DISAPPEARANCE OF THE RAFT.
When Winn and his new acquaintance stepped outside of the "shanty," it
did not seem to the boy that the river was falling, or that the raft
was in a particularly dangerous position. He would have liked to
examine more closely into its condition, but his companion so occupied
his attention by describing the manner in which he proposed to remove
the wheat, and so hurried him into the waiting skiff, that he had no
opportunity to do so.
The "river-traders'" camp was not visible from the raft, nor did Mr.
Gilder, who handled the oars, head the skiff in its direction. He
rowed diagonally up-stream instead, so as to land at some distance
above it. There he asked Winn to wait a few minutes until he should
discover in which direction his partners had gone. He explained that
one of them had been left in camp at a considerable distance from that
point, while he and the third had been rowing along the shore of the
island in opposite directions, searching for drift-logs. Thus he alone
had discovered the stranded raft. Now he wished to bring them to that
point, that they might see it for themselves before he explained the
proposed wheat deal. With this Mr. Gilder plunged directly into the
tall timber, leaving Winn alone on the river-bank.
It was fully fifteen minutes before the man returned to the waiting
lad, and he not only looked heated but anxious.
"I can't think what has become of those fellows!" he exclaimed,
breathlessly, as he wiped the moisture from his forehead with a cambric
handkerchief. "I've been clear to camp without finding a trace of
either of them. Now there is only one thing left for us to do in order
to get them here quickly. You and I must start around the island in
opposite directions, because if we went together we might follow them
round and round like a kitten chasing its tail. If you meet them,
bring them back here, and I will do the same. If you don't meet them,
keep on until you are half-way down the other side of the island, or
exactly opposite this point; then strike directly into the timber, and
so make a short-cut back here. In that way you will reach this place
again as soon as I, for the island isn't more than three hundred yards
wide just here. Be spry, now, and remember that the safety of your
raft depends largely upon the promptness with which we get those other
fellows here."
With this Mr. Gilder began to walk rapidly down the shore in the
direction he had chosen. Carried away by the man's impetuosity, Winn
did not hesitate to obey his instructions, but started at once in the
opposite direction. Mr. Gilder, noting this by a backward glance over
his shoulder, instantly halted and concealed himself behind a large
tree-trunk. From here he peered at the retreating figure of the boy
until it was no longer visible. Then he gave vent to the same peculiar
whistle with which Plater had announced his own approach to the log-hut
in the woods. The sound was immediately answered from no great
distance, whereupon Mr. Gilder hastened in that direction. A minute
later he returned, bringing a coil of stout rope, one end of which he
made fast to a tree on the bank. At the same time both Grimshaw and
Plater appeared, each bearing a large package securely wrapped in
canvas on his shoulder.
All three men entered the skiff and pulled out to the raft, carrying
the loose end of the rope with them. Mr. Gilder and Grimshaw quickly
returned to the land, leaving the burly Plater to make a vigorous
attack with an axe against the sides of one of the wheat bins. He soon
splintered and tore off a board, leaving an aperture through which a
broad stream of wheat rushed out on the deck of the raft. This Plater
began to shovel overboard, working with furious energy, as though
combating a hated enemy. In ten minutes both bins were empty, and so
much of the wheat had gone into the ever-rising waters that the raft,
which had been on the point of floating when Plater began his
operations, now did so, and swung in close to the bank at the end of
its new cable.
[Illustration: "A broad stream of wheat rushed out on the deck"]
In the mean time the other men had brought several skiff-loads of their
peculiar merchandise to the raft, and now it took but a few minutes to
transfer what remained on the bank directly to it. Even the tent,
which had been hastily torn down, together with a portion of their camp
outfit, was tossed aboard, and within fifteen minutes from the time of
Winn's departure the _Venture_, with its new crew at the sweeps, was
moving slowly out from the island, and gathering impetus from the
current for a continuance of its eventful voyage.
Without a suspicion that the gentlemanly stranger who had so kindly
smoothed away his culinary difficulties, and, while apparently willing
to assist him, was also anxious to make a good bargain for himself, was
anything but what he appeared to be, Winn made his way briskly towards
the head of the island. It was only after rounding it and starting
down the opposite side without seeing a sign of those whom he sought
that he began to have misgivings.
"I wonder if it is all right?" he said to himself. "What could be the
man's object in telling me that the raft was in a dangerous position if
she isn't? I declare I don't believe she is, though! She didn't look
it when I left, and I do believe the river is still rising. I wonder
if I haven't done a foolish thing in leaving the raft? If I have, the
best thing to do now is to get back as quickly as possible."
By this time the boy had worked himself into a fever of apprehension,
and, remembering what he had been told concerning the narrowness of the
island, he determined to make a short-cut across it. This was exactly
what the far-sighted Mr. Gilder had anticipated, and Winn fell an easy
victim to his artfully planned trap. For nearly an hour the boy,
versed in wood-craft as he was, wandered and struggled through the
dense undergrowth of that island forest. Suddenly, as he burst his way
through a thicket, he was confronted by the log-hut so lately occupied
by the "river-traders." Winn shouted as he approached it; but, of
course, received no reply. It had the lonely look of a place long
deserted, and the boy paused for but a single glance into its
uninviting interior. Then, getting his bearings anew by the sun that
was beginning to struggle through the clouds, he pushed his way
resolutely towards the western side of the island, which, somewhat to
his surprise, he reached a few minutes later.
He emerged from the timber at the abandoned camp of the traders; but
without stopping to examine it, he ran to the water's edge, and gazed
anxiously both up and down stream. There was no sign of the raft nor
of any moving object. "It must be farther up, around that point,"
thought Winn, and he hurried in that direction. From one point to
another he thus pursued his anxious way until the head of the island
was once more in sight. Then he knew that he must have passed the
place where the raft had been, and that it was gone.
As a realizing sense of how he had been duped and of his present
situation flashed through his mind, the poor boy sat down on a log, too
bewildered to act, or even to think.