What do ye want done?"

"Give me a pledge first, and I'll tell you."

He took a long moment to decide, not yet wholly satisfied as to my
identity.

"Did ye say ye wus an army offercer?"

"Yes, a lieutenant; my name is Knox."

"I never know'd yer."

"Probably not, but Joe Kirby does. I was on the steamer _Warrior_
coming down when he robbed old Judge Beaucaire. That was what got me
mixed up in this affair. Later I was in that skiff you fellows rammed
and sunk on the Illinois. I know the whole dirty story, Kennedy, from
the very beginning. And now it is up to you whether or not I tell it
to Governor Clark."

"I reckon yer must be right," he admitted helplessly. "Only I quit
cold the minute I caught on ter whut wus up. I never know'd she wa'n't
no nigger till after we got yere. Sure's yer live that's true. Only
then I didn't know whut else ter do, so I got bilin' drunk."

"You are willing to work with me, then?"

"Yer kin bet I am; I ain't no gurl-stealer."

"Then listen, Kennedy. Jack Rale told me exactly what their plans
were, because he needed me to help him. When you jumped the
reservation, he had to find someone else, and picked me. The first
thing he did, however, was to get you drunk, so you wouldn't interfere.
That was part of their game, and Kirby came into the saloon a few
minutes ago to see how it worked. He stood there and laughed at you,
lying asleep. They mean to pull off the affair tonight. Here's the
story."

I told it to him, exactly in the form it had come to me, interrupted
only in the recital by an occasional profane ejaculation, or some
interjected question. The deputy appeared sober enough before I had
finished, and fully grasped the seriousness of the situation.

"Now that is the way it stacks up," I ended, "The girl is to be taken
to this fellow's shack and compelled to marry Kirby, whether she wants
to or not. They will have her where she cannot help herself--away from
anyone to whom she could appeal. Rale wouldn't explain what means were
to be used to make her consent, and I didn't dare press him for fear he
might suspect me. They either intend threatening her, or else to
actually resort to force--likely both. No doubt they can rely on this
renegade preacher in either case."

"Jack didn't name no name?"

"No--why?"

"Only thar uster be a bum hangin' round the river front in Saint Louee
who hed preacher's papers, en wore a long-tailed coat. Thar wan't no
lo