Gideon. But Ramsey----

When Ramsey became the topic, even "California," while the father
boasted, had to hold on, as he would have said, with his teeth to keep
from being blown away. Her "one and only love" was the river! She "knew
it like a pilot" and loved it and the whole life on it not merely for
its excitements, variety, and outlook on the big world.

"That is to say----for its poetry," prompted "California."

"Yes, not for that only but just as much for its prose, by Mike! Why, my
boy, that's all that's kept her single!"

"Except!" said the Californian softly, but Gideon pressed on. "And
single, now, I reckon, she'll always be. Why, sir, not a day breaks but
she knows, within an hour's run, the whereabouts of every Hayle boat
alive."

"Some Courteney boats too, hmm?"

"Why, eh"--a stare--"I shouldn't wonder. Yes. Humph! 'youngest captain
on the river'--fact is, that's _her_. Lady as she is, and lovely as she
is, she's a better steamboatman to-day than--than many a first-class
one. She's nearer being my business partner than any man I ever hired."

"Partner's share of the swag?"

"No," laughed the giant, "but I'm leaving her the boats."

"Well," said "California," "all that's good preparation."

The huge man shot him a glance and the two pairs of blue eyes held each
other. Then "California" smiled his winsomest and said: "Did you ever
notice how much easier you can see through the ends of an iron pipe than
through its sides?"

Gideon stared. "Humph! Any fool that wants to see through me may see and
be--joyful. What do you think you see?"

"Oh, things you'd ought to thought of and never have."

"Why, you in'--Well, I'll be damned."

"Shouldn't wonder a bit," said "California" so amiably that the big man
laughed.

"Maybe you'll tell me my oversights!"

"No, but you'll be told, shortly, if the man I think I know is the man
I--think I know. Let's pass that now, commodore. Oh, I wish you'd been
with us on the _Votaress_. How different things might 'a' turned out.
You know? I don't believe any other trip on all this big river, barring
the first steamboat's first, ever made so big a turning-point in so many
lives. Why, jest two or three things in it, things and people, made me
another man."

"One not so need'n' to be hanged?"

"Yes, and not so hungry to hang other fellers. I hadn't ever met up with
such aristocratic stock as I did then but I tchuned right up to 'em and
I've mighty nigh held their p