heir great arms swept
the paddles through the water at an amazing rate. The soul of Shif'less
Sol surged up to the heights. He became dithyrambic and he spoke in a
tone not loud, but full of concentrated fire and feeling.

"Fine, you Henry, you!" he said. "But we kin do better! The canoe is
goin' fast, but one or two canoes in the hist'ry o' the world hez gone
ez fast! We must go faster by ten or fifteen miles an hour an' set the
record that will stan'! It's so dark in here I can't see either bank,
but I wish sometimes I could, warriors or no warriors! Then I could see
'em whizzin' by, jest streaks, with all the trees and bushes meltin'
into one another like a green ribbon! Now, that's the way to do it,
Henry! Our speed is jumpin'! I ain't shore whether the canoe is touchin'
the water or not! I think mebbe it's jest our paddles that dip in, an'
that the canoe is flyin' through the air! An' not a soun' from 'em yet!
They haven't discovered that the wrong warriors hev took thar boat, but
they will soon! Now we'll turn her in toward the southern bank, Henry,
'cause in the battin' o' an eye or two we'll be whar the rest o' the
boys are a-lyin' hid in the bushes! Now, slow an' slower! I kin see the
trees an' bushes separatin' tharselves, an' thar's the bank, an' now I
see the face o' Long Jim, 'bout seven feet above the groun'! He's an
onery, ugly cuss, never givin' me all the respeck that's due me, but
somehow I like him, an' he never looked better nor more welcome than he
does now, God bless the long-armed, long-legged, fightin', gen'rous,
kind-hearted cuss! An' thar's Paul, too, lookin' fur all the world like
a scholar, crammed full o' book l'arnin', 'stead o' the ring-tailed
forest runner, half hoss, half alligator, that he is, though he's got
the book l'arnin' an' is one o' the greatest scholars the world ever
seed! An' that's Tom Ross, with his mouth openin' ez ef he wuz 'bout to
speak a word, though he'll conclude, likely, that he oughtn't, an' all
three o' 'em are pow'ful glad to see us comin' in our triumphal Roman
gallus that we hev captured from the enemy."

"Galley, Sol, galley! Not gallus!"

"It's all the same, galley or gallus. We hev got it, an' we are in it,
an' it's a fine big canoe with six paddles, one for ev'ry one o' us an'
one to spare! Now here we are ag'in the bank, an' thar they are ready to
jump in!"

There was no time for hesitation, as a long and tremendous war whoop
from a point up the stream