occasion, and he agreed that he had better drop down to Memphis or
Mendova, preferring the latter place, for he knew people there. He told
Rasba to line the two small shanty-boats beside the big mission boat,
and fend them off with wood chunks. The skiffs could float on lines
alongside or at the stern. The power boat could tow the fleet out into
the current, and hold it off sandbars or flank the bends.

Rasba did as he was bid, and lashed the boats together with mooring
lines, pin-head to towing bits, and side to side. Then he floated the
boats all on one anchor line, and ran the launch up to the bow. He
hoisted in the anchor, rowed in a skiff out to the motorboat, and swung
wide in the eddy to run out to the river current. There was a good deal
of work to the task, and it was afternoon before the fleet reached the
main stream.

Then Rasba cast off his tow lines, ran the launch back to the fleet, and
made it fast to the port bow of the big boat, so that it was part of the
fleet, with its power available to shove ahead or astern. A big oar on
the mission boat's bow and another one out from Prebol's boat insured a
short turn if it should be necessary to swing the boats around either
way.

Rasba carried Prebol on his cot up to the bow of the big boat, and put
him down where he could help watch the river, and they cast off. Prebol
knew the bends and reaches, and named most of the landings; they
gossiped about the people and the places. Prebol told how river rats
sometimes stole hogs or cattle for food, and Rasba learned for the first
time of organized piracy, of river men who were banded together for
stealing what they could, raiding river towns, attacking "sports,"
tripping the river, and even more desperate enterprises.

While he talked, Prebol slyly watched his listener and thought for a
long time that Rasba was merely dumbfounded by the atrocities, but at
last the Prophet grinned:

"An' yo's a riveh rat. Ho law!"

"Why, I didn't say----" Prebol began, but his words faltered.

"Yo' know right smart about such things," Rasba reminded him. "I 'low
hit were about time somebody shot yo' easy, so's to give yo' repentance
a chance to catch up with yo' wickedness. Don't yo'?"

Prebol glared at the accusation, but Rasba pretended not to notice.

"Yo' see, Prebol, this world is jes' the hounds a-chasin' the rabbits,
er the rabbits a-gittin' out the way. The good that's into a man keeps
a-runnin', to git shut of the sin