, doubtfully.
"Y'know that woman you was staying with up on Island Ten Bar? Well, we
got her man in here full's a fish. Lookin' for his woman, an' he's no
good. Fell off the cabin, hit a spark in the back of the head when the
water sucked when that steamboat went by this morning. He'd ought to go
down to Memphis hospital, but--Well, we can't take 'im. You know how
that is."

"Be glad to help you boys out any way I can," Terabon said. "I'll run
him down."

"Say, would you? We don't want him on our hands," the pirate explained.
"We'd get to see you down b'low some'rs."

"Sure, I would," Terabon exclaimed. "Fact is, the woman said it'd be a
favour to her, too, if I'd get him home. She'll be dropping down likely.
Darn nice girl, but quick tempered."

"That's right; quick ain't no name for it. She plugged a friend of mine
up by Buffalo Island----"

"Prebol? I heard about him. She was scairt."

"She needn't be, never again!" Despard grinned. "When a lady can handle
a river Law like she does, us bad uns are real nice!"

Terabon laughed, and the two went into the cabin-boat where Carline lay
on the bunk. Terabon ran his hand around the man's head and neck, found
the lump near the base of the skull, found that the neck wasn't broken,
and made sure that the heart was beating--things a reporter naturally
learns to do in police-station and hospital experience.

Jet brought the motorboat down to the stern of the cabin-boat, and the
four carried Carline on board. They put him in his bunk, and Terabon,
his skiff towing astern, steered out into the main current and soon
faded down by Craighead Point Bar.

"I knowed he'd be all right," Despard declared. "He'll take him down to
Memphis, and out of our way. I'd 'a' hated to kill him; it ain't no use
killin' a man less'n it's necessary. We got what we was after. Course,
if we'd rewarded him, likely we'd got a lot, but it ain't safe, holdin'
a man for rewards ain't."

"That boat'd been a good one to travel in," Jet suggested.

"Everybody'd knowed it was Carline's, an' it wa'n't worth fixing over.
Hull not much good, and the motor's been abused some. We'll do better'n
that."

They had rid themselves of an incumbrance. They had made an acquaintance
who was making himself useful. They were considerably richer than they
had been for some time.

"I'd like to drap into Mendova," Jet mused. "We ain't had what you'd
call a time----"

"Let's kill some birds first," Gaspard suggest