RUPERT MAKES A DISCOVERY.
It was not easy for Rupert to form plans in his present destitute
condition. The money which he had lost was a minor consideration. The
boat and provisions were much more important.
Besides this, he still had his gun and his watch. Both these were likely
to prove useful.
He wondered a little why Ben had not taken the watch. But his wonder
diminished when he remembered that Boone had told him one day that he
had never owned a watch.
"How, then, do you tell time?" Rupert inquired.
"By the sun," answered Ben.
Rupert had tested him more than once, and found that from long and close
observation his guide could always guess within a few minutes of the
correct time. To Ben the watch had no value, and it didn't occur to him
that he might raise money on it when he reached the settlements.
Rupert felt that he must lose no time in forming some plan of reaching
the point from which he started. He went down to the river, faintly
hoping that he might see Ben returning in the skiff, but this he owned
to himself was extremely improbable.
Ben was ten, perhaps fifteen miles on the way back. What his object
could have been in playing him such a dastardly trick, or what possible
excuse he could make to Giles Packard for returning alone, Rupert could
not conjecture.
He took it for granted that Boone would go back to his old home at Red
Gulch. He did not dream of his plan of going to New York. If he had,
this would have explained his sudden defection.
Rupert stood on the shore of the river and looked up the stream.
Everything was calm and placid, and lonely. At the East he would have
seen houses, on the banks and passing boats, but here he found himself
alone with nature.
Without thinking especially what he was doing, he started to walk up
stream, that is, along the river bank in an easterly direction.
"If I could only come across a boat," he soliloquized, "no matter how
poor, I should think it a piece of great luck."
But it was too great luck for him. Still he kept on walking and looking
about him, but he not only saw no boat, but no indication of any human
presence.
He had walked quite five miles, as he judged from the passage of time,
when at last he made a discovery. Moored to the bank was a dismantled
raft, if such an expression is allowable. Rupert remembered now that on
their trip down the river Boone had called his attention to it, saying:
"It must have been left there by some party of travelers."
Rupert little thought how serviceable this would prove to him.
His eyes lighted up with joy, for he hailed the finding of the raft as a
good omen, and foresaw how important it would prove to him.
"But was it in a condition for use?"
That was the important question.
Rupert bent down and examined it critically. The boards were still
pretty firm, though water-soaked, and seemed to be securely fastened
together. The rope that fastened it to the small sapling on the bank was
quite rotten, and it was a wonder that it had not parted.
Rupert pulled on it to see how secure it was, and it broke. This,
however, was of little consequence. He selected a long stick to serve as
an oar, and getting on the raft, pushed out into the stream.
The stick, however, made a very poor substitute for an oar. Still he
found that it was of some use.
But just as he was starting he discovered, almost covered with
underbrush, the paddle which had probably been used by the parties who
had constructed and used the raft. This worked tolerably well, and he
was glad to have found it.
At last he was ready, and started on his journey. He found his progress
slow, and his task toilsome. Still he was making progress, and that was
encouraging.
How rapid this progress he could only conjecture. It might be two miles
an hour; probably it was not more than that, and he was obliged to
confess with a sinking of the heart that it would take a very long time
at this rate before he would get back.
He had tugged away possibly three hours, when his strength began to give
out. He began to feel faint and hungry, especially as his breakfast had
not been very satisfying.
Then, for the first time, with a sinking heart, he realized that he had
made a serious blunder. What few provisions were left after breakfast he
had left behind him, and he was absolutely without a mouthful to eat.