"Privacy is desirable. I have disposed of my coach and horses with less loss than I had feared. If boats are not too high in price—"
"Rest easy as to that, señor. Boats are one of the cheapest products of the shipping towns. The question first to decide is whether you prefer a keelboat or a flat."
"Señor, I must rely upon your good advice," he replied.
I pointed at the swollen, turbid current of the Monongahela, swirling high along its banks. "As you see, the river is in full flood. It is what the rivermen term the Spring fresh. The Ohio now runs no less swiftly, at times fully eight miles an hour. I should advise you to choose a flat, because it will travel little less speedily than a bateau, and with its house, will prove a far more comfortable craft for so long a voyage."
"Comfort is an important consideration, doctor. With me travels my niece, whom you may remember."
I kept such command of my features as I could. "I have a clear memory of Señorita Vallois. It is unfortunate."
"Unfortunate!" he exclaimed, with a lift of his black brows.
"That you have no servant skilled in handling a river boat."
"Ah—that!"
"A single man could manage your flat, provided you were willing to lend a hand on occasion at steer-oar or pole—a few minutes, it might be, once or twice a day. There are, as I have said, numbers of skilled rivermen to be hired. But—" I paused as if to consider—"No. I could bring you more than one for whose faithfulness I could vouch, but none who is not foul-mouthed and—to a foreigner—insolent."