d, 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:

"Do you belong to de Vot'ess' ban'?"

"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."

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.

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?"

"Certainly."

"Tell them"--tears suddenly belied her brightness--"to come up to the
bishop, quick. I'm 'fraid--afraid----"

A word or two more Hugh failed to hear, but even the twins, at their
distance, read them on her lips:

"The bishop's going to die."

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:

"Ringading tingalingaty, ringadang ding----"

The captain stayed by his chair. "Cast off," he said to the mate
beneath, and to Watson above: "Back your starboard."

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 s