The road down the bluff from the town to the bottomland was empty. Most people in Victor went to bed soon after sunset, and those who didn't would be up in the taproom of the trading post inn. Auguste did see candlelight flickering in a one-room log cabin they passed. A silhouette appeared in the window just as he looked in. A man reached out and slammed the shutters closed. "Bad luck we should pass that house just as he came to the window," Frank said. "One of Raoul's men. But he's more than likely still half drunk." Frank and Auguste followed the road past fields of corn ready for harvesting, their way lighted by the nearly full moon. Up ahead the wooded sides of the bluff came down to the water's edge. Frank led Auguste out on a shrub-covered spit. Not until he was nearly on top of the bateau did Auguste see it. Frank had pulled it up out of the water, covered it with branches, and tied it to the roots of a tree that had toppled into the water, undercut by the river. With sinking heart Auguste saw that though the riverboat was small, it would be heavier and harder to row than a canoe. Well, Frank had done his best, and now he would have to do _his_ best. His heart leaped with fear as he heard hoofbeats. Horsemen, coming down the road from Victor. Frank stopped working on the boat and lifted his head. "Damn! That skunk must have seen you after all." The pounding was coming rapidly closer. Auguste's heart was beating as fast as the oncoming hooves. He saw the horsemen by moonlight--_five_ of them, racing through the high corn. Frank and Auguste pushed the little boat into the water bow first, pointed stern resting on the shore. Auguste put his pack in the stern and the rifle and ammunition in the bow, where they were more likely to stay dry. The current pulled the bow downstream, the flat bottom grinding in the mud. Auguste saw a flash and heard a loud boom. Something whistled through the bare branches of a bush beside him. He leaped into the boat. "Here. Beef and biscuit." Frank tossed a bag to Auguste, who set it on the seat beside him. Frank pushed the bateau's stern free. "Now row for your life!" Pulling as hard and fast as he could, Auguste steered diagonally into the Mississippi, trying to get beyond pistol range without spending all his strength fighting the current. "Hopkins, goddamn it, I'll kill _you_ if he gets away!" Raoul's voice. Auguste wished he had time to load his rifle and shoot back, but if he stopped rowing they were sure to get him. Five bright red flashes and five shots roared out one after the other from shore. _If one of those men is Eli Greenglove I'm dead for sure._