t until you see a race with another steamer," said an officious
Yankee, who rejoiced in a knowledge which frequent trips had given him.

"Are they exciting?" asked the foreigner.

"Well I should say! I have seen horse races and prize fights in my day,
but I never ran against anything that shook up my nerves like a race
between two of these river boats! Every pound of steam is crowded on,
the engines groan like imprisoned devils, a darkey sits on the safety
valve, the stokers jam the furnaces, the passengers crowd the gunwales,
everybody yells at the top of his voice until pandemonium is mere
silence compared to it! And then the betting! Lord, you never saw
betting if you never saw a river race."

"They bet, do they?"

"Bet? They don't do anything else! Just got on at Louisville? Oh! well,
you'll see sights in the cabin to-night that will open your eyes. Isn't
that so?" he asked, turning to a southern planter who had been edging
his way toward Pepeeta.

"Reckon the gentleman'll see a little gambling, sah, if that's what you
refeh to. I've heard those that ought to know say that a Mississippi
river boat is the toughest spot on top of earth for little games of
pokah and that soht of thing, sah. 'Spect the gentleman can be
accommodated if he likes a lively game of chance."

"I don't expect to be surprised in that line," the foreigner said, with
the air of one who knew a thing or two; "for I have been in Monte Carlo,
Carlsbad and every famous gambling place in Europe."

"Well, sah, I don't know; I have never been in those places myself, but
I have heard those who have say that what they play there is mere 'penny
ante' to what goes on in one of these yere Mississippi boats. Like a
little game now and then myself, sah. Glad to have you join me."

While these men and others pretended to address their remarks to David
or to each other, their free glances were more and more directed to
Pepeeta who began to be embarrassed by them and gently drew David away
to more retired places. He went with her reluctantly, for he was in need
of excitement. The thought of his crime was constantly agitating his
heart, the prostrate form of the doctor with the bloody wound on his
forehead was never absent from his mind, and through all the ceaseless
rumble around him he could hear the dull thud of the stone upon the hard
skull. The efforts which he made to throw off these horrible weights
that crushed him were like those of a man awakening