“No danger of either!” said Paul cheerfully, “but I’m glad this is such a wide river.  So long as we can keep the boat straight there is not much risk of being driven into anything.”

Then everyone jumped suddenly to his feet.  There was a tremendous crash of thunder louder than all the rest, and the whole river swam for a moment in a burning glare.  The lightning seemed to have struck upon the surface of the water not far from them.  Then, when the lightning and the thunder passed, they heard only the wind and saw only the darkness.

“This ain’t so easy ez it looked,” said Shif’less Sol in a plaintive tone.  “It’s nice ridin’ on a boat, but if the lightning should strike ’The Gall-yun,’ whar are we?  I’d a heap rather be on the land.”

“That must have been its climax,” said Paul, “and if so look out for the rain.”

Paul was right.  The lightning began to decline in intensity and the thunder sank in volume.  The wind died rapidly.  Yet there was no increase of light, and presently they heard afar a rushing sound.  Great drops beat like hail upon their tarpaulin, and all except the man who was steering snuggled to cover.  The steersman happened to be Shif’less Sol this time, and he wrapped one of the new Spanish blankets tightly around him from heel to throat.

“Now let it come,” murmured the indomitable man.

It took him at his word and it came with a sweep and a roar.  The heavens opened and a deluge fell out.  The thunder and lightning ceased entirely and from the black skies the rain poured in amazing quantities.  Now and then all except the steersman were forced to bail out the boat, but mostly they kept to cover under their tarpaulin, which was a good one.

Shif’less Sol held the good ship “The Galleon,” in the middle of the current, and all the time he strained his eyes ahead for floating debris and particularly for the terrible snags which were such a danger in the early Mississippi.  Keen as were his eyes, he could see little ahead of him but the black water, now beaten into a comparatively smooth plain by the steady rain.

Shif’less Sol had taken off his cap and the rain drove steadily on the back of his head; but his body, thanks to the thick blanket wrapped so tightly around his neck, remained dry.

Shif’less Sol was not uncomfortable.  Neither was he alarmed or unhappy.  There was a strain of chivalry and romance in his forest-bred soul, and the situation appealed to him.  He was in a strong boat, his four faithful comrades were with him, and he was piercing a new mystery, that of a vast and unknown river.  The spirit that has always driven on the great explorers and adventurers thrilled in every nerve of Solomon Hyde, nicknamed the Shiftless One, but not at all deserving the title.

The boat went steadily on in the blackness and the rain, and Sol’s soul swelled jubilantly within him.  He could see perhaps thirty or forty feet ahead of him over the smooth plain of black water, and at an equal distance to right and left the black wall rose, also.  So far as feeling went, the land might be a thousand miles away, and he was glad of it.