dull,
dead, emotionless, but aglow with returning life--puzzled, unassured, yet
clearly conscious.

"Who are you?" she breathed incredulously, lifting herself upon one hand.
"Oh, surely I know--Lieutenant Knox! Why, where am I? What has
happened? Oh, God! you do not need to tell me that! But you; I cannot
understand about you. They--they said you died."

"They must have said much to deceive you," and I bent forward to touch
her hand. "See, I am very much alive. Let me tell you--that will be the
quickest way to understand. In the first place I did not drown when the
boat was smashed, but was rendered helpless and borne away on the water.
I drifted through the darkness out into the Mississippi, and later became
caught on a snag in the middle of that stream. The _Adventurer_ rescued
me about daylight the next morning, and I was no sooner on board than I
was told how the keel-boat had been run down below on the river during
the night and that your party had all been saved--two white men and two
negress slaves. Of course, I knew you must be one of them."

"Then--then we were actually together, on the same boat, all the way up
here?"

"Yes; I tried hard to find where you were concealed on board, but failed.
I might not have helped you, but I thought you would be glad to know I
was alive. Kirby guarded you with great care from all observation. Do
you know why?"

Her wide-opened eyes gazed into mine frankly, but her lips trembled.

"Yes," she answered, as though forcing herself to speak. "I do know now.
I thought I knew then, but was mistaken. I supposed it might be because
I looked so little like a negress, but now I realize it was his own
conscience. He knew I was a white woman; he had become convinced that I
was Eloise Beaucaire. Did you know that, also?"

"I learned the truth on the boat, from the same source where Kirby
obtained his information. Elsie Clark told me."

"Elsie Clark! Who is she? How did she know?"

"A free negress, who had been employed by Amos Shrunk. She was the other
prisoner on the keel-boat when you were captured, kept locked below in
the cabin. Surely you knew there was another woman taken aboard the
_Adventurer_?"

"Yes, but we never spoke; she was below, and they kept me on deck. How
could she know who I was?"

"She did not. Only she was positive that you could not be Rene
Beaucaire, because she knew that Rene, in company with her mother, had
departed from Shrunk'