pounce upon the woman who prolonged
their stay in a flooded house, and deal with her as there would not be
opportunity to do later. Tante-gra'mere was asleep.

Angelique sat down with Peggy on the floor, a little way from the pile
of feather beds. They were very weary. The tonic of excitement, and even
of Rice Jones's presence, failed in their effect on Peggy. It was past
midnight. The girls heard cocks crowing along the bluffs. Angelique took
the red head upon her shoulder, saying,--

"It would be better if we slept until they call, since there is nothing
else to do."

"You might coquette over Maria Jones. I won't tell."

"What a thorn you are, Peggy! If I did not know the rose that goes with
it"--Angelique did not state her alternative.

"A red rose," scoffed Peggy; and she felt herself drowsing in the mother
arms.

Rice was keenly awake, and when the girls went into the privacy of the
screens he sat looking out of the window at the oblong of darkly blue
night sky which it shaped for him. His temples throbbed. Though the
strange conditions around him were not able to vary his usual habits of
thought, something exhilarated him; and he wondered at that, when Peggy
had told him Angelique's decision against him. He felt at peace with the
world, and for the first time even with Dr. Dunlap.

"We are here such a little time," thought Rice, "and are all such poor
wretches. What does it matter, the damage we do one another in our
groping about? God forgive me! I would have killed that man, and maybe
added another pang to the suffering of this dying girl."

Maria stirred. The snoring of the sleeping negroes penetrated the
dividing wall. He thought he heard a rasping on the shingles outside
which could not be accounted for by wind or water, and rose to his feet,
that instant facing Dr. Dunlap in the window.

Dr. Dunlap had one leg across the low sill. The two men stood
breathless. Maria saw the intruder. She sat up, articulating his name.
At that piteous sound, betraying him to her brother, the cowardly
impulse of many days' growth carried Dr. Dunlap's hand like a flash to
his pocket. He fired his pistol directly into Rice's breast, and dropped
back through the window to the boat he had taken from the priest.

The screams of women and the terrified outcry of slaves filled the
attic. Rice threw his arms above his head, and sunk downward. In the
midst of the smoke Peggy knelt by him, and lifted his head and
shoulders.