatment, she had told again her heart's whole burden, outermost wrong, innermost rage, + thus recovering poise to treat his sisters and brother with exemplary care and tenderly to + discuss with their mother Hugh's precocious reticence and gravity. Always she had held a + self-command cunningly tempered in the fire of her triple resolve and fitted to the desperate + chances with which she unceasingly crossed daggers. She never tired of telling her little white + slave that, having herself once got the lash, she was only paying interest on it through him. + Him, at least, she would teach to hate slavery as she hated it.</p> + + <p>Hugh's listener moved as if to touch him. A boat was coming by. They paused in their + "thort-ships" walk and with a slight choke in her voice Ramsey asked: "You know what I hope?" + Her voice went lower. "I hope you learned."</p> + + <p>"That's the strangest part," said Hugh. "I did."</p> + + <p>The boat passed, a cloud of burning gems. "Go on," said Ramsey, "I can see that and hear you + at the same time."</p> + + <p>But Hugh's mind was too masculine for such legerdemain and though she sighed and sighed + again he waited until the vision grew dim astern. Then, as he was about to resume, she + interrupted.</p> + </div><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXI</h2> + + <h3>THE BURNING BOAT</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Where was the commodore all that time?" she asked.</p> + + <p>"In Europe. We did business there too. It wasn't all river and boats those days."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" She preferred it to be all river and boats.</p> + + <p>"But at length," said Hugh——</p> + + <p>"What length?"</p> + + <p>"Ten years. Grandfather was coming home, to stay. We were all to go up to Saint Louis on the + <em>Quakeress</em>."</p> + + <p>"Phyllis too?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, to meet him there and bring him back with us."</p> + + <p>"Ten years!" marvelled Ramsey. "Hadn't Phyllis ever heard from my—from Walnut Hills?"</p> + + <p>"Now and then, yes; and when those ten years seemed to have worn her, body and soul, to the + breaking point——"</p> + + <p>"You're strange. You feel tender to her yet."</p> + + <p>"Perhaps I do. One day—night—she got word—I heard it from my nursery bed—she got news; + news that to her was as good and as bad as news could be."</p> + + <p>"That <em>he</em> was on the river again!" guessed Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Yes, relearning it—it changes so fast, you know—and that your father had asked my father + to employ him; for he didn't want to go with your father."</p> + + <p>"No, Hayles will <em>fight</em> for Hayles, pop-a says, but they won't work for them."</p> + + <p>"Also that he was going to be married. But Phyllis told my mother so meekly that the past + was all past——"</p> + + <p>"And she'd seemed so good for so long, I suppose."</p> + + <p>"Yes—that even my father thought it <em>was</em> past, and when we went aboard the boat and + it started up the river, there at the wheel was your uncle Dan."</p> + + <p>"You didn't dare tell on her?—Oh, you were only ten years old!"</p> + + <p>"It wasn't that. I was older than I am to-day. But if I told a word I'd have to tell all, + and by that time she'd made me believe that about all the guilt was mine."</p> + + <p>"Yours! Well, and then? Was his lady-love on the boat?"</p> + + <p>"No, but a passenger who came aboard at Natchez turned out to be the overseer Phyllis had + once run away from."</p> + + <p>"Oh! oh! the man who lost the child! What a difference that must have made!"</p> + + <p>"Difference a wind makes to a fire. And yet for a time things ran along as smoothly as the + old boat."</p> + + <p>"She wasn't any older than you."</p> + + <p>"For a boat she was, several times. Mr. Watson," asked Hugh from the roof between the + Gilmores and the pilot, "what's the average age of a boat on this river?"</p> + + <p>"Average age? Well, it varies! Say about five year'."</p> + + <p>Hugh's voice dropped again. "The overseer being aboard, Phyllis and I, to be clear of him, + were allowed free run of the roofs, and I being the captain's son it was so natural to see us + often in the pilot-house——"</p> + + <p>"And she was so wary, and you were so silent——"</p> + + <p>"Yes—that no one noticed anything and the past still seemed past. One day your uncle Dan + told me of your twin brothers. They'd spent half a year with him."</p> + + <p>"Which mom-a's sorry for to this day. They worship him yet, she says. Go on; skip their + visit."</p> + + <p>"Well, when we reached Saint Louis I knew that he and Phyllis had agreed on something + perfectly joyful to her. I don't know even now—what it was. She was to be set free, but that + was only a small part."</p> + + <p>"Skip again. The commodore joined you?"</p> + + <p>"No, he failed us. We had to turn back without him."</p> + + <p>"But with Uncle Dan, of course?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, in wedding clothes. And with the overseer and with Phyllis. She'd tried to run away + again, in Saint Louis, but she couldn't do it without my mother's help, and my mother, though + she declared the laws were shameful, wouldn't break them."</p> + + <p>"I'd 've broken them!" whispered Ramsey. "Well, you turned back?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, and I saw at once there was something horribly wrong. Day and night Phyllis was + frantic. She hid her feelings from others, wonderfully, but she poured them out on your uncle + Dan. It was then he suspected how she'd been treating me, and coaxed me to tell him; and when + he told her I'd told him and that he would tell she saw she was at the end of everything and I + thought that now she would whip me to death."</p> + + <p>"Stop! Stop!" The two were again in the pilot-house, but Watson, just then jingling his + engine bells, was too busy to heed anything not "hove at him." His big bell had sounded for New + Carthage, and John Courteney had appeared down forward of it, but neither Hugh nor Ramsey was + enough diverted to answer the parting hail of the town's two residents joyfully going ashore. + "I can't stand it!" she ran on. "I won't hear it!"</p> + + <p>"But I must tell you," murmured Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Why must you?"</p> + + <p>"Because of what you have already heard and will hear and because you are you; who you are; + what you are."</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh, I'm the same I was last night when you and your father were talking poetry and + trying to get rid of me!"</p> + + <p>"Not quite."</p> + + <p>"Well, go on; they quarrelled and you thought your hour had come—it seems it hadn't. Go + on—if you 'must.'"</p> + + <p>"I must," he said, and went on. "I had picked up, that day—it was the third day out and we + were down in these bends and had taken on nearly half a load of cotton—I'd picked up, where + your uncle Dan had dropped it, a small paper box of fusees—you know?—matches that you can't + blow out. Childlike, guiltily, I kept them. In their quarrel, that night, Phyllis ended by + imploring your uncle Dan not to tell on her. I never knew what supplication was till then. She + wept on her knees, clinging to his. When she had to leave him, to put me to bed, he made her + promise never again to do me the least hurt, and swore that if she did he'd sell her to the + overseer.</p> + + <p>"We went. I was afraid that down in the stateroom she'd find the fusees in my pocket and + that I should go to jail as a public thief. But she stood me in the middle of the room, threw + herself on my berth, and writhed and hid her face and beat her head and looked at me a + hundredfold more murderously than your uncle Dan had ever looked at her. So once, while she lay + still a moment, I slipped out onto the guards, and as I lifted my hand to throw the fusees into + the river she caught it in hers, it and them. Then for the first time in my life I resisted + her. I fought. Do you know what a cow-eat is?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey stared. "No. Is it a way of fighting?"</p> + + <p>It was not a way of fighting. Cattle often eat deep holes into cotton bales. "Ah, yes!" The + tale went on.</p> + + <p>"I fought her, and somehow the fusees, the whole box, got lighted and were dropped. Whether + she dropped them purposely or not, or I dropped them, I'll never know; but they fell just over + the rail, among the cotton bales, and we saw the lint in a cow-eat about three tiers down flash + like gunpowder. She snatched me back into the stateroom, shut the door, and stood clutching me + wildly and listening. 'Say your prayers,' she said, and knelt with me. She'd never knelt with + me before. When I finished she had me go over them again. She did not say them with me, only + whimpered and whispered, and fluttered her hands on my head and back. She made me begin once + more, but before I was half through we heard the watchman run along the roof close over us and + cry: 'Fire!' She lifted me to my feet, whispering, 'Now! Now!' and began to put a + life-preserver on me, still saying over and over nothing but 'Now! Now! Now!' until the sounds + of alarm were everywhere, and just as she sprang into the next stateroom to rouse the other + children my mother came into it from the main cabin. I got my little brother into my room and + was dressing him there while my mother dressed one sister and Phyllis the other, when your + father's overseer, who had once followed the river himself, came down the cabin shouting to + every one to come out and go forward and was kicking in every door he found locked. At ours he + told my mother not to mind the smoke—which had grown thick and choking—but to rush us all + straight through it to the boiler deck and down the forward stairs, and on her life not to stop + for life-preservers but to go at once. So she and Phyllis ran with the three little ones; but + I, childlike again, had got the notion that life-preservers were forbidden and was so long + getting mine off that Phyllis turned back for me.</p> + + <p>"That delay saved my life, for, as we ran out into the cabin together, the smoke in front of + us, forward, turned red and then went all to flame, and right in the midst of it, hurrying + toward us, we saw the overseer. He tripped on a hassock or something and fell and the flame + literally swallowed him alive. We sprang through an open stateroom and climbed a wheelhouse + stair to the hurricane deck. There we saw no one, but through the crackle and roar of the + flame, which a light breeze behind us sent straight up into the darkness, I heard the voice of + my father, twice, at his post in front of the skylights, and the answer of the engine bells + showed that your uncle Dan and the engineers were sticking to their places. We were landing in + a strong eddy under a point and didn't have to round to. The boat was wonderfully quiet. I even + heard—probably because the shore was so close ahead of us—the first mate—same that's with us + here now—heard him ordering the stage run out over the water, as always when about to land. I + heard the clerks and others telling the passengers to 'keep cool' and 'not crowd,' saying there + was room and time for every one.</p> + + <p>"The pilot-house was burning brightly on one side but it was so wrapped in smoke that your + uncle Dan was hid from Phyllis and me till the boat hit the bank. Then the breeze gave us a + glimpse of him as it curled the whole blaze forward so that it overarched the people who filled + the front stairs and gangway, waiting to swarm off across the stage. That brought panic and the + panic brought death. Some male passengers—we couldn't see, but our hearing was like sight—had + got all the women and children to the front of the crowd and a few even partly out on the + stage, over the water, to be the first put ashore.</p> + + <p>"When the boat's nose struck the shore the back part of the crowd thought the landing was + made and began to push, and there were no men in front to push back—for some of the boat's + family, missing Phyllis and me, had run aft to find us—and when that smoke rolled down on + every one the push became a rush and suddenly two or three women were screaming at one edge of + the stage, with nothing to lay hold on but one another.</p> + + <p>"We heard their cries and the cry of the crowd, through the crackling of the fire. My mother + tried to save them, with her three children clinging to her, and the whole six fell into the + black shadow of the freight guards and the swift eddy drew them under the boat's hull before a + thing could be done except that two of our men jumped in and sank with them."</p> + + <p>Ramsey covered her face. "What did your father do?"</p> + + <p>"He let himself down by one of the derrick posts. As he did so, and when they who had tried + to rescue us had failed, the mate, who is a famous swimmer, sprang overboard, as near the + larboard wheel as the fire would let him, struck out round it, climbed up on it into the + paddle-box, and tried to reach the cabin deck by the kitchen stair. But a sweep of the flames + drove him back into the river, and he was just sinking when Mr. Gilmore, you know, drew him + into his skiff.</p> + + <p>"At the same time your uncle Dan came tumbling down from a pilot-house window and staggered + with us back to the stern rail, for all the stairs were burning. It was idle to call for help. + The whole thing had lasted but a minute or two. Phyllis didn't want help and we had just that + instant to get down in.</p> + + <p>"Those who had gone ashore could not see us. The smoke hid us. So did the texas. Your uncle + Dan dragged a mattress out of it and dropped it over the stern, away down onto the fantail, + scores of feet below. The flames made the boat's shadow as black as ink. We thought the yawl + was down there, but some of the crew had swum out from the shore and pulled away in it to pick + up the mate—and us, of course, if we were with him.</p> + + <p>"Your uncle, though fearfully burnt, took me on his back and showed Phyllis how to climb + down beside him by the bracket work and posts and balustrades of the guards, as I could have + done, but he wouldn't let me.</p> + + <p>"If the wind had been the other way we should have perished right there. But the guards of + the ladies' cabin ran round the stern, as they do on this boat, and her fantail, below, + stretched still farther aft. So we got down to those guards easily. But in the ladies' cabin + the fire had worked aft faster than outside, and on those guards the heat was torture. We could + only hang from them and drop. Your uncle went first, then Phyllis and then I, he catching us, + for down there he had light enough, looking up, and as we fell the flames shot through the + cabin stern windows. He caught us, but then he said, 'I'm gone, Phyllis,' and crumpled down at + her feet. Then I cried for help but Phyllis said we didn't need to call, and we didn't. We'd + been seen at last, on the guards as we climbed down. They called to us to stick to the boat + till swimmers could reach us. But we couldn't. The wind had turned, the heat was worse than + ever, the fire had parted the boat's lines and she was being blown out into the current. Then + your uncle struggled half up again and helped Phyllis get the mattress outside the bull + railings, where I climbed out and held it. He asked if I could swim and when I said yes he + warned me not to swim to the shore as the river was falling and the bank caving, but to float + with the mattress and call till I was picked up. So I went over with it. But it twisted away + from me. I swam to a floating cotton bale, one with a flicker of fire still on it, as it + drifted up-stream in the eddy. At the same time I'd heard your uncle and Phyllis strike the + water together, and a moment later I saw them—their heads. She was holding to the mattress + with one hand and to him with the other. But presently I heard her give a low wail and saw him + slip from her and sink. Then the smoke came down between us, and by and by the returning yawl, + whose men had heard my calls and had seen Mr. Gillmore's skiff pick up the mate, found me on + the cotton bale and had barely lifted me in when I fainted away."</p> + + <p>Ramsey covered her face again. It would have been joy to her to let one of the drops that + melted through her fingers fall on Hugh's hand.</p> + + <p>Watson cleared his throat. "Sort o' inquirin' fo' one o' you, down on the roof," he said + without looking back. He was a man not above repeating himself for a good end. "Third time + they've sung out to me, but—up here I off'm don't notice much f'om anywheres 'at ain't hove + right at me."</p> + + <p>Ned entered and silently took the wheel.</p> + </div><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXII</h2> + + <h3>A PROPHET IN THE WILDERNESS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Through all the middle watch of Sunday night, with her Ned quite alone in the pilot-house, + the <em>Votaress</em> came and passed from crossing to crossing, up reaches, through chutes, + around points and bends, a meteor in harness. Such she seemed from the dim shores. So came, so + passed, before the drowsy gaze of that strange attenuated fraction of humanity which scantily + peopled the waters and margins of the great river to win from it the bare elements of + livelihood or transit, winning them at a death-rate not far below the immigrant's and in a + vagabondage often as wild as that of the water-fowl passing unseen in the upper darkness.</p> + + <p>If to the contemplation of the Courteneys, father and son, the fair craft, "with all her + light and life, speeding, twinkling on and on through the night," was "a swarm of stars," or + "one little whole world," how shall we see her—with what sense of wonder and splendor—through + the eyes of the flatboatman or the swamper, the raftsman, the island squatter, the trading-scow + man, the runaway slave in the canebrake, the woodyard man, or the "pirooter"—that degenerate + heir, dwarfed to a parasite, of the terrible, earlier-day land-pirates and river-wolves of Plum + Point and Crow's Nest Island? To such sorts, self-described as human snapping-turtles and + alligators, her peacock show of innumerable lights was the jewelled crown of the only + civilization they knew, knowing it only with the same aloofness with which they knew the stars. + She woke them with the flutter of her wheels as of winged feet and passed like a goddess using + the river's points and islands for stepping-stones, her bosom wrapped in a self-communion that + gave no least hint of its intolerable load of grief and strife.</p> + + <p>Not until she entered the great bend of Vicksburg did she once come into contrast with + anything that could in any degree diminish her regal supremacy. There, as day was breaking, she + entered the deep shadow of the southernmost "Walnut Hill." The town on its crest was two + hundred feet above her lower deck, and the stiff Yazoo squire, his kindly brother-in-law and + sister and the Vicksburg merchant and his wife, waiting down there while she slowed up to the + wharf-boat at its foot to let them and others off, were proud of the bluff and of the two miles + of sister hills hid by it and the night. Even overproud they were. The two husbands and wives + silently wished for that lover of wonders, the sleeping Ramsey, that they might enjoy her + enjoyment of the sight, who, though from exalted Natchez, never had beheld so vast an eminence + or a city stuck up quite so high.</p> + + <p>But Ramsey, far removed in her new, sweet-smelling berth, did not stir from a slumber into + which she was throwing all the weight of an overloaded experience. She was paying large back + taxes to sleep and had become so immersed in the transaction that her mother's rising, + dressing, and stealing away lifted, this time, not one of her eyelashes. In not a sigh or + motion did she respond to the long, quaking, world-filling roar of the <em>Votaress's</em> + whistle, nor to John Courteney's tolling of her great bell, nor to the jingle of lesser bells + below, nor to any stopping or reversing or new going ahead of her wheels either for landing or + for backing out and straightening up the river again. She slept on though these were the very + Walnut Hills of her uncle Dan's and Phyllis's dark story; persevered in sleep though John + Courteney's son, her profoundest marvel, was once more up and out, with the story still on his + heart and "a-happmin' yit." It was one of its happenings that, very naturally, though quite + unreasonably, he begrudged the sleeper's absence from texas roof and pilot-house.</p> + + <p>The <em>Votaress</em> was under full headway, with Vicksburg astern, Watson again at the + wheel and the captain in his chair. The most northerly of the Walnut Hills were on the + starboard bow. Beyond them the sun, rising into thunder-clouds, poured a dusty-yellow light + over the tops of their almost unbroken woods, here and there brightening with a strange + vividness the tilled fields and white homestead and slave quarters of some noted plantation. + Between the hills and the river lay a mile's breadth or more of densely forested swamp, or + "bottom," swarming with reptiles great and small, abounding in deer, bear, and panther, and + from which, though the buffalo had been long banished, the wolf was not yet gone. On the + skylight roof, close "abaft the bell," as Ramsey would have said, stood the commodore and Hugh. + They had just met there and after a casual word or so Hugh was about to say something requiring + an effort, when they were joined by the exhorter.</p> + + <p>"Mawnin', gentle-<em>men</em>," he said. "Now, what you reckon them-ah po' Gawd-fo'-saken'd + Eu-<em>rope</em>-ians down-stahs air a-thinkin' to theyse'v's whilst they view this-yeh + lan'scape o'? D'you reckon they eveh, ev'm in they dreams o' heav'm, see sich</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Sweet fiel's beyond the swellin' flood</p> +<p class="i6"> Stand deck' in livin' green'?</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"I tell you, gentle-<em>men</em>, as sho' as man made the city an' Gawd made the country, he + made this-yeh country last, when he'd got his hand in! You see that-ah house an' cedah grove on + yan rise? Well, that's the old 'Good Luck Plantation.' Gid Hayle 'uz bawn thah. His fatheh went + to Gawd f'om thah an' lef' it to Dan, the pilot, what 'uz lost on the <em>Qua'</em>—Hell! + listen at me! As ef <em>you</em> didn't know that, which ev'y sight o' you stahts folks + a-talkin' about it! But, Lawd! what a country this-yeh 'Azoo Delta is, to be sho'! Fo' craps! + All this-yeh Mis'sippi Riveh, you mowt say, fo'm Cairo down, an' th' 'Azoo fo' the top-rail! + Fo' craps—an' the money-makin'est craps! An' jest as much fo' game! Not pokeh but wile game; + fo'-footen beasts afteh they kind an' fowl afteh they kind. An' ef a country's great fo' craps + <em>an'</em> game, what mo' kin it be great faw what ain't pyo' Babylonian vanity an' + Eu-<em>rope</em>-ian stinch?"</p> + + <p>The commodore admitted that game was a good thing and that crops were even better.</p> + + <p>"No, sir-ee! Game comes fust! Man makes the craps but Gawd made the game! It come fust when + it fust come an' it comes fust yit! Lawd A'mighty! who wouldn't drutheh hunt than plough, ef he + could hev his druthehs? But the game ain't what it wuz, not ev'm in this-yeh 'Azoo country an' + not ev'm o' the feathe'd kind. Oh, wile turkey, o' co'se, they here yit, by thousan's, an' wile + goose, an' duck, an' teal, by hund'eds o' thousan's, an' wile pigeon, clouds of 'em, 'at + dahkened the noonday sun. Reckon you see' 'em do that, ain't you? I see' it this ve'y season. + But, now, take the pelikin! if game is a fah' name fo' him—aw heh, as the case may be; which + that bird—nine foot f'm tip to tip, the white ones—use' to be as common on this riveh as + cuckle-burrs in a sheep's tail!" The jester laughed, or, more strictly, exhaled his mirth from + the roof of a wide-spread mouth in a long hiss that would have been more like an angered + alligator's if alligators used fine-cut tobacco. It was addressed to the commodore; for Hugh, + his grandfather's conscious inferior in human charity, had turned the squarest back—for its + height—aboard the <em>Votaress</em>, to gaze on a wonderful sight in the eastern sky. The + exhorter resumed:</p> + + <p>"Why, I ain't see' a pelikin sence I use' to flatboat down to Orleans—f'om Honey Islan' an' + th' 'Azoo City. 'Pelikin in the wildeh-<em>ness</em>,' says the holy book, but they 'can't + stan' the wildeh-<em>ness</em>!' They plumb gone!—vamoost!—down to the Gulf!—what few ain't + been shot!" He grew indignant. "An' whahfo' shot? Faw noth'n'! Jeemany-crackies! + gentle-<em>men</em>, it makes my blood bile an' my bile go sour! Ain't no bounty on pelikins. + Dead pelikins ain't useful—naw awnamental—naw instructive, an' much less they don't tas'e + good. No, suh, they jess shot in pyo' devil-<em>ment</em> by awngawdly damn fools—same as them + on this boat all day 'istiddy a-poppin' they pistols at ev'y live thing they see'—fo' no damn' + reason in the heab'ms above aw the earth beneath aw the watehs undeh the earth—Lawd! it mighty + nigh makes me swah! An' I feel the heab'mly call—seein' as that-ah tub-shape' Methodis' bishop + <em>h-ain't</em> feel it—fo' to tell you, commodo', you-all hadn't ought allowed that + hell-fi'ud nonsense on Gawd's holy day."</p> + + <p>Even to his grandfather's response Hugh paid no visible attention. The eastern sky had + become such a picture that down forward at the break of the deck John Courteney rose eagerly + from his chair and looked back and up to be sure that his son was one of its spectators. Yes, + Hugh was just casting a like glance to him and now turned to invite the notice of his + grandfather. The thunder-clouds had so encompassed the sun that its rays burst through them + almost exclusively in one wide crater, crimsoning, bronzing, and gilding their vaporous and + ever-changing walls. Thence they spread earthward, heavenward, leaving remoter masses to writhe + darkly on each other and themselves, in and out, in and in, cloaking this hill in blue shadow, + bathing that one in green light, while from a watery fastness somewhere hid in the depth of the + forested swamp under the hills, some long-lost bend of the Mississippi or cut-off of the Yazoo, + rose into the flood of beams an innumerable immaculate swarm of giant cranes. Half were white + as silver, half were black as jet, and from moment to moment each jet magically turned to + silver, each silver to jet, as on slowly pulsing wings they wove a labyrinthian way through + their own multitude with never a clash of pinion on pinion, up, down, athwart and around, up, + down, and around again, now raven black across the sun and now silver and snow against the + cloud.</p> + + <p>An awed voice broke the stillness and old Joy stood a modest step back from Hugh's side with + rapt gaze on hill and sky.</p> + </div><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXIII</h2> + + <h3>TWINS AND TEXAS TENDER</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Sign f'om de Lawd!" droned the old woman. "It's de souls o' de saints in de tribilatioms o' + de worl'!"</p> + + <p>But explanation was poor tribute to such beauty. Hugh glanced away to his father, then + around to the commodore, up to Watson, and back again upon the spectacle. In a tone of remote + allusion the grandfather spoke: "One wants a choice partnership for a sight like that."</p> + + <p>Hugh cast back a sudden frown but it softened promptly to a smile which old Joy thought + wonderfully sweet.</p> + + <p>"Late sleepers," persisted the commodore, "know what they gain but not what they lose."</p> + + <p>"Naw yit," audibly soliloquized the nurse, "what dey makes de early riseh lose." She added a + soft high-treble "humph!" and gave herself a smile at least as sweet as Hugh's, which he + repeated to her as he said:</p> + + <p>"Good morning, auntie."</p> + + <p>She courtesied. "Mawnin', suh." They need not have been more cordial had they just signed a + great treaty.</p> + <hr width="50%"> + + <p>The <em>Votaress</em>, swinging westward, left the picture behind, and the neglected + exhorter, caring far less for cranes and clouds than for pelicans and sinners, reopened, this + time on Hugh: "But that's anotheh thing 'at rises my bristles, ev'm ef it don't the + bishop's."</p> + + <p>"What rises them?" asked the solemn Hugh, the commodore's attention wandering.</p> + + <p>"Shell I spit it out? Wall, it's folks a-<em>proj</em>-eckin' togetheh—church membehs an' + non-membehs a-<em>proj</em>-eckin' <em>togetheh</em>—fo' to drownd Gawd A'mighty's + chas-tise<em>ments</em> in the devil's delights. <em>You</em> know they a-layin' fo' to do that + on this boat this ve'y evenin'. You know they a-<em>proj</em>-eckin' fo' to raise filthy lucre + by fiddlin' an' play-actin' an' a-singin' o' worl'ly songs an', to top all, a-dayncin'!—right + oveh the heads o' the sick an' dyin', my Gawd! You know that, don't you?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, I'm mixed up in it."</p> + + <p>"An' they a-doin' it fo' what? Fo' no betteh reason 'an to he'p them-ah damn' ovehwhelmin' + furrinehs to escape the righteous judg-<em>ments</em> o' the Lawd! Young brotheh, my name is + Jawn. Jawn the Babtiss, I am, an' as sich I p'otess! An' also an' mo'oveh I p'otess ag'in' any + mo' leadin's f'om them-ah 'Piscopaliam play-actohs, an' still mo' f'om that-ah bodacious + brick-top gal o' Gid Hayle's. Which she made opem spote o' <em>my</em> leadin's in 'istiddy's + meet'n'! An' o' co'se! havin' a popish motheh."</p> + + <p>"Oh!—my!—Lawd!" gasped Joy, and the commodore had begun to meet protest with protest, when + Hugh touched him.</p> + + <p>"This is too small for you. May I——?"</p> + + <p>"Take it," said the grandfather and turned inquiringly to the nurse.</p> + + <p>"Yaas, suh," she hurried to say, "my mist'ess ax de honoh to see you at de stateroom o' + Mahs' Basile."</p> + + <p>Meantime Hugh answered the complainant: "My friend, that young lady—you mustn't call her + anything else again—made no sport of you whatever."</p> + + <p>"Oh, dat she didn't, boss!" put in old Joy, breaking off from her talk with the + commodore.</p> + + <p>"Honestly, sir," continued Hugh, "I was afraid some one would, but I happened to see her + from first to last, and——"</p> + + <p>"Happ'm'd! The hell you happ'm'd! Yo' eyes 'uz dead <em>sot</em> on heh when they'd ought to + been upraise' in prah!"</p> + + <p>Hugh laughed—a laugh so hearty it might have been the brick-top's own. The texas tender + enjoyed it as he bore a tray of dishes from the room of the twins. Down beyond the bell it drew + the father's smile and up at the wheel the stoical gaze of Watson. Half of it was for the + exhorter and half for a newcomer at tardy sight of whom the exhorter paled, certain that he had + been overheard.</p> + + <p>"Oh!" he cried, "I ain't meant no offence to nobody naw tuck none!" and eagerly followed the + commodore's beckon to go below with him and the nurse. Hugh, still smiling, met the blazing + stare of Julian Hayle.</p> + + <p>"Good morning," he said, while Hayle was inquiring:</p> + + <p>"May I again ask of you a word in private?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, this is private enough," said Hugh. "Every private word I've had with you so far, or + with your—coterie, has been so unsatisfactory to you—and them, and so tiresome to everybody, + I can't see why you should want another. My friend——"</p> + + <p>"We are not friends, sir."</p> + + <p>"Well, then, let's make friends. Here's my hand. I'm utterly ashamed of this miserable + little spat."</p> + + <p>Hayle folded his arms. "You'll find it life-size before we're done."</p> + + <p>"Nonsense! it's too small for words, private or otherwise. Let's end it, for that reason if + for no better."</p> + + <p>"That's not your reason, sir. You have another."</p> + + <p>"Yes, I simply can't quarrel with you."</p> + + <p>"You—crawling—poltroon!"</p> + + <p>Hugh's smile vanished at last. He gulped as though a wave had gone over him. But he + remembered his father. Beyond doubt his father had heard. He glanced down to him, and what he + saw was worth a year of commonplace experience. The father had heard, yet he sat at ease, his + knees crossed and his gaze out forward on the boat's course. Watson—but what could Watson + matter then? Hugh's eyes burned big on Hayle, his voice deepened, his words came slow. "We + can't fight here and now. I can only put you ashore. Don't make me do that. There's trouble + enough on this boat as it is. You're having your share. Mr. Hayle, I fear—though I don't + know—that Basile has the cholera."</p> + + <p>"Damn him and it! You wouldn't fight me if you could."</p> + + <p>"True."</p> + + <p>"Why? On your father's account—and his father's?"</p> + + <p>"On everybody's. Your own father's. Your mother's."</p> + + <p>"My sister's?" The question was a threatening sneer.</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir." The breakfast bell rang merrily below and Hugh turned to leave. Julian blazed + out in curses:</p> + + <p>"I forbid you 'that young lady's' company henceforth!"</p> + + <p>"And that's the private word you had for me?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, damn you! I know who sat up late last night. If you do it again I'll shoot you right + on this boat!"</p> + + <p>"My private word for you, Mr. Hayle, isn't as public as that. Only I and the texas tender + know it."</p> + + <p>"Most fitting partnership!"</p> + + <p>"No, it was entirely his own enterprise. While you and your brother were getting your + information from him he got your weapons from both of you. I have them in the clerk's + safe."</p> + </div><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXIV</h2> + + <h3>THE PEACEMAKERS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Some four of the <em>Votaress's</em> "family," one seated, three standing at ease, were + allowing their mild, slow conversation its haphazard way under barely enough constraint to hold + it in the channel of discretion. It drifted as unpretentiously as a raft or flatboat, now and + then merely floating without progress, like a floating alligator; that is, with one small eye + imperceptibly open to every point of the compass.</p> + + <p>He who sat was the first clerk, a man of thirty-seven or so, and therefore, as age then + counted, fairly started on the decline of life. He occupied the high stool in the clerk's + office, his limp back against its standing desk. Nearest him the second clerk, standing, leaned + on an elbow thrown out upon the desk and rested one foot on a rung of the stool. A second clerk + might do that; a third or "mud" clerk would hardly have made so free. The youthful mud clerk, + with his hat under his folded arms, leaned on the jamb of a door that let back into the clerks' + stateroom. Opposite him the youngest of the four, latest come among them, stood out in the + cabin and hung in over the broad window counter, across which the office did business with the + world. Watson's "cub pilot" he was, on the sick list, thin and weak with swamp-fever.</p> + + <p>The forenoon watch was half gone. The boat was fluttering along at high speed under a bright + but fickle sky, and the clerks and the "cub" hardly needed to glance out the nearest larboard + window to know that she was already turning northward into a pleasant piece of river called + Nine Mile Reach. A certain Point Lookout was some five miles behind in the east, and the town + of Providence, negligibly small, with Lake Providence, an old cut-off, hid in the woods behind + it, was close ahead. One of the number mentioned the boat's failure during the night to make + the miles expected of her, but the four agreed that the cause was not any lack of speed power + but an overplus of landings below Vicksburg—two being for burials—and a long delay at + Vicksburg itself, providing for the sick.</p> + + <p>This explanation, the second clerk said, had been as gratifying to the planter of Milliken's + Bend and his "lady" as their not having to be called up before day. They had taken breakfast in + the general company, which, with the commodore at one end of the cabin and Hugh at the other, + had sat down when Old River and the mouth of the Yazoo were on the starboard bow, and had risen + while passing My Wife's Island. Finally they had gone ashore in great elation, thanking Hugh + with high voices and fervent hand-shakings, and his father with wavings from the bank to the + roof, for the "most delightful trip anybody ever made"; careless as infants of the hundreds of + strangers gazing on them, both native and alien, both woe-stricken and self-content, and, even + when the great wheels were backing the boat away, calling fond messages to Hugh for the still + invisible "Miss Ramsey" as if she were in his exclusive keeping and all those strangers were + trees.</p> + + <p>So recounted the second clerk, not to criticise such innocent disdain of the public eye and + ear—to him an every-day sight—but with a feeling for the picturesque and in mild humor making + the point that such messages, so given, were hardly calculated to make life easier for Hugh. + The mud clerk and the cub pilot grunted their accord yet privately envied Hugh. To be message + bearer to that young lady would have been rapture to either of them under whatever hardness or + peril of life, the more the better. Oddly enough, with Milliken's Bend now forty miles astern + the messages had not been delivered.</p> + + <p>"No fault of his," said the first clerk, the second said no, and the mud clerk and the cub + loyally echoed them. For they knew, at least the three clerks knew, always knew, not by flat + inquiry but by trained perceptions and the alligator's eye, whatever was going on in each and + every part of the boat. Indeed, the boat's news naturally flowed to them; flowed to and ran + forth again from them, aerated and cleansed, as normally as blood to and from the breast of a + strong man. By the sound of the steam they knew the water was right in the boilers. By the + rhythm of the machinery they knew all was right in the engine room. They could have said, + nearly enough, how soon the boat would have to stop again for wood. To them the quiet of the + populous boiler deck, where nearly every man sat reading some stale newspaper of Louisville, + Saint Louis, or Cincinnati—brought aboard from the Vicksburg wharf-boat—was informational, + witnessing a general resigned admission that there was already "trouble enough." Of three + notables not there they knew that one, the bishop, was in his berth, very weary, and that the + senator and the general had been for some time with Hayle's twins. They could have greeted + every cabin passenger by name. They knew who were filling the places lately vacated at the + ladies' table, whose was each ubiquitous child selling tickets for the appointed "show," and + whose each private servant, however rarely seen: not such as old Joy merely, but the senator's + black Cato, the general's yellow Tom, Mrs. Gilmore's theatrically handsome Harriet, or the + nearly as white Dora of the young lady from Napoleon. And they knew well that the non-delivery + of those messages was no fault of Hugh's.</p> + + <p>Miss Ramsey was up, yes; but she had breakfasted in seclusion and was then in a small + under-cabin for ladies' maids, close beneath the main one, rehearsing with Mrs. Gilmore and + others. Gilmore had been coaching them but was now momentarily out on the boiler deck. Through + the extensive glass of the cabin's front they could see him standing before a knot of men: John + the Baptist and the man with the eagle eye and the man with the eye of a stallion and the man + who knew so slap-bang that the Hayles and Courteneys had all but locked horns when the + <em>Quakeress</em> burned. They were the only exponents of unrest out there and only the actor + wore an air both spirited and kind. No one in the office openly kept an eye on the outer group. + In there the gossip lingered on Hugh. Hugh had plenty, it was agreed, of the Courteney stuff + and something besides which these four hoped was the very thing with which to meet this new + phase so plainly at hand in the Hayle-Courteney contest.</p> + + <p>Suddenly the first clerk looked straight out on Gilmore, so obviously at bay, and murmured + to the cub pilot: "Go, bring him." While the cub went, the clerk spoke on. Hugh, he said, would + one day be the best-liked of his name.</p> + + <p>In kindly dissent the second clerk shook his head, but the first would have it so. The + liking might be slow coming, he allowed, because of Hugh's oddities, but in the end men would + like even the oddities.</p> + + <p>The mud clerk named one as if he liked it: "When he's by himself he's got the iron-est + phiz——"</p> + + <p>The second clerk laughed his appreciation. "And when he's poked up," he said, "it gets + ironer and ironer."</p> + + <p>"It'll need to mighty soon," observed the first clerk.</p> + + <p>"When he runs into Gid Hayle," said the second.</p> + + <p>The actor came. His pleased manner was more thankful than inquiring and he insisted on + remaining outside the window shelf with the cub.</p> + + <p>"Mr. Gilmore," said the first clerk gravely, "we thought you might condescend to inspect our + ceiling decorations through fresh foliage."</p> + + <p>The player looked puzzled an instant but a smell of mint from the bar cleared his mental + vision. Yet again he declined. Later in the day he shouldn't be so coy, he admitted, but one + oughtn't to take too long a running start for his jump into bed.</p> + + <p>"No, he <em>might</em> get there too soon," said the clerk. "My boys, sir, want to ask you a + riddle. You know Gid Hayle. How can his daughter, here, be just like him for all the world and + yet those twins be just like him for all the same identical world, too?"</p> + + <p>"Well put!" was the prompt rejoinder. "My wife and I have been toying with that riddle these + twenty-four hours. Those brothers are Gideon Hayle's sons if ever a man had sons; that daughter + is his from the ground up; yet the two and the one are as unlike as night and noon."</p> + + <p>The clerks and cub pilot agreed so approvingly that the actor, lover of lines, was inspired + to go on at more length. He remarked, in effect, that he had never seen so striking an instance + of a parent's natural traits growing into—blemishes—in one inheritor and into graces in + another. Yet to know Gideon Hayle was to read the riddle. As quick to anger as his sons, as + full of mirth as his daughter; open-hearted, wrong-headed, generous, tyrannous, valorous, + contemptuous of all book wisdom yet an incessant, keen inquirer with a fantastical explanation + of his own for everything in nature, science, politics, or religion. Implacable in his + prejudices, he——</p> + + <p>"Yes," interrupted the first clerk, with amazing irrelevancy, "but a man of Henry Clay's + experience ought to have known better. Kossuth is a gentleman who—well, general, how are you + now? Mr. Gilmore, you know the general? Senator, you know Mr. Gilmore?"</p> + + <p>"Assuredly!" The condescending senator had known Mr. Gilmore, "a day by contact but long by + fame."</p> + + <p>The general was civil but not suave. He remembered the player's hard names for the + committee's dead scheme. "Taking care of Henry Clay, too, sir?" he asked him. "With so many + pleasanter cares"—that meant Ramsey—"you might let Henry Clay take care of himself."</p> + + <p>"That's something," put in the second clerk, flushing defensively, while the senator, with + cigar cocked one way and his silk hat another, drew Gilmore aside, "that's something Henry Clay + never does."</p> + + <p>"Right, young man. He merely tries. Th-there's no one in the nation has t-tried harder or + f-failed worse!"</p> + + <p>The youth turned to his work at the high desk. "Sir," said the general to the first clerk, + who rose, "the senator and I have been up to your texas——"</p> + + <p>"Contrary to orders," mildly said the first clerk.</p> + + <p>"I admit it, sir, but our intentions were only th-the k-kindest. It seems to us, sir, or to + me—us or me, sir, as you will—that th-those sons of our old friend Hayle are not getting + justice."</p> + + <p>"They ought to be mighty glad of that, general."</p> + + <p>"S-s-sir, they'd rather have it! We admit, of course,—we or I—I, if you prefer, sir, or if + the senator prefers—I admit they are not unbiassed."</p> + + <p>"No, I admit they're not."</p> + + <p>"Th-they are supe-perbly stiff-necked and illogical young barons from four centuries back, + sir, without a f-f-fault that isn't a v-v-virtue overdrawn—or out of date."</p> + + <p>The speaker turned to the actor and senator and they to him: "If those boys have the pride + of L-l-lucifer, Mr. Gilmore, they have also his intrep-idity. Th-they may be as high-headed as + giraffes, sir, but they're as s-s-straightf-f-forward as a charging bull! Mr. clerk, the + splendid surge of their imp-pulses should excuse their f-f-foibles even if their s-s-souls were + <em>not</em> wr-wri-writhing under the lash of a new whip on old sores, sir."</p> + + <p>"Will you just make that a little clearer, general?"</p> + + <p>"I will," softly put in the senator—"by your leave, general?"</p> + + <p>With limp majesty the general waved permission.</p> + + <p>"All for peace, however," said the senator smilingly to the clerk. "There's been enough + strife."</p> + + <p>"Never saw so much aboard boat," said the clerk.</p> + + <p>"Well,"—statesman and clerk laid elbows on the shelf and dropped their voices while the + actor and the general drew a step aside,—"this thing can be settled only by the right friends + and it's now or never." The two exchanged a look but the clerk was mute and the senator spoke + on: "You've heard of Dan Hayle—and the girl Phyllis, hmm?"</p> + + <p>"I was first clerk on the <em>Quakeress</em> when she burned."</p> + + <p>"Why, so you <em>was</em>. These twins believe, bitterly, that in that mysterious disaster + all due search for their uncle was neglected to save the captain's son and that the girl and + Dan Hayle were never fully accounted for."</p> + + <p>"Shucks! Why—Dan—it was I found Dan's body."</p> + + <p>"Yes, but they call it an outrage for him to have been there at all; to give him the wheel + and take her aboard on the same trip."</p> + + <p>"<em>Law'</em>! what did she count, with him about to marry?"</p> + + <p>"Why, they think that for that very reason John Courteney let his wife—from Philadelphia, + you know—abolitionist—bring the girl and Dan together, hoping he'd either set her free or + else skip the wedding and somehow disgrace the whole Hayle family. Just those boys' guess + but—they believe it. What they <em>see</em> is a Hayle killed and no one killed for him."</p> + + <p>"Oh, we settled that with their dad ten years ago."</p> + + <p>"They say not. And, really, you know, some of the liveliest feuds along this river are + founded on less cause. Gid Hayle, they claim, couldn't bring the Courteneys to law at the time + because the only men he had to back him were his two in-laws. Now these twins are men and they + feel honor-bound to throw down—no, to take up—the gage, thrown down to them every hour + they've been on this boat."</p> + + <p>"Shoo! They've been treated only too well."</p> + + <p>"Tactfully, do you think?"</p> + + <p>"Depends on what you call tact. Ordinary tact's the worst thing you could throw at 'em." The + clerk spoke with both eyes on the general and the actor. His fellow clerk, second clerk, had + nudged him. The general was raising his voice to the actor.</p> + + <p>"They f-forbid your lady to chaperon their sister, since you both, last evening, all-llowed + young Courteney to give her his account of the b-urning of the <em>Quakeress</em>."</p> + + <p>"General!" the smiling senator cautioned him, "privately, if you please! more + privately!"</p> + + <p>But the soldier persisted. "Th-they even suspect you, sir, of s-s-piriting off to Canada + their s-s-lave p-roperty, missing after that event."</p> + + <p>"Why, gentlemen," began the player, looking very professional but also very handsome, and + with a flash of annoyance only when he noticed that the exhorter had joined the group, "I never + in my—nonsense! fantastical nonsense! Why, I'll be—I'll see you later! At present, as I've + already said, I'm overdue at that rehearsal."</p> + + <p>"Yes, Mr. Gilmore," said the first clerk, "you are."</p> + + <p>"A moment," interposed the senator. "Purely in the interest of peace, Mr. Gilmore——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, senator," the actor amiably laughed, "I don't question your good-will, or the + general's; but you don't know, either of you, the interest of peace when you run against + it—pardon! I take that back. My annoyance, at quite another thing, flew off the handle. I take + it back. Excuse me, I'll make it a point to see you later." The three bowed. As he started away + the exhorter blocked his path.</p> + + <p>"Excuse <em>me</em>," said the zealot. "Fust tell us: Ef ye <em>mowt</em> sperit a niggeh + off to Canady would ye aw wouldn't ye?"</p> + + <p>For an instant the player stood mute and then he said only, in a preoccupied tone: "Please + let me pass." But at the same time he laid his unexpected left hand lightly on the questioner + and by some stage trick sent him stumbling aside along a line of chairs and toppling to the + floor. The cub and the younger clerks had him up in a twinkling, while a dozen men appeared + from the boiler deck as if by magic, and the player walked away down the cabin.</p> + + <p>"Now, no more noise here," said the second clerk to the lifted man, restraining both his + arms. "No, you stay right here. He didn't do a thing to you, you just stepped a little too spry + and sort o' tripped up."</p> + + <p>From his window shelf the first clerk, in the tail of his eye, saw the zealot and his group + disperse while he, the clerk, talked laughingly to the soldier on one subject and gravely to + the statesman on another.</p> + + <p>"You can't challenge a man, general," he said, "who apologizes for calling you a poor + peacemaker."</p> + + <p>"By—! s-sir, I can and I sh-shall!" was the retort.</p> + + <p>The clerk ignored it. He and the senator bent heads together again. "No," he said, "Hugh + only told him he <em>feared</em> it was Basile. In fact, it wasn't. It isn't."</p> + + <p>"Who is it, then? It's a passenger and a bad case."</p> + + <p>"Will you keep it dark—by the patient's own request—till the show's over to-night?"