im into a sudden heat:

"My God! Mr. Courteney--Mr. clerk--_I_ shan't offer to lay hands on
_any_ man; not I. All _I_ 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 _beg_ 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."

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 _may_ see the first bloodshed of sectional strife."

"K-'tional ssstrife!" growled the general.

The clerk smiled. "Why, senator, those men don't go beyond Helena. They
leave us there, before sun-up."

"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."

Hugh glanced at the clerk as if to speak. The clerk nodded and in the
pilot-house they saw Hugh begin:

"Mr. Senator, suppose we do that?"

"You would do me honor, sir, and yourselves more."

"Of course the watchmen of this boat watch."

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.

Meantime the senator: "I should hope so, sir. I hope every one on watch
watches, sir."

"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?"

"It is, sssir," put in the general while the senator did some rapid
thinking. Now he too replied:

"Mm--no, sir, it is not. And yet--yes, sir, it is."

"Then you would advise us to do that also?"

"I would advise you to do that also."

"Why?"

"Good Lord! my young friend, to save you! you, your father, grandfather,
boats, all, and Mr. Gilmore himself!"

"How about his wife?"

"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.

"Let's go down there ourselves," repeated Ramsey; but the parson's wife
had whisperingly laid