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 of copper, the full import of the man's presence dawned upon her.

"Wut yuh doin' here now?" she demanded of him in a tense whisper; "when de ribber boat ain't due back fuh annoder day?"

The question stirred her customer's consciousness to a faint gleam of life; but it did not vitalize it sufficiently for adroit prevarication.

"I miss de boat dis trip," he managed to articulate. "I take er drink wid er frien', and when I git tuh de wharf, de boat done gone."

Two powerful hands gripped his shoulders and flung him back against the wall. He opened his eyes wide and looked into a face of such cold ferocity that his loose lips emitted a sudden "Oh, Jedus!" and he became immediately sober, and very much afraid.

Then Maria poured into his ears words that had the heat and dead weight of molten lead.

"Now I goin' lock yuh up in dat closet till de ribber boat is back at de wharf," she concluded. "Den I goin' let yuh loose. But I all de time goin' be where I kin git my hand on yuh again. Ef yuh ebber tells Porgy, or any libbin' soul, dat yuh ain't de-