</p> + + <p>The senator nodded. The two heads came closer. The general scorned to listen. The name did + not reach him.</p> + + <p>"Jove!" gasped the senator. "Come, general." They went.</p> + + <p>The first clerk turned to the second clerk's elbow at the high desk, saying dryly: "They + came to demand those shooting-irons and couldn't muster the brass."</p> + </div><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXV</h2> + + <h3>UNSETTLED WEATHER</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Again the <em>Votaress</em> was passing the Westwood and again was but a short mile behind + the <em>Antelope</em>.</p> + + <p>Led by Ramsey, the amateur players, including Hugh, had stopped rehearsing and were on the + skylight roof, gathered about the commodore, the Gilmores, and the bell. In their company, + though below them on the forward hurricane deck, the first mate leaned bulkily against the roof + on which they stood. It was his watch. Ned was up at the wheel.</p> + + <p>As early as the evening before, a good hundred and fifty miles back down the river, the + <em>Antelope</em>, it will be remembered, had been close on the <em>Westwood's</em> heels. So + Gilmore reminded his wife. So Hugh needlessly reminded Ramsey. From the mate it was further + learned that the pursuer had overhauled the pursued between Petit Goufre—which he and the + whole company called Petty Gulf—and Grand Gulf; places named before the days of steam for + their dangerous eddies. Yet, he went on to tell Ramsey, the swifter boat, with more freight to + put ashore and with a larger appetite for cord-wood, had never got clean away. Even now, in + full view ahead, she was down at half speed, wooding up from a barge in tow alongside. You + could hear her crew singing as they trotted under their great shoulder loads of wood. The + amateurs, except Hugh but including Ramsey, caught up their song and were promptly joined by a + group around the bell of the <em>Westwood</em> as that gallant loser foamed along between the + <em>Votaress</em> and the shore:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Oh, if I had a scolding wife,</p> +<p class="i8"> As sure as you are born</p> +<p class="i6"> I'd take her down to Noo Orleans</p> +<p class="i8"> And trade her off for corn."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Presently the <em>Antelope</em> cast off the emptied flat in midstream, and a redoubled + whiteness behind her paddle-boxes showed full speed.</p> + + <p>"Now we can give her a square deal!" said a youth.</p> + + <p>"And pass her inside of an hour!" declared another.</p> + + <p>"In Bunch's Cut-off!" ventured one to the commodore, but the commodore said the + <em>Votaress</em> herself was hungry for wood, and the mate confirmed him by a nod.</p> + + <p>"How much wood," some one asked the mate, "will a boat like this use up in twenty-four + hours?" It quickened the blood to be up here midway between these turbid waters and yonder + passionate sky so joyous in one quarter, so angry in another; particularly to be here while + steadily distancing one beautiful boat and overtaking another "amid green islands," as Mrs. + Gilmore quoted—one of which, still in sight astern, was that old haunt of flatboat robbers, + called Island Ninety-four, Stack's Island, or Crow's Nest. One half forgot the sad state of + affairs below. Conversation glided as swiftly as a flock of swallows and in as many + directions.</p> + + <p>"How much wood?" said the mate. "Well, that sort o' depends. I once part owned a boat that + fo' one whole month didn't burn enough wood to dry the sheriff's shoes, but that 'uz 'cause he + kep' her tied up to the bank."</p> + + <p>Ramsey did not hear this and cared nothing for the laugh it won. She had seen the doctor and + the priest slip from the twins' room in the texas and go below aft. "How's mom-a?" she eagerly + asked the commodore.</p> + + <p>"Very well."</p> + + <p>"How's Lucian?"</p> + + <p>Lucian was so much better, he told her, that both brothers had been returned to their cabin + stateroom.</p> + + <p>"Then you've just put a new case into the texas!"</p> + + <p>The commodore smiled. "Yes, from the freight deck."</p> + + <p>"Freight—humph! That's the lower deck," she reminiscently said, turning to Hugh. "Who is + it? Is it—Otto?"</p> + + <p>But Hugh's face wore its absurd iron look, which had its usual effect on her. The old man + spoke: "Will Miss Ramsey do us all a favor; one that will help the play?"</p> + + <p>"Whew, yes! That'll help everything. What is it?"</p> + + <p>"It's to make no mention of the new case to any one."</p> + + <p>"Till the close of the evening," put in the Gilmores, and Ramsey saw that they knew. + Yet——</p> + + <p>"All right," she said. "Oh, I know who it is." She tossed her curls. "It's Otto's mother." + But both tone and glance lacked conviction. The commodore left them.</p> + + <p>Meantime the mate was amusing his half of the company.</p> + + <p>"How much wood," he was repeating. "I as't that myself once 'pon a time. D'dy'ever hear the + answer? They tell the yarn on lots o' loons but I 'uz the real one 'n' I got the answer f'm Gid + Hayle aboard the old <em>Admiral</em>."</p> + + <p>The names caught Ramsey's ear and drew her gaze. "That <em>Admiral</em>," continued the + mate, "could eat wood like a harrikin. Says Hayle to me: 'Well, that depends on yo' boat 'n' + yo' wood. With the right boat 'n' the right wood—oak, ash, hickory—y'ought to burn f'm sixty + to sevemty cord' a day. But ef yo' feed'n' this boat cottonwood, why, yo' simply shovellin' + shavin's into hell.'"</p> + + <p>Ramsey looked sad. Weary of contrasts unflattering to her men-folks, she glanced from the + refined actor to the elegant old commodore, blushed to the player's wife and accepted her + embracing arm. "Yass," pursued the mate, "s'e jest so: 'Yo' simply shovellin' + shavin's——'"</p> + + <p>It was not Hugh's motion that cut him short but Ramsey's voice as with a flash she said: "Go + on. I don't care! If pop-a said it it's so!"</p> + + <p>A raindrop wet her cheek. From the pilot-house Ned, as he pulled the wheel over to chase the + hardpressed <em>Antelope</em> westward into Bunch's Cut-off, warningly drawled that they were + about to run into a shower. At his side Watson's cub was letting down the storm board. A + blue-black cloud overhanging the green head of the cut-off had suddenly widened across all that + quarter and turned leaden gray. A writhing wind struck the boat fairly in front. The waters + ruffled, flattened, and seemed to run faster. On an island close abeam thousands of young + cottonwoods, a mantle of unbroken verdure, bent low, paled, reeled, darkened, and whipped. Dead + ahead, a flash of lightning dropped from zenith to sky-line, stood blindingly quivering, and + scarcely had vanished when the thunder cracked to split the ear.</p> + + <p>"Scoot, ladies," said the mate, "or in three shakes you'll be as wet as the river!" A single + glance up the stream—though Ramsey must needs take a double one—showed the rain coming, so + near and so dense that not a sign of the <em>Antelope</em> was visible. The company fled, some + to a larboard stair, some to a starboard. Hugh and Ramsey suddenly missed the Gilmores, the + Gilmores missed them, each pair turned to find the other, the lashing rain leaped down upon + them as if they were all it had come for, and with words lost in a second thunder-clap the mate + threw open the captain's room, pressed them in, and began to dry them with a whisk-broom. The + captain, he said, was below. "Off watch didn't mean off watch to John Courteney."</p> + + <p>"Nor to Gideon Hayle," prompted Ramsey, and while he ha-haed a cordial assent she asked: + "Whereabouts below is he—Captain Courteney?" But the mate had turned away and she asked Hugh: + "Where's your father? What's he doing?" Her thought was still on the unmentionable new + case.</p> + + <p>"I'll tell you," said Hugh in the low voice she liked so well. "Will you look at the river + with me?"</p> + + <p>He felt her responsive nod and smile even after they had moved to the front window farthest + from their three seniors and stood gazing out into the beautiful tempest. Both wind and + downpour had somewhat slackened their fury. A bit nearer than before and more to starboard they + could faintly make out the <em>Antelope</em>, so white that it seemed as if she had gone down + and her ghost come up wrapped and whipped in sheets of rain.</p> + + <p>"You don't ask me about your mother," said Hugh.</p> + </div><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXVI</h2> + + <h3>CAPTAIN'S ROOM</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Ah!—when you've been all this time with us!"</p> + + <p>"No, once I was away, a good while."</p> + + <p>"That's so! And while you was away—were away—" In lively undertone Ramsey ran on to tell + of Mrs. Gilmore's having in Hugh's absence called in her maid Harriet to show the young lady + from Napoleon how to do a bit of stage business without a hint of the stage. At the tale's end + the pair glanced round from the nearing <em>Antelope</em> to the Gilmores and back again. + "Harriet's talented. You wouldn't think she could be talented. And isn't she handsome!"</p> + + <p>"I've yet to see her face," said Hugh abstractedly.</p> + + <p>"That's so, too! When she heard you coming back that time, she ran like a kildee." The + narrator checked a laugh. "How's mom-a? Oh, she's well or you'd have told me. I just can't + imagine mom-a any way but well." But again the tone betrayed incertitude.</p> + + <p>"Yes, she's well," said the youth. "So is my father."</p> + + <p>"Where is he?"</p> + + <p>Hugh's queer solemnity deepened. "He's down in a stateroom with your brothers. The senator + and the general have just joined them."</p> + + <p>What a freshet of grave information! Ramsey laughed straight at him. "You talk like a trance + medium."</p> + + <p>"Not at all."</p> + + <p>"You do! I heard one once. You're in a trance now."</p> + + <p>"Not at all."</p> + + <p>"You are! Y'always are." When Hugh laughed, her laugh redoubled. The mate and the players, + though busy talking, took time to smile; the mate winked an eye. Suddenly Ramsey sobered. "Is + Basile in hot water again? Tell me quick."</p> + + <p>"Tell me first," said Hugh, "why his two brothers——"</p> + + <p>"Are so wild? Because pop-a won't allow mom-a to hold them in. Pop-a says: 'Oh, let 'em sow + their wild oats early, like me; so deep they'll never come up.' Oh, my! they're up now."</p> + + <p>"I wasn't going to ask that."</p> + + <p>"Well, I can't tell if you don't ask."</p> + + <p>"Why do they keep themselves so apart from you?"</p> + + <p>"Me? Oh, they just can't stand me!—nor even mom-a."</p> + + <p>"That's bad, for all of us."</p> + + <p>"All of—who? Oh!... Humph!... Oh, but it's worse for Basile! He goes with them till he's + sick of 'em, then tries mom-a and me till he's just as sick of—of me—and himself—and then + strays off to whoever he can pick up with!"</p> + + <p>"This time," said Hugh, "he's been picked up."</p> + + <p>"Oh, <em>now</em> what's happened?"</p> + + <p>"He sickened of those boys and girls he was selling tickets with and to drown yesterday's + recollections he took a hand at cards with two strangers."</p> + + <p>Ramsey caught her breath but then laughed joyously. "He couldn't! He had no money!"</p> + + <p>"Except from his sale of tickets."</p> + + <p>"Oh!" Her tears started. "Oh, where was mammy Joy?"</p> + + <p>"Nursing the sick."</p> + + <p>"The new—?" She barely escaped breaking her word. "Oh," she moaned, "he didn't use + <em>that</em> money?"</p> + + <p>"He lost it. He was wild to play on and recover it, and his brothers were as eager to have + him do it."</p> + + <p>"Why, <em>they</em> couldn't help him. They tried, yesterday, to borrow from mom-a.... + Wait." The last word came softly. The Gilmores and the mate drew near to see the + <em>Antelope</em> overtaken. There she loomed, out on the starboard bow, shrouded in the + swirling rain. How unlike the earlier passing, down below Natchez! No touching of guards, no + hail by sign or sound. "Like ladies under two umbrell's!" laughed Ramsey to the actor's + wife.</p> + + <p>Now squarely abreast, stem and stem, wheel and wheel, the two crafts seemed to stand + motionless with the tempest rushing aft between them. Then fathom after fathom the + <em>Antelope</em> fell behind, the mate and the Gilmores moved away, Ramsey softly bade Hugh + "go on," and his first utterance drew her liveliest look.</p> + + <p>"There's another thing makes your brothers wild," he said, "which they're not to blame + for."</p> + + <p>"What's that?"</p> + + <p>"Our starving plantation life," said Hugh, speaking low.</p> + + <p>"Why, they call it the only life for a gentleman!"</p> + + <p>"That's because they're so starved, so marooned."</p> + + <p>"It's so tasteless without high seasoning, Basile says," said Ramsey. She meditated. "Basile + loves to eat."</p> + + <p>Said Hugh, "It's a life I don't want you to live," and for an age of seconds they looked + into each other's eyes.</p> + + <p>Then Ramsey—not drooping a lash—"I love the river."</p> + + <p>"For keeps?"</p> + + <p>She nodded, and still they looked. At length said Hugh:</p> + + <p>"I tried hard to make friends with the twins, but——"</p> + + <p>"They wouldn't. I know. Mr. Watson told Mrs. Gilmore."</p> + + <p>"Yet a while ago, on the strength of it, they sent for me, to ask me to ask my father to + indorse their note."</p> + + <p>Ramsey gasped: "You declined, of course?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, but I told those other two passengers if they cast another card with any of your + brothers they'd go ashore, themselves, as quick as the boat could land."</p> + + <p>Ramsey turned and gazed out on the subsiding storm. "Why are the senator and the general + down there?"</p> + + <p>"For quite another matter."</p> + + <p>"Weapons. I know. Mr. Watson told Mrs. Gilmore. I thought that was settled."</p> + + <p>"It is."</p> + + <p>"Then why is your father there?"</p> + + <p>"To get the twins away from the senator and the general, and their brother away from them + and back to his——"</p> + + <p>"Sister!" softly laughed Ramsey. "Oh, not to mom-a! just to me! I'll go—" She started, but + Hugh said:</p> + + <p>"To you, yes, when my father has put him in a way to cover his loss without telling your + mother."</p> + + <p>Their eyes met again. Hers were bright and wet with accusal. "Is that <em>your</em> + proposition?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, and my father's too."</p> + + <p>She whipped round and gazed out again over the tawny waters. To gaze out beside her he came + so near that they almost touched. The shores were once more a clear picture, greener than ever + and unvexed by the wind. The rain was slight and fine. The boat was swinging northward toward a + small blue rift in the gray. At the room's farther door the mate was leaving the Gilmores for + the forecastle.</p> + + <p>Without a stir she asked: "Why don't <em>you</em> bring Basile?"</p> + + <p>"I must stay with our friends here."</p> + + <p>The surprised girl glanced across at the players.</p> + + <p>Side by side they also were gazing out and speaking low. "I'd like to know why with + them."</p> + + <p>"And I must tell you."</p> + + <p>She faintly tossed, gazing out again: "Why 'must'?"</p> + + <p>"Because to you I <em>can</em>—tell things."</p> + + <p>"Haven't you told your father yet—about—Phyllis? Humph!—had to practise on me first."</p> + + <p>"Yes. But there's a better reason—for everything I've ever told you."</p> + + <p>She slowly faced him, and he added: "I want your help."</p> + + <p>"For what? Not the Gilmores?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, for them too now. They're in real danger."</p> + + <p>"Fr'—from what? Not—not from—my brothers?"</p> + + <p>"The twins, yes, and the general, John the Baptist, and a dozen more. They've guessed it out + that the Gilmores——"</p> + + <p>"Are—So have I! A, b, ab——"</p> + + <p>Hugh was mute. She glanced round at the players' backs and then again at him, asking with + soft abruptness:</p> + + <p>"Where's the bishop? With mom-a yet?"</p> + + <p>Hugh kept silence. "No, you know he's not," she answered for him. In her steady eyes he + could see, growing every moment, a new sense of the fearful plight of things and of her + relation to them. Her young bosom rose and fell, and when her lips parted to speak again their + corners twitched. "He—he's the new case! I will mention it! I've a good right. Why shouldn't + I?"</p> + + <p>"Only that he didn't want you to know. He wanted you—us—all, without knowing, to go right + on with the programme. We must. Even now you will, won't you?"</p> + + <p>She could only nod. Just then Mrs. Gilmore's maid, in a long burnoose, with umbrellas and + wraps, rose into sight close below, on a stair from the passenger-guards, spread one of her + umbrellas and looked eagerly about for her mistress. One glance went up to Ramsey, who beckoned + through the glass, but the maid gave no sign of seeing her. The slight rain had momentarily + freshened, and she was so muffled to the eyes in the light veil which was always on her head or + shoulders in pretty Spanish fashion that when she started forward round the skylights for the + other side of the roof Ramsey laughed to Hugh:</p> + + <p>"Why, I know it's Harriet by her veil, don't you?"</p> + + <p>"I know only the veil. I saw it come aboard."</p> + + <p>"The veil of mystery!" she playfully murmured, began to hum a tune and bit her lip on + noticing that it was "Gideon's Band." "Don't you think I might omit that to-night?"</p> + + <p>"No, it's the best thing you do."</p> + + <p>"Humph!—mighty poor reason—Aha! I knew it was Harriet."</p> + + <p>The Gilmores were beckoning out their window. The actor opened the door on that side and the + maid came warily in. Briefly and in hurried apology under her breath while dealing out her + burdens she told of the impatience of those below to resume the rehearsal and of their having + driven her to this errand the moment they could. Mrs. Gilmore handed Hugh a shawl for Ramsey + and an umbrella for himself, her husband laid a mantle on her shoulders, and the maid reopened + the door he had shut; but Hugh called from the one opposite that it was the better way and the + players started for it. The younger pair gave them precedence, a breeze swept through, the maid + reshut her door, Hugh, holding his, bade her follow her mistress, she sprang to obey and the + "veil of mystery," which caught in the closed door, was stripped from her like a sail from a + wreck. <a name="col02" id="col02"></a></p> + + <div class="c1"> + <a href="images/col02.jpg"><img src="images/col02s.jpg" alt= + ""Stop!... Stop! the safest place for you on this boat now is right where you are standing—Phyllis"" + border="0"></a> + <br>"Stop!... Stop! the safest place for you on this boat now is right where you are standing—Phyllis" + </div> + + <p>Instantly she crouched and with the swiftness of a wild creature flashed round and snatched + open the door by which she had entered; but a form pressed between her and the opening and when + she threw up her face she was looking close into the astounded eyes of Hugh Courteney. Her + frame recoiled but not her eyes; his own held them. Without turning he shut the door at his + back as Ramsey closed the one opposite, and still holding the maid servant's gaze, he followed + her slow retreat, and in that droll depth of voice which earlier had been Ramsey's keenest + amusement said to the eyes so near his own:</p> + + <p>"Stop!... Stop! the safest place for you on this boat now is right where you are + standing—Phyllis."</p> + </div><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXVII</h2> + + <h3>BASILE USES A CANE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>There was a gorgeous sunset that day. Many were on the uppermost decks to see or show it, + amid a lively social confusion dull to Hugh but delightful to Ramsey. In fact, Hugh had begun + to want her and the hurricane-deck to himself.</p> + + <p>The actor and his wife were there. And there, indifferent to sunsets but as hungry as ever + for company, was Basile. Dinner, at midday, had dissolved the group which the twins had for a + time held together. The captain had squared Basile with the ticket treasurer and by some + adroitness of Ramsey and Mrs. Gilmore the restless boy had been won from his brothers and given + a hand at euchre with the actor, the senator, and a picturesque Kentuckian, late of California, + "back East" by way of the Isthmus and about to return by the Plains.</p> + + <p>Another of this hurricane-roof assemblage was a young gentleman whom Ramsey told Basile it + was not a bit nice to speak of as Watson's cub. And there were all the amateur players, eager + for the evening's performance; and there, too, the senator, the general, John the Baptist, and + others with whom Ramsey had not made better acquaintance only for lack of moments! One of these + was the Californian. Think of it! A man whose shirt-pin was a gold nugget of his own digging, + yet a man so modest as to play euchre with Basile, and who stood thus far utterly uncatechised + save by John the Baptist. Oh, time, time! A history of this voyage must and should be written + with large room given to these last ten hours: "Chronicles of a Busy Life," by "A Young Lady of + Natchez."</p> + + <p>Captain Courteney stood near the bell. Watson was up at the wheel. His cub—whose attentions + to Basile, like the Californian's, only Ramsey could not fathom—told her this was the second + dog-watch. He was telling her everything he knew. She was asking him everything he knew not. + Indeed, among all there was great giving and getting of information on matters alow and aloft. + There was, too, frequent praise of the commodore, the doctor, the priest, the sisters of + charity, Madame Hayle—all those heroic ones on the immigrant deck, where the pestilence was + making awful headway. But there was so perfect a silence as to the bishop that it was manifest + that every one knew about him but was too discreet to tell.</p> + + <p>Matters beyond the boat, too, far and near, were much discussed, though some actually saw + the sunset they were all there to see. Nowhere within five hundred miles the compass round, the + actor said, was there a town of ten thousand souls, if of five thousand. Nowhere within a + hundred miles was there a town population of five hundred. Since the morning thundershower the + <em>Votaress</em> had come ninety miles, yet the great Yazoo Delta was still ahead, abeam, + astern, on the river's Mississippi side. Some one told two or three, who told four or five, it + was a hundred and seventy-five miles long by an average of sixty wide, and covered seven + thousand square miles. From zenith to farthest east the clouds that overhung it were pink and + ashes-of-roses in a sea of blue. The entire west was one splendor of crimson and saffron, + scarlet and gold, with intervals of black and green. Even the turbid river between was an + unbroken rosy glow. The vast wooded swamps over on that shore were in Arkansas. Louisiana had + been left behind in that vivid moment when Ramsey and Hugh were making their discovery of + "Harriet" and when Hugh, we may here add, was handing back her "veil of mystery."</p> + + <p>"When I saw you do that," Ramsey had later said to him, "I knew she was safe—and she knew + she was!" The laughing girl's mind was brimful yet of the amazing incident, at every pause in + her talk, which was now with this one, now with that, and often with the cub.</p> + + <p>It was interesting to note the masterful-careless air with which Watson's apprentice more + than once endeavored to make it clear to Hugh, concerning this daughter of Gideon, that, + whereas the mud clerk, at his desk below, was utterly love-bemired, his, the cub's, liking for + her was solely for her countless questions, of which he said that "you never could tell where + the next one would hit." No singed moth he! To prove it he offered Hugh a very blasé + query: "What do women ever do with all the answers we men give 'em, hey?"</p> + + <p>Hugh could not tell him. Yet to Hugh the riddle was at least as old as his acquaintance with + Ramsey. He pondered it as he and Mrs. Gilmore conversed in undertone while gazing on the + wonderful changes of the sky, and while Ramsey, near by, visibly studied the exhorter, whom she + was cross-examining together with the actor on the lore of the river as they had known it in + the days before steam. For she had actually got those two antipodes face to face again in a + sort of truce-rampant like that of the lion and the unicorn on the <em>Votaress's</em> very + thick plates and massive coffee-cups. She was not like most girls, Hugh thought. While their + interrogations were generally for the entertainment, not to say flattery, of their masculine + informants, hers were the outreachings of an eager mind free from self-concern and athirst for + knowledge to be stored, honey-like, for future use. Some women have butterfly minds, that + merely drink the social garden's nectar. Others are more like bees. The busy bee Ramsey, Hugh + felt assured, was by every instinct a honey gatherer.</p> + + <p>But who, at a single cast, ever netted the whole truth as to any one? Even while he so + mused—at the same time doing his best to give Mrs. Gilmore his whole attention—Ramsey, with + her back turned yet vividly aware of him, willing—preferring—that he should hear alone from + that lady what she would later draw from him, and ardently mindful of his word that he "wanted + her help," was not merely gathering facts regarding her beloved river but was also deep in + diplomacy, endeavoring with all her youthful arts, such as they were, to help him.</p> + + <p>Her manœuvres were fairly good. To her it seemed as though this spirit of strife so + electrically pervading the <em>Votaress</em> might yet be tranquilized through a war of wits + exclusively and she was using her own with the tactical nimbleness of the feminine mind. She + knew the twins were down on the boiler deck again, one faint, yet both pursuing, egged on by + him of the stallion's eye and him of the eagle's, and all the more socially and dangerously + active because, by strict orders to every one, cut off from the gaming-table and the bar. She + could not do a hundred things at once—though she could do six or seven—and it was well to + grapple this one task first. Thus she kept Hugh free to confer with the player's wife as to + "Harriet."</p> + + <p>Her husband, the wife told Hugh, had drawn "Harriet" from the water just as Dan Hayle sank, + and husband and wife had concealed her on their flatboat, unable to resist her wild appeal not + to be given back into slavery.</p> + + <p>"We didn't dream she'd done anything wrong; she didn't tell us that for years. Players, Mr. + Hugh, don't meddle much in politics and we'd never thought whether we were for slavery or + against it until there was the whole awful question sprung on us in an instant."</p> + + <p>"So you took her——?"</p> + + <p>"For my maid, yes—on wages, of course—down to New Orleans—we were bound there—and kept + her when we went North and ever since."</p> + + <p>"And she's always been——?"</p> + + <p>"Well-behaved, faithful, kind, and wise. That one terrible deed, which she says you know all + about——"</p> + + <p>"I do."</p> + + <p>"It seemed to change the very foundations of her character, to convert her soul."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Hugh, as if speaking from experience.</p> + + <p>"Yet she kept her high spirit. She would never put on a disguise. And really that was safest + since she wasn't being looked for by any one. 'I'm no advertised runaway,' she said. Still + she's never been foolhardy. She'd never have come—we'd never have brought her—aboard this + boat could we have foreseen the mishap to her captain which decided you and your father and + grandfather to come on her."</p> + + <p>So ran the story hurriedly, but before it had got thus far Hugh's attention, in spite of + him, was divided. It was wise, we have implied, for Ramsey to take the exhorter while he was in + a manageable humor. He had come to the roof with an improved regard, got by his fall in the + cabin, for the "'Piscopalian play-actoh," and with brute shrewdness was glad to make an outward + show of good-will to Gilmore, and accepted with avidity every pretty advance of Gid Hayle's + "bodacious brick-top gal." Hugh could hear him answering Ramsey's inquiries regarding various + pieces of river seen or unseen during the day.</p> + + <p>"Spanish-moss Ben'? Why, they calls it that by reason 'at when we-all used to come down the + riveh in flatboats, that's whah we al'ays fus' see the moss a-swingin' f'om the trees. Yass, + sawt o' like scalps f'om wigwam poles. An' that ho'pe us to know whah'bouts we 'uz at. We + knowed we 'uz at Spanish-moss Ben'. Didn' we, Mr. play-actoh?"</p> + + <p>The actor would have said yes, but the fountain of information flowed straight on: "Yass, + same as at Islan' Ten—aw Twenty—aw any numbeh, we knowed by count we 'uz that many islan's + f'om whah the Ohio comes in. Ef that wah the tenth islan' we'd seed then we knowed that 'uz + Islan' Ten aw whaheveh it wah, whetheh it wah a' islan' yit aw b'en j'inded on to the main sho' + sence it got its numbeh."</p> + + <p>They were rounding Cypress Bend and Ramsey had asked another question. "Was this where you + first used to see cypress woods?"</p> + + <p>"Thundeh, no! This gits h-its name by reason 'at they steals mo' millions o' dollahs wuth o' + cyp'ess timbeh f'om the gove'ment out'n this ben' than any otheh on the whole Fatheh o' Watehs, + es the Injins say. You know that, Mr. play-actoh. Lawd! all the places ain't name' alike. 'Way + back down yondeh whah we met the <em>Troubado'</em> this mawnin'——"</p> + + <p>"Oh!" moaned Ramsey, "another o' pop-a's boats!"</p> + + <p>"Yass, whilst you-all 'uz a-temptin' Provi-<em>dence</em> a-practisin' of a play! Down + yondeh by Islan' Ninety, Seary's Islan'—which it ain't be'n a raal islan' these fawty + year'—you 'membeh, Mr. play-actoh, that ole san'-bah jess below it, full o' snags as my + granny's mouth, which befo' the earthquake it used to be a reg-lah death-trap fo' flatboats? + Well, <em>you</em> know h-it didn' git its name by reason 'at anybody fo' the fust time see + thah Gen'al Hull's Lef' Leg! No; an' likewise away up yondeh pas' the Tennessee line, at Islan' + Thutty-eight, whah the current's so full o' biles an' swells an' snags an' sawyehs 'at they + calls it the Devil's Elbow! Now, nobody ain't neveh sho' 'nough see' the devil's identical + elbow—in this life. No, suh, you'd ought to know that ef anybody. Oh, no, Devil's Elbow, + Presi-<em>dent's</em> Islan', Paddy's Hen an' Chickens, Devil's Race-groun', Devil's Bake-ov'm, + they jess sahcaystic names." He turned to Watson's cub, who with Basile had joined the trio, + and was watching to get in a word. "You know that."</p> + + <p>The boy assented. "But did you see," he asked Ramsey, "the swarms of birds down around + Island Eighty-eight?"</p> + + <p>"No!" interposed the exhorter, "she wah still atemptin' Provi-<em>dence</em> in like manneh + as afo'said!"</p> + + <p>Basile flashed resentment. "To put it politely," he retorted. But the actor and Ramsey + laughed.</p> + + <p>"Oh, John the Babtis' wouldn't 'a' putt it no politer. I see' the birds. We 'uz a meetin' + the <em>Southe'n Cross</em>——"</p> + + <p>"Anoth'—!" Ramsey began to wail.</p> + + <p>"Anotheh o' Gid Hayle's boats, yass, an' mighty nigh his bes'. Round'n' the foot o' the + islan' our whistle bellered howdy to her an' we riz one solid squah mile o' wings; an' when she + bellered back, a-round'n' its head, she riz anotheh. Yit them birds wa'n't a pinch naw a + patchin' to what I hev see' thah; millions an' millions an' millions <em>uv</em> millions o' + swan, pelikin, san'-hill crane, geese——"</p> + + <p>"Birds of paradise?" asked Brick-top.</p> + + <p>"They 'uz all birds o' paradise! the whole kit an' bilin'! by reason 'at this <em>wah</em> a + paradise them days, this-yeh whole 'Azoo Delta, which you, suh"—the speaker turned to Gilmore + with reviving spleen. By opposite stairs, larboard and starboard, the twins, each carrying a + sword-cane, as Hugh saw by the double gold band around it a finger-length from the top, had + just reached the roof, and the emboldened orator began to make it plain that despite his + "bodacious" criticism of their sister, overheard by Julian, he had at least half righted + himself with both brothers and was on their side in whatever was now afoot.</p> + + <p>"Which you, suh," he repeated, "hev tuck on yoseff to drap hints 'at it ain't a civilize' + country!—by reason 'at it ain't cityfied! Like Paris, I s'pose, my Gawd!—with thah high-heel' + shoes an' low-neck' dresses!"</p> + + <p>His voice rose as the twins, Mrs. Gilmore, and Hugh came close. "Aw Babylon with thah + jeweldry!—rings on thah fingehs an' bells on thah toes! Aw Sodom an' Gomorrah!—with thah + staht-neckid statutes! Well, thaynk the Lawd, yo're plumb right, we ain't! Thaynk Gawd we + <em>air</em> a 'new-bawn civilization'—as says you when you didn' suspicion I wah + a-listenin'"—he fell into a mincing mimicry—"'a new-bawn civilization with all the chahm an' + all the pity o' new-bawn things,' says you to yo' wife—ef she air yo' wife."</p> + + <p>The shock of the insult ran through the group and out to a dozen hearers beyond; to the + captain and a knot of young people courting his conversation; to Watson, high above; to the + stallion-eyed man and the eagle-eyed, who both had come up with the twins and were adhering to + the senator, the general, and the Kentuckian from California.</p> + + <p>Gilmore paled with anger. Ramsey's merriment, which had begun at the beginning, ceased for a + breath and then, to the loathing of the twins, came on worse as she found herself very erect in + one of Mrs. Gilmore's gentle arms. The eyes of both the wife and the girl were on the actor and + their every nerve was unstrung. Beseechingly he waved them away.</p> + + <p>"Come," the wife said, though without moving, "come on."</p> + + <p>"Oh, not a step!" laughed Ramsey. "They—they need us! We must help!" She had turned her + frank gaze to Hugh in mingled wonder, exultancy, and distress. It seemed a dream that he should + be the dull boy of yesterday. He was speaking to the exhorter and appeared not to have her in + sight or mind, although, in fact, her untimely levity ran him through like a dart. His absurdly + deep voice was rich with a note not of mere forbearance but of veritable comradery, yet his + eyes, as they held the offender's, were as big and dangerous as she had ever seen her mighty + father's and she laughed on for what laughter might be worth, the only help she could + furnish.</p> + + <p>"Not that you mean the slightest offence," he prompted.</p> + + <p>The exhorter stiffened up. The nearer few packed close. Slender Basile was just at Hugh's + left between him and the twins. The exhorter opened his mouth to reply but the words hung in + his throat. To help them out he gave his head a disputative tilt, but Basile's hysterical + treble broke in:</p> + + <p>"Say no! You slang-whanging lick-skillet, say no!"</p> + + <p>The man gasped. The boy whirled to his convalescent brother. "Give me that cane!" He + snatched it, whipped out its keen stiletto, and with all his light force smote the empty staff, + left-handed, across the exhorter's cheek and ear, yelping: "Say no! Say it!"</p> + + <p>"No!" said the victim, but the word was equivocal and the boy beside himself. For Hugh had + wrenched the staff from him and was holding the hand that gripped the stiletto, while the lad, + with streaming tears, plunged, whined and gnashed at the backwoodsman.</p> + + <p>"Let me go!" he begged. "I see their game! Let me kill their insulter of ladies!"</p> + + <p>The game was not hard to see. At a better moment than this blunderer had chosen, some one + was to provoke the actor to an assault which the twins would make their pretext for a combined + attack on that political "suspect" and common pest, using the canes as canes until Hugh should + be drawn into the fray, when the canes would become swords, dirks, the actor a secondary + consideration, and the game—interesting. Hugh saw it but saw it with even less sense of peril + than Ramsey, who stood her ground nervously cling-ing to her chaperon, yet flashing and + tinkling with a mirth as of some reckless sport; a mirth mildly reflected by her companion and + which, for Hugh, suddenly shed a ludicrous light on every one: on himself and Basile; on the + pallid Lucian as he peevishly, vainly, ordered Ramsey off the scene; on Julian as he posed in a + tragical disdain more theatrical than the actor's—who also saw the game; on the captain's + dumfounded young folk; on the senator, the general, and the Californian, standing agaze, and on + the two men with them, whose extra—eagle-eyed, stallion-eyed—solicitude told him they were + the lenders of the canes. All at once, still holding the anguished Basile, he saw, and observed + that the actor saw, the heaped-up nonsense of the affair. Ramsey's mood leaped to both of them + like a flame, and they laughed together while Hugh exhorted the exhorter: "Go below! For your + life, go!"</p> + + <p>The man cast a pleading look on the twins, but when Lucian granted him only a withering + smile, and Julian with his cane in his folded arms said majestically, "Go, you hopeless ass," + he went—with haste.</p> + + <p>Out of the group by the bell John Courteney, apparently as unmoved as if all this were but + common routine, answered Watson's silent look with his own while the pilot, taking his ear from + a speaking-tube, grasped the bell-rope.</p> + + <p>"Wood?" asked the captain.</p> + </div><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXVIII</h2> + + <h3>THE CANE AGAIN</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + "Partly, sir." + + <p>All marked the qualifying word though at the same time all witnessed the cross-fire of + challenge and retort that flashed between the three brothers. Basile had dropped his weapon and + ceased to struggle, yet still showed a mental torture, the same he had betrayed at the previous + afternoon's worship, and in all hearts, even those of the senator's group, it brought back for + him the same tender indulgence as before. Meanwhile Ramsey and the cub pilot had caught up the + cane's two parts and laid them in the hands of the actor, who quietly resheathed them while + Basile mocked the twins. "So that's the way Hayles," jeered the lad, "stand by a cat's-paw + friend, is it?"</p> + + <p>"Hayles," said Julian, "never settle difficulties before ladies."</p> + + <p>The boy resisted again as his laughing sister half knelt to lay her arms about him + soothingly. "Oh, these ladies won't mind," he tearfully sneered. "Come on! Here's your man, + with the steel, and three behind each of you to see fair play!" A wave of the hand indicated + Lucian and the canes' owners on one side, and himself, the cub pilot, and Hugh on the other. + The latter and the players, momentarily together, gave sudden attention, but again the humor of + the situation saved it. The laugh was general; the young people about the captain, whom his + equanimity and Ramsey's and Mrs. Gilmore's stay had emboldened to linger, drew near; and the + three groups became one.</p> + + <p>The twins themselves might have made fair actors, though no one ever had dared suggest it. + Julian scowled on Gilmore and Hugh and half drew the other cane from his folded arms, but then + looked distantly away, while Lucian with an indolent air said to the younger brother:</p> + + <p>"Babe! Hayles never line up on two sides."</p> + + <p>To retort, the lad had to snatch Ramsey's fingers from his lips and so lost his chance, + while under her breath she futilely implored him to desist.</p> + + <p>"I'm not!" he wailed back at her. "I'm not ridiculous! You! you'll find judgment-day + ridiculous, I don't doubt—oh, good Lordy! stop your eternal titter."</p> + + <p>The great bell thundered and he recoiled. "There! wood! 'wood, partly.' And partly what + else? d'you know? Another funeral." In spite of her fond restraints he cried out to the + company: "With more to follow! The bishop——"</p> + + <p>But the sister's fingers were on his lips once more and while she half whispered, half + laughed her tender chidings old Joy appeared, coming from the bishop's bedside. Ramsey turned a + beseeching look to Hugh but the general had halted the nurse with a private question and now + proclaimed:</p> + + <p>"Th-the bishop's doing as well's could be exxxpected."</p> + + <p>"Expected!" cried Basile, "yes, when he's expected to die. And then it'll be my turn."</p> + + <p>"It won't!" exclaimed Ramsey. "It sha'n't!" The boat was rounding to at a wood-yard and most + of the company were glad to turn away to the shoreward scene. The boy dropped his head on the + black woman's shoulder.</p> + + <p>"Oh, mammy, if I was the bishop, or you, or even Ramsey, I wouldn't mind, for I could be + ready to go. Oh, God! why can't I get religion?"</p> + + <p>"Why, 'caze you done got it, sugah boy. You done got religion 'istiddy." Only the twins + smiled. The captain stepped down to the roof's forward edge as the boat neared shore.</p> + + <p>"And you're not going to get anything else," said Ramsey, snatching the lad's hands and + finding them cold.</p> + + <p>He moaned in unbelief: "What do you know about it? Oh, sis', if I could only die doing some + fine thing!—in a fight!—or an explosion!—anything but a deathbed!"</p> + + <p>"Law'! honey," interposed old Joy, "what you want to do fine things faw? You's done got + religion. You on'y ain't got peace. Come to de bishop. Gawd won't let a religious enquireh + kitch noth'n'. I 'uz tellin' de bishop 'bout missy an' you, bofe gitt'n' religion 'istiddy, an' + he say, s'e: 'Go, fetch yo' young missy; fetch bofe.'"</p> + + <p>"We'll go!" said Ramsey before the willing boy could reply, though from every side came + protests.</p> + + <p>For once Hugh and the twins were in accord. "You must not!" called Hugh. "You shall not!" + said Julian.</p> + + <p>She glanced from one to the other, tinkling her prettiest, and suddenly flushed. "We + will!"</p> + + <p>The twins sent Hugh a hot look which he paid back with a cold one, while Mrs. Gilmore + said:</p> + + <p>"I'll have to go with you, Ramsey."</p> + + <p>For one breath the girl was taken aback, but then:</p> + + <p>"Yes," she said, "to the door, that's all."</p> + + <p>As they turned after Basile and Joy she added: "'Twas I, you know, that got the bishop sick + in the first place."</p> + + <p>At the corner of the texas they glanced back but were reassured to see the cub-pilot + disappearing on the nearest boiler-deck stair at the outer, depopulated side of the boat, the + actor and Hugh moving toward it, and the twins holding the field and scowling after their + opponents. Nevertheless, the moment the sister and wife passed from view Julian sturdily, + Lucian feebly, pressed after Hugh and the player. The last witness was gone; now was their + time.</p> + + <p>"Mr. Courteney," said Julian. The other two looked back and paused.</p> + + <p>Lucian spoke: "Mr. Gilmore, you have my cane, sir."</p> + + <p>The player smiled. "Is this really your cane?"</p> + + <p>With a ripping oath Julian put in: "What's that to you, you damned Gypsy? Give him the + stick!"</p> + + <p>The player let go a stage laugh. Hugh took a step forward with a grave show of self-command + hardly justified. "Mr. Hayle," he said, "you don't want to be another 'hopeless ass,' do + you?"</p> + + <p>"Gawd!" Julian rose to his toes and lifted and brought down his cane. But it never reached + its mark. One stride of the actor, one outflash of arm and staff, foiled the blow, and when a + second was turned on him the cane flew from Julian's hand he knew not how and dropped ten feet + away.</p> + + <p>He dared not leap after it but faced the skilled fencer, blazing defiance though fully + expectant of the unsheathed dirk. But no dirk was unsheathed. Lucian, forgetting his + feebleness, sprang for the cane and had dropped to one knee to snatch it up when Hugh set foot + on it.</p> + + <p>"No!" said Hugh. The convalescent straightened up, his brow dark with an anguish of chagrin, + and before he could find speech Hugh was adding: "Wait. I'll give it to you."</p> + + <p>"Don't!" cried Gilmore. "Keep it!"</p> + + <p>"No," wearily said Hugh, glaring on the glaring twins, "we're all belittled enough now." He + caught up the cane, drew its dagger, snapped it in half on the deck, and resheathed the stump. + Then tossing the point into the river he said: "Here, Mr. Gilmore, swap."</p> + + <p>With an actor's relish for a scene the actor swapped, and the convalescent wept with rage as + Hugh, having treated the second cane like the first, tendered it to him.</p> + + <p>"Don't take it!" cried his brother; "don't touch it!" And then to Gilmore: "Don't you hand + me that one, either! Don't you dare!"</p> + + <p>Yet thereupon the actor dared, saying: "But for—others—I'd trounce you with it like a + schoolmaster."</p> + + <p>The words were half drowned by Lucian, who snatched from Hugh the cane he tendered, + answering the less crafty Julian, "Take it, you fool! take any odds they'll give!" and, while + Julian complied, adding to Hugh: "Oh, you'll pay for this—along with the rest of it!"</p> + + <p>"You'll pay for this first!" put in Julian, "and with your lives—the pair of you!"</p> + + <p>Hugh and Gilmore merely turned again toward the stair, but a voice stopped them though + addressed only to the twins.</p> + + <p>"Did you say pair?" it inquired.</p> + + <p>The boat was at the bank; her great wheels were still. The sun's last ray tipped the + oak-leaf caps of her soaring chimneys. Once more from the cook-house rose the incense of + coffee, hot rolls, and beefsteak, and from her myriad lamps soft yellow gleams fell upon the + wind-rippled water and, out of view on the other side, into the tops of the dense willows. Over + there the senator, the general, and the company that had gone with them looked down upon two + movements at once. The funeral they could not help but see; the other was the wooding-up. The + mud clerk had measured the corded pile, and the entire crew, falling upon it like ants, were + scurrying back and forth, outward empty-handed, inward shoulder-laden, while those who stood + heaping the loads on them sang as they heaped:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6"> "Do you belong to de Vot'ess' ban'?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"You don't mean just the pair, do you?" repeated Watson. He looked down loungingly from a + side window of the pilot-house. "There's anyhow five on our side," he added. "I'm in that tea + party."</p> + + <p>Julian had caught breath to retort, when from a new direction a beckon checked him and at + the nearest corner of the texas he beheld again Ramsey. Mrs. Gilmore was not with her, but at + her back were the nurse and Basile. The boy wore such an air of terror that the player + instantly pressed toward him.</p> + + <p>Ramsey's beckon, however, was to Hugh. Her bright smile did not hide her mental pain, which + drew him to her swiftly despite the twins' deepening frown. The two brothers heard the question + she asked him when he was but half-way; perhaps she meant they should. "Can you call through + Mr. Watson's speaking-tube to mom-a—and the commodore?"</p> + + <p>"Certainly."</p> + + <p>"Tell them"—tears suddenly belied her brightness—"to come up to the bishop, quick. I'm + 'fraid—afraid——"</p> + + <p>A word or two more Hugh failed to hear, but even the twins, at their distance, read them on + her lips:</p> + + <p>"The bishop's going to die."</p> + + <p>She sprang to Gilmore. His arm was about Basile; he was trying his pulse. The twins would + have followed but in between came senator—general—all that company, moved by physical + foreknowledge of an invitation whose drawing power outweighed whatever else land, water, sky, + or man could offer. Suddenly it pealed in their midst:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6"> "Ringading tingalingaty, ringadang ding——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>The captain stayed by his chair. "Cast off," he said to the mate beneath, and to Watson + above: "Back your starboard."</p> + + <p>A jingle sounded below. The steam roared from one scape and widened aloft like a magic white + tree—twice—thrice. "Stop her." It ceased. She swung. "Go ahead on both." Two white trees shot + up together and trembling she went. Down in the quivering cabin, round the shining board, every + one's spirit rose with the rising speed.</p> + + <p>"Senator, 'twas I sent you them hot rolls, suh."</p> + + <p>"Why, thank you! But—don't disfurnish yourself."</p> + + <p>"General, them fried bananas——"</p> + + <p>"Th-th-thank you, sir, I have a suff-fficient plenty."</p> + + <p>Only the seats of the Courteneys, the Gilmores, Ramsey, and Basile stood vacant.</p> + </div><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XXXIX</h2> + + <h3>FORTITUDE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Courage," the slender play was called. It is to be regretted that we cannot fully set it + forth, for Gilmore was himself its author.</p> + + <p>Also because, whatever it lacked, there was in it a lucky fitness for this occasion, since, + conditions being what they were on the decks above and below, the one strong apology for giving + it was the need of upholding the courage of its audience.</p> + + <p>It was even a sort of kind rejoinder to the various ferments kept up by the truculent twins, + the pusillanimous exhorter, and the terrified Basile. Its preachment might well have been less + obvious, though lines, its author bade Hugh notice, never overbalanced action, never came till + situation called them. It was to the effect, first, that courage is human character's prime + essential, without which no rightness or goodness is stable or real; and, second, that as no + virtue of character can be relied on where courage is poor, so neither can courage be trusted + for right conduct when unmated to other virtues of character, the chiefest being + fidelity—fidelity to truth and right, of course, since fidelity to evil is but a contradiction + of terms. "From courage and fidelity," it was the part of one player at a telling moment to + say, "springs the whole arch of character," and again, "These are the Adam and Eve of all the + virtues." (Adam and Eve were decided to be quite mentionable. Mention was not + impersonation.)