"Thank you!" She darted below, where Hugh was already gone. As she started she caught sight of the twins. They had just come up on the far side of the boat and were approaching the mate. Still flushed, but straight as a dart, at the stair's foot she turned on her attendant and with brimming eyes said softly: "I don't want any breakfast. I'm going to the lower deck--to find mom-a." "You shayn't! You'll git de cholera!" "Pooh, the cholera!--after what I've got!--I'm going to tell mom-a on you!" "On me--me! Good Lawd! Go on, I's wid you!" "You'd no right to tell me that story!" "Missie, I on'y tol' you fo' to stop you. You said yo'se'f you gwine ax him all about it." "Oh, him!" The girl laughed, yet showed new tears. "I don't mind him; I mind the story! I don't even care who it's about, Hayles or no Hayles!" "Why, den, what does you care----?" "I care _what_ it's about." She suddenly looked older. "Oh, I'm all over bespattered with the horrid----" "Y'ain't. Y'ain't de sawt fo' dat. Look at yo' ma. She have bofe han's in it. Is she all oveh bespattud?" "Oh, you! You know nothing could ever bespatter mom-a!... I'm going to her to get clean!" "Dat's good!" A shrewd elation lit up the black face. "Go on! As you say yo'se'f, go on!" Ramsey started away but with an overjoyed gasp found herself in her mother's arms. She pressed closer while the three laughed, and when the other two ceased she still mirthfully clung in that impregnable sanctuary. Suddenly she hearkened, tossed her curls, and stood very straight. Two male voices were coming down the stairs. "We cannot," said one, "submit to this alive!" "Yes," said the other, "we can. It's just _we who_ can--till the day we catch them where they've got us to-day!" "And what, now, is this?" smilingly inquired Madame Hayle as her twin sons halted before her. The young men uncovered. They were surprisingly presentable after the night they had spent. Julian, in particular, looked capable and proud of their waywardness. "Good morning," put in Ramsey, on her mother's arm. "See those little houses up on that bank? That's Port Hudson. Up there they can see away down the river, past Prophet's Island, and at the same time away up-stream. If we were on the hurric--" She made a start, but her mother, while addressing the twins, restrained her. "Well," she asked, "you cannot submit--to what?" "We are ordered ashore!" said Julian. "At the next landing!" quavered Lucian--"Bayou Sara!" Ramsey slipped from her mother and gazed at the twins with her eyes as large as theirs. "You shan't go!" she broke in. "Where's Hugh?" She darted for the cabin, old Joy following. Julian glared after them. "See?" he said to his mother. "You don't see--the plot? It's a plot!--to compromise us!--you and her included!" "Before this boat-load of witnesses!" chimed Lucian.