"That is three days old," said Eddring. "Here is one sent yesterday.

It must have gone out by boat to some railway station, for the roads are washed out for miles in all the upper Delta. 'Shot bad in levee fight. Come quick. We have caught Delphine, ring-leader. More proof implicating Decherd. Louise Loisson our Miss Lady. Find her; bring her. Watch Decherd. Come quick.--Calvin Blount.'

"Madame," said Eddring, "Miss Louise Loisson was once Miss Lady Ellison, at the Big House plantation of Calvin Blount, in the northern part of Mississippi. Her friends have been looking for her for years, but in some way have missed her. I will say to you that she is a young woman lawfully ent.i.tled to property in her own name.

This Henry Decherd is unfit company for her, if not dangerous company. As to this marriage, it must not be. Madame, take this message to Miss Loisson; if you can, induce her to go to her old and true friend, Colonel Blount,--if it be not too late now for that. I am sure you will be thankful all your life; and so will she. Find her; I will find Decherd. We must get up to Blount's place then.

He's hurt. He may be killed."

Madame stood troubled, fumbling the papers in her hand. She scarce had time to speak ere there came from the ladies' cabin a sudden rush of footsteps, and in an instant Miss Lady and she were in each other's arms.

CHAPTER VIII

THE STOLEN STEAMBOAT

"My shild! My soul!" cried madame. "What is it? Where have you been?

What is this!" She patted Miss Lady with one plump hand, even as she wept; and all Miss Lady could do in turn was to put her face on the older woman's shoulder and sob in sheer relief.

"Why you don' come at 'ome?" cried madame, severely. "We have wait'

so long. See, this boat, she don' stop. Why do you come to the boat, when you say you come at 'ome to me? Ah, Mademoiselle, you have never deceive' me before."

"I have not deceived you," said Miss Lady. "I did not know that we were coming to the river-front in the carriage--I thought we were going home. When we got here he pleaded, he begged--it was just to ride across to Algiers, and come back, he said. He said it was the last time, the last hour that we would ever spend together. He threatened--what could I do, Madame? You would not have me make a scene; it was dark out there, I thought it safer to come aboard the boat--where there were lights--and other ladies. I went back to the ladies' cabin. O Madame, Madame--"

Madame Deleha.s.se threw her arms about the girl and they pa.s.sed down the long cabin of the boat. Eddring turned to the clerk, grieved and wondering.

"Can you put these ladies ash.o.r.e at Algiers across the river?" asked he. "There has been a mistake. They don't want to go up river."

"They'll have to go, now," said the clerk. "We'll put them out at the ferry, up above a few miles. Best we can do. Algiers! Do you think we are running a street-car?"

"Very well," said Eddring. "Get two state-rooms, then. We'll go on up the river. You can put us ash.o.r.e sometime after daylight. We wanted to catch a train up country, but if we can't do that to-night, we'll try it from some stopping-place up river."

There had come to Eddring the lightning-like conviction that he was now suddenly flung into the chief crisis of his life. He looked hard at the widening gap of black water between him and the sh.o.r.e, and at the hurrying floods into which the boat was now beginning steadily to plow; but the night and the floods gave him no answer. He knew that he had taken upon himself responsibility for two women, one of whom he believed to have been practically a victim of abduction--this woman whom he had loved for years, had lost, and lost again, but who was now here, under his care, dependent on his own courage, his own resolution and decision. It was but for a moment that Eddring hesitated. The heart of the great boat throbbed on beneath him, but even with her strong pulse there rose his own resolve. He left the forward deck and pa.s.sed back to seek out the clerk.

"Go tell the captain of this boat to come to me," said he.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" the clerk asked.

"I must see the captain," Eddring answered with a wave of the hand, and again turned away. Perhaps it was the very stress of that moment which finally indeed brought Captain Wilson of the _Opelousas Queen_ into the presence of his enigmatical pa.s.senger.

"Well, sir?" cried Wilson, as he approached, "what can I do for _you?_"

"Captain Wilson," said Eddring, quietly, "I want to take your boat off her regular run. I have got to get up the river, and I am afraid the roads are wiped out."

