rnia" 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.

"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?"

And "Harriet" looked straight into his eyes and said inaudibly: "Yes."

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 _Votaress_ were turning barely enough to keep her from
drifting.

"You see the _Antelope_?" he asked.

She saw the _Antelope_, 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.

"And you see the _Westwood_ 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."

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.

"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----"

"'Way beyond Memphis," said the riv