“Ah, and I’m lawless!” cried Io. “I could defy the gods on a night like this!”
She flung her arms aloft, in a movement of sweet, wild abandon, and, as if in response to an incantation, the sky was reft asunder and the moon rushed forth, free for the moment of the clutching clouds, fugitive, headlong, a shining Maenad of the heavens, surrounded by the rush and whirl that had whelmed earth and its waters and was hurrying them to an unknown, mad destiny.
“Now we can see our way,” said Banneker, the practical.
He studied the few rods of sleek, foamless water between him and the farther bank, and, going to the steel boat which Mindle had brought to the place on the hand car, took brief inventory of its small cargo. Satisfied, he turned to load in Io’s few belongings. He shipped the oars.
“I’ll let her go stem-first,” he explained; “so that I can see what we’re coming to and hold her if there’s trouble.”
“But can you see?” objected Miss Van Arsdale, directing a troubled look at the breaking sky.
“If we can’t, we’ll run her ashore until we can.”
He handed Io the flashlight and the map.
“You’ll want me in the bow seat if we’re traveling reversed,” said she.
He assented. “Good sailorwoman!”