</p> + + <p>Naturally the Gilmores knew every line of the play.</p> + + <p>"As perfectly," ventured the two young Napoleonites, "as John the Baptist knows the moral + law, don't you?"</p> + + <p>"Better, I infer," said Gilmore abstractedly. They were in the ladies' cabin, awaiting its + preparation as a stage, behind the curtains that screened it from the gentlemen's cabin, the + auditorium. His wife smiled for him.</p> + + <p>"Even my Harriet," she said, "knows one or two parts. She's played Miss Ramsey's in + emergencies."</p> + + <p>Her half-dozen feminine hearers flinched. Yet one said, excusingly: "That's a servant's + part, anyhow."</p> + + <p>"And Harriet's her very size and shape," said another.</p> + + <p>And another, drolly: "They're enough alike to be kin!"</p> + + <p>"Harriet's free, isn't she?" asked the first.</p> + + <p>"Yes," replied Mrs. Gilmore, without a blush, looking squarely at Hugh, who stood among them + silent.</p> + + <p>"You'd never notice she was a nigrah if you wa'n't told," said another, "or didn't see her + with nigrahs." v But then said a youth, cousin to one of the girls: "Yet after all a nigrah she + is."</p> + + <p>"No such thing!" said his cousin. "After all that's what she isn't. Our own laws say she + isn't."</p> + + <p>"Well, I say she is. One drop of nigrah blood makes a nigrah—for me, law or no law."</p> + + <p>"Well, that's monstrous—for me."</p> + + <p>"Yes, your politics being what they are."</p> + + <p>"My pol'—I'm as good a Southerner as you, any day!"</p> + + <p>"All right, but I shan't play if that born servant is allowed to take any but a servant's + part."</p> + + <p>To Hugh a crisis seemed to impend, but he held off for the Gilmores, who seemed to be used + to crises.</p> + + <p>They had not thought of Harriet, they said, for any part but Miss Ramsey's. Miss Ramsey + might find herself too distracted by—other things. Or, even if not, the doctor, or the + captain, might think Harriet's contact less contaminating than Miss Ramsey's.</p> + + <p>Their smile was not returned. Hugh gravely nodded but the rest shook their heads. + Impossible! And suppose it were possible! they were not going to shun Miss Ramsey for refusing + to shun "a sacred duty." By duty they meant the bishop, aware of his illness but not of his + extremity, and none but Hugh and the Gilmores knowing that only two doors from the bishop lay + Basile, also stricken, and that Ramsey and the old nurse were with the boy. The young people + fell into pairs confessing their contempt for the besetting peril. Vigil is wearisome and they + were almost as weary of blind precautions as, secretly, were Hugh and others. The two + Napoleonites "didn't believe doctors knew a bit more than other folks—if as much!" The two + cousins so unimpeachably Southern were "convinced that contagion never comes by contact," and + two or three said "the cholera was in the air, that's where it was, and whoever was going to + get it was going to get it!" They all agreed that "if Miss Ramsey, because of the extra strain + she was under, had lost her nerve——"</p> + + <p>"She has not," put in Hugh with a very solemn voice and solid look. The girls nudged elbows. + "But," he added, to Mrs. Gilmore, "for the better comfort and safety of both sick and well we + must let her off."</p> + + <p>Must! Ahem! The amateurs lifted their brows. Of which was he sole owner, Miss Hayle or the + boat? "Orders!" softly commented one tall youth.</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Hugh, facing him with a gaze so formidable, yet to the rest so comical, that the + nudgings multiplied.</p> + + <p>"Miss Hayle's songs, however," Hugh began to add.</p> + + <p>"Yes, how about the songs?" asked some one. "They're no servant's part and they're out + before the curtain."</p> + + <p>"She must sing them," replied Hugh. "They won't keep her long and they involve no + contact."</p> + + <p>"Right!" exclaimed one. "Good!" said another, and yet another. "Without them we might as + well give up the whole business." From the curtains through which he had been peering the actor + glanced back. "Those footlights are capital," he said to his wife, and then, for the joy of + all: "We've got a full house!"</p> + + <p>The wife looked, turned quickly, and murmured to him: "Hayle's twins in the front row."</p> + + <p>"Yes," he said, absently again, "with war in their eyes.... Now, Mr. Hugh, if you'll send + for Miss Hayle——"</p> + + <p>"Harriet's gone for her," replied his wife.</p> + + <p>"Here I am," spoke Ramsey at the door of a stateroom appropriated as a passageway. And + assuredly there she was; but by the magic of dress, through the trained cunning of Mrs. + Gilmore's mind and "Harriet's" hand, and even more by the imprint of her new weight of + experience, she was Ramsey transformed, grown beautiful. An added year was in her face. A + chastened tenderness both lighted and shaded it, half veiling yet half reasserting its innocent + hardihood. The astonished amateurs hailed her with a clapping of hands, in which, it pleased + her deeply to notice, Hugh Courteney, staring, took no share. Beyond the curtain the unseen + audience answered with a pounding of heels and canes in good-natured impatience. Gilmore + hurriedly waved away all the lads but Hugh, and Mrs. Gilmore all the girls but Ramsey. To her + she glided while Hugh and her husband conferred on some last point.</p> + + <p>"Well, dear," she said, pressing her backward into the stateroom, "are you ready?"</p> + + <p>"No, dear Mrs. Gilmore, please, no, I'm not."</p> + + <p>"Ah, yes, you are. You'll go on from"—they passed out and entered the next room + forward—"from here. And mark! when you find nothing between you and the people but the + footlights, and their glare blinds you, don't stand close over them trying to see, or they'll + make you look scared and pale, and you're not scared the least bit, are you?"</p> + + <p>"I don't know," laughed Ramsey, softly, through tears. "I never was, before; never had sense + enough, mom-a says. But, oh, I know I'm ashamed. I'm that 'shamed that I wouldn't wonder if I'm + scared too. Oh, dear Mrs. Gilmore, Basile's so sick! The doctors are doing all they can for + him, and mom-a and mammy Joy are with him; but he's so tortured with pain, and with fright! And + the bishop—he's pow'ful weak, as mammy Joy says. One of those sweet sisters—of charity—I got + her up through the speaking-tube—oh, you know what I mean—and she's there now talking to him + <em>so</em> beautifully! And down on the lower deck, freight deck, Madame Marburg's sick too, + and her son and the priest and the other sister are with her and with the other sick + ones—there's a dozen of them!" The last words were to Gilmore as he and Hugh appeared at the + outer door.</p> + + <p>The actor stepped inquiringly into the narrow room and began a warning whisper but Ramsey + spoke on to wife and husband by turns: "And in the face of all that here we are—or here I + am—about to do the silliest, most heartless thing in all my silly, heartless life. No, I'm not + ready."</p> + + <p>"Tsh-sh!" whispered the husband, with both hands up. "My dear young lady, this isn't you; + you've caught this mood of a moment from your brother."</p> + + <p>It was not his words, however, that startled Ramsey to silence; the audience was again + stamping and pounding. Now she resumed: "Oh, I hear! Mrs. Gilmore, the trouble's not that home + song nor the spring song nor the love-song; it's that silly thing you-all say I <em>must</em> + sing if I get an encore—which I can't believe I'll get!"</p> + + <p>"My dear, you'll get several. We've arranged that."</p> + + <p>"Arr'—! Why, I've only that one silly thing!"</p> + + <p>"The fate of the whole show is in that one silly thing."</p> + + <p>"Oh, it's not! It's in you two talented, professional, famous people!"</p> + + <p>"Ah, maybe it ought to be, but it's not. That's the way of the stage, my dear. Your silly + thing has plenty of verses. Sing only two at a time."</p> + + <p>"A sort o' Hayle's twins," laughed the girl. Then despairingly she dropped to the edge of + the berth. But Hugh had been pushing in past the players and as he reached her she sprang erect + again.</p> + + <p>"This is entirely my doing," he said to her. "These two good friends mustn't urge you to + sing. They're in danger, you know; greater danger than they'll believe."</p> + + <p>Gilmore broke in: "Now, Mr. Hugh, listen to me."</p> + + <p>But Ramsey put out a hand. "No, <em>you</em> listen—to him," and Hugh went on:</p> + + <p>"Should it come to be known by—certain ones——"</p> + + <p>"Certain twos," said Ramsey, "go on."</p> + + <p>"It would double, or treble, that danger."</p> + + <p>"My dear boy—" began the actor again, but his wife restrained him, and Ramsey whispered at + him in turn:</p> + + <p>"Tsh-sh!" Then she prompted Hugh: "And so——?"</p> + + <p>"So you must sing without any urging but mine."</p> + + <p>Her lips parted in droll repudiation, but he went on.</p> + + <p>"And you'll give the encore."</p> + + <p>"Oh, when did you learn to talk? I—w-i-l-l—n-o-t!"</p> + + <p>Once more the actor tried to break in, but his wife eagerly whispered: "Let them alone! + Let—them—alone!"</p> + + <p>"Success hangs on it," persisted Hugh, "and success here means success all over the boat. It + will mean their" (the Gilmores') "safety; while failure— Think of it, Miss Ramsey.... Don't + you see?"</p> + + <p>She stared an instant and then with a sign of distress and aversion gasped: "Go away! Go + away!" and dropping to the berth cast her face into its pillow. With gentle speed Mrs. Gilmore + pressed Hugh aside and took his place. The stamping and pounding, for a moment suspended, broke + forth afresh. "Send him away!" cried Ramsey, her voice muffled by the pillow, one eye fitfully + glancing from it, and one arm waving backward. "All advice rejected! Send him away! Send them + both."</p> + + <p>With such dignity as they could save, the two outcasts fled, meeting and turning back half + the stage company while the actor's wife shut the door.</p> + + <p>"Is she ill?" asked the gaping girls. "Is she ill?"</p> + + <p>"Not at all," "No," said the actor and Hugh, right and left, the one complacent, the other + "ironer" than ever. "She is, eh—she, eh——"</p> + + <p>Every head was lifted to hearken. The cabin's applause ceased abruptly for a second or two, + or three. Then again there was a stillness broken only by the speeding of the boat; and then, + like a perfume from some wilderness garden, came the untrained notes of a song, a maiden's song + of her lost German home, and leaning elatedly from the reopened door Mrs. Gilmore loudly + whispered:</p> + + <p>"She's on!"</p> + </div><a name="XL" id="XL"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XL</h2> + + <h3>RAMSEY AT THE FOOTLIGHTS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>The actor stepped to his wife. "Will she do it all?" he inquired, and Hugh, who had started + to join the audience by a short cross passage, lingered to hear.</p> + + <p>"Heaven knows," laughed the lady, shutting herself out, yet keeping the door; "I too am + banished." Her glance drew Hugh nearer. "Miss Ramsey begs us, all three——"</p> + + <p>"For her to beg is to command," said Gilmore playfully.</p> + + <p>"Yes, and so I've promised for all three——"</p> + + <p>"Promised! What?"</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore whispered: "To pray for her."</p> + + <p>The smiling actor and the unsmiling youth looked at each other. "Why, that's," said Gilmore, + "entirely——"</p> + + <p>"Practicable," said Hugh. He moved on, and into the passage. Gilmore, following, stopped at + its outer end. At the inner stood Hugh, waiting, in shadow and with downcast eyes, for the song + to be done. What unvoiced supplication, if any, may have been behind the lips of either was not + for the other to know. Yet it was an hour of formidable besetments and we may pardon the actor + if an actor's self-consciousness moved him to reflect that there were thousands of healthy men, + some as raw as Hugh, some as ripe as himself, who, for the sake of a promise, a wife or a + maiden, or even without them, standing thus, had prayed.</p> + + <p>He tiptoed to the youth's side and together they leaned in enough to look down the dimmed + cabin, over ranks of silhouetted heads, to the bright stage front and the singer. She was in + the centre of its light and the last notes of her simple song called for so little effort that + they only helped the eye to give itself wholly and instantly to the mere picture of her, + slender, golden, magnified by this sudden outburst into blossom, and radiant with the + tenderness of her words as a flower with morning dew. The next moment she was bowing and + withdrawing, aglow with gratitude for an applause that came in volume as though for the finish + of a chariot-race, and Hugh saw as plainly as the experienced actor, if not with as clear a + recognition of Mrs. Gilmore's attiring skill, that the tribute was at least as much to the + singer as to the song.</p> + + <p>The same perception came to Ramsey in the stateroom to which she had returned and in which + she stood alone, hearkening and trembling. She noiselessly laughed for joy to be, however + unworthily, the daughter of Gideon Hayle, never doubting it was for his name, his blood, his + likeness, she stood thus approved. The conviction gave her better heart for the task yet before + her. She glided to the rear door, locked it, and dropped to her knees.</p> + + <p>"Oh, Lord 'a' mercy!" she murmured. "Oh, Basile, my brother! And oh, mom-a, dear, brave + mom-a!" She did not name her father, though his figure was central in her imagination, broad, + overtowering, intrepid, imperious.</p> + + <p>The applause persisted. Now it sank but at once it rose again, easy overflow of a popular + mind glad of all unrestraint and always ready—as even she discerned—for the joy of + exaggeration. She sprang up and moved toward it, her eyes sparkling responsively. Yet her + tremor was piteous and in mute thought she said again, at high speed:</p> + + <p>"My brother, oh, my brother! I'll be back in a minute. This ain't for my own silly self, you + know, honey. It's for them that need it; for all the people, up stairs and down, and for—for + the boat!—as any of her—owners—would do for any of our boats. You said you wished + <em>you</em> could do some fine thing for somebody—in a fire—or explosion, and this is just + as awful only not so sudden, and I'm doing this in your place, honey boy; yes, I am, this is + just as if you did it yourself!"</p> + + <p>The applause was still summoning her as she ended. A hand, probably Mrs. Gilmore's, had + tried the locked door. From the lower deck leaked up the sad "peck, peck" of the carpenter + driving his nails, and close outside the door sounded sharp footsteps and the mingled voices of + the pilot's cub and the actor calling with suppressed vehemence to one of the pantrymen: "Here, + boy! Here! Go below like a shot and tell 'Chips' to stop that pounding this instant! He can saw + if he must but he mustn't hammer!"</p> + + <p>Then as if carried there by some force not her own she found herself again in the + bewildering sheen of the footlights, smiling merrily to the hushed, half-seen assemblage, and + suddenly aware of every throb of the <em>Votaress's</em> bosom, every fall of her winged feet, + every tinkle of her cabin's candelabra, and, most vivid of all, horribly out of time with all, + the still insistent "rap, tap, tap" of the carpenter's hammer.</p> + + <p>At the same time, unconfessedly, the eager audience took note of quite another group of + facts, emphasized by the appearance of Hugh in a back row of seats, by the presence of Hayle's + twins in the dusk of the front row, with war even in the back of their heads, and by the + illuminated form of the singer just drawing a last breath of preparation to exhale it in + melody. Hardly in the gathering was there one who had not by this time learned the whole state + of affairs between all Hayles, all Courteneys, and all those others whom its schemings, + aggressions, discomfitures, tirades, and prophetic threats had entangled with them. Every one + thought he knew precisely both Hugh's and Ramsey's varied relations to each and all those + persons, his and her effects upon them, and his and her ludicrously dissimilar ways of getting + those effects. They knew this warfare was still on and was here before them now. In every phase + of it in which Ramsey had taken part she had come off victor and in every instance had done so + by the sheer power of what she, with fair accuracy, called nonsense. So now they were ready to + see her, at any juncture the twins or accident might spring, show the same method and win an + even more lustrous triumph in keeping with her own metamorphosis. Nay, they were more than + ready to lend a hand toward such an outcome. Like Watson, they had sentimentally matched Hugh + and Ramsey, prospectively, in their desire, and saw that such a union must sooner or later be, + if it was not already, a paramount issue in the strife. In such expectancy sat the throng, + keenly aware of the twins at their front and Hugh at their back, as Ramsey's indrawn breath + began to return in song, its first notes as low as her voice could sink, its time slow, its + verbal inflections those of the freight-deck negro:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6"> "Do you belong toe Gideon's ban'?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>So far it got before it was drowned in a deluge of laughter and applause. She had made, as + Gilmore said to his wife behind the curtain, a "ten-strike." Her hearers did not pause an + instant to determine whether the utterance was wit or humor or pure inanity. It fitted their + mood; fitted it better than the actor or Hugh had believed it could. To the company's notion it + was good nonsense offsetting and overpowering an otherwise invincible bad nonsense and + snatching from it all right of argument, sympathy, or judicial appeal; laughing it out of + court, to remain out at least until the completion of this voyage should give this jury, these + hearers, an honorable discharge. The shrewd good sense of it, in their judgment, was the most + fun of all, and while in her heart Ramsey was gratefully giving the credit of that to the actor + and Hugh, the people naturally gave it to her and laughed and clapped and pounded again on + second thought.</p> + + <p>Now abruptly they hushed and let her resume:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Do you belong toe Gideon's ban'?</p> +<p class="i6"> Here's my heart an' here's my han'.</p> +<p class="i6"> Do you belong toe Gideon's ban'?</p> +<p class="i8"> Fight'n faw yo' home!"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Again the audience broke in.</p> + + <p>"Fighting for your home!" they laughed to one another as they clapped. Home was the + catchword of the times. Jenny Lind was singing nightly:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Midt bleasures undt balacess——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>and three fourths of all the songs not of the opera were of home and its ties. What the word + might exactly signify in this case made little matter; on her lips, from her breast, it meant + human kindness, maiden innocence, young love; meant courage, fidelity, the right, the true, the + beautiful, the good; meant anything, everything, which she herself, shining there above the + footlights like a star in the sunset, their darling of the hour, could be fancied to stand for; + meant, anyhow, the twins' war-song turned into a peace-and-joy song.</p> + + <p>"Tsh-sh-sh! let her go on!" And she went on: she, Noah's ark, and the <em>Votaress</em>, all + three, together:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den come de buck-ram and de ewe——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"What? what's that?" They leaned and whispered right and left. "New words! new words!"</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den come de buck-ram and de ewe——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"Why—she must 'a' made those words, herself!"</p> + + <p>Not she. She knew no better than to believe them the improvisations of the Gilmores.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den come de buck-ram and de ewe</p> +<p class="i6"> De ole niroscenos and de gnu——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Pun! a pun! a real pun!</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "Do you belong toe Gideon's ban'?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Yes, verily! They clapped, ha-haed, leaned around one another to see the dark upturned heads + of the twins, and stole backward glances on the immovable features of the captain's son. At his + side sat the Californian just then gravely murmuring to him, but he remaining as motionless as + a Buddha. The refrain pressed on to its close, and the applause redoubled, but stopped as she + prepared for another verse.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "Nex' come de mule and den de quail——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Laughter! Mule and quail! royal pair of the cotton field, rightly thrice heralded!</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Nex' come de mule and den de quail,</p> +<p class="i6"> Nex' come de mule and den de quail,</p> +<p class="i6"> Nex' come de mule and den de quail,</p> +<p class="i6"> De monkey-wrench and de wiggletail."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>The senator clapped yea, the general thumped his cane. Half-a-dozen voices began to chime + with her, "Here's my heart and——" till Julian looked round, when they stopped so short that + the laugh swelled again and Julian resumed his seat. Only two or three saw Hugh and the + Californian softly pass out together.</p> + + <p>"No, no, no!" cried several, but that was to Ramsey for trying to get away. "No, you don't! + Another verse! sing anoth'— Tsh-sh-sh!".... She sang:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den come de man-drake and de moose,</p> +<p class="i6"> Den come de man-drake and de moose,</p> +<p class="i6"> Den come de man-drake and de moose,</p> +<p class="i6"> De hickory-pottamus and de goose.</p> +<p class="i10"> Do you belong——?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Belong? How could they help but belong? Was ever anything such fun? Not itself, maybe, but + she! And no more could Ramsey help belonging to them, though thoughts of the texas and of the + immigrant deck—where the carpenter's saw played an interlude to her every verse—pierced her + heart at each throb of her pulse and of the boat's pulse and at every glimpse of the scowling + twins, dimly visible to her just beyond the footlights. Silence fell once more as she moved a + step forward with a light in her eyes, a life in her poise, that made her a pure joy, albeit an + instinct warned her that her tide was at the flood and she must make her exit on this wave. So + with a light toss as if to say, "Positively last appearance," she sang:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den d'rattlesnake and de antidote,</p> +<p class="i6"> De rattlesnake and de antidote,</p> +<p class="i6"> De rattlesnake and de antidote,</p> +<p class="i6"> De rangitang and de billy-goat.</p> +<p class="i10"> Do you belong——?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>The applause was as lively as ever and increased with each step of her bowing retreat. Near + the stateroom door, chancing to look across the cabin to the one opposite, she saw within two + or three of the amateurs clapping and the actor approvingly waving her off. Then finding + herself alone she threw open the rear door and was in Mrs. Gilmore's embrace. "How's Basile?" + she demanded—"and the bishop—and Marburg's mother? All this time——"</p> + + <p>"My dear, you've sung only six minutes."</p> + + <p>"It seems a week," she laughed. Hugh appeared in the outer door. She listened to the + insistent applause. "I can't go back, Mrs. Gilmore. I don't need to, do I?"</p> + + <p>"No.... Let go of me, dear!" The applause ceased. The curtain was about to "rise." The + servant who was to draw the near half of it reached in from the cabin and closed their door. + "No, dear, you won't sing again till after this act, anyhow."</p> + + <p>"Oh, not even then! I just must stay with Basile. I've sung all the verses but one, you + know."</p> + + <p>"We've got some more new ones," replied the lady, smiling to Hugh, who was moving to let her + pass out.</p> + + <p>"Got them!" cried the girl. She turned to Hugh. "They've made them! Didn't you know Mr. and + Mrs. Gilmore made every line I've sung? Oh, Mr. Hugh, what can't genius do?"</p> + + <p>Hugh solemnly dissented. "Those lines," he said, "could never have been made by mere + genius!"</p> + + <p>She stared at him a moment and then at Mrs. Gilmore, who was escaping by the outer door and + who replied: "My dear, every line made for you has been made by Mr. Hugh." She vanished while + the two stood dumbly face to face, but on second thought was back again just in time to see and + hear Ramsey say, still gazing:</p> + + <p>"Well, of—all—things! You! That frightful rubbish! You've got to sing the rest, yourself! + Oh, Mrs. Gilmore, make him do it! It'll tickle 'em all to death—to hear <em>him</em> sing + Gideon's Band!—and I can stay with Basile."</p> + + <p>"Preposterous!" rumbled Hugh, and again, "preposterous!"</p> + + <p>"Why—happy thought!" said Mrs. Gilmore. "Why, the very thing, Mr. Hugh, the very thing! + Come. First we'll take this young lady up-stairs——" As they started the Californian appeared, + laying a caressing hand on Hugh.</p> + </div><a name="XLI" id="XLI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLI</h2> + + <h3>QUITS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Wait here," slowly said Hugh in response to the gold-hunter's touch. "I'll—see you + presently."</p> + + <p>The modest adventurer waved assent, yet looked so disappointed that Mrs. Gilmore, moving to + take his arm, asked:</p> + + <p>"Can't Mr. So-and-so go with us?"</p> + + <p>Oh, kind, quick wit! Three is a crowd, four is only twice two!</p> + + <p>"Certainly," said Hugh, and to Ramsey added: "We'd better lead the way."</p> + + <p>As they led she softly inquired: "Does he want to know something about the twins?"</p> + + <p>What arrows were her questions, and how straight they struck home! Yet with that low voice + for their bowstring they gave him comfort. Her forays into his confidence not only relieved the + loneliness of his too secretive mind but often, as now, involved a sweet yielding of her + confidence to him. Yet now a straight answer was quite impossible.</p> + + <p>"He wants to know something about you," was the reply.</p> + + <p>She let the palpable evasion pass. On the hurricane roof there was a new sight. The breeze + was astern and moved so evenly with the boat as to enfold her in a calm. Looking up for the + stars, one saw only the giant chimneys towering straight into the darkness and sending their + smoke as straight and as far again beyond, spangled with two firefly swarms of sparks that fell + at last in a perpetual, noiseless shower.</p> + + <p>"Why do we go this way?" she asked, meaning forward around the skylight roof instead of + across it.</p> + + <p>"Because this way's longer."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" was the soft response. Presently she added, "We get more fresh air this way," and + called back to their two followers: "This is to avoid the sparks."</p> + + <p>"Um-hmm!" thought kind Mrs. Gilmore, and, "Oh, ho!" mused the Californian, not quite so + unselfishly.</p> + + <p>Around in front of the bell both youth and maiden observed how palely the derrick posts + loomed against the spectral chimneys and their smoke, and silently recalled their first + meeting, just here, in the long ago of two days earlier. The captain's chair was occupied.</p> + + <p>"Well, father," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Good evening," twittered Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Good evening, Miss Ramsey. Be back this way, Hugh?"</p> + + <p>"In a moment, sir." They passed on. Ramsey looked behind at the Californian.</p> + + <p>"What does he want to know about me?" she asked.</p> + + <p>"He says," said Hugh, "he's nursed this sickness at sea and at Panama and hasn't the + slightest fear of it."</p> + + <p>"Humph!... That's not about me."</p> + + <p>"Yes, it—was. He's taken a great fancy——"</p> + + <p>"To Basile."</p> + + <p>"To several of us, including Basile."</p> + + <p>"Yes, because he and Basile played cards together."</p> + + <p>"Not entirely for that," said Hugh, looking at her so squarely that she had to smooth back + her curls. "But he'd like to help take care of him if you—and your mother, of course—are + willing."</p> + + <p>"Oh, how good—and brave! And he wants to ask me?"</p> + + <p>"No, he's too bashful. I'm asking for him."</p> + + <p>"Too—!" Ramsey pondered. They stepped more slowly. The other pair turned back; the play + demanded Mrs. Gilmore. The sick-room door was so near that Ramsey knew her mother was inside + it, by her shadow on its glass. Suddenly, just as Hugh was about to say she need not hurry + in—whereupon she would have vanished like a light blown out—she faced him. "D'you ever suffer + from bashfulness—diffidence?"</p> + + <p>He answered on a droll, deep note: "All its horrors."</p> + + <p>She looked him over. He barely smiled.</p> + + <p>"You never show it," she said.</p> + + <p>"No." To the fanciful girl the monosyllable came like one toll from a low tower. She + laughed.</p> + + <p>"Basile says there's another thing you suffer from."</p> + + <p>"'Suffer'? From what do I 'suffer'?"</p> + + <p>"From everybody else on the boat having a better chance to do things—big things—than you + have."</p> + + <p>He smiled again. "If I did, no one should know it; least of all you."</p> + + <p>She ignored the last clause. "Aha! I said so. I told him—and mammy Joy told him—there's + nothing bigger than to wait your turn and <em>then take it</em>. And there ain't—there isn't, + is there?"</p> + + <p>"Well—even that can be small. Nothing a man is big enough for looks big to him."</p> + + <p>"Hoh!—after he's done it," laughed Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"True—" said Hugh reflectively, "or suffered it," and both of them began to see that we can + rarely lift more than our one corner of the whole truth at a time. "In your way," he added, + still musing, "you're larger than I."</p> + + <p>"Oh, I'm no—such—thing!" Her speech was soft, yet she looked up warily to Watson's + pilot-house window, but Watson too thoroughly approved to be looking down. "I'm not half or + third or quarter as large." She eagerly turned his attention up the river. Visible only by the + lights of her cabin and the sparks from her unseen chimneys, a boat was coming round the next + bend. As she entered the reach and breasted the breeze which so calmly accompanied the + <em>Votaress</em>, her two spangled plumes of smoke swept straight astern as if two comets + raced with her, or——</p> + + <p>"The Golden Locks of Berenice," whispered Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Come," Hugh softly responded. The <em>Votaress</em> had signalled the usual passage to + starboard and unless they went forward the shining spectacle would at once be lost. As they + gained the front of the texas the distant craft, happening to open a fire-door, cast a long fan + of red light ahead of her, suddenly showing every detail of her white forecastle, illumining + her pathway on the yellow waters and revealing in their daylight green the willows of an island + close beyond. Then the furnace was shut and again her fair outlines were left to the + imagination, except for the prismatic twinkle and glow of her cabin lights.</p> + + <p>"That was like you when you laugh," murmured Hugh, and before she could parry she was + smitten again by an innocent random shot from the darkness round the bell.</p> + + <p>"Do you make her out, Mr. Watson?" asked Hugh's father, and she flinched as if Watson were + peering down on her.</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir," said the pilot, "she's Hayle's <em>Wild Girl</em>."</p> + + <p>Not waiting to hear that she was known by her "front skylights standin' so fur aft of her + chimbleys," Ramsey wheeled to fly. But instantly she recovered and went with severe decorum, + saying quiet nothings to Hugh as he followed, until at the sick-room door again she turned.</p> + + <p>"I'm willing he should help us, Mr. Hugh, if mom-a and Basile are. I'll send him word by + mammy Joy. Mr. Hugh—what is it he wants to know about the twins?"</p> + + <p>Hugh was taken aback. "Why, it's nothing—now. It was as pure nonsense as those verses. Ask + him. He can tell if he chooses; I can't." There was a pause. Her eyes gave him lively + attention, but one ear was bent to the door.</p> + + <p>"I hope Basile is better," he added.</p> + + <p>"I'm sure he is; he's so much quieter." She felt a stir of conscience, loitering thus, + yet—"Mr. Hugh, do you think diffidence is the same as modesty?"</p> + + <p>"Certainly not."</p> + + <p>"I'm—" She meditated.... "I'm glad of that.... I never was diffident a moment in my + life."</p> + + <p>"You never had need to be," said Hugh very quietly.</p> + + <p>"They go together, don't they, diffidence and modesty?"</p> + + <p>"Not as often as diffidence and conceitedness."</p> + + <p>"Why, Mr. Hugh!"</p> + + <p>"One thing that makes me so silent is my conceit."</p> + + <p>"Oh, you! you're not conceited at all! You're modest! You little know how great you are! + You're a wonder!" Her tone was candor itself till maiden craft added, while she tinkled her + softest and keenest: "You're a poet!"</p> + + <p>With a gay wave, which dismissed him so easily that she resented his going, she turned, + stepped warily into the cramped room, and stood transfixed with remorse for her tardiness and + appalled and heart-wrung. The foot of the berth was by the door. There old Joy stood silently + weeping. At its head knelt her mother in prayer and on it lay her playmate brother peacefully + gasping out his life. A flash of retrospection told her he must have had the malady long before + he had confessed it and that something—something earlier than her singing—yes, and later—not + twins nor Gilmores nor river—oh, something, what was it?—had kept her—these two long, long + days—blind.</p> + + <p>"Ah, you! <em>you</em>!" she dumbly cried, all at once aflame with the Hayle gift for + invective. "You stone image! 'To help you,' indeed! <em>You</em>! As if you—as if I—I won't, + you born tyrant! 'Help you'—against my own kin! I will not—ever again. We're <em>quits</em> + for good and all."</p> + </div><a name="XLII" id="XLII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLII</h2> + + <h3>AGAINST KIN</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"Ramsey," said the boy, his voice gone to a shred, "you're good—to come back in—in time. + Ain't you going—to laugh? It'd be all right. Oh, sis'"—the sunken eyes lighted up—"it's come + to me, sissy, it's come. I've got religion, Ramsey. I'm going straight to the arms of Jesus. + Sissy dear, I wish"—he waited for strength—"I could see the—twins—just a minute or + two——"</p> + + <p>"Why, you shall, honey. I'll go bring 'em."</p> + + <p>"Wish you would—and Hugh Courteney. It's the last——"</p> + + <p>"Honey boy, th'ain't room for so many at once. And it ain't your last anything; you' going + to get well."</p> + + <p>His eyes closed, his brows knit. The tearful mother rose and looked at her. The glance was + kind, yet remorse tore the girl's heart again. "Go," said her mother. "Joy, she'll go with you. + Bring the three."</p> + + <p>"My last"—the boy whispered on—"last chance—to do some'—something worthy of"—he faintly + smiled to his mother—"of Gideon's Band."</p> + + <p>The door opened and closed and the two were alone. At his sign she knelt, took his clammy + hand, and bent close that he might flutter out his hurried words with least effort.</p> + + <p>"She sang it finely!" he whispered. "She'd 'a' known we heard it if she'd 'a' thought. Wish + you'd sing a verse of it. It's a hymn, you know—or was. The chorus is—yet. Anyhow, it's our + song. Oh, I'd like to live on and be a real true Hayle—a Gideon! I hope—hope Hugh + Courteney'll—live. Just think! he was on the <em>Quakeress</em> when Uncle Dan—.... He's + going to do big things some day. Mother—want to tell you something." She bent closer. He + whispered on:</p> + + <p>"I wish Hugh Courteney'd live and—marry sis'."</p> + + <p>His eyes reclosed and the mother drew back, but he whispered on with lids unlifted: "Sing—a + verse or two—or just the chorus, won't you?"</p> + + <p>As softly as to an infant fallen asleep she sang, in her Creole accent, with eyes + streaming:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Do you billong to Gideon' ban'?</p> +<p class="i6"> Yere's my 'eart an' yere's my 'an'."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Outside, meantime, before old Joy had quite left the closed door, another, the second aft of + it, opened and the texas tender stepped out. A fellow servant within shut it, and he started + for a near-by stair, but checked up, amazed, to let Ramsey hasten on for the same point.</p> + + <p>But Ramsey halted. "How's the bishop?" she asked him.</p> + + <p>"Good Lawd!" he gasped, and then tittered at himself. "I ax yo' pahdon, miss, I + <em>neveh</em> know de Hayles twins 'uz <em>double</em> twins, male 'n' female. You ax + me——?"</p> + + <p>"The bishop; how is he now?"</p> + + <p>"Well, Miss Hayles—you is Miss Hayles, ain't you? Yit, my Lawd! miss, ain't I dess now see + you down in de cabin a-playin' in de play, an' a hund'ed people sayin': '<em>'tis</em> her, + 'cose it is'?"</p> + + <p>"Humph! no, I left as the curtain rose. How's the——?"</p> + + <p>"Bishop? Oh, de bishop, he, eh—'bout five-six minute' ago—aw it mowt be ten—whilse I 'uz + down dah—de bishop—I'm bleeds to say—breave his las'."</p> + + <p>"While I—!" She tossed both arms.</p> + + <p>"Ummmm, hmmmm!" droned old Joy; "gone to glory!"</p> + + <p>"Yass, de good bishop gone to his good bishop!"</p> + + <p>"Oh, who was with him?" cried the girl.</p> + + <p>"Why, eh"—the three moved on their way—"de doctoh, he 'uz dah, and de bofe sis' o' + charity; yass'm."</p> + + <p>"The commodore—wasn't?—Nor the senator—nor——?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, yass'm, de commodo', he 'uz dah—faw a spell. He didn' stay till de—finish. He + couldn'. He git slightly indispose', hisseff, an' have to go to his own room."</p> + + <p>The nurse made a meek show of despair and Ramsey turned upon her. "Now, mammy, this is no + time—<em>now—don't—cry</em>."</p> + + <p>The old woman braced up superbly. "Yass'm," persisted the waiter, "he dah now, in bed; + slightly indispose'."</p> + + <p>A rumble close below broke in upon the rhythm of the boat. "What's that?" demanded + Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Oh, dat's on'y de aujience a-stompin' de actohs."</p> + + <p>The next moment, a step or two down the stair, with the skylight roof still in sight as much + as hidden tears would let her see it, she stopped again, to stare anxiously at another trio, + coming from the bell to the captain's room.</p> + + <p>"Da'—dat's all right," the white-jacket reassured her. "Dat's dess de cap'm, wid Mr. Hugh + an' a passengeh."</p> + + <p>"Kentucky passenger?"</p> + + <p>"Yass'm, 'zac'ly; f'om Ca'fawnia; dat's him."</p> + + <p>She sprang back to the deck, and the servant went his way down the stair. Hugh had left his + father to proceed on the arm of the Californian and was approaching. He murmured only a + preoccupied greeting and would have taken the stair, but old Joy motioned eagerly to the girl. + She spoke. He stopped. "Yes, Miss Ramsey?"</p> + + <p>"Go on," she said, "we're going that way."</p> + + <p>Down on the cabin guards the two paused at the bottom step, the old woman lingering at the + top. "Mr. Hugh," said Ramsey, "mom-a's sending me for the twins." She drew a breath. "You know + about the commodore?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, Miss Ramsey."</p> + + <p>"And the—the bishop?"</p> + + <p>"I know, Miss Ramsey."</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh, is your father—taken?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, Miss Ramsey."</p> + + <p>"Where are you going?"</p> + + <p>"To bring the first clerk."</p> + + <p>"The boat's command doesn't fall to him, does it?"</p> + + <p>"It falls to the first mate."</p> + + <p>"I don't see why. Who'll it fall to next? You?"</p> + + <p>"No, the first clerk."</p> + + <p>Double disappointment. "But you; you'll still look after us passengers and help him, too, + won't you?"</p> + + <p>"I may."</p> + + <p>She knew it! Somehow he was to share with the mate and the clerk the command of the + boat!</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh"—they moved on, with Joy at a discreet distance—"you're in a hurry—so am I; but + I ought to tell you, though of course it's just ridiculous for us—for me—to think I've ever + helped you or can help you in any of these things or in anything—I—oh—I can't help you, or + play help you, any more."</p> + + <p>Cruel word in a cruel moment. She felt it so and expected him to show the same feeling. But + instead he halted in the lamplight of a passageway to the cabin and confronted her with the + widest, most formidable gaze, not her father's, she had ever met. He seemed absolutely + majestic. It was very absurd for one so young and—stumpy—to seem majestic, yet there he + stood, truly so. Partly for that reason she could not so much as smile; but partly, too, it was + because she felt herself so guiltily frivolous, having anything to say to him, or even standing + in his gaze, gazing into it, while his father, her brother, and the bishop lay as they were + lying in their several rooms so close overhead.</p> + + <p>"You <em>can</em> help me," he said in his magisterial voice, so deep yet so soft. "You + will. You must. I cannot spare you."</p> + + <p>Did any one ever! She tossed a faint defiance: "I can't. No. I won't—can't—ever again, + against my own kin."</p> + + <p>"There are things stronger than kin."</p> + + <p>"I'd like to know what!"</p> + + <p>"Truth. Justice. Honor. Right. Public welfare."</p> + + <p>She waved them all away as wholly immaterial. "Hoh!"</p> + + <p>With a kindness far too much like magnanimity to suit her, Hugh, drawing backward, smiled, + and replied, not as pressing the argument but as dropping it:</p> + + <p>"One can be against one's kin, yet not against them. Basile knows that. He proved it + to-day."</p> + + <p>"Basile—oh, Mr. Hugh, Basile wants to see you. Mom-a's sent me as much for you as for the + twins. Basile's asked for you. But of course if your father——"</p> + + <p>"I'll come, the moment I can be spared. Is your brother really better?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey flinched as from pain. She leaned on the shoulder of the nurse—who had come + close—and sadly shook her head. But then she straightened smilingly and said: "If you're + coming at all——"</p> + + <p>She might have finished but for a faint sound that reached her from directly underfoot, a + sound of sawing. She faced sharply about, passed into the cabin, and found the Gilmores and the + amateurs in the midst of their play.</p> + </div><a name="XLIII" id="XLIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLIII</h2> + + <h3>WHICH FROM WHICH</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>This world of tragic contrasts and cross-purposes, realities and fictions, this world where + the many so largely find their inspiration in the performances of the few, was startlingly + typified to Ramsey as, out of the upper night and the darkness of her troubles, she came in + upon the show; the audience sitting in their self-imposed twilight of a few dimmed lamps, + designedly forgetful of the voyage for which all were there, and the players playing their + parts as though the play were the only thing real.</p> + + <p>If the prefigurement was at any point vague it was none the less arresting. As the + <em>Votaress</em>—or Gideon Hayle's <em>Wild Girl</em>—might, in full career, strike on + hidden sands, so Ramsey struck on the thought—or call it the unformulated perception—that + whoever would really live must, by clear choice and force of will, keep + himself—herself—adjusted to this world as a whole; as one great multitudinous entity with a + stronger, higher claim on each mere part's sympathy, service, sacrifice, than any mere part can + ever hold on it.</p> + + <p>In a word, Hugh Courteney, baby elephant, born tyrant, egotist—or egoist, whichever it + was—self-confessed egotist, stone-faced egoist—with his big-wig airs and big-fiddle + voice—was nearer right than she would <em>ever</em> submit to confess to him: there + <em>were</em> things stronger than kin, bigger every way; and other things bigger than those + bigger things, and yet others still bigger than those, and so on and on to the world's + circumference. Staggering discovery. Yet how infinitely old it looked the moment she clearly + saw it: old, obvious, beautiful, and ugly as the man in the moon. It chanced that right there + and then she was forced to accept its practical application. A white-jacket said to her in a + muffled voice:</p> + + <p>"Ef you please—to not to move up to'a'ds de stage whilse de play a-goin' on."</p> + + <p>"Oh, but I must," she explained. "I'm on business; business that can't wait any longer. I've + already been delayed—" Her last word faltered. Something occurring on the stage held her eyes, + while two or three auditors who had turned on her a glance of annoyance changed it to a gaze of + astonishment. The cub pilot came to her on tiptoe.</p> + + <p>"Oh, Mr. So-and-so," she smilingly whispered as she edged on, "I want my twin brothers. + Mom-a wants them, right away, up-stairs."</p> + + <p>He nodded at each word and began softly to say that this act would be finished in a minute; + but she broke in, still inching along: "I can't wait a minute. I've no right to be this late. + Basile wants the twins and he's so sick that—that he can't, he mustn't wait."</p> + + <p>"Missy," pleadingly whispered old Joy at their backs, "missy!" But neither she nor the cub + pilot could stop the messenger. Nor did she heed the growing number of those seated all about + her whose attention she attracted, though now they were a dozen, a score, glancing, in a + suppressed flutter, from her to the stage and from the stage to her and one another.</p> + + <p>Yet she stopped. For on the stage, in the play, in the part that was to have been hers, she + beheld "Harriet" doing that part so well, and winning such lively approval, that doing it + better would have distorted the play. Rouged and coifed to reduce her apparent age as much as + Ramsey's was to have been increased, she was at all points so like what Ramsey would have been + that the bulk of the audience had mistaken her for Ramsey and had made her more and more a + favorite at each brief reappearance.</p> + + <p>Fearful moment. Beyond sight only to the outer eye, the bishop, whom she herself had pushed + into the grapple of the pestilence, lay dead. Basile was dying. Two of the Courteneys were + plague stricken, and the third, for whom she felt a special, inexplicable accountability, was, + with Gilmore and Watson, in constant mortal peril from her twin brothers, and the twins + therefore from them. Before her eyes, so near she could have tossed a flower to her, was + Phyllis, a spectre from an awful past, the destroyer of the <em>Quakeress</em>, liable herself, + within any hour, should the truth be discovered, to be burned like a witch. There she was, "the + slave girl Phyllis," as the runaway advertisement would have had it, a culprit, and a property + no way superior, in popular regard, to the blackest African, yet by Hayle blood so near of + kin—kin! kin to her!—that with no other aid than a few touches of paint and pencil she was + being enthusiastically acclaimed as Ramsey Hayle by an assemblage which has just applauded her, + Ramsey, in the blaze of those same footlights. Fearful moment! that aged her as no earlier + moment ever had; yes, and for the instant, at least, threw into her face a maturity that + heightened the unhappy resemblance.</p> + + <p>She stopped because her presence seemed about to precipitate a terrible mischief, and she + stood because flight would but leave that mischief to do its worst. Through this glaring show + of likeness she seemed to be in the keenest danger of betraying back into slavery on the spot + this poor, intrepid "Harriet," identified as the Phyllis supposed these ten years to be under + the floods of the Mississippi. At that moment, on the stage, in Ramsey's rôle of a + housemaid, the rôle from which Ramsey bitterly remembered she had been excused through + Hugh Courteney's urging, "Harriet" chanced to be acting a ludicrous dismay before a transient + dilemma in which, as in Ramsey's, staying threatened disaster yet good faith said + stay—Ramsey's own present actual case except that Harriet's was comic. A hundred beholders + laughed, and then turning and peering at the dim, central figure of Ramsey suddenly redoubled + the laugh and presently redoubled it again.</p> + + <p>Yet it yielded a certain relief. While there is mirth there is hope. Even now the player of + the part was recognized only as Mrs. Gilmore's maid. Her resemblance to Ramsey was passing for + pure accident. That the whole thing was visibly offensive to Hayle's twins made it all the more + amusing, and Ramsey's pause in the aisle seemed the most natural thing she could do on finding + herself in two places at the same time. So for a moment, in which she rejoiced that at any rate + the twins had never seen Phyllis as Phyllis. But then the demonstration broke short off. At + different points three men stood up at once. In the front row appeared Julian. A few seats + behind him loomed the exhorter. The third rose just at Ramsey's elbow, offering her his seat, + yet counting it but courtesy still to keep his attention mainly on the play. It was the first + clerk, he who had once been clerk on the <em>Quakeress</em>, where he had known Phyllis as + Hugh's nurse, and whose scrutiny "Harriet" had until now somehow escaped. Whether in thanking + him Ramsey accepted or declined she hardly knew, for just then the gaze he still bent on + "Harriet" showed a gleam of recognition. Ramsey's heart rose into her throat. She murmured a + hurried word, which she had to go over a second time before it took effect on him:</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh's looking for you, out forward. The commodore and the captain are both sick."