The river-man's astonishment at this bade fair to end in explosion.

"My boat!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Quit my run?"

"Yes," said Eddring. "I'll explain to you later the necessity I have for getting up the river quickly--and why it means that I have got to have your boat."

"Have my boat!" said Wilson, his voice sinking into an inarticulate whisper. "And me with mail, and pa.s.sengers, and freight to leave from Plaquemine to St. Louis! Have my boat! Have my----"

"Put your pa.s.sengers off at Baton Rouge in the morning. Transfer your mails there. Let everything get through the best it can. It can wait.

As for me, I can't wait; I must go through direct."

Wilson endeavored to look at him calmly. "If you talk that way to me much longer," said he, "I'll say you're surely crazy."

"I'll see you about it in the morning," said Eddring, quietly. His singleness of purpose had its effect. Captain Wilson abruptly turned on his heel.

Meantime Miss Lady and Madame Delcha.s.se had drawn apart in their own excitement, exclaiming only against the fact that this boat, so far from crossing the river, was now forging steadily upstream. Along the distant bends there could be seen the black ma.s.ses of shadow, picked out here and there by the star-like points of the channel lights; while the low banks of the western sh.o.r.e, dimly indicated by the ferry lights, slowly slipped away.

"We are h'run away," cried Madame Delcha.s.se. "It is not to Algiers.

Ah, my angel, what fortune I am here!" Miss Lady silently pressed her hand, and they moved farther forward on the guards.

Eddring heard them talking, and knew the cause of their uneasiness.

He sat apart on the forward guards planning for a further attempt with Captain Wilson, and planning also for another meeting which he knew he might presently expect. He needed all his faculties at that moment, as he sat with his back to the rail, and his eyes commanding the approaches to the deck. He was waiting for what he knew would be the most exacting situation he had known in all his life--the encounter with Henry Decherd.

As for the latter, it had been his plan to absent himself from Miss Lady until after the boat should have swung well into the up-stream journey; then, he meant to do whatever might be necessary to carry out his main purpose. Abduction, compulsion, force--none of these things would have caused Henry Decherd to hesitate at this time of desperation. Miss Lady's sudden desertion and flight to the ladies'

cabin disconcerted him. The sound of Eddring's voice and that of madame filled him with dismay. He tried to compose himself, but found his nerves trembling. Hurrying to the bar, he sought aid in a gla.s.s of liquor. He knew there must be a reckoning. As he returned from the bar he met Madame Delcha.s.se with Miss Lady, and was obliged to speak.

"Madame, how did you come here?" he stammered. "Why, where is this boat going?"

"It is not go to Algiers, no?" said madame, freezingly. "By this time, Monsieur Decherd, I have expect mademoiselle to be at my 'ome."

"Why, we only wanted to run across the river together. We were coming home," protested Decherd. "We did not know this was an up-river boat."

Madame Delcha.s.se drew herself up magnificently. "I, Clarisse Delcha.s.se," said she, "have arrive'. I shall take care of mademoiselle." Decherd again began, but she interrupted him. "If it is not for this stranger, this Mr. Eddrang," said madame, "I am not here this moment to care for mademoiselle. What care have you take?

People would not talk, no? You to protect! Bah!" She slammed the gla.s.s door of the cabin in his face.

Decherd stood irresolute, ill-armed in the injustice of his quarrel.

He had not a moment to wait.

"Decherd!" The voice was John Eddring's.

Decherd turned. The silent watcher beside the rail had risen and was coming straight toward him.

CHAPTER IX

THE ACCUSER

Henry Decherd paused under the steadfast gaze which met him.

"Decherd," said Eddring, simply, "I want to talk to you. Come and sit down." They moved a pace or two forward, Eddring taking care that the other should sit facing the light which streamed through the gla.s.s doors of the cabin.

"Stop! Decherd, I wouldn't do that." Eddring glanced at the hand which Decherd would have moved toward a weapon. Eddring's own hands hung idly between his knees as he leaned forward in his chair.