WINN DISCOVERS HIS LONG-LOST RAFT.
The morning was gray and chill. The low-hanging clouds were charged
with moisture, and a thick fog hung above the river. Sabella was so
filled with anxiety concerning the fate of Don Blossom that she was
unable to settle down to any of the light domestic duties with which
she generally occupied her mornings. She wandered restlessly from door
to window, with the vague hope that her missing pet might be somewhere
in sight. If the weather had not been so unpleasant, she would have
started out on a private search for him in the immediate vicinity of
the landing. All at once, as she was gazing from the window of her own
little room on the upper deck at the dreary-looking houses of the
river-front, and as far as she could see up the one muddy street that
came within her range of vision, she heard shouting and laughter, and
saw a group of persons approaching the boat.
For a few minutes she could not make out who they were, or what they
were doing. Then she saw that the one taller than the others was a
man, and that he was surrounded by a group of boys. Several of them
ran backward in front of him, and all of them seemed greatly excited
over something that he bore in his arms. It was a red bundle that
squirmed and struggled as though it was alive. Sabella looked for a
moment longer, then she darted down the short flight of steps leading
to the living-room, and flung open the outer door.
"It's Don Blossom! It's my own dear, sweet Don Blossom!" she cried,
almost snatching the trembling little animal from the man's arms in her
eagerness.
The man stepped inside, and closed the door to shut out the boys, who,
after lingering a few minutes, gradually dispersed.
"Oh, you dear monkey! How could you run away? You naughty, naughty
Don Blossom! Was he cold and wet and hungry and frightened? But he's
safe now, and he shall have his breakfast directly; so he shall, the
dear blessed!"
While Sabella was so much engrossed with her pet as to be unmindful of
all else, the man who had restored him to her stood just within the
doorway and watched her, with an amused smile.
"So he is your monkey, is he? I thought he must be when I first saw
him," he said at length.
"Yes, indeed, he is; and I have been feeling so badly at losing him.
But where did you find him, and how did you know he was mine?" Here
the little girl looked for the first time into the stranger's face.
"Why, you are the very same one--"
"Yes," he replied, quietly, "I am the very same one whom you reminded
of his own little girl, and who has thought of you very often since. I
didn't know that you had reached this place, or I should have come to
see you before. I found this monkey a little while ago in possession
of some boys who were teasing him, and thought I recognized him as soon
as I saw him. I became certain he was yours when some of the boys said
they had seen him on a show-boat last evening, and that, after they had
had some fun with him, they were going to bring him down here and claim
a reward. As I wanted the pleasure of bringing him back to you myself,
I bought him of them, and here he is."
"Then you are not a bad man, as Winn said, but a very good one, as I
told him, and now I can prove it!" exclaimed Sabella, with a note of
joyous triumph in her voice. "I'm ever and ever so much obliged to
you, and I only wish I could see your little girl to tell her what a
splendid father she has."
"Who is Winn? And what makes him think I am a bad man?" inquired the
stranger, curiously.
"Oh, he's a boy, a big boy, that has lost a raft that we are helping
him find, and he thinks you stole it. So he says you are a bad man;
but I know you are not, and you wouldn't do such a mean thing as to
steal a boy's raft, would you?"
"Well, no," hesitated the stranger, greatly taken aback by this
unexpected disclosure and abrupt question. "No, of course not," he
added, recovering himself. "I wouldn't steal a raft, or anything else,
from a boy, though I might occasionally borrow a thing that I needed
very much. But where is this Winn boy now? And where is your uncle?"
"They have gone out to find Don Blossom, and Mr. Brackett and Solon
have gone too, but they'll all be back directly, and then you can tell
them that you only borrowed Winn's raft, and where you have left it.
Oh, I am so glad it was you that found Don Blossom!"
"Who is Mr. Brackett?" inquired the stranger, glancing uneasily out of
the window.
"Mr. Brackett? Why, he is Winn's uncle, though you wouldn't think he
was an uncle, or any older than Winn, he is so funny, and he is helping
find the raft. But you'll see him in a few minutes, for they said
they'd only be gone an hour."
"I think I'll go and find them, and tell them they needn't hunt any
longer for the monkey," said the stranger, hurriedly.