</p> + + <p>As the announcement drew his quick glance she almost waved him to go. Yet what was done was + done; with Phyllis recognized, it might be far better for him to remain, and she turned her + dismissing gesture into one of detention.</p> + + <p>"I'm Miss Hayle," she whispered, while both looked again toward Julian and "Harriet." + "That's my old mammy back yonder. I want my twin brothers. Mom-a wants them, up in the texas, + as quick as—never mind, here they come."</p> + </div><a name="XLIV" id="XLIV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLIV</h2> + + <h3>FORBEARANCE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Ramsey was mistaken—her brothers were staying. The play's first act was done, there was + great clapping and thumping and the curtain was falling—or closing, in two parts from opposite + sides, eased over sticking-points by nimble efforts behind it; but though Julian—who evidently + had been getting through the general's courtesy the indulgence denied him at the bar—had moved + a step or so from his chair, Lucian remained seated. Next them sat the general and the senator, + and the four were debating together. Oddly enough, the twins were in disaccord, and while + Lucian had the senator's approval the general's went to his brother. The applause died out + prematurely and the whole company gave its attention to the debate, Ramsey sinking into the + clerk's seat and laughing merrily—since it was laugh or perish.</p> + + <p>"No, gentlemen," she heard Julian say, "this is the last-st st-straw. A nigger wench made up + to counterfeit a member of our family, and the part given her which that member of our family + was to have played! ... Overlook—oh, good God, sir, we've done nothing but overlook, every + hour of day and night since we started."</p> + + <p>From the other three came responses too quiet to be understood. Ramsey half rose toward the + clerk and sank again, begging him to carry her errand on to the brothers, and he had softly + moved forward as far as to the exhorter when that person, still on his feet, called to + Julian:</p> + + <p>"Yass! an' thah ah cause to believe said niggeh——"</p> + + <p>Two small interruptions came at once, provoking a general laugh: Julian, staring at him in + heavy abstraction, said dreamily, "Ho—ho—hold your tongue," while the clerk, at "John the + Baptist's" side, gently grasped between the shoulders a fold of his coat, mildly suggested, + "Have a seat," and put him so suddenly off his balance that he plumped heavily into his + chair—quite enough to rouse the mirth of a company already a trifle nervous. And now Julian + was heard again:</p> + + <p>"No, Luce, you can stay, I'll go alone—or with—thank you, general! Oh, senator, we are not + blind, sir, though every time we overlook some insult they think we are. Good Lord! do you + reckon we don't see that all this laugh is at us, got up at our expense, and has been at us + since the first turn of this boat's wheels at Canal Street? We saw—<em>and</em> + overlooked—that vile attempt to take our two ladies up the river without us, starting the + instant they got aboard and leaving us at the water's edge a laughing-stock for passengers, + crew, and pantry boys!"</p> + + <p>Both senator and general coaxed him to sit down, but the most he would concede was to drop + his voice as he continued: "You know, gentlemen, and they know, that any true man would as soon + be slapped in the face and spit upon as to be laughed at.... No, I—" His words became + indistinguishable.</p> + + <p>Ramsey was in anguish. She would have glided forward with her tidings and summons but for + the clerk blocking the path half-way. A stir of annoyance ran through the gathering, here + grave, there facetious, but it stopped short as a new figure moved quietly past Ramsey and + stood beside the clerk. It was Hugh, and the general interest revived. He exchanged a word or + two with the clerk, who turned and left the cabin while Hugh stayed with the exhorter.</p> + + <p>Julian, without seeing the newcomer, once more broke forth, this time plainly intending to + make every one his listener: "No, we don't interrupt and we shall not."</p> + + <p>"Oh, no," daringly put in an ironical hearer, "Hayle's twins, they never interrupt an + innocent pleasure!"</p> + + <p>"How air it innercent?" called John the Baptist, at Hugh's side, rising again and + gesticulating. "No theayter play kin be innercent an' much less this-yeh one, by reason 'at + they ah cause to believe that-ah servant-gal——"</p> + + <p>He was pulled down again with even less ceremony than before, though by friendlier hands, + hands of the two lenders of the sword-canes, who fell to counselling him in crafty undertones. + But Julian was talking dead ahead, ignoring all distractions and not even yet discovering + Hugh:</p> + + <p>"We didn't more than whisper, general, till the curtain fell. Now, did we? When it rises + again—what, sir?... My dear senator! it's our fellow passengers who don't see—that their kind + intentions are being made part of a put-up game to torment us to leave the boat.... Oh, no, + they—why, sir, the dastards set it a-going the moment they'd persuaded our ladies to stay and + risk their priceless lives nursing those damned Dutch on the lower deck."</p> + + <p>The senator ached to be the steamer's length removed but saw no way of dignified escape. + Several listeners, remembering Ramsey's tactics and their success, gayly laughed, but two or + three gasped an audible dismay; two or three men said, "Sh-sh-sh!" two or three said, "Ladies + present," "Remember the ladies," and some one droned out in a mock voice: "The stage + waits."</p> + + <p>And plainly it did so; waited on the audience, with Mrs. Gilmore peeping through the + curtain, whose rise would reveal "Harriet" alone; a terrible risk if the exhorter should get in + the bolt he was trying to launch.</p> + + <p>"Oh, where is Mr. Gilmore?" thought Ramsey, and, "Why don't they call again for 'Gideon's + Band'? Yet who would sing it?" Her distressed lips were silently asking many such questions + when she sprang up and halted the Californian, who had come in at her back on his way to + Hugh.</p> + + <p>"How's the captain?" she whispered in smiling agitation.</p> + + <p>With low affirmative bows, so enraptured to be speaking with her as to be all but + speechless, he murmured: "Get'—getting on—so far." He waved an oddly delicate hand—backward + from the wrist, girlishly—"He's all—hunkadory."</p> + + <p>"And Basile?" Anxious as she was, she yet saw while she spoke—and he saw—that Julian had + at length sighted Hugh and that at least three-fourths of the audience, the whole male portion, + was eying that pair with the alertness of man's primitive interest in man-to-man encounter. At + her mention of the sick boy the gold hunter ceased to nod. His countenance fell.</p> + + <p>"Oh," she whispered, "won't <em>you</em> go and tell them, all three, Mr. Courteney and both + twins, how bad off he is, and that he sent me, and mom-a says come quick?"</p> + + <p>He went. Forgetting to sit down, she watched him go and let Gilmore pass her as Hugh had + done. Now, what was his errand? The actor and the Californian reached Hugh together. The three + drew a step back from the exhorter and his advisers and conferred in the aisle while Julian's + tirade went straight on as completely ignored by them as though it were the most normal sound + of the boat's machinery. The sight so amused the audience that laughter came again and then + clapping and pounding, in a succession of outbreaks, each coming so close after one of Julian's + utterances that his dizzy head took it for approval, though to every one else, and especially + to Ramsey, the meaning was weariness of him and impatience of Gilmore's delay.</p> + + <p>He spoke with his face to his associates but with his voice addressed to those other three + in the aisle: "We were invited on this boat in pure cowardly malice." (Applause.) "To have our + weapons stolen from us by servants and locked up by underlings and to have the boat's ordinary + refreshments forbidden us." (Laughter and applause.) "To be thrust into contact with a deadly + pestilence and to be insulted or assaulted by hired blackguards on one or another of every deck + from forecastle gangway to pilot-house." (Long and loud applause.) "And all this, sirs, we have + overlooked; but to be made a public laughing-stock we will not endure if I have to pull every + Courteney's nose to stop it!" (Loud laughter and prolonged applause.) Amid the din Ramsey + recognized the voice of old Joy moaning with grief and consternation in the gloom behind her, + and caught the words of the cub pilot, said for his soul's relief, not dreaming she would hear: + "If you two ornery cusses wa'n't Gid Hayle's boys we'd clap you in irons quicker'n you could + lick out your tongue."</p> + + <p>But amid the same din what, she laughingly, painfully wondered, were the three standers in + the aisle so privately, calmly saying together—with the actor as chief speaker, Hugh grim, and + the Californian mostly a nodding listener? Was Hugh—whose big eyes and stone visage so drolly + fitted each other yet seemed so sadly unfitted to this big emergency—was he insisting that it + would be idle for him to go to Basile without the twins, as was only too true? Or that John the + Baptist and his two disciples must first be disposed of? Or was it his word that the most + pressing need was for the actor, long trained to perceive just what would capture an audience + in such a stress, to step between footlights and curtain, tell the people that honest facts had + never been more crazily twisted into falsehood and slander, and explain the true situation in a + brief, apt speech, dignified and amusing? Certainly something had to be done and done this + instant. But not that, ah, no! Or if that, not done by him, the actor. She could never imagine + such a manœuvre attempted on a boat of her father's, whose sole way of mastery was by + pure lordship and main force. Yet here, with these Courteneys, who, he had always said, + outmastered him by their clever graciousness, and dealing here not with subordinates but with + passengers—a living nerve of the river's whole public—talk treatment might be the cleverest, + wisest kind to give, if only Hugh—oh, if only Hugh!—could give it. But of course he could + not, with that face, that visage, so much <em>too</em> lordly and forceful—and hard—and + glum—for a clever task.</p> + + <p>Julian ceased. His high head went a shade higher; the Californian was advancing straight + upon him. With a pang Ramsey remembered that she had failed to charge the gold hunter not to + let the twins know that their brother's summons included Hugh, lest that should keep them away. + But surely he would see that necessity; and in fact he did. Hugh stood still, looking in the + opposite, her, Ramsey's, direction, where the actor was coming toward her. The old nurse had + stolen to her side. The player went by without a glance at her. It was so much like asking why + she stood there doing nothing that she granted the old woman's whispered prayer and sat down. + Behind her he spoke busily for a second to the cub pilot and passed out by a side exit. The + pilot's cub came by, had a word or two with the exhorter, and stayed there as if on guard.</p> + + <p>Now, for all these small things to happen in the one moment and to happen in the midst of a + waiting audience made its show of suspense more vivid than ever; excitement was in all eyes; + every chin was lifted. The Californian seemed to tell Julian a startling thing or two. The + general rose, the senator helped Lucian to his feet. The four came close about the news bearer + and he told more. Ramsey could almost feel his mention of the bishop and then of Basile. Lucian + asked a question or two and the five came down the aisle, one pair leading, the other + following, and Julian between, alone, overpeering all sitters, with a splendid air of being + commander and in the saddle.</p> + </div><a name="XLV" id="XLV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLV</h2> + + <h3>APPLAUSE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Diffidence! Hugh had spoken of diffidence—in himself—in the twins. Could Julian really be + hiding such a thing behind such a mask? Ramsey wondered.</p> + + <p>Every eye was on him and again the floor thundered, shaming her, flattering him. As he came + on, the exhorter began to put out an arm, to speak and to rise, but the cub pilot blandly + intervened and Julian ignored him. For there both brothers came face to face with the first + mate. He had entered where Gilmore went out, and now passed them with a stare like their own, + fire for fire, and at close quarters began to accost the exhorter and his two adherents.</p> + + <p>They rose, and with evident change of meaning thunder came again, though not for them. The + departing twins and their triple escort; the exhorter and the four about him; Ramsey, Joy, and + the returned Gilmore, who just then touched her shoulder and whispered something to which she + replied with quick nods of consent—all these groups lifted their gaze, with the whole + company's, to the curtained stage.</p> + + <p>Diffidence! oh, where <em>was</em> diffidence? Hugh had stepped in behind the footlights and + was standing and looking out across them as foursquare and unsmiling as a gravestone.</p> + + <p>Their light was on his brow, whose frown smote her with foreboding. Half folded he held a + slip of paper as if about to give official notice of some grave matter, and his aggressive + eyes, that seemed to her to look a greater distance away from a greater distance within than + ever before, were fixed on one man. Absolute silence fell. And thereupon, to the open-mouthed + amazement of the audience, with his stare yet on that one face, and in a voice that seemed + octaves below hers, he began to sing straight at the exhorter:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6"> "Do you belong to Gideon's ban'?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>A shout of laughter, a rain of clappings, a thunder of canes and feet. Sitters bumped up and + down. They were safe home again in nonsense and were glad. Ramsey's laugh was like a dancer's + bells though under cover of the dusk she let the tears roll down. Old Joy moaned and shook her + head. John the Baptist had begun to retort but withered before a ferocious muffled threat from + the mate while following him into the aisle. "Bucked and gagged," was the mate's odd phrase, at + which a dozen or so nearest him laughed again, a bit nervously. They looked back to see if the + twins had heard it, and were just in time to catch from Julian and the general a last glare of + scorn as the group of five left the cabin. Then again came silence, except behind the + footlights, where the sphinx-like singer bore straight on through the refrain and came to the + new lines. Sing them out, sphinx; the more senseless the better.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Nex' come de 'coon and de cockatroo,</p> +<p class="i6"> Nex' come de 'coon and de cockatroo,</p> +<p class="i6"> Nex' come de 'coon and de cockatroo,</p> +<p class="i6"> De hawg and de whoopdedoodendoo.</p> +<p class="i10"> Do you belong——?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>The inquiry was drowned in applause, which swelled as the mate and the exhorter went out + with the latter's two backers—more eagle-eyed and stallion-eyed than ever—and with Watson's + cub at the rear. A number stretched up for a glimpse of Ramsey but she too—and the actor—and + Joy—were gone. There was another waiting hush, and the droll singer, so droll because so + granite solemn, resumed:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den turkle-dove an' blue-bird blue,</p> +<p class="i6"> Den turkle-dove an' blue-bird blue,</p> +<p class="i6"> Den turkle-dove an' blue-bird blue,</p> +<p class="i6"> De merry-go-roun' and de hullabaloo.</p> +<p class="i10"> Do you belong——?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Applause! Was that the end? Not if the applauders could help it! The day was coming when a + boiler-deck and pilot-house tradition, heard by many with hearty enjoyment, by many with silent + disdain, would be this: that aboard the old <em>Votaress</em> on her first up trip—late spring + of '52—cholera on every deck—mutiny hotly smouldering—the unreason of fear and of wrath were + beaten in fair fight by the unreason of mirth, and men's, women's, children's lives—no telling + how many—were saved, through the cleverness of some play-actors and first the youngest of all + the Hayles and then the youngest of all the Courteneys singing a nonsense song! Sing it! sing + on!</p> + + <p>He sang on:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Den de grizzly-b'ah and den de mole,</p> +<p class="i6"> De grizzly-b'ah and den de mole,</p> +<p class="i6"> De grizzly-b'ah and den de mole,</p> +<p class="i6"> De terrapintime and de wrigglemarole.</p> +<p class="i10"> Do you belong——?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>The plaudits were at their height and Hugh still on the interrogative line when there came + from behind the curtain a voice skilfully thrown to reach only him:</p> + + <p>"Give them one verse more and we'll be ready!"</p> + + <p>He gave it:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Las' de cattlemaran and de curlicue,</p> +<p class="i6"> De cattlemaran and de curlicue,</p> +<p class="i6"> De cattlemaran and de curlicue,</p> +<p class="i6"> De daddy-long-legs and de buggaboo.</p> +<p class="i10"> Do you belong——?"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>He stepped quickly from the "stage." The curtains drew apart. The scene revealed was a + drawing-room. In it stood alone, as if playfully listening for something, the housemaid; not + "Harriet" but Ramsey.<br> + (Laughter and applause.)</p> + </div><a name="XLVI" id="XLVI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLVI</h2> + + <h3>AFTER THE PLAY</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Neither Hugh nor Ramsey slept a moment that night. And no more did the Gilmores or "Harriet" + or John the Baptist or even the senator or the Californian. The play, second act, was cut + without mercy and rushed to a close to let its hero and heroine off at Napoleon, which Ned + called a "future city" but which, some years later, became a former city, by melting into thin + air, or thick water, and leaving not so much behind as a candle-end or a broken bottle.</p> + + <p>It was not far above there that these unsleeping passengers began to remark a fresh rise in + the river's flood, which her "family" and crew had noticed much earlier by a difference in the + nature and quantity of its driftwood. Near the mouth of White River, about an hour's run above + Napoleon, a great floating tree stump, with all its roots, was caught on the buckets of the + "labboard" wheel—"like a cur on a cow's horn," said Gilmore—and carried clear over it with a + sudden hubbub in the paddle-box, tenfold what ten curs could have made, bringing to his feet + every passenger not abed, and scaring awake every sleeping one. Neither Ramsey nor Hugh ever + forgot it, for it evoked the last stir in the supine form of Basile, and a faint spasm in his + cold grasp on Hugh's fingers. Under his freer hand, on his all but motionless breast, lay his + mother's crucifix. Shortly before, while waiting for Hugh's tardy coming, he had held a hand of + his sister, whose other held her mother's. On the edge of the berth, at his feet, sat Lucian, + very pale, with Julian standing by him. Both betrayed deep feeling yet kept a brave look that + was good to see even with eyes as prejudiced as Hugh's. Only Basile himself was without + tears.</p> + + <p>How fashions change! There are styles even in death-bed scenes. This one was of the old + fashion, bearing a strong tinge of fatalism; no hopeful make-believe to the dying that death + was other than death; no covert, diligent, desperate economies of the vital spark; but a frank, + helpless reception of the dread angel as a royal guest, and a pious, inert consent to let the + dying die. Before either Hugh or Ramsey could come from the cabin the twins had reached the + bedside and had been received with a final lighting up of the boy's spent powers, which his + mother made no effort to restrain. In a feeble, altered voice, without heat, scorn, or + petulance, with a mind stripped of all its puerilities and full of fraternal care and + faithfulness, and with a magisterial dignity far beyond his years, he slowly poured out a + measured stream of arraignment and appeal which their hardened hearts were still too young to + withstand unmoved.</p> + + <p>His conversion, he told them, had come to him with a great light, "on the road to Damascus," + and by that light he saw, as he implored them to see, the hideous deformity of the life he and + they and the young fellows of their usual companionship had been living. Even Ramsey knew, he + continued as she and their old nurse silently reappeared, that by the plainest laws of the + land, they were not too good for the penitentiary. An overweening pride in their lawlessness + did not justify or excuse it; the devils had that, in hell. They, the twins, were not Christian + gentlemen. They were <em>not gentlemen at all</em>. They'd shoot a man down in his tracks for + saying so, or for calling them liars, yet they'd turn the truth wrong side out every day in the + year. These last two days they'd done it right along. At this moment they had a fixed design to + kill Hugh Courteney on the first good chance and didn't care a continental whether they did it + in face-to-face murder or from behind a bush. Lying at death's door, he said, and in jealousy + for the same Hayle name they professed to be so jealous for, he demanded their oath to abandon + that design; to stop it, drop it, "right here and now," and never to seek the life of any + Courteney but in clear defence of some other life. His own seemed almost to fade out at that + point, yet presently:</p> + + <p>"Hold up your right hands," he gasped, trying to raise his. The mother lifted it for him + while giving the twins a tearful flash of command. Unconsciously Ramsey put up hers as Lucian's + left suddenly caught Julian's right and he held up both it and his own.</p> + + <p>But neither the boy nor Ramsey nor the old nurse felt assured, and all three were glad when + the mother asked:</p> + + <p>"You swear?"</p> + + <p>Julian stood mute but, "With that provision," said Lucian, "we swear."</p> + + <p>"So help you God?" insisted the mother, and while she spoke and the twins bowed, the narrow + door let some one in.</p> + + <p>"Is that Hugh Courteney?" asked the boy. "You're just in time, Hugh. The feud's off."</p> + + <p>"Oh, there's no feud, Basile," tenderly murmured Hugh.</p> + + <p>"No, it's off, thank God. I got it off. The twins have just sworn it off. Shake hands, boys. + Come, you first, Jule."</p> + + <p>But Lucian led, with a certain alacrity, Julian following with less.</p> + + <p>"Now take my hand, Hugh." The voice was failing but once more it rallied. "Give it to him, + sis'.... Thank you.... Keep it, Hugh Courteney. I love a brave man's hand. We heard you + singing, Hugh. My! but you've got grit. I wish you belonged to Gideon's band yourself. You're + braver than most men, though most men'll always think they're braver than you."</p> + + <p>Hugh could only dry the damp from the cold brow. He grew fiercely ashamed not so much of his + tears, which those around him were too tearful to observe, as of the boy's praises, before + which he could only stand dumb.</p> + + <p>"He's brave, sis'," Basile went on, "and he's clean, and he's square, mother, boys. You were + on the <em>Quakeress</em> when she burned, wa'n't you? Ah, me!—wish I'd known you then. I'd be + a different man now. I don't believe I'd be dying. My heavenly Father wouldn't 'a' had to call + me in out of the storm." <a name="col03" id="col03"></a></p> + + <div class="c1"> + <a href="images/col03.jpg"><img src="images/col03s.jpg" alt= + ""My heavenly Father wouldn't 'a' had to call me in out of the storm"" border="0"></a> + <br>"My heavenly Father wouldn't 'a' had to call me in out of the storm" + </div> + + <p>His mother sank to her knees against the berth's side, covered her face, and shook with + grief. The daughter sank too, weepingly caressing her, yet was still able so to divide her + thought as yearningly to wish Hugh, for his own sake, well away, as she saw his hand softly + endeavor to draw free from Basile's. But it was on that instant that the great tree root came + thundering up through the wheel-house and the dying clasp tightened. The shock of surprise + revived him. "Hugh—do something for me?... Thank you. Bishop's gone, you know. Read my burial + service. I don't want the—play-actor—though he's fine; nor the priest, though he's fine, too. + Mom-a'd be a saint in any—persuasion, and pop and us boys are Methodists, if anything, and + I—I didn't get religion in Latin and I don't want to be buried in it." He waited. Hugh was + silent.</p> + + <p>The Creole mother, still kneeling, drew closer. "Yass," she said, "he shall read that."</p> + + <p>But plainly there was one thing more though the tired eyelids sank. "Let down your ear," + murmured the lips.</p> + + <p>Hugh knelt, bent, waited. The distressed twins watched them. The hold on his hand relaxed. + He lifted and looked.</p> + + <p>"What do he say?" tearfully asked old Joy, pressing in.</p> + + <p>"Nothing," said Hugh; and then to the twins: "He's gone."</p> + <hr width="50%"> + + <p>Out in the benign starlight and caressing breeze Hugh hastened to his father's door.</p> + </div><a name="XLVII" id="XLVII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLVII</h2> + + <h3>INSOMNIA</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Down in the cabin, in one of its best staterooms, where all were choice, the senator wooed + slumber.</p> + + <p>In vain. Sounds were no obstacle. They abounded but they were normal. + Except—"Peck-peck-peck" and so on, which the steady pulse of normal sounds practically + obliterated. The peck-pecking was not for him.</p> + + <p>An unwelcome odor may keep one awake, but the senator's berth was fragrant of fresh + mattresses and new linen, the wash-stand of jasmine soap, and the room at large of its + immaculate zinc-white walls and doors and their gilt trimmings. Nor could the cause be his + supper of beefsteak and onions, black coffee, hot rolls, and bananas, for every one about him + had had those, and every one about him was sound asleep. It could not be for lack of the bath; + he had already slept well without it too many nights hand-running. Nor could it be a want of + special nightclothes; he had won his election over a nightshirt aristocrat, as being not too + pampered to sleep, like the sons of toil, in the shirt he had worn all day and would wear again + to-morrow. Nor yet was it nicotine or alcohol, the putting of which into him was like feeding + cottonwood to Hayle's old <em>Huntress</em>. Such, at least, was his private conviction. Oh, he + knew the cause! He believed he could drop into sleep as this boat's sounding-lead could drop to + the river's bottom, if for one minute he could get his mind off that singularly old, + contemptibly young poker-face.</p> + + <p>Recalling that face and the grandfather's as he had confronted them together earlier in the + journey, they were a double reminder of the Franklinian maxim—he kept a store of such things + for stump use—that an old young man makes a young old man. But maxims didn't bring sleep; he + turned the pillow and damned the maxim and the men, with Benjamin Franklin to boot.</p> + + <p>It tossed him from his right side to his left, to think of his own part in this two days' + episode, and of the flocks of passengers stepping ashore at various landings who, as sure + as—hmm!—would at every step drop that story into the public ear as corn is dropped into the + furrow. It tossed him back again, to think how his adversaries in the political game, where + cunning was always trumps, would light down on that story like crows behind the plough. He + mixed his metaphors by habit; the people loved them mixed. Another maxim, his own invention, + was, Take care of your character and your reputation will take care of itself. The —— it + will! You've got to take <em>at least</em> as much care of reputation. But here both were + concerned. He could not, for the sake either of his character <em>or</em> his reputation, let + himself be made a fool of by any one, however small, anywhere. He had got to recover a personal + importance solemnly pilfered from him by a half-grown Shanghai still in his pin-feathers. + Against Hayle's girl he was excusably helpless, but him he had got to get the upper hand of and + get it quick. Memphis in the morning! More passengers to be dropped there and the whole town's + attention to be attracted by the burial of the bishop. Good Lord! That "verbatim report for the + newspapers"! And of all papers the Memphis papers! <em>Avalanche</em>—<em>Appeal</em>—it was + all one, he happening to be at the moment equally at odds with both. It, the "report," would + not take a defensive attitude. Poker-face was too sharp for that. It would take the offensive + from the start and it would take the start. Gentlemen of the jury, in a war of words there's + just one word better than the last, and that's the first! And moreover! the brief "report's" + main theme would not be he, the senator, nor his vanished committee of seven. No, sir-ee, it + would be the cholera, and he would be dished up in a purely casual way; as the French say "on, + pass on."</p> + + <p>He rubbed his head and sat up. There was a chance that he might find Hugh awake and on duty. + If so his cast-iron lordship might yet be browbeaten, or wheedled, into inaction. Or if + sleeping he might yet be circumvented. Was he worth circumventing? How absurdly troubles + magnify on a waking pillow. Despise your enemy and sleep! Well—hardly. Let <em>him</em> do + that, especially when <em>you can't</em>.</p> + + <p>He threw off the light cover, rose, and dressed. He began to see a way to win. He would + countermine. He would raise a counter-issue—"Harriet." Loitering by the twins' door he + listened and rightly judged they were asleep, Lucian being so feeble and Julian so full. The + office was open but empty. Its clock read two. The card-tables were vacant. The bar was closed. + Out on the dim boiler deck he found only the two who had fleeced Basile. They sat at the very + front, elbow to elbow, with their feet up on the rail. Their quiet talk ceased as he came near + and stood looking out over the gliding bow and the waters beyond, which were out of their banks + and stretched everywhere off into the night, a veritable deluge.</p> + + <p>"A good forty miles wide, no doubt," he remarked to the pair, and they assured him he was + right.</p> + + <p>"What piece of river is this?" he inquired, and was told that they were in the long, + winding, desolate sixty-mile stretch between White River and Horseshoe Bend; that they had just + put Islands Sixty-two and Sixty-three astern and would be more than two hours yet in reaching + Helena.</p> + + <p>"Arkansas your State?" he asked. "Helena your town?"</p> + + <p>"No," they said, they were of the "hoop-pole State," meaning Indiana. He knew better but + changed the subject. "The Ohio," he remarked, "must be up on her hind legs."</p> + + <p>"Yes, everything was up: the Saint Francis, the Tennessee, Cumberland, Illinois, Wabash, + Kentucky, Miami, Scioto—" The pair did not talk like men narrowly of the hoop-pole + commonwealth. Modestly speaking on, they seemed to know the whole great valley quite by + heart.</p> + + <p>So the senator, to show how quite by heart he knew this whole little world, said affably: + "The pan-fish ain't biting so very lively this trip."</p> + + <p>The reply was as flawless for candor as though they had the same hope to use him which he + had to use them. Said one:</p> + + <p>"No, we ain't paying expenses."</p> + + <p>And his mate: "We've caught a few little flappers."</p> + + <p>"Captain's son make it hard to do business?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, he—we've all got our prejudices, you know."</p> + + <p>"Yes, you ought to have some against him by now."</p> + + <p>"Maybe so. You've got yourn, senator, we've noticed."</p> + + <p>"I? No! I admire him. The way he runs this cabin——"</p> + + <p>"Makes her keep up with the boat," they admitted.</p> + + <p>"I never saw his like," laughed the statesman.</p> + + <p>"Wouldn't want to, would you?"</p> + + <p>"N-no, he makes big mistakes. But—he's got a future!"</p> + + <p>"So mind his heels," said one of the pair. They were enjoying their politician. He saw that + by their gravity. In their world men looked gravest when amused, and saved their smiles for + emergencies. While he offered, and they accepted, cigars he spoke absently:</p> + + <p>"The young gentleman's making a mistake right now that he ought to be saved from."</p> + + <p>"Another?" they dryly asked as they used his cigar for a light. So far had he fallen in the + general esteem.</p> + + <p>He chose not to hear. "I wish," he insisted, "we could save him from it."</p> + + <p>"Why, yes!—wish you could. But 'we' ain't us. We sporting men, we're mighty bashful, you + know."</p> + + <p>"Naturally," admitted the senator.</p> + + <p>"Yes, glass, with care. But there's another mistake maker we wish you wished you could save. + We ev'm might help."</p> + + <p>"Aha!" thought the senator. He was right, after all. He had felt confident that these men, + treated by Hugh as they had been, would privately "have it in for him"; that they would be glad + of any safe chance to "get away with him"—not so utterly as to imperil their necks, yet not + too lightly for their spiritual comfort the rest of their days—and that they saw their chance + just where he saw his.</p> + + <p>"Ye-es?" He mused. They let him muse. The exhorter, he reflected, having picked up the trail + and opened the cry—trail which the headlong twins had so witlessly overrun—these older dogs + were on it hot; trail of the Gilmores and "Harriet." Somewhere on that trail the captain's son + would show up, and when the game should be treed they would be able, in the general mix-up, to + "go and see Hugh" and "cook his goose."</p> + + <p>The musing ceased. "You mean the actor?"</p> + + <p>The pair warmed up. "Yes, sir-ee, him. <em>That</em> fellow's making a mistake we might help + you to handle. God! sir, he's a nigger-stealer. His wife has got a stolen nigger wench with her + now. Had her these ten years. Save <em>him</em>. Save <em>them</em>."</p> + + <p>"Our friend John the Baptist suggests that," began the senator.</p> + + <p>"Adzac'ly!" was the facetious affirmation. "Smelt 'em out at the show. That's how come the + mate has locked him up."</p> + + <p>The senator stiffened. "Oh, you must be mistaken!"</p> + + <p>"Want to bet? Pull out. Go you a thousand they've jugged him and them two Arkansas killers. + Yes, sir, to stay jugged till they leave us, at Helena."</p> + + <p>"Who!—have done that?"</p> + + <p>"Same as you're thinking; they; them; him; that believes he's bossing the boat—which maybe + he is."</p> + + <p>"Where is he?"</p> + + <p>"Up on the roof, with a select few, both sexes."</p> + + <p>"Gentlemen, he must let them go at once!"</p> + + <p>"Senator, not with money, but just on your word, you sort o' bail 'em out. If they cut up, + nobody'll blame you."</p> + + <p>"I'll do it! We don't want an owner of the finest boat on Southern waters to have any part + in <em>that sort</em> of mistake, whatever his youth."</p> + + <p>"Youth!" (Profanity.) "That boy's forty year' old. Oh, he's all right; if he thinks he'd + ought to protect every galoot on his boat, why, maybe he'd ought. What you know is that that + white nigger's <em>got</em> to be took away from them two barnstormers instanter and restored + back to her own Hayle folks. That's a mistake you ain't never got to ask nobody's leaves to + save nobody from."</p> + + <p>"You don't mean to-night?" Capital disguise for eagerness—the cigar. The senator puffed. + The pair puffed.</p> + + <p>"We mean now; when the right men can be woke up and the others—and the ladies—sleep on. + Now, straightaway, while the shouter's still aboard—and the two shooters. If we wa'n't + sporting men we'd like to sit into that game ourselves. Maybe we can if it's + kept—dignified."</p> + + <p>"Even if there's resistance?"</p> + + <p>"Who'll resist? The boat's people? Only thing they dassen't resist. Couldn't never run + another trip on this river. Resist! Couldn't ever resist, any time; but now? Look at their fix. + Sweet time to set everybody a-kicking like steers. Bishop dead, chief Dutch woman ditto, that + nice young Hayle boy that they took away from us when he wanted to stay like a man, + ditto——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, not dead? My God! I hadn't heard that."</p> + + <p>"No, it ain't been properly advertised. But Hamlet knows it—I mean your actor. The way him + and his wife—or lady—are buzzing around, you'd think they was the undertakers. Maybe they + are. <em>He</em> won't resist. He knows how well resistance would suit you—oh, not yourself, + no more'n us, but—the crowd; men like them three that's locked up and must be turned loose + first thing. He knows if he lifts a finger, or so much as gives anybody any of his lip—and + maybe anyhow—he'll be took ashore and lost in the woods, first time we stop to bury some more + Dutch; say daybreak."</p> + + <p>"Ah, but we mustn't let that happen, either."</p> + + <p>"Oh, no! we mustn't let that happen, either."</p> + + <p>"Well"—the senator put on a bustling frown—"I'll see Hugh. I wish—I wonder if that + Californian has——"</p> + + <p>"Put up his shutters? No, he's on the roof. Why?"</p> + + <p>"He might help wake up the right men, as you say."</p> + + <p>One of the pair, without rising, tapped the senator caressingly. + "You—let—California—sweat. Trust in Providence. The right men'll get woke up somehow, + beginning with the general. That right?... All gay, but don't you take no California in yourn + to-night."</p> + + <p>"No? Very well. But—I wonder if you gentlemen really recognize the seriousness of this + affair."</p> + + <p>"Look a-here, senator, you go up-stairs and save Mr. Innocence from running his boat into + this mistake." The sleek pair rose, evidently to begin their part.</p> + + <p>The senator rummaged his mind for a word that would give him creditable exit but had to + hurry off without it. Turning, the two exchanged a calm gaze and one luxurious puff, which + meant that the "old sucker's" use of them would suit them exactly. They rummaged for no words; + had no more need for words than two leopards.</p> + + <p>Before falling to work they glanced out over the flood. This was Horseshoe Cut-off. Kangaroo + Point was just astern in the west. Yonder ahead, under the old moon, came Friar's Point. In + these hundred miles between Napoleon and Helena they were meeting one by one the Saturday + evening boats out of Saint Louis. Now one came round the upper bend, four days from Cincinnati. + They knew her; the Courteneys' fine old <em>Marchioness</em>. The young <em>Votaress</em> swept + by her saluting and saluted like the belle of a ball, a flying vision of luxury, innocence, and + joy.</p> + </div><a name="XLVIII" id="XLVIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLVIII</h2> + + <h3>"CALIFORNIA"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Under the benign stars, as we have said, Hugh hastened from Basile to his father.</p> + + <p>Those were the same heavenly lights with which only two nights earlier he and that father + had so tranquilly—and the dead boy's sister so airily—communed. With a hand yet on the door + that he was leaving, and while his distress for what had befallen in this room brought a + foreboding of what might impend in the other, he felt the chiding of that celestial benignity + and was dimly made to see its illimitable span and the smallness of magnifying the things we + call trouble.</p> + + <p>All the more, then, a melting heart for the tearful mother and sister, to whom no word of + this could be said; but a stout heart, stouter than he knew where to find, for whatever was yet + in store. Also a preoccupied good-by to sweet companionship. Nay, a mind too preoccupied for + any good-by to any companionship for the remainder of this voyage, if not forever. It was + humiliating to have even so much thought of such a kind at such a time; yet suppress it as he + might, he could not wholly stifle it, even at his father's door.</p> + + <p>Three hours later the senator, coming up in search of him, gradually discovered the presence + of more people than he was looking for or cared even to find awake—being who they were. At the + top of the steps he told the watchman sleeplessness had driven him up here for fresh air. It is + but human to explain to a watchman.</p> + + <p>But how was the captain? And how was the commodore?</p> + + <p>The commodore was doing well enough, but the captain—the watchman shook his head with the + wisdom of a doctor.</p> + + <p>The seeker after fresh air, eager to move on, yet loath to imply that the air about a + watchman was stale, said, with a glance at the stars, that here was quiet.</p> + + <p>But the watchman begged to differ. Never by starlight had he seen so busy a hurricane-deck. + Just now there was a lull but it was the first in three hours. Preparations here, preparations + there, for the dead, for the living, the sick, the well; such a going and coming of cabin-boys, + of chambermaids, of the immigrant they called Marburg, the Hayles' old black woman, the texas + tender, the mud clerk, the actor and his wife, her servant girl——</p> + + <p>"And others," prompted the senator. "What doing?"</p> + + <p>A hundred things. The actor's wife had got Miss Hayle into funeral black from her own stage + "warrobe," and the young man Marburg had brought up, for Madame Hayle, one of his deceased + mother's mourning gowns, "a prodigious fine one." It did not fit but the actor's wife and her + maid were altering it while they kept watch where Basile lay and while Madame Hayle resumed her + cares on the lower deck.</p> + + <p>And who was caring for the commodore?</p> + + <p>Second clerk and mud clerk answered his few needs.</p> + + <p>But the captain——?</p> + + <p>Ah, that was another matter. The actor was with him.</p> + + <p>Mr. Gilmore; um-hmm. A step or so forward of the captain's room, as the senator moved toward + the bell, two male figures seated on the edge of the skylight roof spoke his name in a mild + greeting, and, looking closely, he found them to be Watson's cub and the Kentuckian whom the + pair down on the boiler deck had just called "California."</p> + + <p>The senator expressed surprise that these two were not abed, where he himself ought to be + but—sleeplessness had driven him up here for fresh air.</p> + + <p>"Well, here the fresh air is," said California. "Senator, we've just been wishing we could + see you."</p> + + <p>"Ah!" said the senator, grateful yet wary. "I'll just take a turn or two up forward and be + right back."</p> + + <p>"But—hold on, senator; just one question."</p> + + <p>The three stood. "Now, this first question ain't it; this is just the cut and deal. Hayle's + twins have offered to fight Hugh Courteney—any way open to gentlemen, as they say—haven't + they?"</p> + + <p>"Oh—night before last, I—believe so."</p> + + <p>"Ancient history, yes; but it's a standing invitation and they've called him names: + poltroon, coward——"</p> + + <p>"Well, really, Mr. So-and-so, while we can't justify the names, nor the invitation, we can't + wonder at the givers."</p> + + <p>"Why—I can. I think they're pretty tol'able wonderful. But so's he—to let 'em do it. Now, + this ain't the question, either, but—why does he allow it? It ain't for lack of pluck, + senator. I know a coward's earmarks and he ain't got 'em. It ain't for religion; less'n two + hours out of Orleans he'd offered them twins, I'm told, to take 'em down to the freight deck + and dish up the brace of 'em at one fell scoop. And no more is it because his people won't let + him alone to do his own way. He's about the let-alone-dest fellow I ever see, for his age, if + he is any particular age. No, sir, I've studied out what it's for."</p> + + <p>"Hmm. But what's your question? What's <em>it</em> about?"</p> + + <p>"Why, it's about this—and your friend the general. For I'll tell you, senator, why Mr. Hugh + don't fight. It's for—can I tell you in confidence, strict, air-tight?"</p> + + <p>"Certainly, strict, air-tight."</p> + + <p>"Well, then, it's for love. He's in love with their sister. Now, <em>that's</em> something I + <em>don't</em> wonder at. I am, too. So are a lot of us." He smiled at the cub, who frowned + away. "Now, by natural fitness, he's got ground for hope. I ain't got a square inch. She ain't + on my claim. Next week my face'll be to the setting sun. So what do I do but go to him—this + was before her young brother died—which I almost loved the brother too—and s'I, 'Mr. + Courteney, I've saw the sun go down and moon come up on this thing three times running, and + every time and all between I've stood it, seeing you stand it. And I've studied it. And I see + your fix. But most of us don't; so somebody's got to indorse you. Now, being a Kentuckian, not + blue-grass but next door, I feel like doing it. You've <em>got</em> to play two hands and you + <em>can't</em> play but one. Well, I'll play the one you can't. I'll fight them twins.'"</p> + + <p>"Well, of all—and he accepted?"</p> + + <p>"Now, you know he didn't. He said it would be absolutely impossible. But he said it the + funniest way—! It made me see the size of him for the first time. And, senator, he's + life-size. But I reckon you knowed that before I did. He took me by the button-hole, just as + I'm holding you now, and talked to me as majestic as a father sending his boy off to school, + and at the very same time and in the very same words as sweet as a girl sending her soldier to + war."</p> + + <p>"And he convinced you?"</p> + + <p>"No, we was interrupted and couldn't talk it out. Well, I can't go back to him and resume, + no more'n a wildcat bank. For one thing, I wouldn't take him from her."</p> + + <p>"You don't mean they're together now?"</p> + + <p>"Now, no, but by spells, yes. Bound to happen—so many of us so willing. I'd try to talk the + thing out with this young man and Mr. Watson, but they all feel alike. Reckon it does 'em + credit, but—well—I'd like to talk it out with you and the general. I think we can dispense + with the boat's consent. Don't you?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, Lord, man, what have I got to do with that?"</p> + + <p>"Hold your horses, senator. I look at it this way: If the twins hadn't been too busy pecking + at Mr. Hugh I'm just the sort o' man they'd 'a' pecked at, and hence I have a good moral right + to waive their not doing it and take the will for the deed."</p> + + <p>"Nonsense, my good friend; good joke, nothing more."</p> + + <p>"Hold on; there's this anyhow: If Mr. Hugh <em>could</em> accept their invitation maybe he'd + take me for his second; and what does second mean if it don't mean that if, after all, + something should force him to drop out I could drop in?"</p> + + <p>"Oh," laughed the senator, freeing his buttonhole by gentle force and edging away, "very + well; but the twins! They're out! Look at <em>their</em> fix; <em>they</em> can't fight + now."</p> + + <p>"Senator, just so. But the general, all along he's sort o' been their second; indorsed for + 'em same's I'd like to for Mr. Hugh. He'd be their second now if they could fight—as we know + they'd be glad to. So, why ain't he honor bound to take their place if I take Mr. Hugh's? This + young gentleman'll act for me—won't you?—yes, and the senator can act for the general. Then, + senator, the first time we can get ashore we can settle the whole thing without involving Mr. + Hugh and without ever letting the ladies know—or the crowd either—that it ain't just our own + affair. I can easily give the general cause, you know."</p> + + <p>"My friend," said the cunning senator, who knew his ruling sin was tardiness and that he was + tardy now, "I don't say anything could be fairer—in its right time. If you'll go to bed and to + sleep——"</p> + + <p>"Senator, delays are dangerous. I might get the cholera. The general might get it. Or some + other trouble might crop up and sort o' separate us."</p> + + <p>Ah! It flashed into the senator's mind that California, though meaning all he said, had in + full view the Gilmore-Harriet affair and that this was a move in that, a move to checkmate. His + countermove had to be prompt; some one was coming up the nearest steps. "My dear sir, there + <em>is</em> another trouble; serious, imminent, and almost sure to involve our friend Hugh in a + vital mistake—Why, general, I thought you, at least, was asleep."</p> + + <p>"Sss-enator, I was. I mmm-erely had not und-ressed. Have you fff-ound that young man?"</p> + + <p>"Not yet, general. Let's go see him together. I want to see you, too, for just a moment, if + these gentlemen will excuse me that long."</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh's with the first clerk, yonder by the bell," said the gold hunter. "We'll wait + here, eh?"</p> + + <p>The general wanted to reply, but "I wish you would," responded the senator and hurried him + away.</p> + </div><a name="XLIX" id="XLIX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>XLIX</h2> + + <h3>KANGAROO POINT</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Aboard the <em>Votaress</em> was a gentle, retiring lady, large and fair, whom both Hugh and + Ramsey had liked from the first, yet whose acquaintance they had made very slowly and quite + separately. She was a parson's wife, who had never seen a play, a game of cards, or a ball, + danced a dance, read a novel, tasted wine, or worn a jewel. She had four handsome, decorous, + well-freckled children, two boys, two girls.