"An' good, suh," the young man added, obediently. "I'd better go over and see our sick man," Buck turned to Slip. "A sick man?" Rasba asked. "Where mout he be?" "In that other shanty-boat, that little boat," Slip exclaimed. "We'll all go!" When they entered the little boat, which sagged under their combined weights, Slip held the light so it would shine on the cot. "Sho!" Rasba exclaimed. "Hyar's my friend who got shot by a lady!" "Yes, suh, Parson!" Prebol grinned, feebly. "Seems like I cayn't get shut of yo' nohow, but I'm shore glad to see yo'. These yeah boys have took cyar of me great. Same's you done, Parson, but I wa'nt your kind, swearin' around, so I pulled out. Yo' cayn't he'p me much, but likely--likely theh's some yo' kin." "I'd shore like to find them," Rasba declared, smoothing the man's pillow. "But there's not so many I can he'p. Yo' boys are tired; I'll give him his medicine till to'd mornin'. Yo'd jes' soon, Prebol?" "Hit'd be friendly," Prebol admitted. "Yo' needn't to sit right yeah----" "I 'low I shall," Rasba nodded. "I got some readin' to do. I'll git my book, an' come back an' set yeah!" He brought his Bible, and looking up to bid the two good-night, he smiled. "Hit's considerable wrestle, readin' this yeah Book! I neveh did git to understand hit, but likely I can git to know some more now. I've had right smart of experiences, lately, to he'p me git to know." CHAPTER XX Terabon possessed a newspaper man's feeling of aloofness and detachment. When he went afloat on the Mississippi at St. Louis he had no intention of becoming a part of the river phenomena, and it did not occur to his mind that his position might become that of a participator rather than an observer. The great river was interesting. It had come to his attention several years before, when he read Parkman's "La Salle," and a little later he had read almost a column account of a flood down the Mississippi. The A. P. had collected items from St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis, Cairo, Natchez, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, and fired them into the aloof East. New York, Boston, Bangor, Utica, Albany, and other important centres had learned for the first time that a "levee"--whatever that might be--had suffered a cravasse; a steamboat and some towbarges had been wrecked, that Cairo was registering 63.3 on the gauge; that some Negroes had been drowned; that cattle thieves were operating in the Overflow, and so on and so forth. The combination of La Salle's last adventure and the Mississippi flood caught the fancy of the newspaper man. "Shall I ever get out there?" Terabon asked himself.