The Captain shook his head, knowingly. "There you're wrong, young man. It takes a youngster to remember things. I'll wager, sir, she can tell you every one of the changes that's taken place since she left here. And if you're going to Natchez, and I believe you said you were,—well, sir, she'll find enough changes there. Whew! but it makes me feel kinder like it's time for me to be turning in my checks when I look around the old town and see the difference."
With a shake of his rugged frame, he went nearer the railing to better scan the shore. Already they could see the line of carriages and the brilliant colours of the crowd assembled to meet the boat. Some smaller craft had left the town landing and gone forward to salute the new boat, waving colours and blowing their whistles with royal welcome.
"All of them seem to know you, Captain," the stranger remarked, when the Captain had called greetings to some men in a small boat.
"Yes, siree, they know me! Well, they ought to. I've been plying up and down here among 'em for many a year, and I know pretty nearly every blamed man between St. Louis and New 'leans; and every house, too," he added, his eyes resting humourously upon an old two story building very near the shore. "Yes, sir, nearly every one of these places has something to say to me about what's gone afore. You see that shanty? Well, sir, that used to be the biggest gambling den in the whole of this country. The fellows were run out of town and they built this place just outside the limits, and once, when I was a-takin' a crowd of gentlemen down here from St. Louis on a round trip, we stopped off at the town for a day, and will you believe me, sir, every blamed one of them gentlemen went and got drunk and got mixed up wit them gamblers, and when they come back to the boat damned if they had a cent—not a one of 'em. That lot of scoundrels had just fleeced 'em. Well, sir, I just made up my mind that I wasn't goin' to put up with such tom-foolery, even if them town folks was bluffed out by the gang, and I set to work to think how I could get back the money my passengers had dropped. So I lets my boat drift down from the landing till I gets afore that very shanty there, sir; then I stops her and hollers for somebody to come out and talk to me—but they had no intention of comin' out in broad daylight. Finally I lets off a load of buckshot against one of them windows, and that brought one of the damn rascals to the door. Says I, 'I want the money you stole from my passengers, you dirty scoundrel!' Says he—'Why don't you come off that dugout and get it?' and slams the door. 'Well,' says I to myself, 'I reckon I'll show him a thing or two!' So I makes two niggers swim ashore with a coil of rope and tells 'em to run clear round the house with it and bring both ends back to the boat. You see that made a circle of the buildin', with me a-holdin' both ends. I gets the line fastened tight, and then calls down to the engineer to back off easy-like—just enough to make the rope taut. Then I stops. Says I, callin' ashore—'I've got the deadwood on you now. Will you come to time?' But they wasn't a-thinkin' that way, so I backs off a little more, and then the old shanty begins to creak. Just a little more and the whole damn house would a-tumbled over. It brought 'em to life, though! The whole gang jumped out of the windows and doors and everywhere, and one of 'em called out that he'd give me the money back if I'd hold up. Well, sir," he nodded toward the building, "you see she's still a-standin' there."
The stranger joined the Captain in his hearty, infectious laughter. "It's a great old country you have down here," he commented a few minutes later. "The more I hear of it, the more I wonder how in the world Sargent Everett ever made his way, in such surroundings."
Captain Mentdrop wheeled suddenly, his wrinkled old features showing a new interest.
"D'you know Sargent Everett?"
"I should think I did! We went to college together."
The old Captain extended his hand. "Let's shake," he said. "I think more of that youngster than anybody else in the world. If you're his friend, I'm yours."
"I'm very glad to hear it. Do you know," the stranger answered, meeting the Captain's look with a keener interest, "I haven't seen him since we parted at college. I hardly think that I would know him now—and particularly since he has grown so famous."