</p> + + <p>At table, until the married pairs of Vicksburg, Yazoo, and Milliken's Bend had gone ashore, + she had not sat with the foremost dozen, although she and the bishop spoke often together and + were always "sister" and "brother." Her near neighbors at the board had been the Carthaginians + and Napoleonites, and it was through them that she had met the Gilmores. To Ramsey and Hugh she + had been made known by her children, one boy and girl having fallen wildly in love with the + young lady's red curls, and the other two with Hugh and his frown.</p> + + <p>The Gilmores' hearts she had won largely by the way in which her talks with them revealed + the sweet charities of a soul unwarped by the tyrannous prohibitions under which she had been + "born and raised" and to which she was still loyal; and she had crowned the conquest by a + gentle, inflexible refusal to "brother" John the Baptist. In their lively minds she reawakened + the age-old issue between artist and pietist. Said the amused Gilmore:</p> + + <p>"Humiliate me? Not in the least. She only humbles me; she's such a beautiful example + of——"</p> + + <p>"Yes, but, goodness, don't say it here!" said his wife. "Harriet" and the exhorter were + already trouble enough.</p> + + <p>Nevertheless, "What lovely types of character," insisted Gilmore, "come often, <em>so</em> + often, from ugly types of faith!"</p> + + <p>The wife flinched and looked about but he persisted: "So much better, my love—this is only + my humble tribute to her—so <em>much</em> better is religion, even her religion, without the + liberal arts than the liberal arts without religion. Faith is the foundation, they are the + upper works."</p> + + <p>"Dear, you should have been a preacher!"</p> + + <p>"No, I'd always be preaching that one sermon. If I didn't tell it to you, I'd have to tell + it to her, or make you tell her."</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore had not told her, but between the two women, across the gulf between them, + there had grown such a commerce of silent esteem that neither Hugh nor Ramsey knew which one's + modest liberalism to admire most. To Ramsey it was nothing against the matron that she was not + nursing the immigrant sick. Only Madame Hayle was allowed to do that, and the parson's wife, + being quite without madame's art of doing as she pleased, had had to submit conscience and + compassions to the captain's forbiddal, repeated by the commodore and Hugh. But after the play + she had insisted, "strict orders or none, and whether her children were four or forty-four," on + entering the service of the busy Gilmores, "no matter how," and was now, with old Joy, in the + pilot-house, a most timely successor to the actor's wife in the social care of Ramsey.</p> + + <p>For to Ramsey, in this first bereavement of her life, sleep was as abhorrent as if her + brother's burial were already at hand. Grief was good, for grief was love. Sleep was + heartlessness. Moreover, in sleep, only in sleep, there was no growth. Of course, that was not + true; only yesterday and the day before she had grown consciously between evening and morning, + grown wonderfully. But she had forgotten that and in every fibre of her being felt a frenzy for + growth, for getting on, like the frenzy of a bird left behind by the flock. All the boat's + human life, all its majestic going—led on by the stars—and especially all those by whose + command or guidance it went, made for growth. So, too, did this dear Mrs. So-and-so, who could + so kindly understand how one in deep sorrow may go on seeing the drollery of things. Grief, + love, solace, growth, she was all of them in one. If she, Ramsey, might neither nurse the sick + with her mother nor watch with Mrs. Gilmore and "Harriet," here was this dear, fair lady with + the tenderest, most enlightening words of faith and comfort that ever had fallen on her ears; + words never too eager or too many, but always just in time and volume to satisfy grief's fitful + questionings.</p> + + <p>For refuge they had tried every quarter of these upper decks; now paced them, now stood, now + sat, and had found each best in its turn; but such open-air seclusion itself drew notice, made + notice more felt, and so the dusk of the pilot-house had soon been found best of all. It + remained so now—while the great chimneys out forward breathed soothingly, and a mile astern + glimmered the <em>Westwood</em>, and a mile ahead glimmered the <em>Antelope</em>, and here + among the few occupants of the visitors' bench there drifted a soft, alluring gossip about each + newly turned bend of the most marvellous of rivers. To nestle back in its larboard corner while + now some one came up and in and now some one slipped down and out, and while ever the pilot's + head and shoulders and the upper spokes of his vigilant wheel stood outlined against the + twinkling sky and rippling air, was like resting one's head on the <em>Votaress's</em> + bosom.</p> + + <p>And yet another reason made sleep unthinkable. He who had said, "I need you," was awake, was + on watch. Now that the feud, blessed thought, was all off, sworn off, and a lingering mistrust + of the twins seemed quite unsisterly, probably that need of her, or illusion of need, had + passed. Well, if so he ought to say so! For here were great cares and dangers yet. The river + was out of all its bounds. Most of those bounds themselves and the great plantations behind + them were under the swirling deluge. The waters of Scrubgrass Bend, for instance, were + crosscutting over Scrubgrass Towhead in one league-wide sheet, and Islands + Seventy-this-and-that and Islands Sixty-that-and-this were under them to their tree-tops. These + things might be less fearful in fact than in show, or might be a matter wherein it was only a + trifle more imbecile to think of her helping than in some others. Yet here were officers and + servants of the boat busy out of turn and omitting routine duties unfortunate to omit and which + she might perform if they would but let her. She noticed the presence of both pilots at + once—Watson at the wheel, Ned on the bench. No wonder, with so awesome a charge; guiding a + boat like this, teeming with human souls and driven pell-mell through such a war of elemental + forces in desert darkness, with never a beacon light from point to point, from hour to hour; + running every chute, with a chute behind nearly every point or island, and the vast bends + looping on each other like the folds of a python and but little more to be trusted.</p> + + <p>And here was this "Harriet" affair, a care and danger that as yet smouldered, but at any + moment, with or without aid of the twins, might blaze. No one mentioned it, but you could smell + it like smoke. And here was that supreme care and danger, the plague, with all the earlier + precautions against it dropped, and with its constant triple question: Who next of the sick? + Who next of the well? Who next on either of the decks below?</p> + + <p>Two or three times Hugh came, sat awhile, spoke rarely, and went out. What a spontaneous new + deference every one accorded him and with what a simple air of habitude he received it, though + it seemed to mark him for bereavement as well as for command! Why did he come? Why did he go? + wondered Ramsey. Not that she would hinder him, coming or going. She could not guess that one + chief object was care of her. She could only recall how lately they two had stood behind the + footlights and sung their nonsense rhymes, partners in, and justified by, one brave, merciful + purpose. Ought he to let care, danger, and grief, as soon as they had become acutely hers and + his, drive him and her apart and strike him dumb to her, as dumb as a big ship dropping her on + a desert shore and sailing away? Various subtleties of manner in others on the bench convinced + her that they were thinking of him and her and thinking these same questions. What right had he + to bring that upon her? Once, as he went out, somebody unwittingly stung her keenly by + remarking, to no one in particular, that it was hard to see what should keep him so busy.</p> + + <p>"D'you know," retorted Ned, "what running a boat is?"</p> + + <p>"Why, yes, it's making things spin so smooth you can't see 'em spin, ain't it?"</p> + + <p>"Right. Ever fly a kite? Not with yo' eyes shet, hey? Well, a boat's a hundred kites. Ain't + she, Watsy?"</p> + + <p>"Two hundred," said Watson, at the wheel.</p> + + <p>"But Mr. Hugh ain't actually running this boat, is he?"</p> + + <p>"I ain't said he wuz," replied Ned, and——</p> + + <p>"He ain't a-runnin' no other," said Watson.</p> + + <p>For an instant Ramsey was all pride for him they exalted; but in the next instant a wave of + resentment went through her as if their vaunting were his; as if her pride were his own + confessed, colossal vanity; as if the price of his uplift were her belittlement. Never mind, he + should pay! Absurd, absurd; but she was harrowingly tired, lonely, idle, grief-burdened, and + desolate, and absurdity itself was relief. He should pay, let his paying cost her double. + Somehow, in some feminine, minute, pinhole way, she would deflate him, wing him, bring him + down, before he should soar another round. With old Joy at her feet, in the dusk of her corner + beyond Mrs. So-and-so, the parson's wife; she allowed herself a poor, bitter-sweet smile.</p> + + <p>Each time when Hugh had come back to the bench, room had been hurriedly made for him next + the parson's wife—"stabboard side"—who, speaking for all, promptly began to interrogate him, + her first question always being as to his father's condition, which did not improve. Making + room on the bench made room in the conversation—decoying pauses hopefully designed to lure him + into saying something, anything, to Ramsey, or her to him; but always the kind trap had gone + unsprung. Two or three times, obviously, Mrs. So-and-so's inquiries had first been Ramsey's to + her; as when one of them elicited the fact that the next turn would be Horseshoe Cut-off and + Kangaroo Point; and once, at length, after twice failing to believe the ear she bent to + Ramsey's murmur, she said audibly:</p> + + <p>"Ask him, dear; ask him yourself."</p> + + <p>Every one waited and presently Hugh remarked:</p> + + <p>"I'll answer if I can."</p> + + <p>"I'd rather," faltered Ramsey, "ask John the Baptist."</p> + + <p>The unlucky mention took no evident effect on any one. If that was the snub she would have + to try again.</p> + + <p>"I can ask him for you," said Hugh. "He's up, expecting to leave us at Helena."</p> + + <p>"No, thank you," she sighed, "you're too awfully busy. It won't make any real difference if + I never find out."</p> + + <p>"Won't sink the boat to ask," drawled Watson; but she remained silent till Hugh + inquired:</p> + + <p>"Are you sure I can't tell you?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, you can!" came from Ramsey's dark corner. "But—with the whole boat in your care—we + oughtn't to ask you things we don't have to know."</p> + + <p>"Lard! belch it out," urged the innocent Ned, taking her in earnest; but again she was + silent.</p> + + <p>"Well?" said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Oh, well, are there many—? Oh, it ain't important."</p> + + <p>"Why, missy," muttered old Joy, "you's dess natchiully bleeds to ax it now."</p> + + <p>"Yes, dear," said the parson's wife, "let's have it."</p> + + <p>"Well—are there many—? Oh, it's not—are there—are there many kangaroos on Kangaroo + Point?"</p> + + <p>At any outer edge of civilization a joke may be as hard and practical as ship's bread, yet + pass. Amid the general mirth and while Hugh pulled a bell cord which made no jingle down in the + engine-room and had never before been observed by Ramsey, his reply was prompt and brief but + too gently solemn for her ear; and when she got Mrs. So-and-so to repeat it to her it was + merely to the effect that, though kangaroos were few on Kangaroo Point, she ought to see the + wealth of horseshoes in Horseshoe Cut-off.</p> + + <p>Oh, kind answer! that excused her frivolity by sharing it. Kind beyond her utmost merit. She + did not say so, but she thought it, sitting dumb, in sudden tears, and burning with shame for + her blindness to the hour's fearful realities. While Ned stepped to Watson's side to speak + critically of the <em>Antelope</em>, now shining on their starboard bow, Hugh, near the door, + dropped a quiet request to the two or three other occupants of the bench and they followed him + out.</p> + + <p>"Why do they go?" she asked, fancying them as much appalled at her as she herself was, and + when the sweet lady could not enlighten her the pilots offered a guess that two had gone to + relieve Mrs. Gilmore and her maid and that Hugh would presently join the first clerk by the + bell.</p> + + <p>"There he is now," said Ned, actually expecting her to rise and look down. But she sat still + and watched the <em>Antelope</em>, wishing her far better speed in view of the letters she + carried. So came thoughts of the long telegraphic despatch to her father which Hugh must by + this time have written for her mother, as agreed between them, and which was to be sent, in the + morning, from Memphis.</p> + + <p>The door opened and Mrs. Gilmore and "Harriet" came in.</p> + + <p>"Well," softly inquired the actor's wife, "how do we come on?" and Ramsey answered as + softly, yet taking pains that Ned and Watson should overhear:</p> + + <p>"I've disgraced myself."</p> + + <p>"Mmm!" mumbled old Joy in corroboration.</p> + + <p>"What have you done now?"</p> + + <p>"Nothing. I don't <em>do</em> anything. Only said something, something so silly I can't even + apologize."</p> + + <p>"To whom?"</p> + + <p>"The baby elephant," said Ramsey and laughed a note or two. The door opened again and Hugh's + bell call was explained by the entrance of the texas tender and another white-jacket, each + bearing a large tray of cups and plates, hot coffee, and hot toasted rolls and butter. She + hadn't dreamed she was so hungry.</p> + + <p>Watson stared back from the wheel with grim pretence of surprise. "Who sent that here?"</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh Co'teney sawnt it, suh," said the tender, arranging the cups on the bench. + "Yass'm," he repeated to the grateful ladies, "Mr. Hugh, yass'm."</p> + + <p>"Oh! Mr. Hugh," replied Watson. "He must 'a' gave you the order before he come up here this + last time."</p> + + <p>"Yass, suh, but say don't fetch it tell he ring."</p> + + <p>"Six cups," counted the pilot, "six—You go down with Miss Hayle's compliments to Mr. + Courteney, and——"</p> + + <p>"No-o-o-o!" sang Ramsey, running up the scale.</p> + + <p>But Watson was firm. "Boy, you heard me, didn't you?"</p> + + <p>Ned, with his eyes down on the bell, interposed: "Hold on, Wats', three into one you can't. + Hugh's in a confab with the senator and the general."</p> + + <p>Ramsey, eating like a hunter come home, suddenly stood. "Now look, everybody, at the + <em>Antelope</em>. She's right abeam. Ain't she abeam, Mr. Watson?"</p> + + <p>Watson drawled that she wasn't anything else, and Ramsey failed to see that he saw her cast + an anxious glance down to the bell and the captain's chair beyond it.</p> + </div><a name="L" id="L"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>L</h2> + + <h3>"DELTA WILL DO"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>In Horseshoe Cut-off the course was east. When Ned directed Ramsey's sight to its upper end, + where the flood came into view from the north, she feared he would name the point it turned; + but he forbore and she gazed on the thin old moon off in the southeast.</p> + + <p>"Make out yan bunch o' sycamores?" was his nearest venture. The sycamores were on the point. + Across the river where it ran concealed beyond those sycamores—he went on to tell—at the + up-stream end of a low pencil stroke of forest between the head of the cut-off and the eastern + stars, was another turn, Friar's Point. But her interest in points had faded, and whether + friars abounded on that one or not she took pains not to inquire.</p> + + <p>Instead, she was about to ask the cause of a strange silvering in the sky close over the + black pencil stroke, when, as on Sunday, the morning star sprang into view and cast its + tremulous beam on the waters. She gazed on the white splendor as genuinely enthralled as ever, + though at the same time her eye easily, eagerly took in the first clerk, the senator, the + general, and Hugh, standing about the captain's empty chair. They loomed as dimly as the + sycamores, yet when a fifth figure drew near them she knew by his fine gait that it was the + actor, relieved from the captain's sick-room by "California" and the cub pilot. A gesture from + Hugh stopped him some yards off and he stood leaning on the bell.</p> + + <p>For the actor was their theme. This was plain to every one in the pilot-house, the two + waiters being gone. A remnant of the food was being consumed by "Harriet" and Joy. All the + others were observing, like Ramsey, the morning star and the five men under it. Among her own + and Mrs. Gilmore's draperies Ramsey found that lady's hand. Except a few low words between the + pilots, conversation failed. Without leave-taking Ned left. Presently here he was beneath, on + the skylight roof, and now he joined the actor. Ramsey let go the caressed hand and moved + nearer to Watson. While he and she gazed far up the stream, yet watched the six men below, he + repeated Ned's question.</p> + + <p>"See that clump o' big sycamores a mite to lab-board o' where we're p'inted?"</p> + + <p>She didn't believe she did.</p> + + <p>"Well," he persisted, "that's it."</p> + + <p>"That's what?"</p> + + <p>"Why," said Watson, whose only aim was to set her once more at ease, "that's the p'int + you——"</p> + + <p>"Humph." She turned to the two ladies, who, with their eyes frankly below, were counselling + together. "Let's go down there ourselves," she said, but they whispered on.</p> + + <p>"Better not," put in Watson; "you can't help."</p> + + <p>His kind intent did not keep the words from hurting. With a faint toss she said:</p> + + <p>"I hoped we might be some hindrance."</p> + + <p>She laughed in her old manner, dropped her glance again on the two men and the four, and + hearkened. So did the two ladies beside her. They could all see who spoke below and could hear + each voice in turn, though they could not catch what was said. The only sustained speeches were + the senator's. The general's interpellations were little regarded. The silent pair at the bell + heard everything of essential bearing.</p> + + <p>The consciously belated senator had begun with rhetorical regrets for the captain's and the + commodore's illness and with paternal enthusiasm for those on whom it had brought such grave + new cares. His own sympathetic share in their anxieties, he had hurried on to say, had robbed + him of sleep and driven him up here solely for this interview. On the way he had chanced upon + the general in the——</p> + + <p>"Sssame ffframe of mind," the general had said, while the senator pressed as straight on as + the <em>Votaress</em>.</p> + + <p>As far as the interests involved were private to this boat, he said, her officers and owners + were entitled to keep them so and to be let alone in the management of them. But when that + management became by its nature a vital part of an acute public problem—a national political + issue—he felt bound, both as the Courteneys' private well-wisher and as a public servant, to + urge such treatment of the matter as its national importance demanded. A spark, he said, might + burn a city! A question of private ownership not worth a garnishee might set a whole nation + afire! The arrival of Gilmore at the bell threw him into a sudden heat:</p> + + <p>"My God! Mr. Courteney—Mr. clerk—<em>I</em> shan't offer to lay hands on <em>any</em> man; + not I. All <em>I</em> ask is that you take yours off—of three. My dear sirs, equally as your + true friend and as a lover of our troubled country I <em>beg</em> you to liberate those + citizens of the sovereign State of Arkansas whom you hold in unlawful duress, and to hear + before witnesses the plea they regard as righteous and of national concern."</p> + + <p>The sight of Ned joining Gilmore heated him again: "Gentlemen, if you will do that, now, at + once, you will save the fortunes of this superb boat, her honored owners, and their fleet. If + you don't you wreck them forever before this day dawns. And you may—great heavens, gentlemen, + you <em>may</em> see the first bloodshed of sectional strife."</p> + + <p>"K-'tional ssstrife!" growled the general.</p> + + <p>The clerk smiled. "Why, senator, those men don't go beyond Helena. They leave us there, + before sun-up."</p> + + <p>"Precisely, sir! And if they're not set free before you enter Helena Reach, or even pass + Friar's Point, you may as well not free them at all."</p> + + <p>Hugh glanced at the clerk as if to speak. The clerk nodded and in the pilot-house they saw + Hugh begin:</p> + + <p>"Mr. Senator, suppose we do that?"</p> + + <p>"You would do me honor, sir, and yourselves more."</p> + + <p>"Of course the watchmen of this boat watch."</p> + + <p>As Hugh said this the cub pilot came from the captain's room with some word to Gilmore, who, + though yearning to stay, left him and Ned and hastened back to the texas.</p> + + <p>Meantime the senator: "I should hope so, sir. I hope every one on watch watches, sir."</p> + + <p>"They do. And so we know that you and the general know, perfectly, that the same men who + want those three released want Mr. Gilmore put ashore. Is that your wish, too?"</p> + + <p>"It is, sssir," put in the general while the senator did some rapid thinking. Now he too + replied:</p> + + <p>"Mm—no, sir, it is not. And yet—yes, sir, it is."</p> + + <p>"Then you would advise us to do that also?"</p> + + <p>"I would advise you to do that also."</p> + + <p>"Why?"</p> + + <p>"Good Lord! my young friend, to save you! you, your father, grandfather, boats, all, and Mr. + Gilmore himself!"</p> + + <p>"How about his wife?"</p> + + <p>"And his wife. For her to be with him may help him if he goes. It can't if he stays." The + speaker had let his voice rise. The pilot-house group caught his words. Also they saw the cub + pilot detain Ned when he started forward.</p> + + <p>"Let's go down there ourselves," repeated Ramsey; but the parson's wife had whisperingly + laid both hands on the wife of the actor, and Ramsey chafed to no avail.</p> + + <p>The senator's voice dropped again. "Good God, sir, you know the longer they're aboard the + worse it will be for them, and they've got to go some time or at Louisville a mob will burn the + <em>Votaress</em> to the water's edge with them on her."</p> + + <p>The two stared at each other, the senator's mind bewailing the loss of each golden moment. + The night was not too dark to show him the poker face fitting its nickname insufferably. But + not until its owner spoke again did he frown—to hide an exultant surprise.</p> + + <p>"They could leave their maid, you think, with Madame Hayle?" was Hugh's astonishing inquiry. + The senator had expected of him nothing short of a grim defiance.</p> + + <p>"They could—they can," replied both he and the soldier. "That'll satisfy everybody." The + general saw only the surface of the proposition but the senator perceived in it all the + opportunity their two modest accomplices of the boiler deck asked. That pair and their + adherents—not followers—you wouldn't catch them leading—they and their gathering adherents + would construe the landing of the players as an attempt to deliver them out of their hands and + would undertake to seize and maltreat the actor, at least, the moment he should be off the + boat. That they were likely to fail was little to the senator; there would be a tumult, so + managed as to bring Hugh to the actor's rescue, and in the fracas Hugh was sure of a hammering + he would not only never forget but would discern that he owed, first and last, to him, the + senator.</p> + + <p>Hugh glanced at the clerk. "You had just recommended Delta Landing." The clerk nodded and he + turned back to the senator. "We'll be there inside of half an hour."</p> + + <p>"Delta will do," said the senator, his frown growing.</p> + + <p>Hugh nodded to the clerk. The clerk looked over to Ned.</p> + + <p>"Think Delta's above water?"</p> + + <p>"Oh—eyes and nose out, Watson allows."</p> + + <p>"Delta'll be all right," persisted the senator.</p> + + <p>The clerk glanced up to the pilot-house. "Mr. Watson, we'll stop at Delta, to put off a + couple o' passengers."</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir." The group at the pilot's back gasped at each other. Then Ramsey gasped at + him.</p> + + <p>"Oh, what does that mean?" she demanded. But his gaze remained up the river as he kindly + replied:</p> + + <p>"What it says, I reckon. Don't fret, ladies—when you don't know what to do, don't do + it."</p> + + <p>"Ho-o-oh!" cried Ramsey, whisking away, "I will!"</p> + + <p>"Lawd 'a' massy!" Old Joy sprang for the door, but Ramsey was already out on the steps and + scurrying down them. On the texas roof, however, she took a wrong direction and lost time; + slipped forward round the pilot-house counting on steps which were not, and never had been, out + there. Returning she lost more by meeting old Joy in the narrow way between the house and the + edge of the texas roof, and when at length she sprang away for the after end of the texas and + the only stair she was now sure of, whom should she espy bound thither ahead of her but Mrs. + Gilmore. In that order the three hurried down to the guards of the texas and forward along them + by its stateroom doors.</p> + + <p>Meantime, out at the bell the clerk had left Hugh and privately sent Ned and the cub pilot + different ways. Hugh moved a pace or two aside to observe the <em>Antelope</em> out on their + larboard quarter. The senator and the general moved with him.</p> + + <p>"She'll pass you again at Delta," remarked the senator. "You see, general—you see, Mr. + Courteney,—at Delta they" (the players) "can very plausibly explain—there won't be more than + two or three, if any, to explain to—that they're running from the cholera and want to hail the + <em>Westwood</em>, which they won't more than just have time to do.</p> + + <p>"She won't mind taking them," he babbled on, "already having the cholera herself. Not many + up-river boats would answer a hail from Delta, but she will, for she'll see they're from this + boat and that it's your wish. There she comes round the bend now. Yes, Delta's a lot safer for + 'em than Helena with its wharf-boat and daylight crowd and those three red-hots going ashore + with 'em. On the <em>Westwood</em> they can put up with any yarn that'll carry 'em through. + They're actors and used to that sort o' thing."</p> + + <p>Musingly Hugh broke in: "Counting all the chances, isn't there a touch of cruelty in this, + to the lady at least?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, now, my young friend—" the senator began to rejoin, but two men lounging by stopped to + ask after the father and grandfather. They were the second engineer and his striker, presently + to go on watch.</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore, coming along the texas guards, met the cub pilot. He perched on the railing to + let her pass and a few strides farther on began to do the same for Ramsey.</p> + </div><a name="LI" id="LI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LI</h2> + + <h3>LOVING-KINDNESS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Ramsey stopped and the boy's heart rose into his throat.</p> + + <p>"Whe're you going?" she asked.</p> + + <p>He pointed to a lighted door she had just come by.</p> + + <p>"First mate's room," he said.</p> + + <p>"To tell him what to do?"</p> + + <p>"Yes'm." He slid along the rail to get by her, though hungry to linger.</p> + + <p>"To do what?" she asked. "I know; to bring out John the Baptist and those other two + men?"</p> + + <p>"Yes'm." He backed off, but the compelling power of interrogatory, especially of hers, + retarded him.</p> + + <p>"To turn 'em loose?" she asked.</p> + + <p>He smiled ruefully. "It looks like it."</p> + + <p>"Not with their pistols on them?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, no, he's got their pistols."</p> + + <p>"How'd he get 'em?"</p> + + <p>"Oh—friendly persuasion. He's fine at that. They'll get 'em back—unloaded—when they + land."</p> + + <p>She glanced forward after Mrs. Gilmore, and he sprang away. As the actor's wife neared the + captain's door it opened and Gilmore himself came out, closing it after him warily. Either the + captain was worse, Ramsey guessed, or the actor had received some startling message, so grave + and hurried were the players. They moved several paces away and stepped down to the + hurricane-deck. She let them converse a moment alone. At the same time the second engineer, his + striker, and Ned passed close and went below. Now Ramsey advanced, addressing the pair in a + smothered voice:</p> + + <p>"It's monstrous! It shan't be! It shan't be done! You shan't go!" The signal for landing + tolled. She stopped short.</p> + + <p>But the cause of her silence was Hugh Courteney, close before her. Mrs. Gilmore tried to + draw her back but she stood fast, repeating to him savagely: "It shan't be! It shan't be done! + You shan't do it!"</p> + + <p>Again she ceased, as the senator and the general appeared, not with Hugh though from his + direction, but, like Ned and his fellows, bound below. With a side step she brought them to a + stand, saying once more to them:</p> + + <p>"It shan't be! It shan't be done! You shan't——"</p> + + <p>Both Hugh and Gilmore lifted a hand. There was a reply on the lips of each, but Hugh's + remained unuttered. He glanced to the actor, saying: "Tell it."</p> + + <p>The actor told. "It is not going to be done," he said. "No owner of this boat, no officer, + has ever promised, ordered, or intended it."</p> + + <p>Ludicrously, from the well of the neighboring stair, the heads of Hayle's twins rose and + remained gazing. Fortunately for the dignity of the moment they escaped the eye of Ramsey, who, + on highest tiptoe, while the actor still spoke, was piping incredulously:</p> + + <p>"The clerk said it!—two passengers!—to go ashore!"</p> + + <p>"He might have said five," Hugh gravely answered, while the senator and the general blazed + with astonishment.</p> + + <p>"Five," he repeated directly to the senator; "the three whose release you demanded and those + two scamps you made league with a bit ago on the boiler deck."</p> + + <p>The senator was a conflagration. "Sir, I cannot find——!"</p> + + <p>"Words?" Hugh softly interrupted. "That's fortunate. If you do you'll be landed on the next + island."</p> + + <p>He turned away and moved to the edge of the roof. Ramsey stared at the three and fell back + to the Gilmores, whose manner, as they returned half-way to the sick-room, was more grave and + hurried than before. The engine bells were jingling, the wheels stopped. At the roof's edge, + well forward of Hugh, appeared the first clerk, giving commands. The shore trees glided + spectrally into the firelight of the steamer's torch baskets. A solitary man stood on the bank. + The morning star was fading into the daybreak. In the pilot-house Watson pulled his bell-ropes + to back and to stop again, while veiled in its lingering dusk between him and the parson's wife + "Harriet" stood at a closed window, a vigilant watcher of every movement below.</p> + + <p>With the usual deck-hand on its outer end the stage hung half its length over the narrowing + water. On its inboard half, attended at one side by the first mate and at their backs by a knot + of white-jackets with hands and arms full of baggage, waited the exhorter, his two champions, + and the sporting pair, outwardly well content, however large or dark the retributions they were + inwardly promising themselves. The twins had come up from the stair, meeting the senator and + the general and holding them in a close counsel that kept the four scowling. These things the + maid at Watson's side noted so intently as almost to forget him and the lady next her. She + marked the actor go once more into the captain's room, the Californian come out to Mrs. Gilmore + and Ramsey, and the three move toward Hugh with old Joy in their wake. Before they had quite + reached him he turned and addressed the actor's wife. She drew back apologetically, the + Californian doing the same, but by word and sign seemed to bid Ramsey stay and speak for + her.</p> + + <p>As if to himself, but really to the two beside him, Watson murmured: "Right you air, Mr. + Hugh Courteney."</p> + + <p>"How is he right?" asked the lady, though she most likely, and the maid certainly, + understood.</p> + + <p>"He's telling her," said the pilot, "that it'll simplify matters for her and her husband and + this girl here to sort o' keep out o' the limelight a spell."</p> + + <p>The surmise seemed good, for Mrs. Gilmore and "California" took stand where the great + chimney on that side hid them from forecastle and shore, while they still could see Hugh and + Ramsey conversing, she pleadingly, he with few words, mostly negatives. Ned came back into the + pilot-house. The parson's wife moved from Watson toward him to ask in undertone why the landing + was being made so slowly. The boat seemed to hover and hesitate. Watson, at the wheel, talked + on, pretending not to notice that the maid was his only listener.</p> + + <p>"A man," he drawled, "gets to hear a right smart chance with his eyes, in a pilot-house. + Puts two an' two together a lot more'n he does when he's a-usin' his y-ears. Now she's + a-beggin' him"—meaning Ramsey and Hugh—"not to drop them fellows ashore. Partly that's for + the fellows' own sakes, but likewise it's also for the play-actors, because they're generous, + like her, and because, no less, it's a-putt'n' the play-actors themselves in a right funny fix + with the rest o' this vain world, to make five Jonahs on their account. But she's a-barkin' up + the wrong stump an' she knows it. She knows there's somebody else's account they're bein' put + off for; somebody she's as friendly to as what he is, and which for their sakes—his and + hern—if for no other—I'm as friendly to as what they air. Provid'n', however, that that + somebody is as friendly to them, every way, as what I am." He turned sharply. "Is she?"</p> + + <p>And "Harriet" looked straight into his eyes and said inaudibly: "Yes."</p> + + <p>As the glance of both returned to the scene below she was mindful that Ned had not yet quite + satisfied the query of the lady at his elbow, why the wheels of the <em>Votaress</em> were + turning barely enough to keep her from drifting.</p> + + <p>"You see the <em>Antelope</em>?" he asked.</p> + + <p>She saw the <em>Antelope</em>, once more ahead, swan-white in the new daylight on a great + breadth of water which she had earlier heard him tell Ramsey was Montezuma Bend.</p> + + <p>"And you see the <em>Westwood</em> down yonder. Well, when she gets up there we'll stop + killin' time. But why we're killin' it—ask the clerk—or guess. It's dead easy."</p> + + <p>Not given to guessing, she dropped her eyes again on the various groups beneath with Hugh + and Ramsey central among them and did not even see that Hugh was answering the same riddle from + Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Because if we keep these men aboard a few minutes longer," he was saying, "there'll be no + way for them to reach Helena before noon to-morrow, when we'll be——"</p> + + <p>"'Way beyond Memphis," said the river-wise Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Yes."</p> + + <p>"And they can't send any troublesome word up the river that can overtake us," she ventured + on, and he assented.</p> + + <p>"And may I tell the Gilmores that's as much for Phyllis as for them?"</p> + + <p>"I wish you would—and then would go to your rest."</p> + + <p>"Humph," she faintly soliloquized and with no other rejoinder remained looking down on the + stage, as he did. It was so near the bank at last that the men waiting on its inner end moved a + step or two forward.</p> + + <p>"Why are all those five put off together?" she asked.</p> + + <p>"Because," he replied in his absent manner, "the gamblers will try to keep the other three + quiet."</p> + + <p>"Mr. Hugh, you'll be off watch now soon, won't you?"</p> + + <p>"Yes." (Still no lifting of eyes by either.)</p> + + <p>"And then you'll nurse your father, won't you?"</p> + + <p>"I cannot! I'm too ignorant."</p> + + <p>"Then what will you—shall you—do?"</p> + + <p>"Just stay—on watch."</p> + + <p>She stood a moment more, comforted to be on watch with him and thinking sadly of all there + was to be on watch for. Then she heard Julian softly call her name. Without looking his way she + started back for Mrs. Gilmore and the gold hunter, but the brother overtook her.</p> + + <p>"Ramsey." She faced him. "Ramsey"—his tone was thin—"when you were talking just now with + that pusillanimous whelp, and neither of you looking at the other, did he say anything of a + confidential nature?"</p> + + <p>His scrutiny read confirmation in her fearless eyes. When she would have spoken her + utterance failed and, unable to do anything else half so well, she laughed.</p> + + <p>"You can still do that!" His hint was of Basile.</p> + + <p>"A little," she tinkled again, though her eyes ran full.</p> + + <p>"Ramsey, did he—over there—just now—that reptile—say anything—tender?"</p> + + <p>She flared rose-red, gazed down ashore, dropped her voice to a key he had never heard, and + said, wondering why she said it: "Mr. Courteney is a gentleman."</p> + + <p>She tried to lift her eyes to the inquisitor, but her irrepressible twitter came again and + she had to turn away to the big chimney. He clinched his teeth.</p> + + <p>"Sis," he half whispered as she began to go, "listen." She glanced back. "Sis, you may + snigger at us all day or ten days; you may listen to him for a year or for ten; but, no matter + what we swore to last night, the day you accept Hugh Courteney's hand we'll kill him if we're + alive."</p> + + <p>Old Joy flinched and moaned but Ramsey stared at him benumbed. She caught no rational grasp + of his meaning; only stood and with immeasurable speed and a kind of earthquake sickness, in + the space of one long breath, dreamed his words over and over. She felt neither fright nor + horror, as she would as soon as thought could clear. Yet one word shed light, quickened her + inner vision and gave it a reach, a forward range, it had never known. "Ten years," he had + said, and for the first time in her life, as one might come suddenly into some vast possession, + she took the future into her present by years instead of days.</p> + + <p>"Jule," called Lucian, from between the senator and the general. Julian glanced back and + Ramsey started off. But she stopped again with a fresh shock as a high-pitched yell rose from + the shore below. There the exhorter, stepping from the stage to the ground, had poured his + voice into the woods and now turned to the boat and let loose his tongue:</p> + + <p>"I'm the hewolf an' wilecat o' th' 'Azoo Delta! I'm the alligatoh an' snappin' turkle o' the + Arkansass! I'm the horn-ed an' yalleh-belly catfish o' the Mississip'! Glory, hallelu'! the + sunburnt, chill-an'-feveh, rip-saw, camp-meetin', buckshot, kickin'-mule civilization whah-in I + got my religion is good enough fo' me, all high-steppin', niggeh-stealin' play-actohs an' + flounced and friskin', beau-ketchered Natchez brick-tops to the contrary notwithstayndin'! For + I'm a meek an' humble follower o' the Lawd Gawd A'mighty, which may the same eternally an' + <em>ee</em>-sentially damn yo' cowa'dly soul, you stump-tail' little Hugh Co'teney up yandeh + with yo' Gawd-fo'sakened, punkin face an' yo' sawed-off statu'e!"</p> + + <p>The gamblers sprang to hush him but the two "Arkansas killers" stepped between and while the + <em>Votaress</em>, backing out into the wake of the <em>Westwood</em>, left the one pair + insisting and the other protesting, the exhorter settled the issue by breaking into song:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'Though num'r-ous hosts uv migh-tye foes,</p> +<p class="i6"> Though airth an' hell, my way op-pose,</p> +<p class="i6"> He safe-lye leadns my soudl aa-logn:</p> +<p class="i6"> His lov-ign-kide-ness, oh, how strogn!</p> +<p class="i8"> His lov-ign-kide-ness! lov-ign-kide-ness!</p> +<p class="i8"> His lov-ign-ki-i-i-ide-ness, oh, how strogn!'"</p> +</div> +</div> + + </div><a name="LII" id="LII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LII</h2> + + <h3>LOVE RUNS ROUGH BUT RUNS ON</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Turning east in the upper arm of Saint Francis Bend, with the mouth of Saint Francis River + just swinging out of sight astern and Helena an hour's run behind, the <em>Votaress</em> faced + the rising sun.</p> + + <p>Before the eyes of Hugh and Ramsey it soared gloriously into a sky reddened not by presage + of rain but by the smoke of the <em>Antelope</em> and <em>Westwood</em>. The intervening shore + and waters glowed and quivered in exquisite tints that renewed the world's youth and quite + ignored all human, especially all young human, troubles. Suddenly it lighted up the black + chimneys and scapes and white pilot-houses of the two boats ahead, as, a league or so apart, + they came doubling back northwest, up Walnut Bend, to save in Bordeaux Chute the wide circuit + of Bordeaux and Whiskey Islands, to hurry on round the long north-and-south loop of Council + Bend and so have done with one of the most tortuous forty miles of the Mississippi.</p> + + <p>We mention these things because Hugh and Ramsey were students of them, now and then together + but never quite comfortable so, and now and then apart but never quite comfortable so. + Everywhere the boat's people were awake. On the freight deck the crew squatted in circles, + eating from tubs. Away aft on the roof, from their quarters in the far end of the texas, the + whole flock of white-jackets had risen like gulls and were down in the cook-house, pantry, and + cabin rattling the crockery till it echoed in every waking stomach. Already the + <em>Votaress's</em> divine breath smelt of coffee, real coffee—<em>chaud comme l'enfer et noir + comme le diable—smelt</em> of it, as, we fear, we shall never smell it again in this + trust-ridden world. It was Ned's watch at the wheel. Watson and his cub had turned in. So had + the first clerk. So had the twins, the senator, the general. Few of us, at that hour, not + having slept, are skylarks.</p> + + <p>Yet the actor and the Californian still held vigil by the captain's bed. Joy still hovered + after her "young missy," and "Harriet" after Mrs. Gilmore and the parson's wife. Ramsey and + "Harriet" betrayed a vivid interest in each other, a wonderfully generous thing on the maid's + part, Ramsey thought, the two being who they were. The commodore was better, but the captain + was not, and together or apart Hugh and Ramsey were more consciously the prisoners, albeit the + undaunted prisoners, of care and sorrow than of anything else. When their feeling for the + river's lore drew them, by a spiritual gravitation, to a common centre—to learn, for instance, + that Council Bend and Council Island were named for one of those historic "confabs" between the + white man and the red which shouldered the red brother once and forever away from the sunrise + and across the great river—that centre of gravity was the captain's chair, their tutor the + first mate.</p> + + <p>Under the circumstances we hardly need begrudge a line or two more to tell how, as far back + as Delta, the <em>Votaress</em> had begun to meet the Louisville Saturday evening packets and + to receive and return their special salutes. One was a Hayle boat and one a Courteney. Such + moments were refreshing. Inquiry and information flowed through them as naturally and + beguilingly as a brook through a meadow and gave Hugh opportunity to contemplate incidentally + the play of air and light in Ramsey's curls without her having the slightest suspicion of + him!—gave her chances to ply him with questions in autobiography and social casuistry and to + enjoy keenly the ridiculous majesty of his eyes and voice, while the two dear chaperons talked + apart as obliviously as if she were merely asking him how deep the whiskey was in Whiskey + Chute.</p> + + <p>In the long run from Commerce to Norfolk came breakfast. Commerce was another case of + infant-city still-birth, Norfolk was less. Breakfast, double-ranked, stoop-shouldered, mute: + beefsteak and fried onions its solar centre, with hot rolls for planets; Hugh at the ladies' + table, the first clerk at the gentlemen's. Then the boiler deck, toothpicks, cigars, breezes, + armchairs, spittoons, the sad news of the two deaths up-stairs, the ugly news of the five + passengers set ashore and the reason thereof. Men spat straight and hard as they heard or told + the latter item, yet with tacit unanimity awaited the re-emergence of the still secluded + senator, general, and twins.</p> + + <p>By Hugh's unsmiling forethought Madame Hayle, Ramsey, and the Gilmores breakfasted in the + pilot-house. With "Harriet" close to her elbow, Ramsey ate at a window, standing, to watch the + gliding shores and floods and privily cross-examine, again in autobiography and at + printing-press speed, the willing maid-servant. At Island Fifty-Two another boat, the + <em>Shooting Star</em>, streamed by. At a plantation and wood-yard the <em>Votaress</em> paused + to restock with dairy and kitchen-garden supplies and to lash to her either side a thirty-cord + wood flat, and now swept on with the foam twenty feet broad at the square front of each while + the deck-hands trotted aboard under their great shoulder loads by one narrow hook plank and + came leaping back for more, and the loaders and pilers chanted and chorussed:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i7"> "Oh, Shan-a-do'e, I loves yo' daught-eh—</p> +<p class="i12"> Ah! ha! roll-in' riveh!—</p> +<p class="i8"> Oh, ef she don't love me she'd ought teh—</p> +<p class="i2"> Ah! ha!... bound away!... faw de wile ... Mis-'ou-ree!"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>The foam and the swift wooding-up gave an illusion of speed to the boat herself, and in what + seemed no time at all the empty scows were dropping away astern; but it was farewell for good + and all to the <em>Westwood</em>, the <em>Antelope</em>. And now Cat Island, its bend, its + chute; Cow Island, its bend, its chute; Horn Lake, a prehistoric loop of twelve miles, reduced + to three by Horn Lake Bend——</p> + + <p>"Come, Ramsey." The call smote like a buffet. Memphis was almost in sight. In the + southwestern corner of Tennessee, just above Tennessee Chute and the northwestern corner of + Mississippi, was the fourth of the Chickasaw Bluffs. On it sat Memphis, a city with churches, + banks, and the "electromagnetic telegraph." Its twelve thousand people of that day are a + hundred and thirty-five thousand now and have taken in almost out of remembrance the small + settlement of Pickering, or Fort Pickering, on the down-stream end of the bluff, where the + <em>Votaress</em> that beautiful morning landed and laid to rest Madame Marburg, the bishop, + and Basile.</p> + + <p>Aboard the <em>Votaress</em>, as in Tennessee Chute she faced again the morning sun, two + scenes were enacted at the same time. One took place below, on the fore-castle; the other above + and just aft of it, on the boiler deck. In the lower there was but a single pine box, in the + upper there were two. In the lower stood the black-gowned priest, the two white-bonneted, + gray-robed sisters, Otto Marburg alone, and here a mass of immigrants and there a majority of + the crew. The upper scene included all the cabin passengers—ladies seated—and half the boat's + family. In fulfilment of Basile's wish Hugh read: "I am the resurrection and the life." By + Hugh's invitation, given beforehand, the senator delivered a eulogy on the bishop and added + such tender praises of the boy, whom every one had liked so early and so well, and gilded them + with such delicate allusions to the heroism of his mother, that few eyes were dry. The very + twins wept, though there was a touch of rage in their tears. By choice of the parson's wife and + sweetly led by her, they sang: "I would not live alway." With streaming eyes Ramsey remembered + how yearningly the poor lad had clung to this dear earth, and she could only sit silent and + modestly wonder how anybody, under any fate that left them power to sing at all, could sit + there—stand there—on that boat, that river, in the splendor of that sun, the beauty of that + landscape, and call life a "few lurid mornings."</p> + + <p>A third scene occurred as the boat, facing westward, reached the head of President's Island, + fairest island in all the river, and coming into full view of Memphis, a short league beyond, + tolled her solemn bell and landed at Pickering. Others on the lower deck besides Madame Marburg + had passed away in the night but had either been laid under the wet sands of the water's edge + in some wild grove down-stream or were not quite in time, so to speak, for this landing. + Contemplated from each deck by a numerous gathering and from the pilot-house by Watson, Mrs. + Gilmore, and "Harriet," a small procession followed the priest and the three boxes—borne by + white-jackets—ashore and out of sight where a small wooden church spire, inland behind the + bluff, peered over its crest. Madame Hayle leaned on Julian's arm, Ramsey on Lucian's, Hugh + walked with Marburg, the senator with the general, the first clerk with Ned, the Californian + with the cub pilot. By and by they returned, outwardly unburdened, and the moment the last + tread, the Californian's, was on the stage, Watson's bells jingled and the <em>Votaress</em> + swung out and moved up to the Memphis wharf-boat. But there Hugh, the first clerk, the steward, + and the doctor went up into town, and it was a long hour before they reappeared and the black + smoke billowed again from her chimneys and she backed out and started up and away around + "Paddy's Hen and Chickens."</p> + + <p>The "family of that name"—to quote Watson—were a group of four islands so entitled from + earliest flatboat days, clustered in the river, just above the town. Since that day two of the + chicks have flown, or grown, to the mainland, and the mother bird is now merely the "Old Hen" + with one "Chicken Island," while "Poor Paddy," we are told, "works on the railway."