“I fail to grasp your meaning, friend,” I retorted, nettled to be held at the oars so long in that current.  “We are honest voyagers, glad to be of aid to any one in such distress as you seem to be.”

“Nay; I am not especially uncomfortable, unless my tobacco is soaked, and if such disaster hath overtaken me, it shall yet go hard with those blaspheming idolaters who cast me overboard.  But thy language is that of modern Israel, so I will join you in the boat.  ’Tis the more readily done as I have not tasted food since yesternoon, and possess a hollowness within my physical temple which demandeth attention.  The spirit yieldeth to the craving of the flesh.”

“Catch hold upon the side,” I ordered, as he drew near.  “We will have you ashore in a dozen strokes.”

The stranger did as I bade him, and it was truly a wondrous sight to observe how his head glowed in the sun as the drops of moisture dried, and brought out the full, ornate color of it.  His face had a pinched look, with thousands of little wrinkles leading away from the corners of the wide mouth, and about the narrow, glinting gray eyes.  But there was a sly gleam of humor about the expression of it, which, taken in connection with that fiery headpiece, nearly caused me a fit of laughter.  I noticed, however, that Madame drew slightly away from his side of the boat, as if close proximity to the fellow were repugnant to her.

“Well, friend,” said I, as we drew up in shoal water under lee of the rock, and I noted his short legs and stocky chest, “no doubt you are well water-logged, and a little healthful exercise will help to warm your blood, especially as we dare not light a fire for such purpose.  So bend that broad back of yours, and aid us in lifting the boat to cover.”

He performed his portion of the work well, bearing with apparent ease fully one-half the burden, while De Noyan and I staggered beneath the remainder, until together we sank the boat well out of sight behind the thick brush.

“And why not a fire?” the stranger questioned abruptly, noticing Eloise spreading forth our stock of provisions on the grass.  “It was in hope of thus warming the inner man that I consented to come ashore and companion with you.  Are you refugees, fleeing from danger?”

I glanced aside at De Noyan and muttered hastily in French, “It will be best to tell him our story—­’tis not likely he will prove an emissary of Spain.”

“As you please; he is more of your class than mine,” he returned indifferently, and, with a shrug of the shoulders, strolled away.

“You have made fairly correct guess,” I said to our new acquaintance; “so we may as well understand each other first as last.  We have escaped with our lives from New Orleans, and are now seeking refuge on the Ohio.”

He nodded, his shrewd gray eyes fastened intently on my face, his own countenance expressionless.

“Who holdeth New Orleans?” he asked in a tone of interest.