'ain't de sawt fo' dat. Look at yo' ma. She have bofe han's
in it. Is she all oveh bespattud?"

"Oh, you! You know nothing could ever bespatter mom-a!... I'm going to
her to get clean!"

"Dat's good!" A shrewd elation lit up the black face. "Go on! As you say
yo'se'f, go on!"

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.

"We cannot," said one, "submit to this alive!"

"Yes," said the other, "we can. It's just _we who_ can--till the day we
catch them where they've got us to-day!"

"And what, now, is this?" smilingly inquired Madame Hayle as her twin
sons halted before her.

The young men uncovered. They were surprisingly presentable after the
night they had spent. Julian, in particular, looked capable and proud of
their waywardness.

"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.

"Well," she asked, "you cannot submit--to what?"

"We are ordered ashore!" said Julian.

"At the next landing!" quavered Lucian--"Bayou Sara!"

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.

"See?" he said to his mother. "You don't see--the plot? It's a plot!--to
compromise us!--you and her included!"

"Before this boat-load of witnesses!" chimed Lucian.

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 C