Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/175

 "My lan'! What'd you come down the river for, if it wasn't to get to a place where you wouldn't have to be careful, an' could do as you please?"

"Why, that's so! Of course—I didn't think—you'd never say anything, or any one."

"You bet! And even if we did talk, what dif'rence would it make—down here? It ain't like it is up the bank. That's a real nice-lookin' young feller, too—if you cared about him."

"I do care a great deal about him, Mrs. Mahna—but I just couldn't help it. I had to send him away."

"Well, cook your goose to suit yourself—that's all I got to say."

Mrs. Mahna subsided, and Delia retired to the little stateroom, and in the dark of her bunk she sighed and smiled and chuckled.

"Dear old woman!" she thought. "Looking after me like that. And wasn't he sweet, behaving the way he did—not knowing, but going just to please me, just not to hurt my feelings. I wonder what the poor boy is thinking about, floating down that dark Fort Pillow Bend. If he'll only be careful. Oh, if anything should happen to him, I'd feel as though I'd killed him. But I was afraid—so afraid!"

The following day other boats began to drop into the Yankee Bar eddy, and tied into the bank. Some were old river people, who enjoyed the company,