ition of the river's inviolable strength.
Her sight of the mission boat had awakened in her soul the knowledge
that she must go out and talk to the good man on board, confess her
naughtiness, and beg the Prophet for instruction. Woman-like, she knew
what the outcome would be.

He would take her, protect her, and there would be some way out of the
predicament in which they both found themselves. But again she reckoned
without the river. How could she know that Terabon and he had come down
the Mississippi together?

But there he was, chauffeuring for the Prophet!

She threw the line, Rasba caught it, drew the two boats together and
made them fast. He welcomed her as a father might have welcomed a
favourite child. He threw over the anchor, and Terabon dropped the
launch back to the stern, and hung it there on a light line.

When he entered the big cabin Nelia was sitting beside a table, and
Rasba was leaning against the shelves which he had put up for the books.
Nelia, dumbfounded, had said little or nothing. When she glanced up at
Terabon, she looked away again, quickly, flushing.

She was lost now. That was her feeling. Her defiance and her courage
seemed to have utterly left her, and in those bitter days of cold wind
and clammy rain, sleet and discomfort had changed the outlook of
everything.

Married, without a husband; capable of great love, and yet sure that she
must never love; two lovers and an unhappy marriage between her and
happiness; a mind made up to sin, wantonly, and a soul that taunted her
with a life-time of struggle against sordidness. The two men saw her
burst into tears and cry out in an agony of spirit.

Dumbly they stood there, man-like, not knowing what to do, or what
thought was in the woman's mind. The Prophet Rasba, his face full of
compassion, turned from her and went aft through the alley into the
kitchen, closing the doors behind him. He knew, and with knowledge he
accepted the river fate.

Terabon went to her, and gave her comfort. He talked to her as a lover
should when his sweetheart is in misery, her heart breaking. And she
accepted his gentleness, and sobbed out the impossibility of everything,
while she clung to him.

Within the hour they had plighted troth, regardless. She confessed to
her lover, instead of to the Prophet. He said he didn't care, and she
said she didn't care, either--which was mutually satisfactory.

When they went out to Parson Rasba, they found him calmly r