"Sho', they'd got him! Sho'--he wa'n't no bigger than Richard!
Sho'!"
"Oh!" cried Betty, with a fearful glance toward the keel boat.
"Can't you stop them?"
"What fo'?" asked Polly, opening her black eyes very wide.
"Bless yo' tender heart!-you don't need to worry none, we got
them strange gentlemen licked like they was a passel of children!
Connie, you-all mind that fire!"
She accurately judged the outcome of the fight. The boat was
little better than a shambles with the havoc that had been
wrought there when Yancy and Carrington dropped over its side to
the raft. Cavendish followed them, whooping his triumph as he
came.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE RAFT AGAIN
Yancy and Cavendish threw themselves on the sweeps and worked the
raft clear of the keel boat, then the turbulent current seized
the smaller craft and whirled it away into the night; as its
black bulk receded from before his eyes the Earl of Lambeth spoke
with the voice of authority and experience.
"It was a good fight and them fellows done well, but not near
well enough." A conclusion that could not be gainsaid. He
added, "No one ain't hurt but them that had ought to have got
hurt. Mr. Yancy's all right, and so's Mr. Carrington--who's
mighty welcome here." The earl's shock of red hair was bristling
like the mane of some angry animal and his eyes still flashed
with the light of battle, but he managed to summon up an
expression of winning friendliness.
"Mr.
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