shed as they narrowed, and she fairly
glared at him in the intensity of her declaration.

"Oh, you couldn't know," she laughed, "but that's the way I feel. I'm
free! Isn't the river beautiful to-day? I'm like the river----"

"Which is kept between two banks?" he suggested.

"I was wrong," she shook her head. "I'm a bird----"

"I can well admit that," he laughed.

"Oh," she cried, in mock rebuke, "the idea!"

"It's your own--and a very brilliant one," he retorted, and they laughed
together.

There was no resisting the gale of Nelia Crete's effervescent spirits.
It was clear that she had burst through bonds of restraint that had
imprisoned her soul for years. Terabon was too acute an observer to
frighten the sensitive exhilaration. It would pass--he was only too sure
of that. What would follow?

The sandbar was miles long, miles wide; six or seven miles of caving
bend was visible below them, part of it over another sandbar that
extended out into the river. There was not a boat, house, human being,
or even fence in sight in any direction. Across the river there was a
cotton field, but so far away it was that the stalks were but a purple
haze under the afternoon sun.

"You think I'm queer?" she suddenly demanded.

"No, but I would be if----"

"If what?"

"If I didn't think you were the dandiest river tripper in the world," he
exclaimed.

"You're a dear boy," she laughed. "You don't know how much good you've
done me already. Now we'll get supper."

"I've two black ducks," he said. "I'll bet they'll make a good----"

"Roast," she took his word. "I'll show you I'm a dandy cook, too!"

CHAPTER XV

The Mississippi River brings people from the most distant places to
close proximity; Pittsburg and even Salamanca meet Fort Benton and St.
Paul at the Forks of the Ohio. On the other hand, with uncanny
certainty, those most eager to meet are kept apart and thrown to the
ends of the world.

Parson Rasba saw Nelia Crele's boat drift out into the current and drop
down the Chute of Wolf Island, and impelled by solitude and imagination
he followed her. She had awakened sensations in his heart which he had
never before known, so he acted with primitive directness and moved out
into the Mississippi.

The river carried him swiftly toward a town whose electric lights
sparkled on a high bluff, Hickman, and he saw the cabin-boat of the
young and venturesome woman clearly outlined between him and the town.
For ne