"Not among the black boys, I'm afraid. Now and then a white man drifts into a crew, but that's a different matter."
"Worse, usually. It's a pretty poor stick of a white man that can't find something better than 'rousting' on a steamboat."
Here was her chance, and she took it courageously.
"Haven't you one man in the _Belle Julie's_ crew who has earned a better recommendation than that, Captain Mayfield?"
"You mean that sick hobo who went into the river after M'Grath last night? I didn't know that story had got back to the ladies' cabin."
"It hasn't. But I know it because I was looking on. I couldn't sleep, and I had gone out to see them make a night landing. Why do you call him 'the sick hobo'?"
The captain was paying strict attention now, looking at her curiously from beneath the grizzled eyebrows. But he saw only the classic profile.
"That's what he is--or at least, what he let on to be when he shipped with us," he replied. Then: "You say you saw it: tell me what happened."
"I am not sure that I quite understood the beginning of it," she said doubtfully. "Two men, the white man and a negro, went ashore to untie the boat. They both jumped from the stage while it was going up, and it was the white man who untied the rope alone. After the boat began to swing away from the bank, he saw that the other man was hurt and went to help him. Mr. M'Grath was angry and he shouted at them to come aboard. With the boat going away from the shore, they couldn't; so the white man ran and tied the rope again. Am I getting it awfully mixed up?"
"Not at all," said the captain. "What happened then?"
"The white man lifted the negro to the deck, untied the rope again, and climbed on just as the boat was swinging away the second time. Mr. M'Grath was furious. He fought his way to where the white man was standing over the hurt negro and struck at him. The next thing I knew, Mr. M'Grath was overboard and right down here in front of the paddle-wheel, and the man he had tried to strike was jumping in after him. I thought they would both be ground to death under the wheel."
"All but the rescue. The pilot turned the _Belle Julie_ around and they were picked up. Mr. M'Grath was unconscious, and the other man was too weak to stand up."