and a kind of earthquake sickness, in the space of
one long breath, dreamed his words over and over. She felt neither
fright nor horror, as she would as soon as thought could clear. Yet one
word shed light, quickened her inner vision and gave it a reach, a
forward range, it had never known. "Ten years," he had said, and for the
first time in her life, as one might come suddenly into some vast
possession, she took the future into her present by years instead of
days.

"Jule," called Lucian, from between the senator and the general. Julian
glanced back and Ramsey started off. But she stopped again with a fresh
shock as a high-pitched yell rose from the shore below. There the
exhorter, stepping from the stage to the ground, had poured his voice
into the woods and now turned to the boat and let loose his tongue:

"I'm the hewolf an' wilecat o' th' 'Azoo Delta! I'm the alligatoh an'
snappin' turkle o' the Arkansass! I'm the horn-ed an' yalleh-belly
catfish o' the Mississip'! Glory, hallelu'! the sunburnt,
chill-an'-feveh, rip-saw, camp-meetin', buckshot, kickin'-mule
civilization whah-in I got my religion is good enough fo' me, all
high-steppin', niggeh-stealin' play-actohs an' flounced and friskin',
beau-ketchered Natchez brick-tops to the contrary notwithstayndin'! For
I'm a meek an' humble follower o' the Lawd Gawd A'mighty, which may the
same eternally an' _ee_-sentially damn yo' cowa'dly soul, you
stump-tail' little Hugh Co'teney up yandeh with yo' Gawd-fo'sakened,
punkin face an' yo' sawed-off statu'e!"

The gamblers sprang to hush him but the two "Arkansas killers" stepped
between and while the _Votaress_, backing out into the wake of the
_Westwood_, left the one pair insisting and the other protesting, the
exhorter settled the issue by breaking into song:

"'Though num'r-ous hosts uv migh-tye foes,
Though airth an' hell, my way op-pose,
He safe-lye leadns my soudl aa-logn:
His lov-ign-kide-ness, oh, how strogn!
His lov-ign-kide-ness! lov-ign-kide-ness!
His lov-ign-ki-i-i-ide-ness, oh, how strogn!'"

LII

LOVE RUNS ROUGH BUT RUNS ON

Turning east in the upper arm of Saint Francis Bend, with the mouth of
Saint Francis River just swinging out of sight astern and Helena an
hour's run behind, the _Votaress_ faced the rising sun.

Before the eyes of Hugh and Ramsey it soared gloriously into a sky
reddened not by presage of rain but by the smoke of the _Antelope_ an