The governor looked in stupefaction at the unmoved young arksman who spoke with so little deference, and yet from such an honest pride. Then he threw back his head and laughed boyishly, loud and long. The colonel, after glaring a moment, also threw his head back, and Jimmy, after looking doubtfully from one to the other, joined them.
“I’ll bear it in mind,” the governor said. “If there is anything to see, by Jupiter, you shall see it, and more thereafter. But now, colonel, how about the sick men up the bayou? They must be gotten out of there. Can’t we send up some men and put them aboard their ark and fetch them out where they’ll have a chance for life and limb?”
“We certainly will,” said the commandant, and they were soon deep in ways and means.
The head of Big Harp the colonel delivered to an orderly whom he called to him, to be guarded until morning, when it should be displayed on the Natchez trace, as a warning to all outlaws and a protection to the pioneers along the river.
“The bounty will be paid to you,” he promised Jimmy, as he sent the two boys away in command of a barge-load of men and a surgeon.
“I’d rather not take it, sir,” said Jimmy. “It would be blood money. Spend it in making the river safer for the arksmen. I’m mighty grateful to you for arranging to get us out of the bayou with our cargo, and if we can land it at New Orleans and sell it and get home with all safe, we’ll count ourselves lucky enough.”
“The river is open,” said the colonel. “You’ll have no trouble with the Spaniards. They got frightened when they heard about the Independent Army you arksmen were organizing, and have restored the right of deposit. But with all this rumor of a French invasion threatening, no one will buy goods. I’m afraid we can’t help you there, so you’d better accept the money, though your unwillingness does you credit, I’ll be bound.”
“I’d rather not, sir,” answered Jimmy, “and the others didn’t have half as much trouble with him as I did. I’d rather you’d use it to protect the rivermen.”
The governor, who was still with them, clapped his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “You’re one of us, all right,” he said. “The colonel will keep it in trust for you, to buy land—or get an education at the University of Virginia, where the rest of the family have gotten their learning. Would that suit you?”
“I’ve got plenty of land,” said Jimmy, doubtfully, “and I expect I’d never come to be governor even if I went to the University. I reckon it had better go into protection for the arksmen along the river. I’ll be comin’ down occasionally myself, and I’d like to feel that my money is out keepin’ watch along shore somewhere, or else helping to fit out explorers in the wilderness, like Uncle Amasa’s always pining to. I reckon that would suit me best.”