Then Ramsey--not drooping a lash--"I love the river."
She nodded, and still they looked. At length said Hugh:
"I tried hard to make friends with the twins, but----"
"They wouldn't. I know. Mr. Watson told Mrs. Gilmore."
"Yet a while ago, on the strength of it, they sent for me, to ask me to ask my father to indorse their note."
Ramsey gasped: "You declined, of course?"
"Yes, but I told those other two passengers if they cast another card with any of your brothers they'd go ashore, themselves, as quick as the boat could land."
Ramsey turned and gazed out on the subsiding storm. "Why are the senator and the general down there?"
"Weapons. I know. Mr. Watson told Mrs. Gilmore. I thought that was settled."
"To get the twins away from the senator and the general, and their brother away from them and back to his----"
"Sister!" softly laughed Ramsey. "Oh, not to mom-a! just to me! I'll go--" She started, but Hugh said:
"To you, yes, when my father has put him in a way to cover his loss without telling your mother."
Their eyes met again. Hers were bright and wet with accusal. "Is that _your_ proposition?"
She whipped round and gazed out again over the tawny waters. To gaze out beside her he came so near that they almost touched. The shores were once more a clear picture, greener than ever and unvexed by the wind. The rain was slight and fine. The boat was swinging northward toward a small blue rift in the gray. At the room's farther door the mate was leaving the Gilmores for the forecastle.
Without a stir she asked: "Why don't _you_ bring Basile?"
The surprised girl glanced across at the players.
Side by side they also were gazing out and speaking low. "I'd like to know why with them."
She faintly tossed, gazing out again: "Why 'must'?"
"Haven't you told your father yet--about--Phyllis? Humph!--had to practise on me first."
"Yes. But there's a better reason--for everything I've ever told you."
She slowly faced him, and he added: "I want your help."
"Yes, for them too now. They're in real danger."
"Fr'--from what? Not--not from--my brothers?"
"The twins, yes, and the general, John the Baptist, and a dozen more. They've guessed it out that the Gilmores----"
Hugh was mute. She glanced round at the players' backs and then again at him, asking with soft abruptness: