And indeed, the
Canadian's face assumed a graver mien after the Walnut Hills were behind
us.
"You laugh, Michie," he said to Nick, a little resentfully. "I who speak
to you say that there is four foot on each side of ze bateau. Too much
tafia, a little too much excite--" and he made a gesture with his hand
expressive of total destruction; "ze tornado, I would sooner have him--"
"Bah!" said Nick, stroking Xavier's black beard, "give me the tiller. I
will see you through safely, and we will not spare the tafia either."
And he began to sing a song of Xavier's own:--
"'Marianson, dame jolie,
Ou est alle votre mari?'"
"Ah, toujours les dames!" said Xavier. "But I tell you, Michie, le
diable,--he is at ze bottom of ze Grand Gulf and his mouth open--so."
And he suited the action to the word.
At night we tied up under the shore within earshot of the mutter of the
place, and twice that night I awoke with clinched hands from a dream of
being spun fiercely against the rock of which Xavier had told, and sucked
into the devil's mouth under the water. Dawn came as I was fighting the
mosquitoes,--a still, sultry dawn with thunder muttering in the distance.
We breakfasted in silence, and with the crew standing ready at the oars
and Xavier scanning the wide expanse of waters ahead, seeking for that
unmarked point whence to embark on this perilous journey, we floated down
the stream.
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