REWARD RUNS AWAY WITH THE PANORAMA.
There was not the slightest doubt that the canoe, covered by a bit of
canvas, which had rested all this time on the upper deck of the
_Whatnot_, was the very one whose loss had grieved Winn almost as much
as that of the raft itself. If he had needed proof other than his
certain knowledge of the little craft, it was at hand; for, as he
pointed out to Billy Brackett, there were his initials, rudely cut with
a jack-knife, just inside the gunwale. How well he remembered carving
them, one sunny afternoon, when he and Elta were drifting down the
creek! Yes, indeed, it was his canoe fast enough, but how came it
there? There was but one way to obtain an answer, and in another
minute Cap'n Cod was being plied with eager questions as to when,
where, and how he came into possession of the dugout.
"That canoe?" he questioned slowly, looking from one to the other, and
wondering at their eagerness. "Why, I bought it off a raft just before
leaving Dubuque. You see, I didn't have any skiff, and didn't feel
that I could afford to buy one. So I was calculating to build one
after we'd got started. Then a raft came along, and the fellows on it
must have been awfully hard up, for they offered to sell their canoe so
cheap that I just had to take it. Two dollars was all I gave for it;
and though it isn't exactly--"
"But what sort of a raft was it?" anxiously interrupted Winn.
"Just an ordinary timber raft with a 'shanty' and a tent on it, and--"
"You mean three 'shanties,' don't you?"
"No; one 'shanty' and a tent. I took particular notice, because as
there were only three men aboard, I wondered why the 'shanty,' which
looked to be real roomy, wasn't enough."
"Three men!" exclaimed Billy Brackett--"a big man, a middle-sized man,
and a little man, like the bears in the story-book. Why Winn, that's
our raft, and I've been aboard it twice within the last four days."
"You have! Where? How? Why didn't you tell me? Where is it now?"
"Oh, I have been aboard it here and there. Didn't mention it because I
haven't been acquainted with you long enough to post you in every
detail of my previous history, and now that raft is somewhere down the
river, between here and St. Louis." Then changing his bantering tone,
the young engineer gave a full explanation of how he happened to board
the _Venture_ twice, and when he finished, Winn said,
"But you haven't mentioned the wheat. Didn't you notice it?"
"Wheat! Oh yes. I do remember your father saying he had put some
wheat aboard as a speculation; but I didn't see anything of any wheat,
nor was there any place where it could have been concealed."
"Then they must have thrown it overboard, as I was afraid they had, and
there was a thousand dollars' worth of it, too."
"Whew! Was there as much as that?" said Billy Brackett, thoughtfully.
"So those rascals first stole it, and then threw it away, and now there
is a thousand dollars reward offered for information that will lead to
their capture. I declare, Winn, circumstances do sometimes alter
cases."
"Indeed they do, and I think we ought to accept that reward, for
father's sake. I know I feel as if I owed him at least a thousand
dollars."
"Did you ever cook a rabbit before you caught it, Winn?"
"Of course not. How absurd! Oh, I see what you mean, but I don't
think it's the same thing at all. We can't help finding the raft, now
that we know where it is, and just what it looks like."
Billy Brackett only laughed at this, and then, in obedience to
Sabella's call, they went down to supper. The engine was stopped that
it also might be fed, and for an hour the _Whatnot_ was allowed to
drift with only Solon on deck. Then Reward was again set to work, and
until ten o'clock the unique craft spun merrily down-stream. From that
hour the engine was allowed to rest until morning; and while they
drifted, the crew divided the watches of the night between them, Cap'n
Cod and Winn taking one, and Billy Brackett with Solon for company the
other.
At midnight Sabella had a lunch ready for the watch just coming below,
as well as for the one about to turn out; and then, wrapped warmly in a
blanket, she sat for an hour on the upper deck with Cap'n Cod and Winn,
fascinated by the novelty of drifting down the great river at night.
The lights that twinkled here and there along the shores earlier in the
evening had disappeared, and the whole world seemed asleep. The
brooding stillness was only broken by the distant hooting of owls, or
the musical complainings of the swift waters as they chafed impatiently
against some snag, reef, or bar.
They talked in hushed voices, and Sabella related how the man from whom
her uncle purchased Winn's canoe had told her that she reminded him of
his own little daughter, who lived so far away that she didn't even
know where her father was. "He loves her dearly, though," added
Sabella. "I know from the way he talked about her; but I can't think
what he meant when he said I ought to be very grateful because I didn't
have any father, and that it would be much better for his little girl
if she hadn't one either."
"I suppose he meant because he is such a bad man," suggested Winn.
"I don't believe he is a bad man," protested Sabella. "If he was, he
just couldn't talk the way he did."
