"I am not sure that I quite understood the beginning of it," she said doubtfully. "Two men, the white man and a negro, went ashore to untie the boat. They both jumped from the stage while it was going up, and it was the white man who untied the rope alone. After the boat began to swing away from the bank, he saw that the other man was hurt and went to help him. Mr. M'Grath was angry and he shouted at them to come aboard. With the boat going away from the shore, they couldn't; so the white man ran and tied the rope again. Am I getting it awfully mixed up?"
"Not at all," said the captain. "What happened then?"
"The white man lifted the negro to the deck, untied the rope again, and climbed on just as the boat was swinging away the second time. Mr. M'Grath was furious. He fought his way to where the white man was standing over the hurt negro and struck at him. The next thing I knew, Mr. M'Grath was overboard and right down here in front of the paddle-wheel, and the man he had tried to strike was jumping in after him. I thought they would both be ground to death under the wheel."
"Is that all?"
"All but the rescue. The pilot turned the Belle Julie around and they were picked up. Mr. M'Grath was unconscious, and the other man was too weak to stand up."
Captain Mayfield nodded. "He was sick when he came to us: consumption, Mac said."
Miss Farnham was a doctor's daughter, and she had seen many victims of the white death.
"I think that must have been a mistake," she ventured. "He doesn't look at all like a tuberculosis patient."
Again the captain was curious.
"How could you tell, at that distance and in the night?" he asked quizzically.