an awful silence for a moment and then a
wild roar of laughter, which brought the orator to a sense of the
comical figure he cut, and he fled from the stage with the unfinished
shark story on his lips. The mayor after a violent effort, got the
attention of the crowd and explained the situation. They took it so
good humouredly that they gave three rousing cheers for Paul, and a
tiger.

To make up for the time he had lost with the hospitable citizens of
Helena, Boyton was compelled to make an extra long run and he paddled
to Arkansas City without leaving the water, a distance of one hundred
and sixty miles in thirty one hours, which was the longest continuous
run he ever made up to that time. That night on the lonesome stretches
of the river, he frequently started a loon from its resting place and it
would fly off into the darkness with a wild, unearthly shriek, so
ghostly in its echoing cadences that with a nervous start, Paul would
glance around for that "dead man in a boat."

Early in the morning the voyager struck a big eddy and was twisted round
and round for quite a while before he could clear himself and then
found he was pretty close in shore. Through the thick growth of
cottonwoods he observed a thin spiral of smoke rising, and knowing it
to be from the cabin of some negro, he blew a merry blast on his bugle.
Before the clear notes had faded from the morning air, a venerable
darkey with whitened head and slightly bent, though walking without the
assistance of a cane, appeared on the bluff overlooking the river. He
raised his eyes to the eastern horizon, as though to determine the
weather probabilities, and then he scanned the river up and down. He
failed to see Boyton at first, and another blast was given on the
bugle. Slowly, and with evidences of some fear, the old darkey bent his
eyes on Paul, and then as slowly he deposited his white, broad brimmed
hat on a stump by his side, reverently raising his eyes and with
outstretched hands he solemnly said:

"He bloowed his trumpet on the watah. Bless God, bless God."

He remained in this attitude until Paul disappeared around the bend, no
doubt expecting to be summoned any moment by the archangel Gabriel.

Directly after leaving the old negro, Boyton espied something in the
river below him, which he thought was a snag or the floating branches of
a tree; but as he drove swiftly along and looked more closely, he saw it
was a large deer swimming