midday Sunday
And he would tell how , over here on this west side , Red River was yet only four miles away and actually sent Grand Cut-off Bayou across into the Mississippi , but likewise swerved away southward through seven leagues more of wet forest before it finally surrendered to the mightier stream . All this would he tell , without weariness , to one who loved his great river . Yet really he was in the pilot-house at this time not chiefly for the river , nor the girl , nor the _ Votaress _ , though the _ Votaress _ was new , with kinks of character quite her own and important to be learned . He was there because the stateroom given Hayle 's twins in the texas was next to his , and they , rarely in their life having restricted themselves to tones of privacy and being now especially in a state of storm and stress , had made sleep impossible even to a pilot off watch after a midday Sunday dinner . Lounging in his berth , he had overheard things which ought to be told to one Courteney or another early , though , of course , casually . Meantime he enjoyed not telling his partner , at whose back he quietly chatted while the partner stood with hands and foot on the wheel and with eyes well up the river , holding the jack-staff close to his `` mark '' far ahead in the next bend . `` I could n't stay , '' drawled Watson .