</p> + + <p>In its first forty leagues above Memphis the river went—has gone—still goes—through more + violent writhings than in any like part of its whole course, running almost twenty crazy miles + to make two sane ones—made finally, in the republic's hundredth year, by Centennial Cut-off. + On an average there was an island for every four miles of river, or, say, three for every hour + of the <em>Votaress's</em> progress, and in this high water she was running all their chutes. A + great resource such incidents were, on that particular day, to Ramsey. At any moment when + conversation needed to be started, stopped, or turned, here was her chance. Some of the islands + covered many square miles, contained large plantations, and had names as well as numbers. + Island Forty, reached about ten o'clock, was also Beef Island. Number Thirty-eight, which they + began to pass half an hour later, was Brandywine Island. To pass Island Thirty-five on its + short side at full speed took half an hour, and Forked-Deer Island, which kept the boat flying + up a narrow chute from half-past two till three o'clock, was old Twenty-seven and Twenty-six + grown together.</p> + + <p>Now, these things are geography rather than history. But for at least two souls aboard the + <em>Votaress</em> they were more history than geography. History—they were life! the outer + frame of life so really lived that for those two souls it would be history thenceforth to + life's end. And here comes in some pure philosophy from the two pilots: to wit, that if you + turn any old maxim over you will always find another truth on its other side. They reached this + conclusion, through Ned's remarking that the course of true love never runs smooth.</p> + + <p>"That," said Watson, "depends. It depends a lot on who they air that's a-takin' the course. + Ef they're the right ones, a real for-true pair, sech as the wayfarin' man though a pilot kin + see <em>air</em> a pair, like——"</p> + + <p>"Two gloves," said Ned.</p> + + <p>"Yass, or galluses—I misdoubt ef there's anything in the world that'll run so smooth + through and over and around and under so much cussed roughness as what true love will."</p> + + <p>The remark was justified before their eyes. The two whom they contemplated, outwardly so + unlike, were in their essence so of a kind that they belonged each to each as simply and + patently as the first human pair. They saw it so themselves. Society about them was strangely + primitive—a "clapboard civilization," the actor named it to his wife at their pilot-house + point of view—and the "for-true" pair in sight below them took frank advantage of its + conditions to appropriate and accept each other as simply and completely as if these weird + conditions—with their Devil's Elbow, Race-ground, Island, Tea-table, and Back-oven—were a + veritable Eden as Eden was before the devil got in. Without a note of courtship or coquetry + love ran ever more and more smoothly, growing hourly and receiving each accession as we have + seen the Mississippi receive Red River—merely by deepening its own flow—but, unlike the + Mississippi, gaining in transparency as it gained in depth and power.</p> + + <p>Since leaving Memphis this love without courtship or coquetry had grown under the effulgence + of Madame Hayle's immediate presence like a grain-field in sunshine. On her return from the + triple burial, through sheer exhaustion, she had fainted away. Borne upstairs by the + physician's command and allowed the roof but forbidden the lower deck for twenty-four hours, + she had let Mrs. Gilmore and "Harriet" assume her pious task turn about, going and coming by + after stairs. And so love grew on. But so did hate, so did craft, all three, to borrow the + figure, going and coming by the after stairs of general intercourse.</p> + </div><a name="LIII" id="LIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LIII</h2> + + <h3>TRADING FOR PHYLLIS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>This afternoon was cooler than any of the three before it.</p> + + <p>Change of latitude, assuredly; but also a sky half blue, half gray, and a brisker air. Yet + for that small minority of the ladies, who rather craved than feared the sunlight, the boat's + roofs—since custom debarred them from the boiler deck—were still its most inviting part. + After a few modifications of dress a very pleasant refuge those roofs were, although when the + boat's course led her into the wind it was good to shut a sash or two if you were in the + pilot-house, or to draw your chairs into the lee of something if on the open deck. Madame + Hayle, urged by all to seek repose in her stateroom, said to Hugh and the Californian, behind + one of the chimneys:</p> + + <p>"Me, I fine it mo' betteh to breathe on that deck than to bleach in that cabin."</p> + + <p>Her presence was to the Californian's advantage also, in his desire to be near Ramsey, and + indeed the same was true of the two younger clerks and the cub pilot. And this advantage was + heightened by the fact that there were such definite things to be considered wherever two or + three came together. The need to keep up the passengers' spirits was as real as ever and a + number of resources for doing it required to be discussed. Ramsey mentioned the unidentified + man with the cornet but found no seconder. His "Life on the Ocean Wave" was thought hardly + convincing and his "Bounding Billow, Cease thy Motion" seemed to clash with the sentiment for + an ocean life and to suggest uncomfortable symptoms. Undaunted, she tried again. Through Basile + she had early discovered three striplings of the circus ring, the "Brothers Ambrosia." Their + true name, her cross-examination had revealed, was Vinegar. In star-spangled tights they would + give some real "acrobatics," then some "aerial globe dancing," equally star-spangled and even + more up-side-down, and finally a bit of "miraculous walking" on champagne bottles set upright + on the dining-table. This proposition was accepted without audible dissent, only the parson's + wife not voting. Then the Californian spoke for a self-styled "young gent" and "amateur + professor" who had eagerly volunteered to "take everybody's breath away" by the magic of his + tricks with hats, handkerchiefs, and cards, and to "throw them into convulsions" with his + "evening cat fight among the chimney-pots." But "Beware the laugh that sours overnight," Mrs. + Gilmore said, and the decision was prompt, Madame Hayle voicing it, that as convulsions could + be brought on and breath taken away by the cholera itself the young gent, through "California," + be gratefully requested to await a situation either less desperate or more so.</p> + + <p>The gold hunter admitted the wisdom of this action, though his humble spirit felt acutely + its discrediting reflection on himself, especially when—with only the kindest meaning—Ramsey + laughed. He bravely kept his pain to himself and said nothing to disown the "amateur + professor." With a brief aside to Hugh, to which Hugh nodded, he slipped away to the lower deck + and for nearly two hours made his nursing skill so valuable to "Harriet" among the immigrants + that her fearless mind overlooked the main object of his stay; which was to defend her from any + stratagem of the twins and others, that Marburg might not detect in time or might be unable to + cope with. At length, puzzled to know why Mrs. Gilmore did not appear, he was leaving, when at + the foot of the narrow stair under the kitchen he met Lucian coming down. They stopped. He + smiled. "Howdy!" he said.</p> + + <p>Lucian stood silent.</p> + + <p>"Can't come down here, you know," said the gold hunter, and instantly Lucian was white + hot.</p> + + <p>"Who tells you," he drawled, "what I may or may not do?"</p> + + <p>"Who? oh—just a little black dog."</p> + + <p>"Black—<em>what?</em>"</p> + + <p>"You heard. He's a funny little cuss; like you, a trifle puny. Has coughin' fits. Coughs six + times each fit. Spits up a chunk o' lead ev'y time he coughs. Want to see him?"</p> + + <p>Lucian's unaffrighted eyes blazed down, though his reply was as if to himself. "Great God! + if my brother——"</p> + + <p>"Oh," kindly said the Californian, "he ain't fur off. Go, get him. I'll follow you, + lock-step."</p> + + <p>Lucian turned and went, the speaker adding as he followed close:</p> + + <p>"Ladder's no place for scienced fighting, you know."</p> + + <p>They found Julian, evidently waiting, on the passenger guards just forward of the pantry + gangway. But before words could be exchanged the cub pilot came along by way of the main + staircase, escorting the physician from the lower deck. The latter passed on up the wheel-house + steps to the roof, but the "cub" hung back. "California" faced him.</p> + + <p>"What's the fraction? The captain?"</p> + + <p>The youth nodded. His inquirer waved him away.</p> + + <p>"All right. I'll come. You go on." The boy complied.</p> + + <p>Julian had swelled for encounter, but a warning look from Lucian checked him and he let the + Californian speak first.</p> + + <p>"Here," said the gold-digger, "I'm fixed. You're not. True, I could loan you the twin to + mine, but——"</p> + + <p>Julian's lip curled. "'But'—you're not hungry to fight."</p> + + <p>"Oh, other things being equal, I have an appetite! Yes, sir-ee, Bob Hoss-Fly, and a red dog + under the wheelbarrow! But"—smiling again—"let's do things in scientific order. You two claim + that you Hayle folks own that forty-year-old white gal down-stairs which you call a runaway + niggeh, and which we'll allow she is one. Well, I'll buy you two's share in her—providing I + can buy the rest of her from your two ladies up-stairs—and fight you afterward or not as the + case may require. Now, what'll you take for your said two shares, right here, cash down, gold; + not dust but coin, New Orleans Branch Mint? Going at—what do I hear?"</p> + + <p>The spendthrift pair stared on each other, thinking with all their might. But they failed to + think that on the deck above them, in group with Mrs. Gilmore, Hugh, the parson's wife, Ramsey, + and old Joy, the ownership of Phyllis was being fully set forth by their mother to their own + whilom champions the senator and the general, or that Ramsey was about to be sent down to the + stateroom of the mother and daughter for documentary evidence.</p> + + <p>"What do I hear?" repeated the Californian, watching his own hands as the right drew + double-eagles from his belt and stacked them in the left.</p> + + <p>Eagerly asking themselves what might be their tempter's motive, the pair thought primarily + of the white slave's well-preserved beauty and the rarity of women in the far West. With that + came a stinging remembrance of her glaring Hayle likeness and then of their father's old + scheme—averted by their mother—to sell the girl forever out of sight and reach. And then came + the pleasanter thought that at any rate here was a chance to put this daredevil at odds with + the hated Gilmores as well as with their own mother and sister, the Courteneys, and all the + Courteney clan. Till now they had felt that, if only for self-respect and good standing, they + must recover their property, seize Phyllis on the spot, if they could possibly command the + backing to do it. But this was now very doubtful. Something had happened to the senator's mind, + while the general was but his echo and the element called "others" was strangely sluggish. And, + finally, or rather, first and last, the brothers were thrilled with the prodigal's lust for + ready money. So far they saw and no farther, but so far so good; here seemed to be an unguarded + opening in the enemy's line—to use a phrase the great valley was one day to know by heart—and + the warier of the pair ventured in. Said Lucian:</p> + + <p>"We're Uncle Dan's sole legatees."</p> + + <p>"Then name your price for her, lock, stock, and barrel."</p> + + <p>"Want to take her only to Kentucky, or to California?"</p> + + <p>"Californy—maybe Oregon."</p> + + <p>"To keep house for you—single gentleman?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir."</p> + + <p>"When do you expect to come back?"</p> + + <p>"Never."</p> + + <p>The questioner glanced back to his brother. Both were gratified to note that the bargain + would work no relief to Hugh or the Gilmores, but Julian wanted better assurance that it would + not free a runaway slave or make her a lawful wife. He turned abruptly, and so it happened that + all three failed to see Ramsey, in dark attire and with Joy close behind, emerge an instant + from the pantry gangway and shrink again into it. On the return from her stateroom to the roof, + for mere variety, she had taken this direction. Said Julian as he turned:</p> + + <p>"You're a Kentuckian, sir. Henry Clay man?"</p> + + <p>"No. Only don't allow anything said again' him."</p> + + <p>"Abolitionist?"</p> + + <p>"No, sir-ee." The emphasis was sprightly.</p> + + <p>The twins looked at each other once more. Julian nodded.</p> + + <p>"One thousand dollars," said Lucian....</p> + + <p>Let us go back a step or so and up to the hurricane-deck. We have named Hugh as in the group + about Madame Hayle; but he went and came. In his absences the matrons debated the Phyllis + matter as it involved the Gilmores, trying to find some way not to leave it an undivided burden + on Hugh and the <em>Votaress</em>. It was on one of his quiet reappearances, reporting his + father "easier," that Ramsey put in:</p> + + <p>"Mom-a, the senator's a lawyer. Send for him—and the general—and talk them over to our + side. You can do it. You can talk anybody into anything! You always could!"</p> + + <p>Madame Hayle and Hugh looked at each other very much as the twins were doing about that time + on the guards next below, and Hugh said:</p> + + <p>"I will go bring them."</p> + + <p>"Ah, if you please, yass, go."</p> + + <p>He brought them and they were among madame's auditors when later she said, addressing her + words wherever they fitted best, so that even old Joy got her share:</p> + + <p>"Had it not have been for Phylliz, Dan Hayle, he wouldn' neveh took that troub' to wride + that will. But I insiz' he shall wride it, biccause—Phylliz. Tha'z all. An' biccause Phylliz + he wrode it. But he say to me——"</p> + + <p>"When was this?" inquired the senator.</p> + + <p>"Tha'z when those twin' make him thad visit, Walnut Hill'. He say: 'W'ad uze to you if I + make my laz' will? I give any'ow everything to those twin'.' An' tha'z biccause" (to old Joy) + "thad chile w'ad die——"</p> + + <p>"Drownded," murmured the nurse. "Ayfteh dat transpiah he take a shine to ev'y man-chile he + git his ahm aroun'."</p> + + <p>Madame resumed: "An' I say to him: 'Give all the rez' to who' you want, but Phylliz—to me.' + 'No!' he say, 'you, you'll put her free!'"</p> + + <p>"Why didn't he want her set free?" asked Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"An' you are there—an' silend! I forgod you!"</p> + + <p>"Why didn't he want her set free?" insisted the forgotten.</p> + + <p>"Ah!" said the mother to the senator as though the inquiry were his, "Dan, he seem' to thing + tha'z a caztigation on him. An' he say: 'Neveh mine, I figs thad so she can'd be free pretty + soon.' An' me, I thoughd he leave her to those twin' till I'm reading the will."</p> + + <p>Ramsey stood up elatedly. "I know what he did! I see it!"</p> + + <p>But as her mother chidingly murmured her name she reflected the maternal dignity and + accepted a bunch of keys.</p> + + <p>"Go, if you please, ad my room," said madame, "open——"</p> + + <p>"Your little trunk, and pop-a's tin box inside," the girl interrupted, but deferentially + caught herself again and with the corner of an eye felt about for Hugh. But Hugh had gone back + to his father and thence to the deck next below.</p> + + <p>"Yass. You fine there manny pape'. One is mark'—you'll see. Fedge me thad. 'Tis the h-only + tha'z blue."</p> + + <p>Ramsey sped away over skylights and down a back stair.</p> + + <p>The senator spoke: "Who were that will's executors?"</p> + + <p>"Ah, of co'se, my 'usban', Capitan Hayle, al-lone."</p> + + <p>"The heirs, I dare say, have seen it?"</p> + + <p>The lady smiled. "Not at all. Biccause h-anybody can see it if he want, nobody eveh want, + an' leaz' of all those twin' when they are getting everything. Nobody speak abbout Phylliz, + biccause Phylliz is su'pose drown', an' drown' peop' they don' count."</p> + + <p>In the stateroom Ramsey knelt, opened the trunk, then the tin box, and then, despite old + Joy's reprehending moan, the document itself.</p> + + <p>"I knew it!" she whispered elatedly, relocking the box and trunk. "I guessed right!"</p> + + <p>When at the forward end of the pantry gangway she came upon the twins and "California" and + shrank back into hiding, the will was in her hand. In a tremble between staying and fleeing she + heard the gold hunter, as he stood with his hands full of yellow coin, declare himself a + Kentuckian and no abolitionist, and therefore understood instantly the significance of Lucian's + response:</p> + + <p>"One thousand dollars."</p> + + <p>Too eager for speech, she glided forth and at the Californian's back halted before her + brothers. But he had already smitten a fist into the hungry palm of either twin and was saying + as he unburdened it there:</p> + + <p>"A hundred on account to you—same to you—balance when you show title—she's mine!"</p> + + <p>"She's mine!" cried the laughing girl.</p> + + <p>The three men stared, but the twins hurried the gold into their pockets while she laughed on + to them: "Hand that back. You've got no title. This is Uncle Dan's will and she's been mine for + eleven years." On the stair close by them she began to step up backward but stopped to add to + the Californian: "Take back your money and come trade with mom-a."</p> + + <p>The twins showed instant conviction, but to them all dispossession was robbery and Lucian + broke out, first on Ramsey, "We don't give back one dime!" then to the Californian, "You pushed + it on us and we'll keep it!" then to Julian, "He hasn't the faintest right to it now in law, + morals, or custom!" and then back to the Californian: "You sha'n't ever see a copper of + it!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey was quick-witted again. She threw the gold hunter a glance which conveyed to him the + realization that to leave the money with the twins was to put them at a hopeless disadvantage. + Almost as quickly Lucian saw the same thing and flashed it to Julian; but in that brief + interval their sister disappeared on the deck above, old Joy following, and while the brothers + lost another moment in a motionless contest of impulses the Californian vanished after her. + Lucian, with his breath drawn to call up the empty stair, started forward but struck his + knee-cap on a light, gilded chair left there by some child. Burning with rage and trembling + with nervous exhaustion, he barely saved himself from lunging into two men of slight stature + who had just come from a neighboring state-room: a slender old man leaning feebly on a + thick-set youth, whom one flash of his eye identified as the commodore and Hugh, though as they + passed toward the stair they betrayed no sign that they had observed him.</p> + + <p>He gave his speechless brother a single look, caught the chair by its back, lifted it over + his head, and with a long, smothered cry, half moan, half whine, crashed it down upon the + balustrade—once—twice—and again, again, hurled the last fragment underfoot, and with eyes + streaming stamped, stamped, and stamped, while the commodore and his supporter went on up to + the roof and beyond view without a glance behind.</p> + </div><a name="LIV" id="LIV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LIV</h2> + + <h3>"CAN'T!"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>On handing the will to her mother, Ramsey found her no longer leading the conversation. The + senator had the floor, the deck, and, as Ned or Watson might have said, was "drawing all the + water in the river." His discourse was to madame and the general alternately, though now and + then he included the parson's wife and Mrs. Gilmore.</p> + + <p>Ramsey's talent for taking in everything at once was taxed to its limit when at the same + time that she attended to him she watched an elegant steamer, one of the Saturday-evening boats + out of Cincinnati, pass remotely on the Arkansas side behind Island Thirty-six; marked the + return of the Californian as he followed her from his conference with the twins; noted the + slow, preoccupied passing of Hugh and his grandfather to the captain's room; measured every + winged stride of the <em>Votaress's</em> approach toward the Third Chickasaw Bluff; + observed—as earlier bidden by the actor—the strange pink and yellow stripes of the bluff's + clay face, and recognized in the great bell's landing signal the sad business which had become + so half-conscious a habit in the boat's routine. Yet she caught the senator's every word.</p> + + <p>Whether a person born in slavery, although seven eighths white, he was saying, was free by + law was hardly a practical question, the matter being so nearly independent of any mere + statute. For if such a slave sought liberty of an owner inclined to grant it there certainly + was no law to prevent its bestowal, whereas if the owner was unwilling the burden of proof + would naturally fall upon the slave, who, of course——</p> + + <p>"No," said Ramsey, drawing his and every eye and interesting everybody by a sweet maturity + of tone to which her mourning dress lent emphasis. "No, it would not. The judge told me about + that on Sunday."</p> + + <p>Madame started and smiled. "You h-asked? An' fo' w'at?"</p> + + <p>The transient air of maturity failed, and Ramsey's shoulders went up in her more usual + manner.</p> + + <p>The senator had his question: "What did the judge say?"</p> + + <p>"The judge says, where the slave seems to be white the owner must prove she ain't—prove she + isn't; but the burden, he says, of getting the case into court——"</p> + + <p>"Ah!" The senator was relieved. "Practically the same thing. For no slave can get a case + into court without white help, and no decent white man will step between an owner and a slave + who confesses to any African blood."</p> + + <p>"No-c'ommunity would ssstand it," said the general.</p> + + <p>"Now," pursued the senator, "a claim based on pure white blood and charging some palpable + mistake or fraud would be different. That would invite a community's sympathy and support. I've + heard of such cases." He faced Ramsey again, whose smile implied a query in waiting.</p> + + <p>Madame had handed the document to the senator. It was short. He read it in a glance or two + and, refolding it, addressed Ramsey again: "This slave girl can neither be set free nor sold, + for she's yours, and you're a minor. She seems to have been left to you just for that."</p> + + <p>Until her mother spoke, Ramsey was mystified by her gracious bows of satisfaction to the + senator and the general, but then she understood and was glad. "Verrie well," said madame, "iv + Phylliz be satizfi' to billong to Ramzee——"</p> + + <p>"She is," said Mrs. Gilmore. "She's told me so."</p> + + <p>"Verrie well, she'll juz' billong. An'"—to the senator—"you'll tell h-all those passenger' + you h-are the fran' of my 'usban' an' fran' of the pewblic an' you 'ave seen thad will, an' + Phylliz she's h-all those year' billong to Ramzee, an' tha'z h-all arrange' and h-every-boddie + satizfi', ondly those twin' they 'ave not hear' abboud that yet, but you'll see them an' make + them satizfi'——"</p> + + <p>"They know," called Ramsey and "California," and the latter added to the senator: "They've + sold all claim to her, sight unseen, and have got the money; took it from me, before + witnesses." Then to the astonished matron he added: "We can fix that in a jiffy, as slick as + glass."</p> + + <p>But there the immediate scene diverted every one; the whole group moved to the roof's edge + to see the boat land. Then, while her bells still jingled and her wheels yeasted, the company, + heart-sick of burials, fell apart. The senator and the general, promising zealous action and + the best results, returned to the boiler deck, the parson's wife sought her children, Mrs. + Gilmore went down to "Harriet." To shield madame from the full force of the breeze "California" + moved her chair, Joy following with Ramsey's, to the shelter of the great chimney nearest the + captain's door, where sympathy itself tended to draw them, and by the time this was done the + commodore, again on Hugh's arm, reissued from the captain's room and, at sight of this quartet, + paused, turned, and accepted a seat among them.</p> + + <p>The first word was Ramsey's: How was the captain?</p> + + <p>The best that could be said was that he was "holding out"—or "up"—or "on"—the commodore's + voice was weak. He had come away from the captain's bed-side because a convalescent was "only + in the way," he said, and because Hugh felt that he belonged on deck if anywhere, though that, + the old man fondly added, was less important than Hugh chose to regard it. This unimportance + Ramsey recognized by diverting the conversation so far as to announce that "mom-a" had just + settled the whole Phyllis business.</p> + + <p>"Mighty nigh," the Californian admitted, answering Hugh's quiet glance, while his heart + praised the daughter's failure to credit him with his share in the achievement, that being a + thing still in progress, whose design he had not fully revealed. The omission seemed to him + most maidenly and daughterly. He spoke on, to the two ladies:</p> + + <p>"There's a thing or two more——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, I'll pay that two hundred dollars!" cried Ramsey.</p> + + <p>In animated approval her mother nodded to both.</p> + + <p>"Not if the court knows itself," said the modest man, with so winsome a smile that every one + noticed how blue were his eyes. "I can trump that," he added, musingly.</p> + + <p>"What's the other thing? You said a thing or two," asked Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Her wages, ain't it, for eleven years?"</p> + + <p>"Ho, ho!" laughed madame in amiable scorn, while——</p> + + <p>"Paid!" cried Ramsey. "Mrs. Gilmore's always paid her!"</p> + + <p>"Knowin' she was a runaway? and who' from?"</p> + + <p>Madame bowed sweetly, yet with an aroused sparkle.</p> + + <p>"Humph!" said Ramsey, watching the boat back out and lay her course for Island Thirty-five, + "I'd have done as they did, either of them." She stepped into the freshening breeze.</p> + + <p>The inquirer's eyes rested on her, bluer than ever.</p> + + <p>"Don't you propose to collect?" he asked.</p> + + <p>"Most certainly not!" sang Ramsey at full height.</p> + + <p>"Not a sou," said madame, looking about in grand amusement. "Not a pic-ah-yune—hoh!"</p> + + <p>"But she's going back into yo' hands?"</p> + + <p>"My 'an's," said madame.</p> + + <p>"And you'll never sell her?"</p> + + <p>"Can't!" laughed Ramsey, with eyes ahead.</p> + + <p>"You can hire her."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Ramsey, turning. "Oh, yes."</p> + + <p>"Well, what'll you take, from the right bidder, for that girl's free papers dated ahead to + when you come of age, bidder takin' all the resks?"</p> + + <p>"You said down-stairs you wasn't an abolitionist!"</p> + + <p>He twinkled. "Well, down-stairs I wa'n't, and in general I ain't. I'm a Kentuckian. But I've + got an offer to make." He turned to the Courteneys: "I allowed to make it to this young + gentleman first, alone, an' get his advice—an' the commodo's if he'd give it; but the' ain't + anybody in this small crowd but what's welcome to hear it, even this young lady, considerin' + that she's jest heard so much worse again' me—insinuated—down-stairs."</p> + + <p>There was a pause. Old Joy murmured and Madame spoke the daughter's name, adding something + in French.</p> + + <p>"<em>Moi</em>," replied Ramsey, planting herself and gazing up the river, "<em>je + préfére</em> to stay right here."</p> + + <p>The mother's smile to the Kentuckian bade him proceed, but he still addressed Hugh and the + grandfather:</p> + + <p>"You see, that girl down-stairs, 'Harriet,' 'Phyllis,' has been free—Lawdy, free's nothin', + she's been white!—fo' ten years. Now, if she goes back home, there may be no place like it, + but she's got to be black again. Well, think what that is. I've been weighin' that fact while I + looked into her eyes and listened to her voice, an' thinks I to myself: 'If I was this girl, + this goin' back to be black would mean one of two things: I'd either die myself, aw I'd kill + some one, maybe sev'l.' True, I'm pyo' white an' she ain't, quite, but I don't believe her po' + little drop o' low blood makes her any mo' bridlewise 'n what I'd be."</p> + + <p>While the speaker's smile drew smiles from madame and the commodore, Ramsey turned to him a + severe face and in the same glance managed to see Hugh's, but Hugh's might as well have been, + to her mind, the face of a Chickasaw bluff.</p> + + <p>"Well, what then?" she asked the gold hunter.</p> + + <p>"Same time," said "California," still to the Courteneys, while madame promptly discerned his + covert argument and Ramsey suddenly busied herself talking up to the pilot-house, "I noticed, + more'n eveh, how much she, Phyllis, favoh'd somebody I was once 'pon a time pow'ful soft on, + but whose image"—his smile won smiles again—"I to'e out o' my heart—aw buried in thah—aw + both—it bein' too ridiculous fo' me to aspiah that high. An' so here looked to me like a + substitute, gentlemen, that ought to satisfy all concerned." His eye turned to madame but lost + courage and escaped back to Hugh.</p> + + <p>"Now, Mr. Hugh, I've got money a-plenty. It's all I have got excep' maybe a good tempeh, an' + I'm goin' back to the diggin's anyhow; one man to the squa' mile is too crowded fo' me. + Meantime, madam"—he turned again and this time he was invincible, although madame straightened + and sparkled and Ramsey gave a staring attention, having throughout all her pilot-house talk + heard everything——"Meantime, madam, with a priest right here on boa'd, if I can buy, at any + price, Phyllis's free papehs——"</p> + + <p>"You can't!" chanted Ramsey. "She can have 'em for nothing but nobody can buy 'em."</p> + + <p>"Pries'?" asked madame, "an' free pape'! W'at you pro-ose do with those pries' an' free + pape'?"</p> + + <p>"I'll marry her; marry her an' take her to whah a woman's a woman fo' a' that an' can clean + house aw cook dinneh whilst I gatheh the honeycomb bright as gold and drive the wolf to his + secret hold." He cast around the group a glance of bright inquiry, but except old Joy every one + silently looked at every one else. The old woman softly closed her eyes and shook her head.</p> + + <p>"Vote!" cried Ramsey, remembering Sunday's victory. "Let's vote on it!"</p> + </div><a name="LV" id="LV"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LV</h2> + + <h3>LOVE MAKES A CUT-OFF</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + But the grandfather addressed the adventurer. "You'd rather not, I fancy." + + <p>"Rather not; looks too unanimous the wrong way."</p> + + <p>"Would you still like to have Hugh's advice?"</p> + + <p>"I would! I'd like to hear yo'-all's argument."</p> + + <p>Ramsey dropped into her chair with a tired sigh and up-stream gaze though with an inner ear + of keenest attention.</p> + + <p>Hugh glanced toward his father's door, whence at any moment, as every one realized, the + actor might beckon.</p> + + <p>"I have no argument," he began.</p> + + <p>"You have," breathed a voice, unmistakably Ramsey's; "you always have."</p> + + <p>"You know," he continued to the Kentuckian, "there's something in all of us, I don't say + what, or whether wise or foolish, that says: 'Don't do it.' You feel it, don't you?"</p> + + <p>Madame interrupted: "<em>Mais</em> don't do w'at?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey faced the group as if to answer just that question. "Now we pass between Cedar Point + and Pecan Point and head for the Second Chickasaw Bluffs!"</p> + + <p>"Ah bah, <em>les</em> bloff'," murmured madame and repeated to Hugh: "Something say, 'Don' + do it'? <em>Mais</em> w'at it say don' do?"</p> + + <p>"Don't mix the great races we know apart by their color."</p> + + <p>"Umph! An' w'at is thad something w'at tell uz that?"</p> + + <p>"Grandfather calls it race conscience."</p> + + <p>"Grandfather!" whimpered Ramsey, while madame asked:</p> + + <p>"Of w'at race has Phylliz the conscien'? An' you would know Phylliz' race—ad sight—by the + color?"</p> + + <p>"I'd know it!" put in the Kentuckian. "She's white, to all intents and purposes."</p> + + <p>"No," said Hugh, "not quite to all. Not to all as organized society, in its——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey, with eyes up the river, sighed: "Mrs. Grundy?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, but Mrs. Grundy in her best intents and purposes."</p> + + <p>"In her race conscience," wailed Ramsey to the breeze.</p> + + <p>"In her race conscience," assented Hugh.</p> + + <p>Ramsey whipped around. "Thought you had no argument."</p> + + <p>"I'm giving grandfather's," said the grandson.</p> + + <p>"Humph! it's yours. I'd know it at sight—by the color."</p> + + <p>"Miss Ramsey," said the old man, toying with his cane, "Hugh and I have been finding that, + right or wrong, Mrs. Grundy or Mr. Grundy, race conscience is a wonderful, unaccountable thing + for which men will give their life-blood by thousands." His voice failed. He waved smilingly to + Hugh.</p> + + <p>"And when," broke in Hugh to Ramsey, "when Mrs. Grundy, in her race conscience, says Phyllis + is not white no one ought to snap his fingers in even Mrs. Grundy's face merely to please + himself or to relieve some private situation."</p> + + <p>Ramsey stood up, flashing first on him and then to her mother, dropped again, and with her + face in her elbow on the chair's back recited drearily—from her third reader:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "You can hear him swing his heavy sledge</p> +<p class="i8"> With measured beat and slow,</p> +<p class="i6"> Like the sexton ringing the village bell</p> +<p class="i8"> When the evening sun——"</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"Ramzee!" exclaimed madame, while the old nurse groaned: "Oh, Lawd 'a' massy!"</p> + + <p>The girl rose, laughed, and flashed again: "Well, if Phyllis ain't white what is she? She's + got to be something!"</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the youth, "but not everything. I know her wrongs. But none of us, with whatever + rights and wrongs, can have, or do, or be——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, don't we know all that?" Ramsey turned to the grandfather and with sudden deference + sprang to help him rise. He faced her and the Californian together.</p> + + <p>"Miss Ramsey, Hugh has all your feelings in this matter."</p> + + <p>Madame, "California," and old Joy eagerly assented.</p> + + <p>"But poor, blundering old Mrs. Grundy, always wronging some one," the old man smilingly + continued, "is really fighting hard for a better human race. That's the greatest battle she can + fight, my dear young lady, and when——"</p> + + <p>"Well," rejoined Ramsey with eyes frankly tearful, "she fights it mighty badly."</p> + + <p>"Ah, a hundred times worse than you think. Yet we who presume to fight the blunders of that + battle must fight them unselfishly and to help her win."</p> + + <p>Old Joy groaned so approvingly that he turned to her.</p> + + <p>"What do you think, old mammy?"</p> + + <p>"Who, me? Lawd, I thinks mighty little an' I knows less. Yit one thing I does know: Phyllis + ain' gwine. She know' you cayn't make her white by takin' her to whah it make' no odds ef she + ain't white. Phyllis love' folks. She love' de quality, she love' de crowd. White aw black aw + octoroom free niggeh, Phyllis gwine to choose de old Hayle home and de great riveh—full o' + steamboat'—sooneh'n any lan' whah de ain't mo'n one 'oman to de mile. Phyllis ain't + gwine."</p> + + <p>The closing words faded to soliloquy. For every one stood up, and even the old woman's + attention was diverted to Watson's apprentice approaching from the captain's room. On his way + below for the doctor he came, in the actor's behalf, to ask if he might bring up also Mrs. + Gilmore.</p> + + <p>Assuredly he might. How was the patient?</p> + + <p>"Very quiet," the boy hopefully replied. Whereupon madame begged leave to repair at once to + the sick-room, but neither of the Courteneys would consent nor either of them allow the other + to go. The steersman passed on down.</p> + + <p>From enviously watching him do so, "California" turned to the company and in open + abandonment of his amazing proposition said drolly that never before had he failed, in so many + ways "hand-running," to make himself useful. He reseated Madame Hayle and would have set the + daughter beside her, but the mother bade Ramsey give Joy the chair and leaned wearily on the + old woman's shoulder. Both Courteneys urged their seats on the girl, and when she would not + accept while either of them stood for her servant to sit, the grandfather left Hugh debating + with her, took "California's" arm, found other chairs a few paces away, and engaged him in a + gentle parley which any one might see was an appeal to his sober second thought. It was Ned's + shift up at the wheel, but the change of watch was near; his partner stood at his elbow. Their + gaze was up a reach between the two most northern of those four groups of bluffs whose mention + even Ramsey was for the moment tired of, yet they studied the three couples on the roof + below.</p> + + <p>"Runs smooth at the present writing," said Watson.</p> + + <p>"Clair chann'l ef noth'n' else," responded Ned. The allusion was neither to boat nor stream + but to a certain opportuneness of things, whose obviousness to them, looking down, was mainly + what kept Ramsey standing. While she stood beside the two empty chairs cross-questioning Hugh + with a fresh show of her maturer mildness and he stood inwardly taking back his late farewell + to sweet companionship and softly answering in his incongruous pomp of voice with a new + tenderness, and while the worn-out mother gradually let her full weight sink on the tired + slave, this obvious propitiousness was embarrassingly increased by the two weary ones falling + asleep.</p> + + <p>True, the clearness of channel—this channel in the upper air—was not absolute, but its + obstacles nettled mostly the pilots. To Ramsey, even to Hugh, obstacles were almost welcome, as + enabling them to show to a prying world that nothing beyond the grayest commonplace was + occurring between them. One such interruption was the upcoming and passing of Mrs. Gilmore and + the physician to the sick-room and the cub pilot's parting with them to join the younger pair. + The boy found Hugh confessing that he should not know exactly how to word Phyllis's "free + papers" but adding that the first clerk would be pleased to make them out at once if Ramsey's + eagerness so dictated. It did, and presently the modest intruder was hurrying away on a double + errand: to bear this confidential request to the clerk and then to seek the Brothers Ambrosia + and with them and the two under-clerks arrange for the evening performance, the giving of + which, however, Ramsey insisted, must depend on the captain's condition when evening should + come.</p> + + <p>"Wish it were here now," she said as they watched the messenger go. "Don't you?"</p> + + <p>"I could," he replied, "but it will be here soon enough."</p> + + <p>The conversation which followed remained in their memory through years of separation.</p> + + <p>She spoke again in her new tone: "You think your father will get well, don't you?"</p> + + <p>"No, Ramsey."</p> + + <p>At those words her heart did two things at once: stopped on the first, rebounded on the + second. But it fell again as he added: "I fear I must lose my father to-night."</p> + + <p>She stood mute, looking into his eyes and pondering every light and shadow of the severe + young face that to her seemed so imperially unlike all others. "He's great," she said in her + heart. "And he loves with his greatness. Loves even his father that way; not as I love mine or + love anybody, or ever shall or can, or could wish to, unless I were a man and as great as + him—he. I never could have dreamt of any one loving me that way, but if any ever should I'd + worship him." Suddenly her sympathy rose high.</p> + + <p>"Oh, why not just think to yourself: 'He <em>will</em> live'?"</p> + + <p>"Why should I? Should I be fit to live myself if I were not true to myself?"</p> + + <p>"You are! You always are!"</p> + + <p>"No one can be who isn't truthful to himself."</p> + + <p>Ramsey gazed again. A sense of his suffering benumbed her, and for relief she asked: "Is + that why you don't wish it were evening, when really you do?"</p> + + <p>He smiled. "I can't wish the sun to get out of my way. That's what it would mean, isn't + it?"</p> + + <p>She fell to thinking what it meant. All at once she pointed: "That's the First Chickasaw + Bluff.... Yes, I s'pose it does mean that.... It's terrible how thoughtless I am."</p> + + <p>"It doesn't terrify me. I promise you it never shall."</p> + + <p>Was he making game of her? She narrowed her lids and looked at him sidewise. No, plainly he + was not; so plainly that she took refuge in another question. "Don't you like night better than + day sometimes?"</p> + + <p>"I do, often."</p> + + <p>"Why?"</p> + + <p>"For one thing, we can see so much farther."</p> + + <p>"Oh, ridiculous! we can't see nearly so far!"</p> + + <p>"We can see so much farther and wider, deeper, clearer. The day blinds us. Spoils our sense + of proportion. At night we see more of what creation really is. Our sun becomes one little star + among thousands of greater ones, and we are humbled into a reasonableness which is very hard + not to lose in the bewilderments of daylight."</p> + + <p>Ramsey sank to the arm of a chair, but when he remained standing she stood again. "Wasn't + you saying something like that the evening we left New Orleans?" she asked.</p> + + <p>"To my father, yes. I couldn't have said it in daylight then. I couldn't say it in daylight + now to any one but you, Ramsey."</p> + + <p>Her heart leaped again. Her eyes looked straight into his; could not look away. He spoke + on:</p> + + <p>"You're a kind of evening to me, yourself; evening star."</p> + + <p>Her bosom pounded. She glanced up behind to the pilots. Watson had the wheel. As she + strenuously pushed back her curls she felt her temples burn. She could have cried aloud for + Hugh to cease, yet was mad for him to go on.</p> + + <p>And so he did. "You are my evening star in this nightfall of affliction. I tell you so not + in weakness but in strength and in defiance: in the strength I summon for the hour before me; + in the defiance I fling to your brothers. I may never have another chance. If ours were the + ordinary chances of ordinary life I should say nothing now. I should wait; wait and give love + time; time to prove itself in me—in both of us. I <em>ask</em> nothing. I am too new to you, + life is too new—to you—for pledges."</p> + + <p>She flashed him a glance and then, looking up the river, said, with the ghost of a toss: + "I'm older than you think."</p> + + <p>He ignored the revelation. "But I will say," he went on, "—for these three days and nights + have been three years to me and I feel a three years' right to say—I love you; love you for + life; am yours for life though we never meet again. For I believe that we belong to each other + from the centre of our souls, by a fitness plain even to the eyes of your brothers."</p> + + <p><a name="col04" id="col04"></a></p> + + <div class="c1"> + <a href="images/col04.jpg"><img src="images/col04s.jpg" alt= + "For I believe that we belong to each other from the centre of our souls, by a fitness plain even to the eyes of your brothers" + border="0"></a> + <br>"For I believe that we belong to each other from the centre of our souls, by a fitness plain even to the eyes of your brothers" + </div> + + <p>Still looking up the flood and red from brow to throat, Ramsey murmured two or three words + which she saw he did not hear. Yet he stood without sound or look to ask what she had said, and + presently repeated:</p> + + <p>"I believe in God's sight we belong to each other."</p> + + <p>"So do I," said Ramsey again, with clearer voice and with her brimming eyes looking straight + into his. A footfall turned her and she faced the relieved pilot.</p> + + <p>"Isn't this Island Thirty-three," she asked, "right here on our starboard bow?"</p> + + <p>"Thirty-three," assented Ned. "Alias Flour Island; but <em>not</em> Flow-er Island. + Flour-ladened flatboats wrecked there in the days o' yo' grandfather, Eliphalet Hayle, whose + own boats they might 'a' been, only Hayles ain't never been good at losin' boats. But his'n or + not, <em>can</em> you suspicion they wuz flow-er-ladened? Shucks! them that spell it that-a-way + air jest as bad an' no wuss than them that stick <em>b</em> onto Plum in Plum P'int an' pull + the <em>y</em> out o' Hayle fo' Hayle's P'int! They jest a-airin' they ignorance. Some fellers + love to air they ignorance. I do, myself."</p> + + <p>He gave these facts of topography in reward of the grave interest that Hugh—elated interest + that Ramsey—still seemed to take in all such items, as well as to allow them to infer that he + had not noticed them betraying interest in anything more personal.</p> + + <p>"Hayle's P'int—" he resumed, and when Madame Hayle and old Joy roused and glanced around on + him, while the senator and the general reappeared close by, looking back down the steamer's + wake with military comments on the First Chickasaw Bluff, just left behind, he addressed them + all as one. Hayle's Point, he persisted, was miles away yet and comparatively unimportant + "considerin' its name," but the small cluster of houses on the Arkansas side up in the next + bend was Osceola, where Plum Point Bars made the "wickedest" bit of river between Saint Louis + and the Gulf; a bit that "killed" at least one steamboat every year. He said they were then + passing a sand-bar, under water at this stage, which had been Island Thirty-two until + "swallered whole" by the "big earthquake" of 1811.</p> + + <p>"Better'n forty year' ago, that was. Only quake ever felt in these parts, but so big that, + right in the middle of all the b'ilin' an' staggerin' an' sinkin' down to Chiny, the Mis'sippi + River give birth to her fust steamboat—an' saved it!" So he continued, egged on by the + conviction that, over and above the intrinsic value of the facts, these conversational eddies + outside the current of incident "a-happ'min' to 'em yit" helped forward his two most deeply + interested hearers on that course erroneously supposed never to run smooth.</p> + + <p>Be that as it may, the two pilots' joint theory of maxims working as well backward as + forward worked here; deep waters ran still. Love, that is, having broken intolerable bounds in + one short fierce "chute" of declaration, was content to run deep and still and to give broad + precedence to duties, sorrows, and courtesies. The pair noticeably drifted apart and conversed + with others when others were quite willing they should drift together. Madame Hayle needed but + a glance or so to perceive that something beautiful had happened in the spiritual experience of + her daughter. By and by when the commodore and the Californian rejoined the group, Hugh and his + grandfather spent a still moment looking into each other's eyes and when both gazes relaxed at + once the story had been told and understood.</p> + + <p>They turned to hear what was passing between the general, senator, and Californian. Said the + soldier:</p> + + <p>"Sssirs, I only insssist that <em>if</em> this region ever sees war Port Hudson, Grand Gulf, + Vvvicksburg, these fffour Chickasaw Bluffs, and Island Ten up here above us will be + imp-regnably fffortified."</p> + + <p>Ramsey turned to the actor's wife as she came from the texas.</p> + + <p>"How's the captain?" asked both she and her mother. But Mrs. Gilmore was too overcome to + reply.</p> + + <p>Ramsey saw the actor at the stateroom door. He had beckoned. Hugh and the grandfather were + on their way. At a quieter pace the four women followed and more slowly still the other four + men. Reaching Gilmore, the Courteneys paused and spoke, then looked back to Ramsey and madame, + and beckoned—Hugh to the mother, the commodore to Ramsey. Gilmore repeated the gesture and + they glided forward. At the same time the player advanced to meet his wife, and, as if some + intuition had rung the call, the scene-loving twins appeared in the senator's halted group and + stood with them gazing, while Madame Hayle, the commodore, Ramsey, and Hugh entered the + captain's room.</p> + </div><a name="LVI" id="LVI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LVI</h2> + + <h3>EIGHT YEARS AFTER</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>"A hundred months," says the love-song that beguiled so many thousands of hearts throughout + the Mississippi Valley in those old "Lily Dale," "Nellie Gray," "What is Home Without a + Mother?" days, when the lugubrious was so blithely enjoyed at the piano. Its first wails date + nearly or quite back to October, 1860.</p> + + <p>"A hundred months had passed" since that first up-stream voyage of the <em>Votaress</em>, + or, to be punctilious, something under a hundred and two. It was the opening week of that + mid-autumn month in which it became evident that Abraham Lincoln would be the next president. + Another new boat, new pride of the great river, the fairest yet, still in the hands of her + contractors, and on her trial trip from Louisville to New Orleans, was rounding, one after + another, now far in the east, now as far in the west, the bends nearest below Memphis: Cow + Island, Cat Island, St. Francis, Delta—so on.</p> + + <p>The river was low. You would hardly have known a reach, a cut-off, a point of it by any + aspect remembered from that journey of April, '52. Scantness of waters appeared to contract + distances. "Paddy's Hen and Chickens," just above Memphis, were all out on dry sands and seemed + closer under the "Devil's Elbow" than eight years before. Every towhead and bar and hundreds of + snags were above water and as ugly as mud, age, sun bleach, and turkey-buzzards could make + them. Many a chute comfortably run by the <em>Votaress</em> was now "closed for repairs," said + one of the pilots of the <em>Enchantress</em>. He was the whilom steersman we knew as Watson's + cub; a very capable-looking man now. At the moment, he was off watch and had come out from the + bar to the boiler deck with a trim, supple man of forty, whose shirt of fine white flannel was + open at the throat, where a soft neckerchief of red silk matched the sash at his waist: + "California," eight years older and out of the West again despite his "never" to Hayle's + twins.