sly in the mud, an old-fashioned cabriolet was halted. Its driver
was out and up to his knees thrashing vainly at his straining,
staggering horse. The tortuous road-way was blocked, but Waring had been
up and down the river-bank too many times both day and night to be
daunted by a matter so trivial. He simply cautioned Jeffers to lean well
over the inner wheel, guided his team obliquely up the slope of the
levee, and drove quietly along its level top until abreast the scene of
the wreck. One glance into the interior of the cab caused him suddenly
to stop, to pass the reins back to Jeffers, to spring down the slope
until he stood at the edge of the sea of mud. Here he raised his hat and
cried,--

"Madame Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky--for me. Let me get you
out."

At his call a slender, graceful woman who was gazing in anxiety and
dismay from the opposite side of the cab and pleading with the driver
not to beat his horse, turned suddenly, and a pair of lovely dark eyes
lighted up at sight of his face. Her pallor, too, gave instant place to
a warm flush. A pretty child at her side clapped her little hands and
screamed with delight,--

"_Maman! maman! C'est M'sieu_' Vayreeng; _c'est_ Sa-am."

"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng! I'm so glad you've come! Do speak to that man! It
is horrible the way he beat that poor horse.--_Mais non_, Nin Nin!" she
cried, reproving the child, now stretching forth her little arms to her
friend and striving to rise and leap to him.

"I'd like to know how in hell I'm to get this cab out of such a hole as
this if I don't beat him," exclaimed the driver, roughly. Then once
more, "Dash blank dash your infernal hide! I'll learn you to balk with
me again!" Then down came more furious lashes on the quivering hide, and
the poor tortured brute began to back, thereby placing the frail
four-wheeler in imminent danger of being upset.

"Steady there! Hold your hand, sir! Don't strike that horse again. Just
stand at his head a moment and keep quiet till I get these ladies out,"
called Waring, in tone quiet yet commanding.

"I'll get 'em out myself in my own way, if they'll only stop their
infernal yellin'," was the coarse reply.

"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng," exclaimed the lady in undertone, "the man has
been drinking, I am sure. He has been so rude in his language."

Waring waited for no more words. Looking quickly about him, he saw a
plank lying on the levee slope. This he seized, thrust one end across