"But he stole our raft, and he is a counterfeiter, and there's a reward
offered for him."
"How do you know? Only yesterday some people thought you had stolen a
boat, and were a counterfeiter, and there were two rewards offered for
you," laughed Sabella. "So perhaps this man isn't any worse than you
were. Anyhow, I'm going to like him for his little girl's sake, until
I find out that he is really a bad man."
"I wonder if it could have been Mr. Gilder?" thought Winn, as he
remembered how that gentleman had won his confidence. Then he
entertained Cap'n Cod and Sabella by relating the incident of his warm
reception to the first and only one of the "river-traders" whom he had
met.
By noon of the next day they reached the point at which Billy Brackett
had last seen the raft, and they knew that here their search for it
must begin in earnest. For five days more they swept on down the
mighty river at the rate of nearly a hundred miles a day. They no
longer ran at night, for fear of passing the raft in the darkness, but
from sunrise to sunset they hurried southward with all possible speed.
They made inquiries at every town and ferry landing; they scanned
critically every raft they passed, and boarded several that appeared to
be about the size of the _Venture_, though none of them showed a tent
in addition to its "shanty." During every minute of daylight either
Billy Brackett or Winn watched the river from the upper deck, but at
the end of five days they had not discovered the slightest trace of the
missing raft.
Cap'n Cod became so interested in the chase that he would willingly
have kept it up by night as well as by day, without stopping to give
exhibitions anywhere; but this Billy Brackett would not allow.
"We are certainly travelling faster than they," he argued, "even if
they are not making any stops, which is improbable, considering the
nature of their business. So we must overtake them sooner or later,
and we can't afford the risk of missing them by running at night.
Besides, this is a show-boat, and not a police patrol boat. Its
reputation must be sustained, and though we don't take time enough at
any one place to advertise, and so attract a crowd, we can at least pay
expenses."
So the panorama was exhibited every evening, and Billy Brackett, acting
as lecturer, pointed out the beauties of the "composite" paintings, in
his own witty, happy-go-lucky way, to such audiences as could be
collected.
At one of these exhibitions, given at Alton, only twenty miles from St.
Louis, and just above the point where the clear waters of the
Mississippi disappear in the turbid flood of the greater Missouri, an
incident occurred that, while only regarded as amusing at the time, was
productive of most important results to our friends. At Billy
Brackett's suggestion, Don Blossom, dressed to represent the lecturer,
had been trained to slip slyly on the stage after the panorama was well
under way. Provided with a bit of stick, he would walk behind the
lecturer, and gravely point at the picture in exact imitation of the
other's movements. For a minute or so Billy Brackett would continue
his remarks as though nothing unusual were happening. At length, when
he had allowed sufficient time to elapse for an audience to fully
appreciate the situation, he would turn as though to learn the cause of
their uproarious mirth, discover the monkey, and chase him from the
stage with every sign of anger.
In rehearsal, this act had been done to perfection; but the first time
Don Blossom heard the storm of cheers, yells, and laughter, with which
his appearance was greeted by a genuine river audience, he became so
terrified, that without waiting to be driven from the stage he fled
from it. Darting behind the scenes and on through the living-room, he
finally took refuge in the darkest corner of the engine-room, where
Reward was drowsily working his treadmill. The monkey was so
frightened that a moment later, when Sabella went to find him, he
sprang away from her, and with a prodigious leap landed squarely on
Reward's head, where, chattering and screaming, he clung desperately to
the long ears.
[Illustration: "With a prodigious leap he landed squarely on Reward's
head."]
The next instant a frantic mule was performing the almost impossible
feat of running away on a treadmill. At the same time, to Billy
Brackett's dismay and to the astonishment of his audience, the several
pictures of the panorama were flitting by in a bewildering stream of
color, the effect of which was kaleidoscopic and amazing.
This was Don Blossom's first and last appearance on the stage in
public, for he was so thoroughly frightened that, after being rescued
from his unhappy position, nothing could induce him to enter either the
exhibition hall or the engine-room again. An hour later he managed to
evade the watchfulness of his young mistress, slip from the boat, and
scamper away through the darkness. His absence was not discovered
until the next morning, and at first it was supposed that he was in
hiding somewhere on board. When a thorough search failed to produce
the little rascal, all except Sabella declared he would never be found,
and they must proceed down the river without him. Against this
decision the little girl, who had become deeply attached to her pet,
protested so earnestly that Cap'n Cod finally agreed to devote an hour
to searching the town and making inquiries for the lost monkey. In
order to make the search as thorough as possible, he, Billy Brackett,
Winn, and Solon went ashore and started in different directions,
leaving Sabella alone on the _Whatnot_.