CHAPTER LXIII. THE CAPTAIN'S CHAIROn the next afternoon but one, while hundreds went down to the steamboat landing to view the new _Enchantress_, there was a double funeral in the old French cemetery, Saint Louis Street, New Orleans. Returning from it together, Watson and his former "cub" spoke of Gideon Hayle. "He takes the loss of them boys harder'n what I'd 'a' thought he would," said the younger pilot. And Watson replied: "Yes, but he don't take it as hard as what, years ago, he tuck their fust refus'n' to go with him on the river." They said no more all...
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CHAPTER LXII. EUTHANASIAA few steps aside from Hugh and his grandfather at the forward rail of the hurricane roof, in a glow of autumn twilight, the Gilmores and the three couples taken on at Vicksburg observed the _Enchantress_, under Watson's skill, lay her lower guards against the guards of the Natchez wharf-boat with a touch as light as a human hand. Down on the wharf-boat, in its double door, as beautiful in her fuller years as in _Votaress days, and more radiant, stood Madame Hayle. A man-servant at one elbow, a maid at the other, saw the group on the roof...
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CHAPTER LXI. WANTED, HAYLE'S TWINSEarly in the next forenoon another of the Californian's benevolent schemes threatened to miscarry. At the settlement of Milliken's Bend there were people already at the landing, and people running to it from three directions. Yet not a hat, hand, or handkerchief did they wave until the _Enchantress_, in full view up toward the head of the bend, was too near to mistake their salutes for a sign to stop. Then there were wavings aplenty and cries of acclaim. By the "River News" daily telegraphed down to the New Orleans, Vicksburg, and other papers, from Louisville, Paducah,...
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CHAPTER LVII. FAREWELL, "VOTARESS"Montezuma Bend ... Delta ... Delta Bend ... Friar's Point ... Kangaroo Point ... Horseshoe Bend and Cut-off. Some, at least, of these we remember. At mention of them the Gilmores and "California" smiled--behind Ramsey: such a different, surpassingly different Ramsey! Near the _Enchantress's bell these four and old Joy were gathered about Gideon Hayle, Watson, and Hugh Courteney--such an inspiringly different Hugh! Two or three showed a divided attention, letting an occasional glance stray down the waters ahead Old Town Bend swung from west to south. At the same moment, in Horseshoe Cut-off, some twelve or...
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CHAPTER LVI. EIGHT YEARS AFTER"A hundred months," says the love-song that beguiled so many thousands of hearts throughout the Mississippi Valley in those old "Lily Dale," "Nellie Gray," "What is Home Without a Mother?" days, when the lugubrious was so blithely enjoyed at the piano. Its first wails date nearly or quite back to October, 1860. "A hundred months had passed" since that first up-stream voyage of the _Votaress_, or, to be punctilious, something under a hundred and two. It was the opening week of that mid-autumn month in which it became evident that Abraham Lincoln would be the next president....
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CHAPTER LV. LOVE MAKES A CUT-OFFBut the grandfather addressed the adventurer. "You'd rather not, I fancy." "Rather not; looks too unanimous the wrong way." "Would you still like to have Hugh's advice?" "I would! I'd like to hear yo'-all's argument." Ramsey dropped into her chair with a tired sigh and up-stream gaze though with an inner ear of keenest attention. Hugh glanced toward his father's door, whence at any moment, as every one realized, the actor might beckon. "I have no argument," he began. "You have," breathed a voice, unmistakably Ramsey's; "you always have." "You know," he continued to the Kentuckian,...
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CHAPTER LIV. "CAN'T!"On handing the will to her mother, Ramsey found her no longer leading the conversation. The senator had the floor, the deck, and, as Ned or Watson might have said, was "drawing all the water in the river." His discourse was to madame and the general alternately, though now and then he included the parson's wife and Mrs. Gilmore. Ramsey's talent for taking in everything at once was taxed to its limit when at the same time that she attended to him she watched an elegant steamer, one of the Saturday-evening boats out of Cincinnati, pass remotely on the...
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CHAPTER LIII. TRADING FOR PHYLLISThis afternoon was cooler than any of the three before it. Change of latitude, assuredly; but also a sky half blue, half gray, and a brisker air. Yet for that small minority of the ladies, who rather craved than feared the sunlight, the boat's roofs--since custom debarred them from the boiler deck--were still its most inviting part. After a few modifications of dress a very pleasant refuge those roofs were, although when the boat's course led her into the wind it was good to shut a sash or two if you were in the pilot-house, or to...
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CHAPTER LII. LOVE RUNS ROUGH BUT RUNS ONTurning east in the upper arm of Saint Francis Bend, with the mouth of Saint Francis River just swinging out of sight astern and Helena an hour's run behind, the _Votaress faced the rising sun. Before the eyes of Hugh and Ramsey it soared gloriously into a sky reddened not by presage of rain but by the smoke of the _Antelope and _Westwood_. The intervening shore and waters glowed and quivered in exquisite tints that renewed the world's youth and quite ignored all human, especially all young human, troubles. Suddenly it lighted up the...
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CHAPTER LI. LOVING-KINDNESSRamsey stopped and the boy's heart rose into his throat. "Whe're you going?" she asked. He pointed to a lighted door she had just come by. "First mate's room," he said. "To tell him what to do?" "Yes'm." He slid along the rail to get by her, though hungry to linger. "To do what?" she asked. "I know; to bring out John the Baptist and those other two men?" "Yes'm." He backed off, but the compelling power of interrogatory, especially of hers, retarded him. "To turn 'em loose?" she asked. He smiled ruefully. "It looks like it." "Not with...
