ed his cigar for a light. So far
had he fallen in the general esteem.

He chose not to hear. "I wish," he insisted, "we could save him from
it."

"Why, yes!--wish you could. But 'we' ain't us. We sporting men, we're
mighty bashful, you know."

"Naturally," admitted the senator.

"Yes, glass, with care. But there's another mistake maker we wish you
wished you could save. We ev'm might help."

"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.

"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."

The musing ceased. "You mean the actor?"

The pair warmed up. "Yes, sir-ee, him. _That_ 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 _him_. Save _them_."

"Our friend John the Baptist suggests that," began the senator.

"Adzac'ly!" was the facetious affirmation. "Smelt 'em out at the show.
That's how come the mate has locked him up."

The senator stiffened. "Oh, you must be mistaken!"

"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."

"Who!--have done that?"

"Same as you're thinking; they; them; him; that believes he's bossing
the boat--which maybe he is."

"Where is he?"

"Up on the roof, with a select few, both sexes."

"Gentlemen, he must let them go at once!"

"Senator, not with money, but just on your word, you sort o' bail 'em
out. If they cut up, nobody'll blame you."

"I'll do it! We don't want an owner of the finest boat on Southern
waters to have any part in _that sort_ of mistake, whatever his youth."

"Youth!" (Profanity.) "That boy's forty year' old. Oh, he's all right;