from a nightmare. He
scarcely dared to speak for fear of uttering words which would betray
him and which seemed to tremble on his lips. Had he been on shore he
would have fled to the solitude of a forest; but here he was
resistlessly impelled to that other solitude--a crowd. The necessity of
being gay with his beautiful bride and of concealing every trace of his
terror and remorse taxed his resources to their utmost limit, and in his
nervousness he kept Pepeeta moving with him all day long. At its close
she was completely exhausted, and retired early to her stateroom. Freed
from her company and craving relief from thought, David made his way
straight to the gambling tables where the nightly games were in full
swing.

The claim of the southerner that the excitement at those tables, when
the river traffic was at its height, had never been surpassed in the
history of games of chance, was no exaggeration. Not a semblance of
restraint was put upon the players, and experts from all over the world
gathered to pluck the exhaustless supply of victims, as buzzards
assemble to feed on carrion. Fortunes were made and lost in a night. Men
sat down to play worth thousands of dollars, and rose paupers! They
staked and lost their money, their slaves, their business and their
homes. In the wild frenzy which such misfortunes kindle the most
shocking crimes were committed, but the criminals were never called to
account, for the law was powerless.

What the fugitive sought was diversion, and he found it! Tragedies
became commonplace in those cabins. Men crowded into single hours the
experience and excitement of months. It was this very night that an
encounter occurred which is still a tradition on the river.

An old planter approached a table where his son, who did not know of his
father's presence on the boat, was playing. He stood in the background
and watched a gambler strip the boy of his last penny, and when the
young fellow rose from his chair, white as a sheet, he turned to look
into the whiter face of his father. The enraged parent did not speak a
word, but took the seat left vacant by the boy and commenced playing.
Rage at the financial loss, mortification at the boy's defeat, and old
scores to be settled with this very gambler, conspired to rouse him to a
frenzy. His terrible earnestness paralyzed the dealer, who seemed to
form some premonition of a tragic termination and lost his nerve. In a
little while, in the presence of