Then, before Sabella could remonstrate, he had bent down and kissed
her, saying, "Good-bye, and God bless you, little one," opened the
door, and was gone.
"Seems to me that is very foolish, when he might have seen them by just
waiting a few minutes," said Sabella to herself, as she pulled off Don
Blossom's gay but soaked and mud-bespattered coat. "Now perhaps he
will miss them after all."
The stranger had hardly disappeared before Solon returned to the boat,
grumbling at the weather, the mud, and, above all, at the rheumatism
that forbade him to remain out in the wet any longer.
"Hit hain't no use, honey," he said, as he opened the door, "dat ar Don
monkey gone fur good an' all dish yer time. Yo' nebber see him no mo'.
Wha--wha--whar yo fin' him? He ben yeah all de time, while ole Solon
ben er traipsin' fro de mud, an' er huntin', an' er huntin'?"
"No, indeed, he hasn't!" cried Sabella, laughing merrily, as she held
Don Blossom up to the astonished gaze of the old negro. "He has just
come home." Then she explained at length how her pet had been brought
back to her by such a good kind man.
"Well, ef dat ar ain't a beater!" ejaculated Solon. "I's mighty glad
de lil rasc'l is foun', anyway, 'kase now we kin be gittin' outen dish
yer rheumatizy place. I'll go an' hitch up dat mewel, so to hab him
ready to start when de Cap'n come."
Upon leaving the _Whatnot_, Cap'n Cod had turned to the left, or up
along the river-front of the town; Billy Brackett had plunged directly
into its business portion, intending to keep on until he reached the
hills beyond, on which stood the better class of residences; and Winn
had turned to the right.
The young engineer, closely followed by Bim, walked for several blocks
without seeing or hearing anything of the runaway monkey. Suddenly,
with a low growl, Bim started across the street. His master was just
in time to see a man spring into the open doorway of a store, and slam
the door to as the dog leaped furiously against it.
The glimpse he caught of the man's face was like a lightning flash, but
it was enough. He knew him to be the raftsman who had kicked Bim, and
whom he had rescued from the dog's teeth at Mandrake, more than a week
before. "He is one of those scoundrels who stole the _Venture_, and if
I can only trace him I'll find the raft," thought the young man, as he
dashed across the street after Bim.
Seizing the dog's collar, and bidding him be quiet, he opened the door
of the store and stepped inside. There was no one to be seen, save the
proprietor and two or three startled-looking clerks.
"Where is he?" demanded Billy Brackett, hurriedly. "The man, I mean,
who ran in here just now!"
"That dog ought to be killed, and if you don't take him out of here at
once I'll call the police," said the proprietor of the store,
indignantly. "It's an outrage to allow such brutes to run at large."
"That's the reason I'm holding him," said Billy Brackett; "but where is
the man?"
"I don't know; but I hope he has gone for his gun, and will know how to
use it too. If he don't, I--"
The young engineer did not wait to hear more, for at that moment he
spied a back door standing partly open. That was where his man had
gone, and without paying any further attention to the irate shopkeeper,
he dashed out through it with Bim at his heels.
Winn searched high and low, with the utmost faithfulness, until he
reached the outskirts of the town, but without finding a trace of the
missing Don Blossom. There was a growth of timber lining the
river-bank, just beyond the houses, and the boy ventured a little way
into this, arguing that a monkey would naturally take to trees. It was
so wet and dripping in the timber that he only remained there a few
minutes; but as he turned to retrace his steps, his attention was
diverted by a new object of interest.
He was on a bank of the river, beside which was moored a raft. It was
a timber raft, with a single large "shanty," that had a strangely
familiar look, standing amidship.
"It isn't the _Venture_, of course," thought Winn; "but I'll just step
aboard and inquire if they have seen anything of a raft with a 'shanty'
and a tent on it. It will save us some time when we get started down
the river again."
So thinking, the boy stepped lightly aboard. His footfalls were
deadened by the wet, so that he gained the forward end of the "shanty"
without attracting attention. The door was closed, and Winn was
startled to note how very familiar that gable end of the building
looked. He raised his hand to knock at the door, when suddenly it was
flung open, and a harsh voice asked, "What do you want? and what are
you doing here, young man?"
As Winn was about to reply his glance penetrated the interior of the
"shanty," and for an instant he stood speechless.