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Updated: June 24, 2025
These were sort of hit-or-miss, between-the-acts affairs, to which he paid little attention. To Nelia, however, they represented a rite as valid as any solemn court procedure could be, for to her river-trained instinct there was no moral question as to the justice of her claim upon a part of Carline's fortune.
Beyond Chester Nelia had left no trace, and there was nothing even to indicate whether she had taken the river steamer, the railroad train, or gone into flight with someone who was unknown and unsuspected. When Carline, sobered and regretful, began to make searching inquiries, he learned that there were a score, or half a hundred men for whom Old Crele had acted as a hunter's and fisher's guide.
Nelia Crele had laughed in her heart at Elijah Rasba as he sat there listening to her reading. She knew what she was doing to the mountain parson! She played with his feelings, touched strings of his heart that had never been touched before, teased his eyes with a picture of feminine grace, stirred his mind with the sense of a woman who was bright and who knew so much that he had never known.
A gust of chill wind swept down out of the sky, rippling the surface and roaring through the woods up the bank. The gust was followed by a raw calm and further blanketing of the few stars that penetrated the veil of mist. He had in mind the further pursuit of Nelia, and hauling in his anchor he pulled out into mid-current and then by lamp-light prepared his breakfast.
When the laughter had subsided, Rasba said: "The reason I was asking, as I came by the River Forks I found a little red boat there with a man on the cabin floor shot through " "Dead?" Nelia gasped. "No, just kind of pricked up a bit, into one shoulder. He said a lady shot him because he 'lowed to land into the same eddy with her." "But where ?" Nelia half-whispered. "Where did he go?"
For a long time his finite mind was without inspiration, without understanding, and then he choked with terror and regret. He had beguiled himself into believing that it was his duty to take care of Nelia Crele, the fair woman of the river. He had believed only too readily that his duty lay where his heart's desire had been most eager. He sat there in dumb horror at the sin which had blinded him.
The four talked as the two packed up. One of them suddenly looked sharply at Nelia: "You dropping down alone?" She hesitated, and then laughed: "Yes." "It's none of my business," the man said, doubtfully, "but it's a mean old river, some ways. A lady alone might get into trouble. River pirates, you know." It was a challenge.
Nelia, having plagued the soul of the River Prophet, Rasba, now with equal zest turned to seize Terabon, careless of where the game ended if only she could begin it and carry it on to her own music and in her own measure.
You have shown yourself to be a mere soak, a creature of appetite and vice, and with no redeeming mental traits whatever. I hate you, and worse yet, I despise you. Get a divorce get another woman the widow is about your calibre. But, I give you fair warning, leave me alone. I'm sick of men. Nelia. Elijah Rasba stalked homeward from the still in the dark, grimly and expectantly erect.
He had thrown her down and gone back to the grass widow's the night before. Nelia considered that grim fact, and, having made up her mind, acted. In her years of poverty she had learned many things, and now she put into service certain practical ideas. She had certain rights, under the law, since she had taken the name of Augustus Carline.
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