The sailor lost his balance, staggered back a step or two, and toppled to the floor. Quick as a flash Abe was on top of him, gripping his wrists in those big, horny paws of his. With an anguished groan the German let go of the roll of money, and Abe, picking it up, jumped to his feet. As he did so an empty bottle whizzed past his head, and half a dozen sailormen charged toward him from all parts of the room. Instantly pandemonium was let loose. With wild yells of delight the river-men, always ready for a fight, set upon the deep-water sailors, and in ten seconds the place was filled with fiercely struggling groups. Abe stuffed the bills into the breast of his shirt and battled his way toward the door, where Tad was already waiting for him. In a moment Allen broke through the mob in front of the bar and joined them. His “store clothes” were disheveled, and one eye was nearly closed by a rapidly swelling bruise. “Run--run!” he panted, and dodged down an alley with the two others following him. Not until they had zigzagged through the dark for two blocks and were out on the open levee front did Allen settle down once more to a walk. “Great shiverin’ snakes!” he gasped, “I was glad to git clear o’ that place! Did ye see ’em start to pull their knives? Why, thar was enough dirks an’ daggers out to slaughter a regiment.” Silently Abe handed the crumpled banknotes back to their owner. A few steps farther he stopped. “You boys wait here,” he said. “I forgot somethin’, but I’ll be right back.” Dumfounded, they watched him stride along the levee in the direction from which they had just come. “Whar in Sam Hill kin he be goin’?” muttered Allen. They waited with growing nervousness for several minutes. And just as Tad was starting to see what had happened, he reappeared. “Where were you, Abe?” the boy asked. “I’d clean forgot to pay fer our supper,” Abe replied. “Things had quieted down thar a mite, but one pore feller was bleedin’ terrible. Cut pretty bad, I guess.” “Wal,” said Allen, looking at him, pop-eyed, “if you ain’t the gol-durnedest!” “How’d you come to have all that money?” inquired Abe. “Must have sold the cargo, didn’t ye?” Allen nodded. “A man come along the levee this afternoon offerin’ scandalous low prices fer flour an’ pork. I was gittin’ sick o’ waitin’; so I dickered with him. I got him to raise his figger a little, an’ he ’greed to take the boat, too. Anyhow, Father’ll be satisfied.” “He won’t if you go in any more saloons an’ git it stole,” said Abe. “I reckon on board a steamboat is the safest place fer you an’ me.” They returned to the _Katy Roby_, now empty save for their blankets and personal belongings, a few cooking utensils, and a small pile of firewood. “The old gal looks sort o’ lonesome, don’t she?” said Abe. “Wal, her timbers’ll make a stout shanty fer somebody. There’s not a cross-grained stick in her hull. I know, because I cut an’ trimmed ’em myself.”