ey could get their senses back and make
up their minds about rushing my pistol I had slipped through a store,
out of the back and into a place I know well, where I waited till dark.
I understand there was quite a lot of excitement for a day or so."
"I dare say--I dare say there might have been," admitted Jarvis. "In
fact, I am sure there would be. _Damn it_, Tom, would you mind shaking
hands with me?"
CHAPTER II
ABOARD THE _MISSOURI BELLE_
Tom wended his way to the levee and as he passed the last line of
buildings and faced the great slope leading to the water's edge his eyes
kindled. Two graceful stern-wheel packets were moving on the river, the
smaller close to the nearer bank on her way home from the treacherous
Missouri; the larger, curving well over toward the Illinois shore, was
heading downstream for New Orleans. Their graceful lines, open bow decks
with the great derricks supporting the huge landing stages, and the
thick, powerful masts on each edge of the lower deck toward the bow,
each holding up the great spar so necessary for Mississippi river
navigation; the tall stacks with the initials of the boat against a
lattice work between; the regular spacing of windows and doors in the
cabins, and the clean white of their hulls and superstructure, rendered
more vivid by contrast with the tawny flood on all sides of them, made a
striking and picturesque sight. Each had a curving tail of boiling brown
water behind, and a bone in its teeth. These river boats were modeled on
trim and beautiful lines and were far from being crude, frontier
makeshifts.
Several Mackinaw boats moved anglingly across the current from the other
shore, and a keelboat glided down the river for New Orleans, or to turn
up the Ohio for Pittsburg, helped in the current by a dirty, square
sail. The little twin-hulled ferry was just coming in from the Illinois
shore, its catamaran construction giving it a safety which a casual
observation would have withheld. The passengers clung to its rails as it
pitched and bobbed in the rolling wake of the south-bound packet, a wake
dreaded by all small craft unfortunate enough to pass the slapping
paddle at too close a distance, for the following billows were high,
sharp, and close together.
On the great levee wagons and carts rattled and rumbled; drivers shouted
and swore as they picked their impatient and erratic way through the
traffic; lazy negroes, momentarily spurred into energetic ac
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