is arms and had all but wrecked the stoic calm with which the Scratch
Hiller was seeking to guard his emotions.

Polly smiled and dimpled at the Kentuckian. Trained to a romantic point
of view she had a frank liking for handsome stalwart men. Cavendish was
neither, but none knew better than Polly that where he was most lacking
in appearance he was richest in substance. He carried scars honorably
earned in those differences he had been prone to cultivate with less
generous natures; for his scheme of life did not embrace the millennium.

"Thank God, you got here when you did!" said Carrington.

"We was some pushed fo' time, but we done it," responded the earl
modestly. He added, "What now?--do we make a landing?"

"No--unless it interferes with your plans not to. I 'want to get around
the next bend before we tie up. Later we'll all go back. Can I count on
you?"

"You shorely can. I consider this here as sociable a neighborhood as I
ever struck. It pleases me well. Folks are up and doing hereabout."

Carrington looked eagerly around in search of Betty. She was sitting
on an upturned tub, a pathetic enough figure as she drooped against the
wall of one of the shanties with all her courage quite gone from her. He
made his way quickly to her side.

"La!" whispered Polly in Chills and Fever's ear. "If that pore young
thing yonder keeps a widow it won't be because of any encouragement she
gets from Mr. Carrington. If I ever seen marriage in a man's eye I seen
it in his this minute!"

"Bruce!" cried Betty, starting up as Carrington approached. "Oh, Bruce,
I am so glad you have come--you are not hurt?" She accepted his presence
without question. She had needed him and he had not failed her.

"We are none of us hurt, Betty," he said gently, as he took her hand.

He saw that the suffering she had undergone during the preceding
twenty-four hours had left its record on her tired face and in her heavy
eyes. She retained a shuddering consciousness of the unchecked savagery
of those last moments on the keel boat; she was still hearing the oaths
of the men as they struggled together, the sound of blows, and the
dreadful silences that had followed them. She turned from him, and there
came the relief of tears.

"There, Betty, the danger is over now and you were so brave while it
lasted. I can't bear to have you cry!"

"I was wild with fear--all that time on the boat, Bruce--" she faltered
between her sobs. "I didn't know but th