der at the mooring-ring."

The mate found an old one of his own, together with a long-tailed coat,
much the worse for wear.

"Do you be taking these. They'll not be so likely to pick you up before
ye can get up-town if ye look a little less like a hobo."

Griswold suffered a sudden return to the meliorating humanities.

"I've been calling you all the hard names I could lay tongue to,
M'Grath, and there have been times when I would have given the price of
a good farm for the privilege of standing up to you on a bit of green
grass with nobody looking on. I take it all back. You say you haven't
forgotten: neither will I forget, and maybe my turn will come again,
some day."

"Go along with you," growled the rough-tongued Irishman, whose very
kindness had a tang of brutality in it. "If you're coming across the
naygur, Mose, anywhere, sind him back and tell him I'll see that he gets
real money f'r helping us unload. Off with ye, now, whilst they're
catching up with yer runaway cab."

Griswold went leisurely, as befitted his theory, and upon reaching the
levee, turned aside among the freight pyramids in search of his
confederate. Now that there was time to recall the facts he feared that
the negro had been taken. He had secured but a few yards' start in the
race, and his pursuer was a white man, able to back speed with
intelligence. Griswold had a sickening fit of despair when he
contemplated the possibility of failure with the goal almost in sight;
and the reaction, when he stumbled upon the negro skulking in the
shadows of a lumber cargo, was sharp enough to make him faint and dizzy.

The negro did not recognize him at first and was about to run away when
Griswold shook off the benumbing weakness and called out.

"T'ank de good Lawd! is dat you-all, Cap'm Gravitt? I's dat shuck up I
couldn' recconize my ol' mammy! Tek dishyer cunjah-bag o' yourn 'fo' I
gwine drap hit. Hit's des been _bu'nin'_ my han's ev' sense I done tuk
out wid it!"

Griswold took the handkerchief bundle, and the mere touch of it put new
life into him.

"Where is the fellow who was chasing you, Mose?" he asked.

"I's nev' gwine tell you dat; no, suh. Las' time I seed him, he's des
t'arin' off strips up de levee after turrer fellah."

"What other fellow?"

The negro laughed and did a double shuffle at the mere recollection of
it.

"Hi-yah! Turrer fellah is de fellah what done tuk my job. Hit was des
dis-a-way: when I t'ink dat white man gw