He Reached The Bar And
Grounded The Boat In Shallow Water; But By That Time The Flames Had
Closed Around Him, And In Escaping Through Them He Was Fatally Burned.
He Had Been Urged To Fly Sooner, But Had Replied As Became A Pilot To
Reply -
'I will not go.
If I go, nobody will be saved; if I stay, no one will
be lost but me. I will stay.'
There were two hundred persons on board, and no life was lost but the
pilot's. There used to be a monument to this young fellow, in that
Memphis graveyard. While we tarried in Memphis on our down trip, I
started out to look for it, but our time was so brief that I was obliged
to turn back before my object was accomplished.
The tug-boat gossip informed me that Dick Kennet was dead - blown up,
near Memphis, and killed; that several others whom I had known had
fallen in the war - one or two of them shot down at the wheel; that
another and very particular friend, whom I had steered many trips for,
had stepped out of his house in New Orleans, one night years ago, to
collect some money in a remote part of the city, and had never been seen
again - was murdered and thrown into the river, it was thought; that Ben
Thornburgh was dead long ago; also his wild 'cub' whom I used to quarrel
with, all through every daylight watch. A heedless, reckless creature
he was, and always in hot water, always in mischief.
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