</p> + + <p>"I like to change my mind sometimes," he explained. "It shows me I've got one."</p> + + <p>A towering, massive, grizzly man several years older than the Californian, with a short, + stiff, throat-latch beard and a great bush of dense, short curls, stood by the forward guards, + a picture of rude force and high efficiency. At every moment, from some direction among the + deck's loungers a light scrutiny ventured to rest on him, to which he seemed habituated, and + the lightest was enough to reveal in him a striking union of traits coarse and fine. He wore a + big cluster diamond pin, a sort of hen-and-chickens of his own, secured by a minute guard-chain + on a ruffled shirt-front of snowiest linen, where clung dry crumbs of the "fine-cut" which + puffed the lower side pockets of his gray alpaca sack coat. His gold-headed cane was almost a + bludgeon. He had come aboard at Memphis, having reached that city but a few hours earlier by + rail-way train from White Sulphur Springs, Va., where he had had the good fortune to find great + relief from rheumatism. The young lady in his company, now back in the ladies' cabin, was his + daughter, they said, beautiful and all of twenty-two, yet unmarried! This man the pilot and the + Californian approached and waited for his attention. When he gave it the pilot spoke.</p> + + <p>"Commodore," he said, "welcome back to the river."</p> + + <p>The big man grew bigger and his shaggy brows more severe.</p> + + <p>"I feel welcome," he said. "Only place under God's canopy where I can breathe down into my + boots."</p> + + <p>"And you want the roof for it here, don't you? I do. Roof or wheel. Commodore Hayle, my + friend Mr. So-and-so, from California. He's your brand; Kentuck' born and raised."</p> + + <p>The two shook hands, scanning each other's countenances. The eyes of both were equally blue, + equally intrepid.</p> + + <p>"Are you the man—?" Hayle began to ask with grim humor.</p> + + <p>"I think so."</p> + + <p>"Well, my boy, I've been wanting to see you for better than eight years." The speaker + glanced around for privacy.</p> + + <p>"Come up," said the pilot; "I'm just going on watch." They followed him. On the roof he + continued:</p> + + <p>"Seen Captain Hugh yet, commodore? He's sure enough captain now, you know; youngest on the + river. He was looking for you a bit ago. This is a beautiful boat he's going to have, eh?"</p> + + <p>"Humph, yes. <em>Votaress</em> over again." The critic gave her a fresh scrutiny from + cutwater to stern rail, from freight guards to the oak-leaf crown on either chimney-top.</p> + + <p>"Why, commodore, she knocks the hindsights off the old <em>Votaress</em> every way. You'll + see that mighty quick."</p> + + <p>"Humph, yes; best yet, of the Courteney type. Ridiculous, how they hang to that. I'll build + a boat to beat her inside a year if old Abe ain't elected. If he is, we'll just build gunboats + and raise particular hell." On the skylight the speaker amiably declined to climb any + higher.</p> + + <p>"No, us two Kentuck's will try it here." The pair found seats together, and soon the + Californian was making the best of an opportunity he, no less than Gideon Hayle, had coveted + for eight years. It interested him keenly, as affording a glimpse into the famous boatman's + character, that the latter showed a grasp of the dreadful voyage's story as vivid and clear in + each of its two versions—the mother and daughter's and the twins'—as though the intervening + months had been one instead of a hundred—and two.</p> + + <p>They rehearsed together the arrival of the <em>Votaress</em> at Louisville in the dead of + night; confessed the folly of any "outsider" seeking the grief-burdened Gideon's ear in that + first hour of reunion with his family, and the equal unwisdom of his pressing, in such an hour, + an acute personal question upon Hugh and his grandfather who, at Paducah, had just buried John + Courteney.</p> + + <p>"And you've never pressed it sence?" asked "California."</p> + + <p>"Mm-no."</p> + + <p>"Nor let either o' them press it?"</p> + + <p>"No!"—a sturdy oath—"nor you nor anybody alive. Go on with your story."</p> + + <p>The gold hunter went on unruffled; told it as he had seen it occur; recounted, among other + things, how, on the final landing of the immigrants, at Cairo, Marburg and not a few besides + had covered Madame Hayle's hands with kisses and tears and would have done Hugh Courteney's so + could they have got at him. His hearer frowned and set his big jaw, but the narrative flowed + on, describing how, like Marburg, many had waved affectionate farewells to Hugh and to Ramsey + which she could guess no reason for in her case except her own wet eyes, but which "California" + saw was because, through himself and Phyllis, the immigrants had found her out as another who + believed in letting the oppressed go free and come free. He told even those irrelevant things + about himself which had made him ludicrous. They imparted a needed lightness and kindled the + big commodore's smile.</p> + + <p>"They never found out," said "California," "that the fellow who played 'Bounding Billow' and + 'A Life on the Ocean Wave' was me—I—myself."</p> + + <p>He told all as honestly, fearlessly as we might know he would. When his huge listener tried + to say off-handedly that every man who knew anything knew that women and men never see things + alike and that different witnesses could, quite honestly, give irreconcilable accounts of the + same thing, the Californian serenely waved away all such gloss and with the seated giant + hanging over him like a thunder-cloud said that the twins could never see anything straight + enough to tell the truth about it if they wanted to and that just as certainly they often + didn't want to. Pausing there and getting no retort, he ventured another step. Said he:</p> + + <p>"And there you've hung the case up for eight years."</p> + + <p>"That's my business!" Gideon smote the arm of his chair.</p> + + <p>"California" laughed a moment like a girl, with drooping head. Then—oh, the twins had their + good points, yes. One was the way they stuck to each other. And their biggest virtue, their + "best holt," the one their worst enemy couldn't help liking them for, was their invincible + sand.</p> + + <p>"The devil couldn't scare 'em with his tail red-hot."</p> + + <p>At that the father laughed gratefully.</p> + + <p>"They'd ought to be in some trade where pluck," the Californian went on, "is the whole show. + They'd ought to be soldiers. As plain up-and-down fighters for fight'n's sake, commodore, + they'd hit it off as sweet as blackstrap!"</p> + + <p>The truth smote hard but the parent feigned a jovial inappreciation. If that was so they had + made a "most damnable misdeal," he laughed, having settled down in Natchez together, "too soft + on each other to marry and as tame as parrakeets"; Julian as county sheriff, his brother a + physician.</p> + + <p>The Californian silently doubted the tameness. Abruptly, though in tones of worship, he + inquired after Madame Hayle.</p> + + <p>Madame just then was at home, on the plantation at Natchez. Yes, she and Ramsey often made + trips with Gideon on that <em>Paragon</em> which they had gone up the river to come down on, in + '52. The <em>Paragon</em>, wonderfully preserved, was still in the "Vicksburg and Bends" trade + and happened then to be some forty-eight hours ahead of the <em>Enchantress</em> and nearing + New Orleans. Madame and her daughter now and then spent part of the social season in the great + river's great seaport, which was—"bound to be the greatest in the world, my boy," said Gideon. + But Ramsey——</p> + + <p>When Ramsey became the topic, even "California," while the father boasted, had to hold on, + as he would have said, with his teeth to keep from being blown away. Her "one and only love" + was the river! She "knew it like a pilot" and loved it and the whole life on it not merely for + its excitements, variety, and outlook on the big world.</p> + + <p>"That is to say——for its poetry," prompted "California."</p> + + <p>"Yes, not for that only but just as much for its prose, by Mike! Why, my boy, that's all + that's kept her single!"</p> + + <p>"Except!" said the Californian softly, but Gideon pressed on. "And single, now, I reckon, + she'll always be. Why, sir, not a day breaks but she knows, within an hour's run, the + whereabouts of every Hayle boat alive."</p> + + <p>"Some Courteney boats too, hmm?"</p> + + <p>"Why, eh"—a stare—"I shouldn't wonder. Yes. Humph! 'youngest captain on the river'—fact + is, that's <em>her</em>. Lady as she is, and lovely as she is, she's a better steamboatman + to-day than—than many a first-class one. She's nearer being my business partner than any man I + ever hired."</p> + + <p>"Partner's share of the swag?"</p> + + <p>"No," laughed the giant, "but I'm leaving her the boats."</p> + + <p>"Well," said "California," "all that's good preparation."</p> + + <p>The huge man shot him a glance and the two pairs of blue eyes held each other. Then + "California" smiled his winsomest and said: "Did you ever notice how much easier you can see + through the ends of an iron pipe than through its sides?"</p> + + <p>Gideon stared. "Humph! Any fool that wants to see through me may see and be—joyful. What do + you think you see?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, things you'd ought to thought of and never have."</p> + + <p>"Why, you in'—Well, I'll be damned."</p> + + <p>"Shouldn't wonder a bit," said "California" so amiably that the big man laughed.</p> + + <p>"Maybe you'll tell me my oversights!"</p> + + <p>"No, but you'll be told, shortly, if the man I think I know is the man I—think I know. + Let's pass that now, commodore. Oh, I wish you'd been with us on the <em>Votaress</em>. How + different things might 'a' turned out. You know? I don't believe any other trip on all this big + river, barring the first steamboat's first, ever made so big a turning-point in so many lives. + Why, jest two or three things in it, things and people, made me another man."</p> + + <p>"One not so need'n' to be hanged?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, and not so hungry to hang other fellers. I hadn't ever met up with such aristocratic + stock as I did then but I tchuned right up to 'em and I've mighty nigh held their pitch ever + sence. Fo'most of all was this Hugh Courteney. Fo'most because, he being a man, I wa'n't afraid + of him. But a close second was yo' daughter; second because, she being a woman, I was afraid of + her. Why, even Phyllis, that's now chambermaid on this boat——"</p> + + <p>"By Jupiter!" Gideon Hayle half started from his seat. "On this boat? our Phyllis? that + Ramsey set free?"</p> + + <p>"Yes. Captain Hugh's nurse that was."</p> + + <p>"Look here, my boy, is that why you're aboard?"</p> + + <p>"No, sir-ee! Don't you fret. That trip, I tell you, made another man of me. It lifted; why, + commodore, it made me a poet."</p> + + <p>"Made you a—Oh, go 'long off!"</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir. Writ poetry ever sence. Dropped prose; too easy. It's real poetry, commodore; + rhymes as slick as grease. Show you some of it later."</p> + + <p>"George! if you do I'll jump into the river."</p> + + <p>"Agreed! I've got some that'll make you do that."</p> + + <p>"You haven't got any that wouldn't."</p> + + <p>Neither smiled, neither frowned. Obviously each knew how to like an adversary and when + "California" rose and the two, glancing aft, saw another two approaching from the pilot-house, + one of whom was Watson, Hayle touched the poet detainingly and said:</p> + + <p>"Don't go 'way, I want some more of your prose."</p> + + <p>"Want to know why I'm here? Not countin' the fun o' seein' Captain Hugh, half the reason's + that gentleman yonder comin' with Mr. Watson, and the other half's his lady, down below + a-powwowin' with yo' daughter. Fact is I'd struck it rich again out West and got restless and + come East, and at Saint Louis I see by a newspaper that them two was allowin' to go down to + Orleans on this boat this trip, and ree-collect-in' the pinch they got into of old on the + <em>Votaress</em>, s'I to myself,'me too!'"</p> + + <p>Here the other men drew near and, while "California" ran on, silently pressed the big hand + offered sidewise by Hayle.</p> + + <p>"And with that I set down and writ a poem—took me a whole night—to the best half dozen o' + them that was on the other trip, invitin' 'em, at my expense, to jump on when we come by—at + New Carthage—Milliken's Bend—Vicksburg—and trustin' to luck and fresh post stamps to find + 'em. But little did we dream o' seein' you walk aboard, at Memphis, and still less yo' daughter + and her old Joy; did we, Mr. Gilmore?"</p> + </div><a name="LVII" id="LVII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LVII</h2> + + <h3>FAREWELL, "VOTARESS"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Montezuma Bend ... Delta ... Delta Bend ... Friar's Point ... Kangaroo Point ... Horseshoe + Bend and Cut-off. Some, at least, of these we remember. At mention of them the Gilmores and + "California" smiled—behind Ramsey: such a different, surpassingly different Ramsey!</p> + + <p>Near the <em>Enchantress's</em> bell these four and old Joy were gathered about Gideon + Hayle, Watson, and Hugh Courteney—such an inspiringly different Hugh! Two or three showed a + divided attention, letting an occasional glance stray down the waters ahead, where Old Town + Bend swung from west to south.</p> + + <p>At the same moment, in Horseshoe Cut-off, some twelve or fifteen miles below, another swift, + handsome steamer, upward bound—the great river could hardly yet show more than one + handsomer—swept into the north from an easterly course under Island Sixty-four and pointed up + the middle of the stream to pass between Sixty-three and Sixty-two where, at the head of the + reach, they parted the river into three channels and widened it to more than a league. She + would have been an animating sight if only for the fact that every soul aboard who was not just + then engaged in running her was at the guards of one or another of her graceful decks. The + forecastle was darkened by her crew standing in a half circle about the capstan, her larboard + pantry guards were crowded with white-jackets, her roofs were gay with ladies and children. In + elated oblivion of the charming picture presented by their own boat and themselves, all were + awaiting a spectacle which their pilots and captain had said would surely be met within the + next hour's run.</p> + + <p>Although behind them was a tortuous fifty miles in which hardly more signs of human life had + been seen or heard than if their way had been on the open Atlantic, the beauty of the + wilderness alone, transfigured in the lights of the declining day, might well have satisfied + the eye. A red sun was just touching the horizon. Its beams and the blue shadows that divided + them lay level, miles long, athwart the glassy stream and its green and gray forests and + tapered and vanished in a low eastern haze. The tints of autumn already prevailed along the + shores, and the indolent waters mirrored the reversed images of the two islands in outlines + clearer than their own and from bank to bank took on in enriched hues the many colors of the + sky. At the far end of the reach, between and somewhat beyond the islands, stood well out of + the shrunken flood a sand-bar, its middle crested green and gold with young poplars and + willows, all its ill favor made picturesque and the whole mass glorified by the sunset. By this + bar the waters of the central channel were again divided, north and south, and the steamer, + with another eastward turn, straightened up for the southern passage between the bar and + Sixty-three.</p> + + <p>"We'll pass her close," said one of the boat's family to those who hung on his words. "In + this low water she's got to come round the bar and well over to the left bank, same as us."</p> + + <p>On the boiler deck and on the roof passengers of the kind that see for themselves pointed + out to the kind that see only what they are shown the smoke of another boat, across the forests + on the Arkansas side, in Old Town Bend. There were ways for some to know even at that distance + that she was a craft they had never yet seen, but every two minutes the distance grew less by a + mile. Presently, as the nearer boat, giving the bar's eastern head a wide berth, swung once + more into the north, the <em>Enchantress</em> glided into view on the larboard bow hardly two + miles away. But before the <em>Enchantress</em> as well, looking south across the same + interval, gleamed a picture worthy of her delight. For there came the <em>Votaress</em>, + curling white ribbons from her cutwater, her people waving and cheering, a swivel barking from + her prow, and the whistles high up between her chimneys roaring in long salute.</p> + + <p>By no premeditation could the unpremeditated scene have been finer. The <em>Votaress</em>, + as she took the wider circuit against the Mississippi shore, caught the whole power of the + setting sun on all her nearer side while she swept close along an undivided curtain of autumn + forest drenched in the same sunlight and quaking to her sudden breeze. North and west of her, + where the sand-bar lay bare of trees, the <em>Enchantress</em>, larger, stronger, swifter, + moved in her own shade but was set against the far splendor of a saffron, green, and crimson + sky in which the fiery sun showed only its upper half sinking beneath the landscape. The lights + of all her decks, just lit, gave no vivid ray but glinted like gems on a court lady. Her bridal + whiteness was as pure hid from the sunbeams as her sister's bathed in them. From both the high + black smoke streamed away through the evening calm and from their twinkling wheels the foam + swept after them like trains of lace. We speak for our poet, who, lacking fit imagery of his + own, recalled one of Jenny Lind's songs:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "I see afar thy robe of snow,</p> +<p class="i6"> I see thy dark hair wildly flow,</p> +<p class="i6"> I hear thy airy step so light,</p> +<p class="i6"> Thou com'st to wish thy love good night.</p> +<p class="i8"> Good night, my love, good night."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Good night, <em>Votaress</em>! He could not know, nor Ramsey, nor any of those among whom + they stood, that these bends were never again to see you in your beauty—though in tragedy, + yes! yes! They knew that in the shipyards of the Ohio you were to receive a beautiful + rejuvenation; but knew not that then, as a dove may be caught by a lynx, you were to be caught + by a great war, a war greater than the great river, and should return to these scenes a + transport; a poor, scarred, bedraggled consort to gunboats; slow reptilian monsters of iron + ugliness and bellowing ferocity. They knew not of days when you must swarm with blue + soldiers—including Marburg—sometimes hot and merry for battle, sometimes shot-torn, + fever-wasted, yellow-eyed, a human rubbish of camp and siege, lighter part of the deadly price + of conquered strongholds and fallen cities—Forts Henry and Donelson, Columbus, Island Ten, + Fort Pillow, Port Hudson, Vicksburg, Memphis; or that, after all, in recovered decency, honored + poverty, you should wear out a gentle old age as a wharf-boat to your unspeakable inferiors. + And neither could they, those voyagers on the new steamer, foresee the happier vision of their + <em>Enchantress</em> living through the war charmedly unscathed, sharing the palmiest days of + the Mississippi's navigation without ever being surpassed in speed or beauty, even by younger + Courteney boats, and at last falling asleep peaceably at her moorings hard by the vast + riverside railway warehouses on the outskirts of a greater New Orleans.</p> + + <p>All this forces its way through the mind while we see the meeting boats cover half the run + between them. On the <em>Enchantress</em> a deck-hand mounted the capstan.</p> + + <p>"They're going to sing," hurriedly said Ramsey to Hugh. "I wish they'd sing ''Lindy Lowe' + that I've heard about!"</p> + + <p>And whether by happy chance or on some signal dropped down from him or because the chantey + was a new one and the crew were glad to show it off, it was chosen. The two steamers passed + close with a happy commotion throughout both and the song swelled. Then the wooded crest of the + bar hid each from each, and Hugh turned to Gideon: "Now, commodore, if Miss Hayle is willing + I'd like to take you both below and show you over the boat—before supper."</p> + + <p>When their descent brought them to the boiler deck the song was yet in full swing. When, + passing on down, they reached the engine room the fact was amusingly clear to many on all + decks, among them the Gilmores, the Californian, and Watson, that the singers had lit on a new + bearing for their lines and were singing them now in compliment to a certain two whose story + was by this time known to all on board. Whether, back between the sweeping cranks and shafts of + the two great engines and wheels, behind the "doctor" and the "donkey" and with Hugh and Ramsey + at his elbows, the alert Gideon heard the song at all was doubtful; so deep in debate were the + two men, the quiet and the loud, on dimensions and powers: length, beam, hold, stroke, + diameters of cylinders and of wheels, in such noted cases as the <em>Chevalier</em>, the + <em>Eclipse</em>, the <em>J. M. White</em>, the <em>Natchez</em>, <em>Antelope</em>, + <em>Paragon</em>, <em>Quakeress</em>, and <em>Autocrat</em>. The three were there yet when the + song's last echo died, with Island Sixty-four eastward astern, Sixty-five southward ahead, the + brief twilight failing and the supper bell ringadang-dinging.</p> + + <p>At table a far-away whistle softly roared and the <em>Enchantress</em> sonorously + responded.</p> + + <p>"A Hayle boat," said Ramsey to Hugh; "the <em>Regent</em>."</p> + + <p>"And we're singing 'Lindy' again!" said Mrs. Gilmore.</p> + + <p>Gideon, busy talking a few seats away, talked straight on, but a cloud on his brow showed + now that he had heard the song the earlier time. Every one tried hard to listen to him and the + melody with the same ears. Under the table somebody's toe had no better manners than gently to + beat time.</p> + </div><a name="LVIII" id="LVIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LVIII</h2> + + <h3>'LINDY LOWE</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <a href="images/music-2.jpg"><img src="images/music-2.png" border="0" alt= + "[Music: Come, smil-in' 'Lind-y Lowe,... de pooti-ess gal I know,... On de fin-ess boat dat ev-eh float, In de O-hi-o, De Mas-sis-sip-pi aw de O-hi-o.]"></a> + <p style="text-align:right;font-size:70%;"><a href="music/music-2.mid">[Listen to a midi file of this music]</a></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, teef whiteh dan de snow,</p> +<p class="i4"> On de finess boat dat eveh float,</p> +<p class="i6"> In de O—hi—o,</p> +<p class="i4"> De Mas—sis—sip—pi aw de O—hi—o.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, to de Lou'siana sho',</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, by de Gu'f o' Mexico,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, to de bayous deep an' slow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de moss wave, to an' fro,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, de bell done ring to go,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de muscadimons grow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, befo' de whistle blow',</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, de pride o' Lake St. Jo',</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, I love' you long ago,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, I'll love you mo' an' mo',</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, how kin you treat me so?</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de sweet pussimmon grow</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, de steam-kyahs runs too slow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de blue pon'-lily grow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, O don't you tell me no!</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, I's bound to be yo' beau,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de wile white roses grow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, de fust of all de row,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, eyes sweeteh dan de doe,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de white magnonia blow',</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, an' awake up, fiddle an' bow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, we'll a-dance de heel an' toe,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, to de tchune o' Jump, Jim Crow,</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, come, de pootiess gal I know,</p> +<p class="i4"> On de finess boat dat eveh float'</p> +<p class="i6"> In de O—hi—o,</p> +<p class="i4"> De Mas—sis—sip—pi aw de O—hi—o.</p> +</div> +</div> + + </div><a name="LIX" id="LIX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LIX</h2> + + <h3>"CONCLUSIVELY"</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Alone in the wide light of a harvest-moon that wrapped all shores in deep shadow and turned + the mid-channel to silver, Hugh and Ramsey stood at the low front rail of the texas roof.</p> + + <p>There were but few to see them, but every eye in range was aware of her and of a refined + simplicity of dress adorning a figure whose pliant grace was the finishing touch to her joyous + erectness. Hugh's gaze was frankly on her, and his mind on the first night he had ever seen + her, when, with her hair wind-tossed in loose curls, she had stood at this spot on the + <em>Votaress</em> and in carelessness of a whole world had sung "The Lone Starry Hours."</p> + + <p>Equally distant from them were the pilot-house behind and above and the bell down forward on + the skylight. To right and left on a thwartship line just back of them towered the chimneys + softly giving out their titanic respirations. Watson, though off watch, was up at the wheel + beside his partner, pretending not to see the two beneath. In other words, he was still, after + eight and a half years, "in the game." The Gilmores were with him, both in body and spirit.</p> + + <p>Out forward of the bell, below it on the main roof, one of the boat's builders, responsible + for her till she should reach New Orleans, sat in the captain's chair.</p> + + <p>"After eight years and a half," Hugh himself had gravely begun to say to Ramsey, when two + men, "California" and a fellow smoker, sauntered across the skylight roof close below. Gilmore, + up in the pilot-house, was annoyed.</p> + + <p>"Our poet," he murmured to his wife, "will spill the fat into the fire yet, if we don't stop + him."</p> + + <p>But the Californian had purposely encumbered himself with this stranger to make it plain + that, hover as he might, he waived all claim to her attention. What better could a man do? And + now he forbore even to look her way. The abstention was as marked as any look could have been. + As they passed, Hugh was silent, but Ramsey spoke, her speech a light blend of response and + evasion.</p> + + <p>"On the <em>Votaress</em>," she said, "the front of the texas didn't stand out forward of + the chimneys, like this."</p> + + <p>"Doesn't this make a handsomer boat," the lover asked, "seen either aboard or from the + shore?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey said yes, she had noticed the improvement from the Memphis wharf-boat. "She was a + splendid sight; yes, out in the stream, just before her wheels first stopped. At least she was + to any one loving boats and the river."</p> + + <p>"Then you haven't changed?" asked Hugh, not for information but in the tone that always + meant so much beneath the speech.</p> + + <p>Her answer was merely to meet his gaze with a gentle steadfastness, each knowing that the + other's mind was overcircling all the years that had divided them. Through those years they had + exchanged no spoken or written word. Yet according to Watson true love finds ways, large love + large ways, pure love pure ways. Sometimes love's friends really help; help find ways, or keep + ways found; even make chutes and cut-offs. Gilmore, Watson, and the Vicksburg merchant happened + to be Odd Fellows, and the Gilmores, to whom letter-writing was, next to their profession, + their main pleasure, had been a sort of clearing-house for Friendship, Love, and Truth—and + especially for social news—to all the <em>Votaress's</em> old coterie; Hugh, the pairs of + Milliken's Bend, Vicksburg, and Carthage, the boat's family, Phyllis, Madame Hayle, even old + Joy—with madame for amanuensis—and Ramsey herself. She and Hugh, had followed every step in + each other's course, upheld by a simplicity of faith in friendship, love, and truth, which + hardly needed to ask the one question abundantly answered by this steadfastness of eye.</p> + + <p>Now she looked away to the moon's path on the river, and the question of change came back + from her: "Have you?"</p> + + <p>"Only to grow."</p> + + <p>"You have grown," she said, "every way."</p> + + <p>"And you," he replied, "every beautiful way. I have just said so to your father."</p> + + <p>Her response came instantly: "How did that happen?"</p> + + <p>"We made it happen."</p> + + <p>She looked at him again. "We," of course, meant "I." Truly she had grown every beautiful + way, but it was yet as wonderful as ever to stand, saying what she had said, hearing what she + was hearing, eye to eye, open soul to open soul, with one who could make words—words at any + rate—happen between himself and Gideon Hayle. She looked this time not alone into his eyes but + on all his unhandsome countenance, and in a surviving upflare of her younger days' extravagance + thought whether, among all time's heroes of the world's waters, there had ever been one too + great for Hugh Courteney's face. So looking she thrilled with the belief that there was nothing + such men had ever done which this one might not some day, the right day, equal or surpass.</p> + + <p>Again she looked away and as she looked the hovering Californian murmured to his new-found + confidant:</p> + + <p>"You can't see the glory of her in this light nohow, unless you'd seen her already in the + full blaze of the cabin, or of broad day, with the light in that red hair. If you had you + wouldn't need even the moonlight now. You'd only need to know she was there and you'd see her + without looking. I seen her in her first long dress, jest a-learning to fly and some folks + showing no more poetic vision than to call her 'almost plain.' I saw the loveliness a-coming, + like daybreak in the mountains. And <em>he</em> saw it. I saw he saw it. And now? I tell you, + sir, her brow is like the snowdrift, her throat is like the swan, and her face it is the + fairest—I never seen Annie Laurie, but if she's better looking or sweeter behaving—I'd rather + not. Anyhow they're enough alike to be sisters. I've writ a poem on this one. Like to + show—hmm? Hold on. It don't quite suit me yet but—what's your hurry? When it does, I Joe! + it'll be a ripsnorter. I've worked eight year and a half on it and they say genius is jest a + trick o' takin' infinitessimal pains.... No, I'm not sleepy. Reckon I'll go up to the + pilot-house. So long. Pleasant dreams."</p> + + <p>While he so spoke Ramsey had said: "Here comes another boat, down in the next bend. Or is + she in the chute?"</p> + + <p>"The chute," replied Hugh. "That's the old <em>Antelope</em>."</p> + + <p>"Ah, up and running again! I know all about you and the <em>Votaress</em> saving her people + that awful night she sank."</p> + + <p>"Who told you?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, a dozen, at a dozen times; but the best was Phyllis, writing to us."</p> + + <p>"Phyllis behaved heroically that night; made up for all the past—though really she'd done + that before."</p> + + <p>"I'm glad you feel that way," murmured Ramsey and suddenly asked: "Why did you take my + father to your room just now?"</p> + + <p>"To show him the plans for another boat."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" What crystalline honesty was in his answers, she pondered. They were as prompt as a + mirror's.</p> + + <p>"Rivals," she remarked, "don't ordinarily show plans."</p> + + <p>"Your father and I are not ordinary rivals."</p> + + <p>What did that mean? Her, and not mere boats' plans? She did not look at him this time. Like + "California" she could see without looking. "Think I'll rejoin the Gilmores," she sighed, as + certain couples came up to see the <em>Antelope</em> go by. She feared a recurrence of "'Lindy + Lowe." On the way to the pilot-house she leisurely inquired:</p> + + <p>"Do you think you'll ever build a finer boat than this?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, and larger, and faster."</p> + + <p>"Not this season?"</p> + + <p>"No, I should hope not for many. Yet——"</p> + + <p>"Boats' lives," she prompted, "are so uncertain."</p> + + <p>"Yes, grandfather thinks——"</p> + + <p>"Oh, if only he were here!" She paused to let Hugh notice that she had "were" and "was" in + hand at last. Then:</p> + + <p>"How long will that boat be?"</p> + + <p>"Three hundred and thirty feet. She'll have ten boilers. Her cylinders will be forty-three + inches, her stroke eleven feet. She'll carry eighty-five hundred bales of cotton."</p> + + <p>"Goodness! How wide will she be?"</p> + + <p>"In the beam fifty. Over all, at the wheelhouses, ninety. Her wheels will be forty-five feet + in diameter and their buckets nineteen feet span. You still like figures, boats' figures, I + hope?"</p> + + <p>She still liked, for second choice, to make him, to herself, ridiculous; liked it even now + while inwardly laughing and weeping at him for not coming to personal matters infinitely more + important. "Go on," she said, "I like cabin figures. How long, wide, and high will the cabin + be?"</p> + + <p>"Two hundred and sixty-three by nineteen by sixteen."</p> + + <p>"What'll her name be? Another e-double-s, of course?"</p> + + <p>"No, I've just been telling your father—here comes the <em>Antelope</em>. I was telling him + that grandfather——"</p> + + <p>An overhead roar of reply to the signal of the approaching boat drowned all words, but + Ramsey had learned on coming aboard that the grandfather was still sound though beyond four + score, and her one vivid wish now was to know more not of him but of Hugh and her father. Yet + she had to let Hugh hand her up the pilot-house stair, and without him rejoined the Gilmores + while Watson spoke down to the man in the captain's chair as to the light-draught + <em>Antelope</em> having come up through the chute of Island So-and-so. She was just in time to + accept her share in the splendor and gayety of the two boats' meeting and passing. As the + picture dissolved, Mrs. Gilmore slyly pinched Ramsey's finger while asking Watson:</p> + + <p>"Why don't our men sing? <em>I</em> want some more 'Lindy!"</p> + + <p>Had she not heard the signal for the lead? No, in the excitement she had not, though both + Ramsey and "California" had, there being to them an unfailing poetry in the casting of the + lead, whether by day or, as now, by the glare of a torch basket let down close to the water + under the starboard freight guards. At one end of the breast-board the two ladies, at the other + the actor and the Californian, looked out and down. The boat's builder had left his seat and + stood with Hugh at the forward rail. From the freight guards, far below, the leadsman, unseen + up here except to experienced "poetic vision," sent up a long-drawn chant telling the fathoms + of depth shown on the sounding-line that flew forward from his skilled hand into the boat's + moonlight shadow, plunged to the river's bed, vibrated past his feet in the glare of the pine + torch, stretched aft while he chanted, and was recovered in dripping coils and hove again.</p> + + <p>"Mark under wa-ater, twai-ai-ain."</p> + + <p>As the notes resounded Hugh looked up to the pilots and in his quietest speaking voice + repeated:</p> + + <p>"Mark under water, twain."</p> + + <p>But our concern here is mainly with those for whom the scene, the calls, veiled two private + conversations. Three or four times the one melodious cry, following as many casts, rose from + below, and each time, with all its swing and melody left out, Hugh passed it on up to the + pilots. Between the strains Gilmore said softly to "California":</p> + + <p>"My dear fellow, no. Every time we show ourselves their partisans we make heavier hauling + for them. They'd tell us so, only that—don't you see?—they can't even do that. It would be + <em>infra dig.</em>" But in fact Ramsey was just then telling something much like that to his + wife.</p> + + <p>"Yes," admitted the Californian, full of a new scheme, yet always generous, "and that was a + ten-strike, your wife, after supper, taking Miss Hayle away from Hugh and Gideon in such gay + style. Did you see how't sort o' eased the old man's mind?"</p> + + <p>The leadsman's cry changed and so came twice or thrice, Hugh as often repeating it to the + pilots, while Ramsey and Mrs. Gilmore, though hearkening, whispered busily.</p> + + <p>"Shoaling," commented Mrs. Gilmore to Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"Not seriously," said the river-wise Ramsey. "Go on. What did you get out of him at last?" + She had a merry sparkle.</p> + + <p>Once more the far-below cry rose to them and was restated by Hugh without color or thrill. + Ramsey well knew that so it was always sung and spoken, yet she remarked:</p> + + <p>"Hear that absurd difference—in those two voices."</p> + + <p>"That's the difference between him and other men, Ramsey; even between him and your + father."</p> + + <p>She liked that, though now she felt bitter toward him for not being more like ordinary + mortals.</p> + + <p>"Go on," she lightly repeated. "If he won't make words happen with me I must take him + second-hand."</p> + + <p>"You naughty girl! He'll tell you all you'll let him."</p> + + <p>"Oh, I'll let him, all he'll tell me. What did he say?"</p> + + <p>"He said the very best was, that under all your mantle of new charms——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey's soft laugh interrupted. "He didn't. He never said that, my lady. He wouldn't know + how. You said it."</p> + + <p>"Well, he did say that under it all there's nothing lost of the Ramsey we began with."</p> + + <p>"The slanderer!" They laughed together. The calls of the lead were passing unnoticed. "Mark + above water, twain; mark, twain; quarter less, twain; half, twain; nine and a half; by the + mark, nine; nine feet."</p> + + <p>"The slanderer! Why, that's actionable! I'll have the law on him!" The speaker's mirth was + overdone. As the leadsman sang another cry and Hugh sedately spoke it she tinkled as of old and + said: "Don't get excited, captain. Keep cool."</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore sobered. "You may laugh, but I believe he's talked with your father + conclusively and will to you to-night, if you'll allow it."</p> + + <p>"Humph! you don't know that he'll come near me. Aboard his own boat, on her trial trip, he's + got other fish to fry. But even if he should, don't you see how absolute the deadlock is? Oh, + you must have seen it these eight years and more!—in spite of everybody's silence."</p> + + <p>"We didn't. We don't see it even now, Gilmore and I. We don't believe Captain Hugh sees any + deadlock whatever. He merely knows you think you do. You think to accept him would condemn him + to death?"</p> + + <p>"Mrs. Gilmore, I know it would. My brothers—may have broken promises but + they—keep—their—threats. You know that's the fashion of all this country, from Cairo + down."</p> + + <p>"Ma-a-ark, twai-ai-ain," chanted the leadsman for his final call, and not only Hugh but an + echo from the land repeated it. To many an ear, poetic ear, that echo is there yet, in all that + country, from Cairo down. But that is aside. Watson and his partner threw the wheel over and + the <em>Enchantress</em> swept round for the chute.</p> + + <p>In the bright moonlight Hugh and the boat's builder turned back toward the solitary chair, + placidly conversing. Gilmore talked on with "California." His wife and Ramsey drew back into + the corner behind them.</p> + + <p>"Your brothers," murmured Mrs. Gilmore, "threatened Hugh's life just the same before you + came into the issue at all."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Ramsey, "and they're watching their chance yet. Julian told me so this summer + and Lucian berated him for 'showing his hand.' Oh, that isn't the deadlock, by itself. The + deadlock is that as long as Hugh Courteney holds off the feud will keep, but when he doesn't I + come in and it won't; everything's precipitated. And so, you see?...</p> + + <p>"Hmm! Hugh Courteney won't put himself, or me, or mom-a, where, in a fight for his life, no + matter who's killed the killing would be in the family, and the killed would be ours, + mom-a's—and—and mine. The twins see that. Jule says it, and, what's worse, Luce says nothing. + That's why <em>they</em> are entirely satisfied with the deadlock.... Look."</p> + + <p>The boat's contractor was leaving the deck. Hugh had started toward the pilot-house. But + when Mrs. Gilmore looked she looked beyond him in meditation.</p> + + <p>"I know what you're thinking," said Ramsey. "But it'll never happen. They've settled down to + the ordinary term of a decent life, thank God!... Here he comes. Think he'll talk to me? Yes, + he will. He'll begin where he left off." She laughed. "He's going to tell me the name of his + next boat, if he ever builds another. Anything 'conclusive' in that?"</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore was grave a moment longer and then brightly said: "There might be! There may + be! I can see—I can see how he—" She could not finish. Hugh had entered.</p> + + <p>His coming broke in upon another conversation, that of Gilmore and "California."</p> + + <p>"Old boy, no. Suppose it should work out as you plan. You leave us at Natchez; that's easy. + You live there a week, a month, free with your gold and making friends—of the sort gold makes. + You get into a political quarrel with the twins—nothing easier—and in a clear case of your + own self-defence the two are:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "'—Laid in one grave.</p> +<p class="i6"> Sing tooralye,' etc."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"Wouldn't that be poetic justice? and ain't I a poet?"</p> + + <p>"Undoubtedly. Then by miracle you come off scot-free."</p> + + <p>"Not essential. I take my chances."</p> + + <p>"Still, you have that hope; freedom is sweet. More-over, miracle of miracles, what you did + it for is never guessed. But, my dear fellow, there are two who'd never need to guess. Like us + they'd know and that knowledge would sunder them forever. They'd never willingly look into each + other's faces again."</p> + + <p>"Nnn-o. No, course they wouldn't. I seen that from the jump but I sort o' hoped you'd maybe + know some way to get round that; it being the only real difficulty."</p> + + <p>"Sorry, but I don't. Odd how narrow-minded one's friends can be, but when they are—what can + we do?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, that's so.... Mr. Gilmore, you're not narrow-minded; I've got a poem——"</p> + + <p>It was there Hugh entered. But it was there, too, that Watson made a move in his modest part + of the game.</p> + + <p>With his eyes out ahead down the chute they were entering—"If any one," he drawled, "wants + to see a scandalous fine moonlight picture of this river, one they'll never forget, the best + place from whence to behold it is the texas roof, down here, out for'ard o' the chimneys."</p> + + <p>"If Captain Hugh would go with us," pensively said Mrs. Gilmore, "we'd all go." And soon the + pilots were alone.</p> + + <p>"Now," growled the younger, with his gaze down there on Ramsey, "don't that beat you? Her + making California stay so's Cap'n Hugh can't pair off with her!"</p> + + <p>"Be easy," said Watson; "that's according to Hoyle. Don't shoot till they settle.... There. + Now I'll go down and take care of California. By cracky! run smooth or run rough, I believe + it's going to go this time."</p> + </div><a name="LX" id="LX"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LX</h2> + + <h3>ONCE MORE HUGH SINGS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Between that great eastward bend nearly opposite the mouth of the Arkansas, which in later + years was cut off and is now, or was yesterday, Beulah Lake—between it and Ozark Island + below—a white-jacket came up from the passenger deck far enough to show his head to the + watchman above and warily asked a question.</p> + + <p>"Six," was the reply. "Including me—seven."</p> + + <p>The inquirer ran wildly down again, but the <em>Enchantress</em> sped on through the + glorious moonlight as though he scarcely mattered. On the texas roof Mrs. Gilmore sat with + "California," her husband with Watson, Hugh with Ramsey. But only the last two were out on its + forward verge. Mrs. Gilmore had found it cool there and with the others had drawn back a few + steps, into the pleasant warmth of the chimneys. For average passengers the evening was far + gone, but not for players, pilots, Californians, or lovers—of the river.</p> + + <p>A mile or so farther on, the white-jacket reappeared and, gliding by all others to reach his + captain, said, with mincing feet and a semicircular bow, while presenting a tray of six, not + seven, sherry cobblers:</p> + + <p>"Sev'l gen'lemen's comp'ments, an' ax, will Mis' Gil'——"</p> + + <p>"What gentlemen? Who?"</p> + + <p>"Sev'l gen'lemen, yassuh. Dey tell me dess say, sev'l gen'lemen. Sev'l gen'lemen ax will + Mis' Gilmo' have de kin'ness fo' to sing some o' dem same songs she sing night afo' las' in de + ladies' cabin an' las' night up hyuh.... Yass'm, whiles dey listens f'om de b'ileh deck."</p> + + <p>"Has my father gone to bed?" asked Ramsey.</p> + + <p>"No'm, he up yit. He done met up wid dese sev'l gen'lemen an' find dey old frien's—callin' + deyse'v's in joke Gideon' Ban'—an' he talkin' steamboats wid 'em——"</p> + + <p>The speaker tittered as Ramsey inquiringly extended her arms out forward and crossed her + wrists. "Yass'm," he said, "hin' feet on de front rail, yass'm."</p> + + <p>It seemed but fair that Mrs. Gilmore, to meet the compliment generously, should sing at the + very front of the hurricane roof, just over the forward guards of the boiler deck. But Ramsey + and Hugh kept their place. Ramsey wanted to be near the sky, she explained, when songs were + sung on the water by moonlight, and eagerly spoke for two or three which her friend had sung of + old on the <em>Votaress</em> to spiritualize the "acrobatics" of the Brothers Ambrosia.</p> + + <p>The singer's voice was rich, trained, and mature, and her repertory a survival of young + days—nights—before curtains and between acts: Burns, Moore, Byron, and Mrs. Norton, + alternating with "The Lavender Girl," "Rose of Lucerne," "Dandy Jim o' Caroline," and "O Poor + Lucy Neal." And now she sang her best, in the belief that while she sang the pair up between + her and the pilot-house were speaking conclusively. Let us see.</p> + + <p>"Ramsey," said Hugh, and waited—ten seconds—twenty.</p> + + <p>Well, why should he not? In eight years and a half there were ten million times twenty + seconds and she had waited all of them. At length she responded and the moment she did so she + thought she had spoken too promptly although all she said was, "Yes?"</p> + + <p>"The hour's come at last," said Hugh.</p> + + <p>"What hour?—hour to name that boat?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, to name that boat. Only not that first. Ramsey, I've told your father all I ever + wanted to tell you."</p> + + <p>"Humph!" The response was so nearly in the manner of the earlier Ramsey, "the Ramsey he had + begun with" and whom she remembered with horror, that she recognized the likeness. The further + reply had been on her tongue's end, that to tell her father only that could not have taken + long, or some such parrying nonsense; but now it would not come. She felt her whole nature + tempted to make love's final approach steep and slippery, but again without looking she saw his + face; his face of stone; his iron face with its large, quiet, formidable eyes that could burn + with enterprise in great moments; a face set to all the world's realities, and eyes that + offered them odds, asking none. So seeing she knew that if she answered with one least note of + banter she would make herself an object of his magnanimity, than which she would almost rather + fall under his scorn—if he ever stooped to scorn. Suddenly she remembered the deadlock and was + smitten with the conviction that these exchanges were love's last farewell. Now it was hard to + speak at all.</p> + + <p>"What was it you told him?"</p> + + <p>"I told him how long I'd loved you, and why."</p> + + <p>"We both love the river so," murmured Ramsey in a voice broken by the pounding of her + heart.</p> + + <p>"Yes. I told him that, for one thing. And I told him how gladly I would have asked for you + long ago had I not seen myself, as you so often saw me on the <em>Votaress</em>——"</p> + + <p>"Condemned to inaction," she softly prompted; for if this was farewell a true maiden must + speed the parting.</p> + + <p>"Yes."</p> + + <p>"By an absolute deadlock," she murmured on. "My father sees it. He knows it's one yet and + must always be one."</p> + + <p>"No, a lock but not a deadlock. It's a lock to which your brothers do not hold the key."</p> + + <p>The pounding in her breast, which had grown better, grew worse again. "Who holds it?"</p> + + <p>"Your father. I have just told him so. At no time would I have hesitated to ask for you if + the key had been with your brothers. I would have got a settlement from them, sink or swim, + alive or dead. I believe in lover's rights, Ramsey, and I'll have a lover's rights at any risk + or cost that falls only on me. Those old threats—yes, I know how fiercely they are still + meant—and they have always had their weight; but they've never of themselves weighed enough to + stop me. I've held off and endured, waiting not for a change of heart in your brothers, but for + an hour counselled, Ramsey, by my father on his dying bed."