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CHAPTER XLVII. INSOMNIADown in the cabin, in one of its best staterooms all were choice, the senator wooed slumber. In vain. Sounds were no obstacle. They abounded but they were normal. Except--"Peck-peck-peck" and so on, which the steady pulse of normal sounds practically obliterated. The peck-pecking was not for him. An unwelcome odor may keep one awake, but the senator's berth was fragrant of fresh mattresses and new linen, the wash-stand of jasmine soap, and the room at large of its immaculate zinc-white walls and doors and their gilt trimmings. Nor could the cause be his supper of beefsteak and...
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CHAPTER XLVI. AFTER THE PLAYNeither Hugh nor Ramsey slept a moment that night. And no more did the Gilmores or "Harriet" or John the Baptist or even the senator or the Californian. The play, second act, was cut without mercy and rushed to a close to let its hero and heroine off at Napoleon, which Ned called a "future city" but which, some years later, became a former city, by melting into thin air, or thick water, and leaving not so much behind as a candle-end or a broken bottle. It was not far above there that these unsleeping passengers began...
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CHAPTER XLV. APPLAUSEDiffidence! Hugh had spoken of diffidence--in himself--in the twins. Could Julian really be hiding such a thing behind such a mask? Ramsey wondered. Every eye was on him and again the floor thundered, shaming her, flattering him. As he came on, the exhorter began to put out an arm, to speak and to rise, but the cub pilot blandly intervened and Julian ignored him. For there both brothers came face to face with the first mate. He had entered where Gilmore went out, and now passed them with a stare like their own, fire for fire, and at close...
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CHAPTER XLIV. FORBEARANCERamsey was mistaken--her brothers were staying. The play's first act was done, there was great clapping and thumping and the curtain was falling--or closing, in two parts from opposite sides, eased over sticking-points by nimble efforts behind it; but though Julian--who evidently had been getting through the general's courtesy the indulgence denied him at the bar--had moved a step or so from his chair, Lucian remained seated. Next them sat the general and the senator, and the four were debating together. Oddly enough, the twins were in disaccord, and while Lucian had the senator's approval the general's went to...
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CHAPTER XLIII. WHICH FROM WHICHThis world of tragic contrasts and cross-purposes, realities and fictions, this world where the many so largely find their inspiration in the performances of the few, was startlingly typified to Ramsey as, out of the upper night and the darkness of her troubles, she came in upon the show; the audience sitting in their self-imposed twilight of a few dimmed lamps, designedly forgetful of the voyage for which all were there, and the players playing their parts as though the play were the only thing real. If the prefigurement was at any point vague it was none...
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CHAPTER XLII. AGAINST KIN"Ramsey," said the boy, his voice gone to a shred, "you're good--to come back in--in time. Ain't you going--to laugh? It'd be all right. Oh, sis'"--the sunken eyes lighted up--"it's come to me, sissy, it's come. I've got religion, Ramsey. I'm going straight to the arms of Jesus. Sissy dear, I wish"--he waited for strength--"I could see the--twins--just a minute or two----" "Why, you shall, honey. I'll go bring 'em." "Wish you would--and Hugh Courteney. It's the last----" "Honey boy, th'ain't room for so many at once. And it ain't your last anything; you' going to get well."...
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CHAPTER XLI. QUITS"Wait here," slowly said Hugh in response to the gold-hunter's touch. "I'll--see you presently." The modest adventurer waved assent, yet looked so disappointed that Mrs. Gilmore, moving to take his arm, asked: "Can't Mr. So-and-so go with us?" Oh, kind, quick wit! Three is a crowd, four is only twice two! "Certainly," said Hugh, and to Ramsey added: "We'd better lead the way." As they led she softly inquired: "Does he want to know something about the twins?" What arrows were her questions, and how straight they struck home! Yet with that low voice for their bowstring they gave...
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CHAPTER XXXVII. BASILE USES A CANEThere was a gorgeous sunset that day. Many were on the uppermost decks to see or show it, amid a lively social confusion dull to Hugh but delightful to Ramsey. In fact, Hugh had begun to want her and the hurricane-deck to himself. The actor and his wife were there. And there, indifferent to sunsets but as hungry as ever for company, was Basile. Dinner, at midday, had dissolved the group which the twins had for a time held together. The captain had squared Basile with the ticket treasurer and by some adroitness of Ramsey and...
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CHAPTER XXXVI. CAPTAIN'S ROOM"Ah!--when you've been all this time with us!" "No, once I was away, a good while." "That's so! And while you was away--were away--" In lively undertone Ramsey ran on to tell of Mrs. Gilmore's having in Hugh's absence called in her maid Harriet to show the young lady from Napoleon how to do a bit of stage business without a hint of the stage. At the tale's end the pair glanced round from the nearing _Antelope to the Gilmores and back again. "Harriet's talented. You wouldn't think she could be talented. And isn't she handsome!" "I've yet...
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CHAPTER XXXV. UNSETTLED WEATHERAgain the _Votaress was passing the Westwood and again was but a short mile behind the _Antelope_. Led by Ramsey, the amateur players, including Hugh, had stopped rehearsing and were on the skylight roof, gathered about the commodore, the Gilmores, and the bell. In their company, though below them on the forward hurricane deck, the first mate leaned bulkily against the roof on which they stood. It was his watch. Ned was up at the wheel. As early as the evening before, a good hundred and fifty miles back down the river, the _Antelope_, it will be remembered,...
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Gideon's Band: A Tale Of The Mississippi - Chapter 63. The Captain's Chair
