But they're in a class by
themselves. You couldn't hire a river nigger to do anything else. Then,
again, a man doesn't miss what he's never had. They get a plenty to eat,
and the soft side of a cargo pile makes a pretty good bed, if you've
never slept in a better one."

Miss Farnham shook her head thoughtfully. "Isn't that putting them
terribly low in the scale of humanity? Surely there must be some among
them who are capable of better things." She was trying desperately hard
to lead up to the stubble-bearded man, and it was the most difficult
task she had ever set herself.

"Not among the black boys, I'm afraid. Now and then a white man drifts
into a crew, but that's a different matter."

"Better or worse?" she queried.

"Worse, usually. It's a pretty poor stick of a white man that can't find
something better than 'rousting' on a steamboat."

Here was her chance, and she took it courageously.

"Haven't you one man in the _Belle Julie's_ crew who has earned a better
recommendation than that, Captain Mayfield?"

"You mean that sick hobo who went into the river after M'Grath last
night? I didn't know that story had got back to the ladies' cabin."

"It hasn't. But I know it because I was looking on. I couldn't sleep,
and I had gone out to see them make a night landing. Why do you call him
'the sick hobo'?"

The captain was paying strict attention now, looking at her curiously
from beneath the grizzled eyebrows. But he saw only the classic profile.

"That's what he is--or at least, what he let on to be when he shipped
with us," he replied. Then: "You say you saw it: tell me what happened."

"I am not sure that I quite understood the beginning of it," she said
doubtfully. "Two men, the white man and a negro, went ashore to untie
the boat. They both jumped from the stage while it was going up, and it
was the white man who untied the rope alone. After the boat began to
swing away from the bank, he saw that the other man was hurt and went to
help him. Mr. M'Grath was angry and he shouted at them to come aboard.
With the boat going away from the shore, they couldn't; so the white man
ran and tied the rope again. Am I getting it awfully mixed up?"

"Not at all," said the captain. "What happened then?"

"The white man lifted the negro to the deck, untied the rope again, and
climbed on just as the boat was swinging away the second time. Mr.
M'Grath was furious. He fought his way to where the white man was
standing ov