</p> + + <p>"What hour? Hour of strongest right? strongest reason?"</p> + + <p>"Not at all. The hour I've waited for was the one which would best enable me to meet your + father on equal terms as measured by his own standards."</p> + + <p>"Oh, I see. I believe I see."</p> + + <p>"Yes, the hour when I should be not owner merely, but captain too, of the finest + boat——"</p> + + <p>"Dat eveh float'—" she tenderly put in.</p> + + <p>"Yes, on this great river."</p> + + <p>"Oh, Captain Courteney——"</p> + + <p>"Don't Courteney or captain me now, Ramsey, whether this is beginning or end." There was a + silence, and then—</p> + + <p>"Hugh," she said, as softly as a female bird trying her mate's song, "you mustn't ask my + father. You mustn't ask any one. I can't let you."</p> + + <p>"Your father's already asked. If he consents I go ashore at Natchez, having telegraphed + ahead from Vicksburg——"</p> + + <p>"You shan't. You shan't go to my brothers. You shan't go armed and you shan't go + unarmed."</p> + + <p>"Yes, I shall. I'll go and settle with them in an hour without the least fear of violence on + either side."</p> + + <p>"Armed with nothing but words? You shan't. And armed with anything else you shan't."</p> + + <p>"Ramsey, words are the mightiest weapon on earth. The world's one perfect man—we needn't be + pious to say it—set about to conquer the human race by the sheer power of words and died + rather than use any other weapon. Died victorious, as he counted victory. And the result—a + poor, lame beginning of the result—is what we call Christendom."</p> + + <p>"You shan't die victorious for me."</p> + + <p>"No, I shall not. I talk much too vast."</p> + + <p>"Humph! you always did." She smiled, but a moonbeam betrayed a tear on her folded hands.</p> + + <p>"True," he admitted. "I talk too vast. I'm only claiming the power of words in small as well + as large. I've no hope of martyrdom; I'm only confident of victory."</p> + + <p>"No matter. You <em>won't</em> go ashore at Natchez."</p> + + <p>"You mean your father won't consent?"</p> + + <p>"I do. There's one thing, at the very bottom of his heart, that you've never thought + of."</p> + + <p>"I think I have."</p> + + <p>"What is it?"</p> + + <p>"That as the Hayle boats are all one day to be yours, and our union would unite the two + fleets under the one name of Courteney, he will never allow it."</p> + + <p>"He never will."</p> + + <p>"Ramsey, he says he may. If we and the boats are so united the fleet will be, while + grandfather lives, the Courteney fleet; but each new boat from now on will be named for a + Hayle, beginning with you, or your father, or your mother, as you and they may choose. At + Vicksburg, if he consents in time, we can telegraph her—we must have her—to come aboard at + Natchez for the rest of the trip. Grandfather, I suppose you've been told, is now waiting for + us at Vicksburg. He came up on the <em>Antelope</em>."</p> + + <p>"The <em>Antelope</em>! How do you know?"</p> + + <p>"By a despatch received at Memphis."</p> + + <p>"Mmm! what a blessing is the telegraph! But, ah, Hugh"—the name was almost + naturalized—"this is a mere castle in the air! My—my brothers——"</p> + + <p>"I'll take care of them."</p> + + <p>"You can't! You can't! Oh, Hugh, they—keep—their—threats." She caught a breath and looked + at him. If he went seeking them she would go at his side! He must have read her mind, for in + his majestical way he smilingly shook his head.</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore had ceased to sing and with the others had risen and turned Ramsey's way, + confident that up there the conclusive word had been spoken. Ramsey called down:</p> + + <p>"Don't stop. Sing 'My Old Kentucky Home' or that thing in which 'the river keeps rolling + along' and 'the future's but a dream.' We're song hungry up here."</p> + + <p>"Then sing to each other," was the reply. "You can do it."</p> + + <p>"Let Captain Hugh sing," said Watson. "He's off watch."</p> + + <p>"He says," said Ramsey, "captains don't sing on the texas roof." She moved to join the group + on its way to an after stair. Watson bent his steps for the pilot-house. At the stair the + actor's wife let her husband and "California" go down before her and as Ramsey and Hugh came + close said covertly:</p> + + <p>"Sing, captain. Sing as softly as you please, just for us two while the world is in dreams + and sleep, won't you?"</p> + + <p>The lover's heart was big with happiness, his solicitor had just been singing pointedly in + his interest, the seclusion here was all but absolute, the quoted line was from Ramsey's song + of that first night on the <em>Votaress</em>, and to the bright surprise of both his hearers he + laid a touch on Mrs. Gilmore's arm and in a restrained voice so confidential as to reach only + to the pilot-house above and to the two men at the stair's foot below began to sing.</p> + + <p>Before half a line was out the Californian had seized both of Gilmore's shoulders. "My + poem!" he gasped. "I gave it to him last night to grammatize! He's fit it to a tchune. Partner, + he's the only man that's listened——"</p> + + <p>"Sh-sh-sh! listen yourself," whispered the actor, and this is what they heard:</p> + + <a href="images/music-3.jpg"><img src="images/music-3.png" alt= + "[Music: O come and grace my gar-den, From all the world a-part. Thou on-ly may'st the won-der see Of birds and flow'rs that in it be, For all of them are dreams of thee. My gar-den is my heart,... My gar-den is my heart.]" + border="0"></a> + <p style="text-align:right;font-size:70%;"><a href="music/music-3.mid">[Listen to a midi file of this music]</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "If heaven might make my garden</p> +<p class="i8"> An empire wide and great,</p> +<p class="i6"> Fidelity should close it in,</p> +<p class="i6"> The joy of life bloom evergreen,</p> +<p class="i6"> And love be law and thou be queen,</p> +<p class="i8"> Might I but keep the gate.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "For where would be my garden,</p> +<p class="i8"> Dear love, from thee apart?</p> +<p class="i6"> Whose every bush and bower and tree,</p> +<p class="i6"> Its founts, perfumes, and minstrelsy</p> +<p class="i6"> And all its flowers spring all from thee,</p> +<p class="i8"> Thou sunlight of my heart."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"You say that's your poem?" murmured the actor.</p> + + <p>"Oh, he's doctored it," stealthily admitted the Californian. "He's doctored it a lot."</p> + </div><a name="LXI" id="LXI"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LXI</h2> + + <h3>WANTED, HAYLE'S TWINS</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>Early in the next forenoon another of the Californian's benevolent schemes threatened to + miscarry.</p> + + <p>At the settlement of Milliken's Bend there were people already at the landing, and people + running to it from three directions. Yet not a hat, hand, or handkerchief did they wave until + the <em>Enchantress</em>, in full view up toward the head of the bend, was too near to mistake + their salutes for a sign to stop. Then there were wavings aplenty and cries of acclaim. By the + "River News" daily telegraphed down to the New Orleans, Vicksburg, and other papers, from + Louisville, Paducah, Cairo, and like points, and brought up in those papers by such boats as + the <em>Antelope</em>, it had been known here and at every important landing below that this + latest bride of the river was coming and the time of her appearance had been definitely + calculated. And now behold her, a vision of delight, a winged victory, the finest apparition + yet. Up in front of her bell could be seen Captain Hugh, and who was that beside him, twice his + bulk, but Gideon Hayle!</p> + + <p>"Well, well, what's going to happen next?"</p> + + <p>No one offered an answer, though the question echoed round.</p> + + <p>So early in the season the new wonder carried no cotton, but her lower deck showed "right + smart o' freight," and wherever passengers were wont to stand stood a crowd looking so content + that on the shore one lean and hungry native with his hands in his trousers to the elbows + drawled sourly as his eye singled out the boiler-deck throng:</p> + + <p>"Kin see thah breakfast inside 'em f'om hyuh."</p> + + <p>Now they read her name in gold on the front of her pilot-house, now on its side and + splendidly magnified on her wheel-house, and lastly again on the pilot-house, at its back, as + she dwindled away eastward for Island One-hundred-and-three, called by Ramsey and Watson "My + Wife's," and now known as Pawpaw Island.</p> + + <p>"California" was a general disappointed of his reinforcements. The pair at Milliken's Bend + having failed him, what better hope was there of the Carthaginians or even of the Vicksburg + couple? Yet at Vicksburg, two hours later, he had joy. For down at the wharf-boat's very edge, + liveliest of all wavers and applauders, with a "Howdy, Cap'm Hugh?" before the lines were out, + and a "How you do, Miss Ramsey?" were the three pairs at once, foregathered here, they said, + "to make the spree mo' spree-cious," and wild to be the first on the "sta-age plank." Close + after them came Commodore Courteney, and Vicksburg faded into the north.</p> + + <p>"Why, Mis' Gilmo'!" said the three pretty wives, sinking with a deft sweep of their flounced + crinoline upon the blue-damask sofas and faintly teetering on their perfect springs, "why, my + deah la-ady, yo' eight an' a hafe yeahs youngeh!— Ain't she?— She certain'y is! An' that deah + Commodo' Co'teney! He's as sweet as eveh!</p> + + <p>"But you, Miss Ramsey, oh,—well,—why,—you know,—time an' again we heard what a mahvel + you'd grown to be, but—why,—lemme look at you again! Why, yo' just divi-i-ine! Law'! I'd give + a thousand dollahs just fo' yo' red-gole hair. Why, it's the golden locks o' Veronese, that + Cap'm Hugh's fatheh showed you,—don't you remembeh?—on the <em>Vot'ress</em>, an' you showed + us,—in the sky. They there yet!</p> + + <p>"An'"—the five heads drew close together—"Cap'm Hugh, oh, he ain't such a su'pri-ise; + we've seen him f'om time to time. But ain't he—mmm, hmm, hmmm! An'so a-a-able! Why, Miss + Ramsey,—oh, you must 'a' heard it,—they say excep' fo' yo' pa he hasn't got his equal on the + riveh an' could 'a' been a captain long ago had he 'a' thought best himself. He certain'y + could. But ain't this boat the splendidest thing in the wi-i-ide, wi-i-ide world? It certain'y + is! It's a miracle! an' he her captain and deservin' to be!</p> + + <p>"Mis' Gilmo',—Miss Ramsey,"—the lovely heads came together,—"the's a hund'ed pretty + girls—an' rich as pretty—that ah just cra-a-azy about him. But they might as well be crazy + about a stah. They certain'y might, an' they—know—why!" (Laughter.) "They certain'y do— + Law'! ain't Miss Ramsey got the sa-a-ame o-o-ole la-a-afe, on'y sweeteh'n eveh? Sweeteh an' mo' + ketchin'! You certain'y have. No wondeh yo' call' the Belle o' the Bends. But, all the same, + yo' cruel. Yo' fame' fo' yo' cruelty!" (Laughter.) "They say he's just telegrayphed yo' ma to + come aboa'd at Natchez. That's just ow Southe'n hospitality. But won't that be fi-i-ine? It + certain'y will!"</p> + + <p>The three husbands came bringing the actor, the junior pilot, the Californian, and his + confidant of the evening before. Incited by Ramsey the wives fell into queries on the coming + election, rejoicing that even should Lincoln be made President, and that incredible thing, a + war, come on, the great river and its cities—New Orleans, Natchez, Memphis, and especially + Vicksburg—would be far from the storm. While they made merry Mrs. Gilmore got Ramsey + aside.</p> + + <p>"If Captain Hugh's telegraphed, why, then, your father——"</p> + + <p>"Oh! my father, he's roaming over the boat somewhere with Commodore Courteney! I'm going to + change this hot dress for a cooler one. I'll be back before a great while."</p> + + <p>"Let me go with you. Are you not well?"</p> + + <p>Not well! The girl laughed gayly. But as she drew her friend out upon the guards and to her + stateroom's rear door she talked with a soft earnestness all the way.</p> + + <p>"I don't see how I could have been so blind! If <em>he</em> saw those things why couldn't I + see them? I thought of them, over and over; but always the other things crowded them back into + the dark—and there was plenty of dark. He's right, my father does hold the key, and if I'd + seen things as I see them now I'd have made the twins give in, somehow, long ago. If you should + see mammy Joy, or Phyllis, or both, please send them to me."</p> + + <p>She shut herself in, dropped to the berth's side, and let the tears run wild. The nurse and + the still handsome Phyllis appeared promptly, together. But they found her full of sparkle; so + full that Phyllis saw under the mask; a mask she herself had worn so often in her youth under a + like desperation.</p> + + <p>"Mammy," said her mistress, "want to go somewhere with your baby, about sundown this + evening?"</p> + + <p>For explanation the old woman glanced at Phyllis, but Phyllis's eyes were on Ramsey with a + light whose burning carried old Joy's memory back twenty years. "Sundown?" echoed the nurse to + gain time, "yass'm, o' co'se, ef—but, missie—sundown—dat mean' Natchez. You cayn't be goin' + asho' whah Cap'm Hugh dess tell Phyllis yo' ma comin' aboa'd?"</p> + + <p>"Not ashore to stay," was the blithe reply as Phyllis aided the change of dress. "There'll + be two or three of us."</p> + + <p>"Well, o' co'se, ef you needs me. Wha' fo' you gwine?"</p> + + <p>"To see the twins," sang Ramsey, "if we go at all."</p> + + <p>Then Phyllis knew she was trusted, and while with a puzzled frown the nurse watched her + manipulate hooks and eyes she blandly asked: "Miss Ramsey, if Cap'm Hugh give' me leave kin I + go too?"</p> + + <p>"Yes, you might ask him. Nobody's going unless he goes."</p> + + <p>The light came to old Joy. "Law'! missie, now you a-talkin'! Now you a-talkin' wisdom! Dah's + whah I's wid you, my baby. I's wid you right dah, pra-a-aise Gawd!"</p> + + <p>All three, parting company, were happier for several hours. But the Californian's were not + the only fond schemes, aboard the <em>Enchantress</em>, that could go to wreck.</p> + + <p>Nor had "California" met his last disappointment even on this journey. As he and his + reinforcements came out on the boiler deck with a hundred others from the midday feast the + deck-hands below, for quicker unloading at Canal Street on the morrow, were shifting a lot of + sacked corn from the hold to the forecastle-deck and were timing their work to a chantey. The + song was innocently chosen in reference solely to the piece of river in which they chanced then + to be, but all the more for its innocence it touched in that gentle knight a chord of + sympathy.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "My own true love wuz lost an' found—</p> +<p class="i8"> O hahd times!—</p> +<p class="i6"> An' lost ag'in a-comin' round</p> +<p class="i8"> Hahd Times Ben'.</p> +<p class="i6"> Found an' lost, lost an' found,</p> +<p class="i6"> An' lost ag'in a-comin' round</p> +<p class="i8"> Hahd Times Ben'."<a href="#B">[2]</a></p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>So it ran, while the <em>Enchantress</em> turned southeast with that Lake Saint Joe of which + "'Lindy" was "the pride" lying forest-hidden a few miles away on the starboard beam. The melody + opened with a prolonged wail on its highest note and bore the tragic quality which so often + marked the songs of slavery. Helped on by names of near-by landmarks—the Big Black River and + the once perilous Grand Gulf—at the bottom of Hard Times Bend—it played on "California's" + mind like summer lightning and seemed to call to his romantic spirit supernaturally. He could + delay no longer to take his companions into his confidence.</p> + + <p>By guess, he said, by inferences, and by modest inquiries he had discerned that Hugh was + going ashore at Natchez to—they understood. All right, he would go, too, and ordinarily he + would be enough. But the present need was not a fair fight but peace. Hence the propriety of + overwhelming numbers. Wouldn't they like to take a hand?</p> + + <p>"But he'll see the twins privately," said the invited.</p> + + <p>"Of course, but 'though lost to sight' they'll know we're too close for them to get away + from, and that's a very convincing situation to 'most any man, even twins."</p> + + <p>"Yes, but we can't turn a feud into a fox-hunt. You don't know these things as we do."</p> + + <p>"Don't? Why, my friends, I'm a Kentucky highlander. Might as well say I don't know the smell + of whiskey because I keep sober, when, in my day, I've been so drunk I've laid on my back and + felt up'ards for the ground."</p> + + <p>However, he yielded sweetly. But it was plain to see that he would certainly, contentedly, + go with Hugh alone. Indeed, only this would he have preferred—that Gideon Hayle might go + instead. But one square look at the big, grim, baffled commander had told him earlier that + Hugh's perilous isolation was wholly acceptable as a final test of his fitness to belong to + Gideon's Band. He parted with his companions and stood at the front rail taking comfort in the + thought that whoever might disappoint him the twins would not and looking down on the toiling + singers in placid defiance of their lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "My true love's heart to mine 'uz boun'—</p> +<p class="i8"> O hahd times!—</p> +<p class="i6"> Dey broke dem bindin's comin' roun'</p> +<p class="i8"> Hahd Times Ben'.</p> +<p class="i6"> Boun' an' broke, broke an' boun',</p> +<p class="i6"> An' broke ag'in a-comin' roun'</p> +<p class="i8"> Hahd Times Ben'."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Watson's partner touched the listener's arm, who smiled and said:</p> + + <p>"Only four hours more."</p> + + <p>"That's all," replied the pilot. "But I've just thought of something. Suppose the twins + shouldn't be in Natchez."</p> + + <p><a name="B" id="B"></a>[Footnote 2:<br /> <a href="images/music-4.jpg"><img src="images/music-4.png" alt="[Music notation]" border="0"></a>]</p> + <p style="text-align:right;font-size:70%;"><a href="music/music-4.mid">[Listen to a midi file of this music]</a></p> + </div><a name="LXII" id="LXII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LXII</h2> + + <h3>EUTHANASIA</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>A few steps aside from Hugh and his grandfather at the forward rail of the hurricane roof, + in a glow of autumn twilight, the Gilmores and the three couples taken on at Vicksburg observed + the <em>Enchantress</em>, under Watson's skill, lay her lower guards against the guards of the + Natchez wharf-boat with a touch as light as a human hand.</p> + + <p>Down on the wharf-boat, in its double door, as beautiful in her fuller years as in + <em>Votaress</em> days, and more radiant, stood Madame Hayle. A man-servant at one elbow, a + maid at the other, saw the group on the roof fondly bidding for her smiles, but except one sent + earlier to the two Courteneys they were all for her husband and daughter, who, unseen from + above, awaited her half-way down the main forward stairs. When the maid, however, leaned to her + and spoke, her glance went aloft and her gestures were a joy even to the strangers who crowded + the boat's side. Now while the stage was run out and her husband met her and gave her his arm, + and white-jackets seized her effects, the man-servant answered a question softly called over to + him by Ramsey, and the group overhead caught his words:</p> + + <p>"De twins couldn' come. No, miss, 'caze dey ain't in town. No, miss, dey bofe went oveh to + de Lou'siana place 'istiddy.... Yass, miss, on a bah hunt in Bayou Crocodile swamp."</p> + + <p>Mrs. Gilmore stole a glance at Hugh, but the only sign that he had heard was a light nod to + the mate below, and a like one up to Watson.</p> + + <p>"Take in that stage," called the mate to his men. The engine bells jingled, the + <em>Enchantress</em> backed a moment on one wheel, then went forward on both, fluttered her + skirts of leaping foam, made a wide, upstream turn, headed down the river, and swept away for + Natchez Island just below and for New Orleans distant a full night's run. She had hardly put + the island on her larboard bow when merrily up and down the cabin and out on the boiler deck + and thence down the passenger guards rang the supper bell.</p> + + <p>"Bayou Crocodile," said a Carthaginian descending the wheel-house stair, "that's where one + of the sons-in-law has his plantation, isn't it?"</p> + + <p>"On the Black River, yes," said he of Milliken's Bend.</p> + + <p>"Near where it comes into Red River," added Vicksburg.</p> + + <p>Once more Hugh and Ramsey sat alone side by side under a glorious night sky, at that + view-point so rarely chosen by others but so favored by her—the front of the texas roof. Down + forward at the captain's station sat the two commodores and up in the pilot-house were the two + pilots, the Gilmores, "California," Madame Hayle, and they of Vicksburg and the Bends.</p> + + <p>In the moral atmosphere of this uppermost group there was a new and happy clearness easily + attributable to a single potent cause—Madame Hayle. Her advent and the moon's rising had come + in the same hour and with very similar effect. Every one was aware for himself, though nobody + could say when any one else had been told, that while Gideon's decision was still withheld, + madame, in her own sweet, absolute way, had said it would be forthcoming before the boat + touched the Canal Street wharf, and that in the interval, whether Hugh and Ramsey were never to + sit side by side again, or were to go side by side the rest of their days, they should have + this hour this way and were free to lengthen it out till night was gone, if they wished.</p> + + <p>It was not late in any modern sense, yet on the passenger deck no one was up but the + barkeeper, two or three quartets at cards, the second clerk at work on his freight list, a + white-jacket or two on watch, and Joy and Phyllis. Thus assured of seclusion the lovers + communed without haste. There had been hurried questions but Hugh had answered them and Ramsey + was now passive, partly in the bliss of being at his side as she had never been before and + partly in a despair growing out of his confessed purpose to leave the <em>Enchantress</em> at + Red River Landing. The grandfather had already assumed Hugh's place and cares aboard, and it + was Hugh's design to make his way, by boat or horse, up to and along Black River in search of + the twins.</p> + + <p>To allay this distress Hugh's soft deep voice said:</p> + + <p>"Suppose you were a soldier's wife. This is little to that. This is but once for all."</p> + + <p>"Yes," murmured Ramsey, "but I'd have one advantage."</p> + + <p>"That you'd be his wife?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," whispered Ramsey, who could not venture the name itself, for the pure rapture of + it.</p> + + <p>"Why, you're going to be mine. As the song says: 'I will come again, my love, though a' the + seas gang dry.'"</p> + + <p>"Hugh, didn't you once say I didn't know what fear was?"</p> + + <p>"I certainly thought it."</p> + + <p>"Well, now I do know."</p> + + <p>He made no reply and she sat thinking of his errand. If he should find her brothers he would + meet them in the deepest wilderness. Only slaves, who could not testify against masters, would + be with them, their loaded guns would be in their hands, and their blood would be heated + with—She resorted again to questions in her odd cross-examining way.</p> + + <p>"You say you think there's going to be a war?"</p> + + <p>"I fear so."</p> + + <p>"Humph! fear. If there should be will you fight?"</p> + + <p>"Certainly."</p> + + <p>"Humph! certainly. I should think—you'd hate to fight."</p> + + <p>"I'd fight all the more furiously on that account."</p> + + <p>"Humph!... On which side?"</p> + + <p>"Ramsey, I don't know. I <em>don't know</em> till the time comes."</p> + + <p>"Then how do you know you won't fight my brothers—now?"</p> + + <p>"I shan't be armed."</p> + + <p>"But if in an outburst you should snatch up some weapon?"</p> + + <p>"I don't burst out. I don't snatch up."</p> + + <p>"Humph! Wish I didn't."</p> + + <p>They were rounding Point Breeze. The long reach from Fort Adams down to Red River Landing + lay before them. "Hugh, did you ever have a presentiment? Of course not. I never did before. I + got it a-comin' round Hard Times Bend."</p> + + <p>"Then I can cure it—with a new verse, one our poet has made and given me. It shall be our + parting word. Shall I?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, yes, but not for parting! I don't want any parting!"</p> + + <p>He spoke it softly:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "I dreamp I heard a joyful soun'—</p> +<p class="i8"> O hahd times!—</p> +<p class="i6"> Love once mo' foun' de last turn roun'</p> +<p class="i8"> Hahd Times Ben'.</p> +<p class="i6"> Los' an' foun', broke an' boun',</p> +<p class="i6"> Love foun' an' boun' de last turn roun'</p> +<p class="i8"> Hahd Times Ben'."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Ramsey barely waited for its end. "What's that light waving far away down yonder? It began + as you did."</p> + + <p>"It didn't know it. It's only some one on the Red River wharf-boat, wanting us to land," + said Hugh, and before his last word came the <em>Enchantress</em> roared her assent to the + signal. But Ramsey had spoken again:</p> + + <p>"What's this, right here?" She sprang up and gazed out on the water a scant mile ahead. + There, directly in the steamer's course and just out of the moon's track, another faint light + waved, so close to the water as to be reflected in it. The moment the whistle broke out it + ceased to swing and when the whistle ceased the engines had stopped.</p> + + <p>"What is it?" she asked again as Hugh stood by her looking out ahead with eyes better + trained to night use than hers.</p> + + <p>"A skiff," he replied, "with some message."</p> + + <p>She could see only that Watson had put the light on their starboard bow. It seemed to drift + toward them but she knew that the movement was the steamer's, and now the light was so close as + to show the negro who held it. He stood poised to throw aboard a billet of wood with a note + attached. And now he cast it. The lower guards were out of Ramsey's line of sight but a cry of + disappointment told her the stick had fallen short and would be lost under the great wheel, + which at that moment, with its fellow, "went ahead." But as the <em>Enchantress</em> passed the + skiff its occupant called out a hurried statement to the mate, on the forecastle, and as the + skiff and its light swept astern the mate repeated the word to the commodores.</p> + + <p>"Man at Red River Landing accidentally shot. Must be got to the city quick or he can't + live."</p> + + <p>The commodores, and then the lovers, resumed their seats.</p> + + <p>"Poor man," murmured Ramsey, "poor man! he's got <em>his</em> trouble without going in chase + of it."</p> + + <p>"If he'd gone in chase of it," rejoined Hugh, "he might never have met it."</p> + + <p>The <em>Enchantress</em> swung more directly toward the dim lights of the wharf-boat and at + top speed ruffled through a freshening air with the goal but a few miles away. Yet the lovers + sat silent. Once parted they would think of many a word they should have spoken while they + could, but now none seemed large enough to break such silence with. To be silent and best + content with silence was one of the most special and blissful of lovers' rights.</p> + + <p>Presently a glow rose from the forecastle, reddening the white jack-staff up to its black + night-hawk. The torch baskets were being lighted. Hugh stirred to go but Ramsey laid her touch + on his wrist and he stayed.</p> + + <p>She spoke. "Mustn't you wait near your grandfather till you see who it is that's coming + aboard?"</p> + + <p>"I can. I may as well."</p> + + <p>The <em>Enchantress</em>, in mid-river, began to "round to" in order to land bow up-stream. + When she came round, the half dozen men on the wharf-boat were close at hand in the glare of + her torches, eye to eye with those on the forecastle, but prevented by the light itself from + seeing those on the upper decks.</p> + + <p>Ramsey sprang to her feet with lips apart to cry out to her mother up behind her, to Gideon + down before, to Hugh at her side, but all these saw and knew. A face in the centre of the + torchlight and of the wharf-boat group was Julian's bearing the mute intelligence that the + writhing man on a rude stretcher borne by two negroes was his brother. The lovers parted + without a word, but in a moment were near each other again as Hugh joined the commodores while + Ramsey and her mother crouched at the roof's forward rail to see the wounded man brought across + the stage.</p> + + <p>"In my room!" pleaded madame to both Courteneys at once, and the elder assented as Hugh + hurried below with the three Hayles following.</p> + + <p>It was heart-rending work getting the sufferer into the berth while he poured out moanings + of agony mingled with frantic accusations of his bearers, railings against God and all his + laws, and unspoken recognitions of mother and sister. Ramsey, seeing his eye fall on Phyllis + and remain there staring, and knowing from old Joy that he had grown enough like his uncle Dan + to have been his twin, suffered for her as well as him.</p> + + <p>"Who are <em>you</em>?" he cried, still staring. "Where am I?"</p> + + <p>The maid did not reply, but her unfaltering gaze met his as if it neither could nor would do + otherwise. Ramsey intuitively followed the play of her mind. To look again on Gideon Hayle had + already recalled emotions she had striven for half a lifetime to put away, and now they kept + her eyes set on this tortured yet unrelenting advocate of all the wrongs from which those + emotions sprang.</p> + + <p>He looked to his mother. "Great God! mother, is this the new Courteney boat? Well, if this + isn't hell's finishing touch! Jule! Where's Jule? Go, get me Jule!"</p> + + <p>Phyllis turned to go but—"No," he cried with a light of sudden purpose in his face, "you + stay. Everybody else go! And send me Jule. Don't send a doctor, I'm the doctor myself. Get out, + all of you, go! This isn't my death-bed. God! I wish it was, for I'm a cripple for life and + will never walk again—leave! go! and send me Jule!"</p> + + <p>Guided by a cabin-boy to Hugh's room, Ramsey found Julian confronting his father, + "California," and the Gilmores. Hugh had led them there for privacy and stood close at one + side. Julian seemed to be suffering a shock scarcely less than his brother's though it made a + wholly different outward show. His face wore an appalled look, his voice was below its + accustomed pitch, and his words, words which could not have been premeditated, seemed + studiously fit and precise.</p> + + <p>"Fortunately," he had been saying before Ramsey appeared, "he never"—meaning his + brother—"goes into the country without his drugs and instruments—we have them with us + yet—and he could tell me what to do and I did it, or he would have died right there in the + swamp."</p> + + <p>"But you don't say how the accursed thing happened," said Gideon as Ramsey entered hardly + aware that she was pausing at Hugh's side. The brother turned and stared on the two.</p> + + <p>"Come," said Gideon, "never mind that. How did it happen?"</p> + + <p>"It happened, sir, through my own incredible carelessness and by my own hand. <em>Don't say + a word!</em> I would to God I had been the victim and had fallen dead in my tracks. If I had + killed him I would have put the other load into my brain."</p> + + <p>"Oh, if!" solemnly sneered the incredulous father. While he did so Julian, the profoundness + of whose mental torture his father poorly saw, received from Ramsey his brother's summons and + with her was turning away. He stopped and flashed back a look of agonized resentment, but + Gideon met it with a beetling frown and neither gaze fell until Ramsey stepped between, facing + the giant, and she and the brother backed away and were gone.</p> + + <p>They sought the passenger deck. Between anguish for Lucian's calamity and anguish for his + father's contumely there poured from Julian's lips in hectoring questions to Ramsey a further + anguish of chagrin for the seeming triumph of Hugh's love. Two or three challenges she parried + and while in a single utterance he launched out as many more they encountered at a wheel-house + stair their mother and old Joy. He cut short all inquiries with a proffer to return to them and + Ramsey post-haste and give a full account of the disaster.</p> + + <p>Meantime down in the sick-room Lucian said to Phyllis, when they had been a few minutes + alone:</p> + + <p>"And now give me my medicine."</p> + + <p>"Yes, sir; where is it?"</p> + + <p>"Oh, damnation! in my saddle-bags on the washstand. What are you trying to talk white folks' + English for?" He hardly spoke three words without a moan or an oath. "Do you find a + measuring-glass?"</p> + + <p>She found it.</p> + + <p>"See a small bottle—dark liquid—about twice the size—of the glass?"</p> + + <p>"Yass, suh, but it's full, suh."</p> + + <p>"Hell! what of that? Fill the glass and give it to me!"</p> + + <p>She filled it but paused. "It—it looks like la'danum."</p> + + <p>"Oh, damn you, so did your great-grandmother. It's not laudanum. Did you ever smell vinegar + in laudanum, or nutmeg? Give it here! God A'mighty, if I could reach you with my fist—Give me + that glass!"</p> + + <p>"Misteh Lucian, if this is la'danum——"</p> + + <p>"You hell-fired idiot, it isn't! And if it was, such an overdose would only vomit me. Don't + you know that?"</p> + + <p>"Yass, suh, I know it would." But still she held back.</p> + + <p>"Then give it here!"</p> + + <p>Julian came in with alarm added to his other distresses.</p> + + <p>"Oh, Luce! do you want to start that bleeding again?"</p> + + <p>"I'd just as lief as not! Make that wench give me that glass or mash her head! She knows if + it was laudanum it would merely puke me. Damn it, it's a simple euthanasia." The crafty + sufferer felt assured his brother would neither know nor ask the smooth word's meaning.</p> + + <p>Julian turned, savagely upon the maid. Heated with drink, enraged at himself, his father, + Hugh Courteney, his sister, and his mother, he was in no mood to humor the contumacy of any + freed slave and least of all this one. "Give it to him this instant," he cried. "Do you want to + kill him?"</p> + + <p>"No, Misteh Julian, that's exactly——"</p> + + <p>He drew and levelled his revolver and then motioned with it a repetition of his command.</p> + + <p>With a woe of protest in her eyes, Phyllis obeyed. Lucian swallowed the draught and sank to + his pillow. Julian watched Phyllis slowly set down the glass and bottle.</p> + + <p>"What did you say that stuff is?" he asked his brother, with an assumed lightness.</p> + + <p>"Oh, a palliative for these infernal pains. Have you told the family what happened? Go do + it." The speaker's tone grew lofty. "I want them to know it was all my fault! This girl can + stay with me till you come back, and you can take your time. I shan't need you for an hour. Go, + Jule, my brother. Oh don't harry me with idle questions."</p> + + <p>As Julian presently shut himself out Phyllis, her fears for the patient disarmed by his + transient excitement where she had looked for heaviness, laid her hand on a chair; but he + stopped her. "You white nigger! would you presume to sit down in my presence? If you can't + stand go outside—and shut the door. Oh, go anyhow! Life's more tolerable with you out of + sight. If I want you I'll call."</p> + + <p>The room was close abaft the wheel, where a widening of the guards made an inviting space, + and out there Phyllis drew a chair up beside the door. A whitejacket came from the cabin in + behalf of passengers in neighboring staterooms to ask what the commotion meant, and as she + began to explain it away Ramsey and old Joy came down a near-by stair to watch with her or in + her stead and to them she amplified her explanation. Ramsey listened at the door. The patient + seemed to be asleep, so audible was his breathing.</p> + + <p>She had a sudden thought: a doctor's saddle-bags always contain laudanum. Had Phyllis seen + any—in another bottle, untouched? That would confirm the patient's denial. She beckoned and + asked. Yes, Phyllis had seen it, labelled.</p> + + <p>"And besides," Ramsey thought on, "neither twin has ever spoken falsely to the other." Why, + then, sleep was good!</p> + + <p>Even in outer sights and sounds there was solace and reassurance: in river and shore forever + passing majestically up-stream through floods of moonlight; in the rhythmic flutter and rush of + wheels and foam, and in the keen quiver of the <em>Enchantress</em> flying to New Orleans on + the swiftest wings steam could give. Ramsey sent Phyllis up to bid Julian be at ease, and the + maid, returning, announced that both the commodores had gone to rest but that madame was + anxious to come back to the invalid the moment he would permit. She added, unasked, that + Captain Hugh was in the captain's chair.</p> + + <p>The hour passed and Julian reappeared. The partial relief of mind which had come to all the + others had in degree reached him. It enabled him, as he came down the wheel-house stair, to + reflect, though with a shudder, upon that furious treatment which alone, he had somewhere + heard, would counteract an opium poisoning, and upon Lucian's utter inability to endure any + part of such a treatment. He found Ramsey hearkening at the door again, newly disquieted. The + two servants were out at the rail of the wide guards.</p> + + <p>"Ought his breathing," she said, "to sound like that?"</p> + + <p>Julian thought not, but even a sister's solicitude offended his lifelong sentiment of + paramount ownership in his brother. "Stand away, I'll let you know," he replied, passed in, and + closed the door.</p> + + <p>Then all at once, as so often has happened to so many of us, he saw his heedlessness where + he had fancied himself vigilant. The light was dim. He knelt close to the sleeper. One long + stare into the pale yet livid face was enough. Lucian was dying. Julian leaped to his feet to + seek aid but saw its futility and fell again to his knees. Lucian was dying of the "black-drop" + which his brother, in haughty ignorance, by the hand of Phyllis, had given him.</p> + + <p>Presently Julian found voice, yet, mindful still of the listening Ramsey, let himself only + softly murmur: "Oh, Lucian, my brother! Oh, Lucian, my twin brother! I've killed you, killed + you twice over, my twin brother! God! but you're right not to live a cripple. And it was I who + crippled you! Oh, Lucian, I'm the cripple now!"</p> + + <p>Ramsey tapped. He sprang to the door and without opening it answered: "Yes, in a minute. + He—he's all right."</p> + + <p>At the wash-stand he lifted the phial of black-drop still half full. As quietly as if the + dose were a dram at the bar he filled the measuring—glass and drank its last drop. Then he + turned to the door and barely opened it.</p> + + <p>"He's all right, Ramsey.... Yes.... Yes. He's done just the right thing. So have I. Now, go + away, please, wherever you like, only don't—stay—here just to bother us. I'll merely lie down + beside him without—What?... No, go away! You'll find us all right in the morning."</p> + </div><a name="LXIII" id="LXIII"></a> + + <div class="c1"> + <h2>LXIII</h2> + + <h3>THE CAPTAIN'S CHAIR</h3> + </div> + + <div class="c3"> + <p>On the next afternoon but one, while hundreds went down to the steamboat landing to view the + new <em>Enchantress</em>, there was a double funeral in the old French cemetery, Saint Louis + Street, New Orleans.</p> + + <p>Returning from it together, Watson and his former "cub" spoke of Gideon Hayle.</p> + + <p>"He takes the loss of them boys harder'n what I'd 'a' thought he would," said the younger + pilot.</p> + + <p>And Watson replied: "Yes, but he don't take it as hard as what, years ago, he tuck their + fust refus'n' to go with him on the river."</p> + + <p>They said no more all the way up Rampart Street to Canal, out Canal to the steamboat + landing, and across the levee to the <em>Enchantress</em>. An hour later they stood in her + wheel-house, looking down on the same Saturday afternoon five o'clock scene that Watson and Ned + had thus contemplated from the <em>Votaress</em> a hundred months before.</p> + + <p>Here were the same vast piles of harvest wealth, the same crowds and little flags, the same + shouting and tumult only grown greater, the same open sky—though of October—the same + many-pillared cloud of black smoke, the same smartly painted bumboats selling oranges, bananas, + pineapples, corals, and seashells—many of the latter treated with puritanic art, having, that + is, the Lord's Prayer bitten into them with muriatic acid. Here lay the same yellow harbor with + many more fussy little tugs in it, its water low yet still mast-deep, its yard-long catfish and + fathom-long gars leaping and wallowing after their prey, its white gulls flashing about the + steamers' pantry windows. Here was the same black forest of ships in the up-stream and + down-stream distance and here, finally, the same public hope and pride grown wider and loftier + in their last affluence before entering that purgatory of civil war which now seems but a bad + dream outlived.</p> + + <p>Steam was up on the <em>Enchantress</em>, and every now and then her mighty wheels tugged on + her hawsers. In the crowd gathered on the wharf to see her go were the Gilmores and the half + dozen from Vicksburg and the Bends. Up on the hurricane-deck were two or three small knots of + passengers, chiefly ladies, unknown to the Gilmore group; but beside a derrick post, where we + first saw Hugh on the <em>Votaress</em>, stood the three Hayles, old Joy, and + "California"—bound once more for the gold-diggings. Near the Hayles, yet nearer the bell, was + Hugh, in command.</p> + + <p>"You don't reckon," said a voice in the throng, "that that's her captain, do you?"</p> + + <p>"No," said another, "I should think not."</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the very human Gilmore, "that's the captain."</p> + + <p>Vicksburg and the Bends sent up smiles and faint wavings to Ramsey and her mother and only + did not call to them because they were in a great city. It made them very proud and happy to + see Hugh the master of this, to them, matchless wonder of utility and beauty, and they could + not help saying things to each other with voice enough to let strangers around them know he was + their personal friend. While they did so who should alight from a cab and glance up to Hugh but + his grandfather. Hugh answered with a gesture toward the Gilmores, to whom the old gentleman + promptly turned. There had arisen among the boats a good-natured custom of giving friends a + free trip eight miles up the river, to the suburb of Carrollton. So a word from the commodore + was enough; the players and their group hurried aboard with him and as they touched the lower + deck the last bell sounded and the lines were cast off.</p> + + <p>When they reached the hurricane-deck they were in the middle of the stream. They did not + join the senior Hayles at once; Ramsey met them and with her they stood on the skylight roof + watching the shores to see when they should stop drifting and gain headway. Over on the + "Algiers" side of the harbor lay the <em>Paragon</em>, repairing a smashing she had got at the + wharf through the bad handling of another boat, else the Hayles would hardly have been going + home on the <em>Enchantress</em>.</p> + + <p>The crew of the <em>Enchantress</em> stood about her capstan and their chantey-man, ready to + sing when the swivel should peal and her burgee run down; but the Gilmore group were too far + aft to see them. The player's wife, speaking gravely with Ramsey in low tones, remarked with + sudden gayety:</p> + + <p>"I see why we're here behind the bell. You're afraid they'll sing——"</p> + + <p>Ramsey made a pleading gesture.</p> + + <p>"Why, what can you expect," asked her friend; "not 'Bounding Billow'?"</p> + + <p>Ramsey, laughing, could only repeat the gesture. The swivel pealed, down sank the burgee, a + wind began to ruffle their brows, and up rolled the song:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de sea ships come an' go,</p> +<p class="i6"> On de finess boat dat eveh float," etc.</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>It was still coming up when a young man not of the Gilmore group surprised the actor a + moment aside.</p> + + <p>"Mr. Gilmore, is that Commodore Hayle over there?... I thought it must be. I suppose he's + going up home to settle his two sons' affairs. Mr. Gilmore, they wan't bad, they were only + wild. Sad, their having to be buried in the city. But in this climate, you + know—hmm!—yes."</p> + + <p>The song and his observations crossed back and forth.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, you'd ought to come befo'"—</p> +<p class="i20"> (Chorus)</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>"You don't remember me, Mr. Gilmore, but I was on the <em>Votaress</em> with you and your + lady and Madame Hayle and those twins and all. I married the young lady I was keeping company + with then. There she is. Don't you re-collect my lending you my field-glass at the Devil's + Elbow?"</p> + + <p>"Dear me! was that you at the devil's elbow! I—I hope I returned them."</p> + + <p>"Oh, you did! You remember the first clerk of the <em>Votaress</em>! He's her captain now. + And Ned—you remember Ned, the pilot, don't you? Well, he's on her yet. I see you're lost in + admiration of this most unusual sunset. We almost always have these unusual sunsets. This is a + wonderful country."</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, whah de sweet cane honey flow'.</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, love a-knockin' at de do'."</p> +<p class="i20">(Chorus)</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Now the boat was in the pilot's hands. Hugh joined Madame Hayle and the two commodores at + the derrick post. The same shrewd texas tender who had once abstracted the weapons of the twins + from their stateroom set a second chair beside the captain's. Hugh offered the two seats to the + commodores, but both declined. They of Vicksburg and the Bends watched the gorgeous October + sunset beyond the low, flat orangeries on their right. "California" was with them and told them + of the sunsets on the great plains. Gilmore generously kept the one-time lender of the + field-glass and the lender's mouse of a wife beguiled with anecdotes while Mrs. Gilmore talked + on with Ramsey, making fond and welcome incursions into her confidence.</p> + + <p>"Isn't it ridiculous," murmured Ramsey, "that he seems condemned to do everything in the + tamest possible way? Not that he cares; he seems almost to like it so. It's so right now. He + can't proclaim anything. And—you see why, don't you?—neither can I."</p> + + <p>"Ramsey, you needn't. Only do one thing for us, Gilmore and me, and we'll know. When we've + landed and the boat starts away again and he—" She finished in a voice too small for type.</p> + + <p>At Six Mile Point the actor escaped his bonds and for a moment got Hugh into his sole + possession.</p> + + <p>"Certainly, under these conditions," he assented, "you can't <em>assert</em> anything—of + that particular sort. But see here: You can tell me, just for us two Gilmores exclusively, what + your next boat will be named. Can't you?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," said Hugh, "she'll be the—" He let Gilmore speak the name interrogatively and merely + nodded, smiling.</p> + + <p>The <em>Enchantress</em> was within five minutes' run of Carrollton when Watson dropped a + quiet word to the roof, where both the Courteneys and Gideon were looking up-stream at a + downward-bound steamer which had rounded to and landed under Nine-Mile Point.</p> + + <p>"What is she?" asked Gilmore of Watson for his group.</p> + + <p>"A Hayle boat, the <em>Troubadour</em>," said the pilot; "probably putting off some + sugar-house machinery."</p> + + <p>The <em>Enchantress</em> neared the huge Carrollton levee. "Good-by." "Good-by." "Good-by." + "Good-by." Down they hurried, the old commodore, the players, the extraneous pair, and the six + from Vicksburg and the Bends, followed to the stage plank by "California," and waved to from + the after guards by Joy and Phyllis.</p> + + <p>"Good-by." "Good-by!" The beautiful craft backed away and turned for Nine-Mile Point. And + here came the <em>Troubadour</em>, with whistles trumpeting a troubadour's salute to the new + queen of the river. The Hayle boat's people had espied their own commodore and the black mass + on their forecastle were singing "Gideon's Band."</p> + + <p>With whistles above and song below the <em>Enchantress</em> replied. The whistles ceased; + the song was "'Lindy":</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i5"> "Come, smilin' 'Lindy Lowe, to meet to paht no mo',</p> +<p class="i8"> On de finess boat dat eveh float'</p> +<p class="i10"> In de O—hi—o,</p> +<p class="i8"> De Mas-sis-sip-pi aw de O—hi—o."</p> +</div> +</div> + + <p>Back at Carrollton on the crown of the levee, standing apart from their companions, the + players gazed after the <em>Enchantress</em>. The three Hayles had returned to their stand by + the derrick post. Hugh was near the two chairs. The actor softly spoke:</p> + + <p>"Shall I tell you what Hugh told me?"</p> + + <p>"Yes," said the wife.</p> + + <p>"Then tell me what Ramsey told you."</p> + + <p>"Nothing. She's going to tell it now. Watch!"</p> + + <p>They watched together. Ramsey crossed to Hugh, and seemed to speak a word or two, not more. + He sat down in the captain's chair and she took the one beside him.</p> + + <p>Even Vicksburg and the Bends understood that.</p> + + <p>"He told me," murmured the actor, "that the next Courteney boat will be the <em>Ramsey + Hayle</em>."</p> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gideon's Band, by George W. 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