nequal to the loud task described.

"They would never stop for you," she, said. "You are only a boy, and
they would know 'twas only mischief."

His reply was as before. He would lay five dollars on it that he could
stop the boat.

She incited him to do this thing also. What faculty of caution the boy
possessed was not as yet developed; he left the care for consequences to
the sedate lady in the stern, and forgetting his quest of the Missouri
shore, lay in the path of the steam-boat and howled unmusically, and
marred the peace of the placid morning by shouting concerning a runaway
slave and a fabulous reward that was offered for him taken alive or
dead.

It is probable that what he said never rightly reached the ears of the
men on the deck, but that they regarded the lady as a possible
passenger; the engine was stopped.

"We'd better cut now as fast as we can," said the boy, somewhat
frightened. He seized his oars excitedly. "Or shall I tell them a big
yarn about the nigger?"

They were but slightly to one side. The prow of the steam-boat, which
drew but little water, had already passed below them. A small crowd on
the vessel's deck leaned over the paddle-box. Standing up in the boat,
Susannah searched the faces of the men looking down. They all looked at
her.

She singled out the captain by some sign in his dress, and pleaded
urgent necessity for travelling with him.

"Look here," said the boy, looking up at her from beneath, "I call that
a low-down, mean sort of thing to do. Why didn't you tell me square? I'd
have brought you if you wanted do come."

She pleaded with the boy too. "It was better for you not to know my
secrets. If they ask you in the city you can say that you didn't know."

A dozen hands were held out to help her to climb the ladder on the
shelving paddle-box. "Keep off," they cried to the boy, and he swung
away from the churning wheel.

Susannah stood upon the deck pale and trembling. The magnitude of the
step came upon her, and she was beset by natural timidity and the
painfulness of her dependence. The men who stood around her with the
right to question were not of a low class. The captain, brawny and
respectable, spoke for the group. Behind him was a short but dignified
gray-haired gentleman whom she took to be the present or former Governor
of the State of Kentucky, of whom the boy had spoken. With him were
several men who appeared to have some fair title to gentility. Other
passenger