Cal Davidson took on five drums of petrol at Cairo, and a like amount
of champagne at Memphis, and no man may tell what other supplies at
this or that other point along the river. He evidently suspected no
pursuit, or, if he did, was a swaggering varlet enough, for, according
to all accounts which we could get, he loitered and lingered along,
altogether at his leisure, with due attention to social matters at
every port; for if he had not a wife at every port, at least, he had
an acquaintance of business or social sort, so that, one might be
sure, there were few dull moments for him and his party, whether
afloat or ashore. He must have attended a dinner-party and two
theaters at Memphis, and have sailed only after making three thousand
dollars out of a combination in champagne present and cotton future,
whose disgusting details I did not seek to learn. Trust Davidson to
make money, and to make the most of life also as he went along. He
always had the best of everything; and surely now he had, for the
leisurely, ease-seeking Belle Helène, not actuated by any vast
motive beyond that of the bee and the honey flower, slipped on down
and ahead with perfect ease, while we, grimy, slow, determined, plowed
on in her wake losing miles each hour the graceful Belle Helène
chose to show us her light disdainful heels, serenely indifferent
because wholly ignorant of our existence.
But we held to the chase as true pirates, not loitering at any port,
and--since now I, also, had learned something of the intricacies of
our engine, and could take a trick while the others slept--running
twice the hours daily the haughty yacht would deign to log. I knew
that Cal Davidson would stop to shoot and to visit, and knew that he
could, by no human means, be induced to pass any telegraph point where
the daily standing of the baseball clubs could be learned--he counted
that day lost in which he did not learn the scores. As for myself, I
have never been able to understand how any grown man or any one
ungrown can take any interest whatever in the deeds of hired
ball-playing Hessians, who have back of them neither patriotism nor
even a municipal pride. But, for once, I was joyed that the organized
business sense of a few men had put an otherwise able citizen under
tribute, because now, though the Belle Helène must pause at least
daily, the Sea Rover need do no such thing.
Nor did we. We were hot on the trail of the enemy as he flew south
along the Chickasha Bluffs, hot as he left Memphis behind, and taking
the widening waters which now wandered through low forest lands,
reached out for the next city of size, historic Vicksburg on her
seventy hills. And hot and eager, more than ever, were we when,
chugging around the head of that vast arm of the river, where it
curves like a boy of some southern sea, with its heights rising beyond
and afar, we saw what caused me to exclaim aloud, "At last! There she
lies, my hearties!"