H2 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
So Ealer took a seat on the bench, panting and breathless. The
black phantom assumed the wheel without saying anything, steadied
the waltzing steamer with a turn or two, and then stood at ease,
coaxing her a little to this side and then to that, as gently and as
sweetly as if the time had been noonday. When Ealer observed this
marvel of steering, he wished he had not confessed ! He stared, and
wondered, and finally said—
* Well, I thought I knew how to steer a steamboat, but that was
another mistake of mine/
2L said nothing, but went serenely on with his work. He rang
for the leads \ he rang to slow down the steam; he worked the boat
carefully and neatly into invisible marks, then stood at the centre of
the wheel and peered blandly out into the blackness, fore and aft, to
verify his position; as the leads shoaled more and more, he stopped
the engines entirely, and the dead silence and suspense of * drifting *
followed when the shoalest water was struck, he cracked on the
steam, carried her handsomely over, and then began to work her
warily into the nes± system of shoal marks; the same patient, heed-
ful use of leads and engines followed, the boat slipped through
without touching bottom, and entered upon the third and last
intricacy of the crossing; imperceptibly she moved through the
gloom, crept by inches into her marks, drifted tediously till the
shoalest water was cried, and then, under a tremendous head of
steam, went swinging over the reef and away into deep water and
safety!
Ealer let his long-pent breath pour out in a great, relieving sigh,
and said—
* That's the sweetest piece of piloting that was ever done on the
Mississippi River 1 I wouldn't believed it could be done, if I hadn't
seen it.'
There was no reply, and he added—
1 Just hold her five minutes longer, partner, and let me run down
and gob a cup of coffee.'
A minute later Ealer was biting into a pie, down in the ' texas/
and comforting himself with coffee. Just then the night watchman
happened in, and was about to happen out again, when he noticed
E&ler and exclaimed—