Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/217

 boat, and Silas Martin was chosen as the likeliest man to bring the precious freight to its destination. He had brought the transport safely up the river; he loved his life, and he loved his own word. Both were pledged to the young officers, who never left him, sleeping or waking.

"Is not the 'Crescent Queen' a very fast boat, Captain Martin?" asked Margaret.

"She is called so, miss. Colonel Lagrange there can tell you something of her speed."

But the Colonel only nodded an assent to this remark, and a few moments after drew Margaret to the other side of the deck, from which was to be had a view of a late crevasse. Half a hundred men were at work on the levee fighting the river which had brought desolation to the plantation and ruin to the crops. The lawn was still submerged, and the blossoms of the taller rose-bushes looked over the invading water, blighted, but not yet dead. A row-boat was moored outside the door of the manor-house, whose broad stone steps were half covered by the tide.

"What havoc the river has made here!" said Margaret. "But it was not only to see this that you brought me away from the others?"

"No, my dear young lady; you had opened a dangerous topic of conversation. The last time