"All for peace, however," said the senator smilingly to the clerk. "There's been enough strife." "Never saw so much aboard boat," said the clerk. "Well,"--statesman and clerk laid elbows on the shelf and dropped their voices while the actor and the general drew a step aside,--"this thing can be settled only by the right friends and it's now or never." The two exchanged a look but the clerk was mute and the senator spoke on: "You've heard of Dan Hayle--and the girl Phyllis, hmm?" "I was first clerk on the _Quakeress_ when she burned." "Why, so you _was_. These twins believe, bitterly, that in that mysterious disaster all due search for their uncle was neglected to save the captain's son and that the girl and Dan Hayle were never fully accounted for." "Shucks! Why--Dan--it was I found Dan's body." "Yes, but they call it an outrage for him to have been there at all; to give him the wheel and take her aboard on the same trip." "_Law'_! what did she count, with him about to marry?" "Why, they think that for that very reason John Courteney let his wife--from Philadelphia, you know--abolitionist--bring the girl and Dan together, hoping he'd either set her free or else skip the wedding and somehow disgrace the whole Hayle family. Just those boys' guess but--they believe it. What they _see_ is a Hayle killed and no one killed for him." "Oh, we settled that with their dad ten years ago." "They say not. And, really, you know, some of the liveliest feuds along this river are founded on less cause. Gid Hayle, they claim, couldn't bring the Courteneys to law at the time because the only men he had to back him were his two in-laws. Now these twins are men and they feel honor-bound to throw down--no, to take up--the gage, thrown down to them every hour they've been on this boat." "Shoo! They've been treated only too well." "Tactfully, do you think?" "Depends on what you call tact. Ordinary tact's the worst thing you could throw at 'em." The clerk spoke with both eyes on the general and the actor. His fellow clerk, second clerk, had nudged him. The general was raising his voice to the actor. "They f-forbid your lady to chaperon their sister, since you both, last evening, all-llowed young Courteney to give her his account of the b-urning of the _Quakeress_." "General!" the smiling senator cautioned him, "privately, if you please! more privately!" But the soldier persisted. "Th-they even suspect you, sir, of s-s-piriting off to Canada their s-s-lave p-roperty, missing after that event." "Why, gentlemen," began the player, looking very professional but also very handsome, and with a flash of annoyance only when he noticed that the exhorter had joined the group, "I never in my--nonsense! fantastical nonsense! Why, I'll be--I'll see you later! At present, as I've already said, I'm overdue at that rehearsal." "Yes, Mr. Gilmore," said the first clerk, "you are." "A moment," interposed the senator. "Purely in the interest of peace, Mr. Gilmore----"