urrent carried the others down, but
old river men were at the sweeps, and one of them called the orders:

"Raunch 'er, boys! Raunch 'er! Raunchin's what she needs!"

They floated out of the current into the slow reverse eddy, and coming
up close to Rasba's fleet, talked back and forth with him till a gleam
of light through a window struck him clearly out of the dark.

"Hue-e-e!" a shrill woman's voice laughed. "Hit's Rasba, the Riveh
Prophet Rasba! Did yo' all git to catch Nelia Crele, Parson?"

"Did I git to catch Missy Crele!" he repeated, dazed.

"When yo' drapped out'n Wolf Island Chute, Parson, that night she pulled
out alone?"

"No'm; I lost her down by the Sucks, but she drapped in by
Caruthersville an' give me books an' books--all fo' my mission boat!"

"That big boat yourn?"

"Yeh."

"Where all was hit built?"

"I don' remembeh, but Buck done give hit to me, him an' Jock Drones."

"Hi-i-i! Yo' all found the man yo' come a-lookin' fo'. Ho law!"

"Hit's the Riveh Prophet," someone replied to a hail from within, the
dance ending.

A crowd came tumbling out onto the deck of the big boat of the dance
hall, everyone talking, laughing, catching their breaths.

"Hi-i! Likely he'll preach to-morrow," a woman cried. "To-morrow's
Sunday."

"Sunday?" Rasba gasped. "Sunday--I plumb lost track of the days."

"You'll preach, won't yo', Parson? I yain't hearn a sermon in a hell of
a while," a man jeered, facetiously.

"Suttingly. An' when hit's through, yo'll think of hell jes' as long,"
Rasba retorted, with asperity, and his wit turned the laugh into a
cheer.

The fleet anchored a hundred yards up the eddy, and Rasba heard a woman
say it was after midnight and she'd be blanked if she ever did or would
dance on Sunday. The dance broke up, the noise of voices lessened, one
by one the lights went out, and the eddy was still again. But the
feeling of loneliness was changed.

"Lord God, what'll I preach to them about?" Rasba whispered. "I neveh
'lowed I'd be called to preach ag'in. Lawse! Lawse! What'll I say?"

CHAPTER XXVII

Carline ascended into the world again. It was a painful ascent, and when
he looked around him, he recognized the interior of his motorboat cabin,
heard and felt the throbbing of his motor, and discovered aches and
pains that made his extremities tingle. He sat up, but the blackness
that seemed to rise around him caused him to fall hastily back upon the
stateroom bunk.

He