"Just hold her five minutes longer, partner, and let me run down and get
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 Ealer and
exclaimed:--
"Who is at the wheel, sir?"
"X."
"Dart for the pilot-house, quicker than lightning!"
The next moment both men were flying up the pilot-house companion-way,
three steps at a jump! Nobody there! The great steamer was whistling
down the middle of the river at her own sweet will! The watchman shot
out of the place again; Ealer seized the wheel, set the engine back with
power, and held his breath while the boat reluctantly swung away from a
"towhead" which she was about to knock into the middle of the Gulf of
Mexico!