CHAPTER XXXI.
CAMPMATES TURN RAFTMATES.
"Wow wow w-o-w-w!" howled Bim, with his ridiculous nose uplifted and amost melancholy expression of countenance. He felt in duty bound toaccompany his master's singing, but on this occasion, at least, hebrought it to a sudden conclusion, for no one could possibly sing inface of the uproarious laughter that greeted his outburst.
"That's always the way," remarked Billy Brackett, with a comicalexpression. "I never am allowed to prove what I am really capable ofin the vocal line. But what are you boys doing here? Where did youcome from, where are you going, and how in the name of all that isobscure and remarkable do you happen to be on board our raft?"
"Your raft?" echoed Glen Elting. "What do you mean by your raft? Wecalled it our raft until a few minutes ago, and now we call it Mr.Caspar's raft."
"Yes, I know. Major Caspar's raft. But it's all the same as ours, forI am his brother-in-law, and have his written authority to dispose ofit as I see fit. Besides, this is his son, and we have been huntingthis raft for the best part of a month. By-the-way, Winn, these aretwo old, or rather two young, campmates of mine, Mr. Glen Eddy--I meanMatherson; no, I beg pardon--Elting is the name at present, I believe."
"Do you know him intimately?" interrupted Winn, slyly.
Billy Brackett made a dive at the boy, but as the latter leaped nimblyaside, he continued: "And Mr. Binney Gibbs, popularly known as 'Grip.'Gentlemen, this impudent young vil-ly-an is my nephew, Mr. Winn Caspar."
Instead of acknowledging this introduction, Glen and Binney lookedcuriously at each other. Then the former said, "There seems to besomething wrong here, Billy, for we have just turned this raft over toits owner, Mr. Winn Caspar, and he is in the house here at this moment."
"That's all right," replied Billy Brackett. "I rather expected to findthat gentleman here, and now we will go inside for an interview withhim." So saying, he tried to open the door, but found it fastened. Inspite of its splintered condition, it was secured so firmly that ittook them several minutes to force it open. When this wasaccomplished, and an entrance was effected, the four gazed blanklyabout them and at each other. The large room was empty. So were thetwo smaller ones beyond, while an open window in the last showed themanner in which Messrs. Plater and Grimshaw had effected their escape.
"It's too bad," said Billy Brackett; "for having had severalinteresting interviews with those gentlemen, I should have been glad ofanother. I think Winn would have been pleased to meet his namesaketoo."
"Indeed I should," replied the boy. "I'd like to collect rent for theuse of my signature, and find out where he learned to copy it soperfectly."
"But I don't understand all this at all," said Glen Elting. "If thisraft isn't theirs, why did they want it badly enough to pay threehundred dollars reward for its recovery?"
"Whom did they pay it to?" asked Billy Brackett.
"A hundred to the City Marshal, and a hundred each to Binney and me.We didn't want to take it, but they insisted, and said they should feelhurt if we refused. So, of course, rather than hurt their feelings--But really, Billy, they are most gentlemanly fellows, and I thinkbehaved very handsomely."
"Will you let me see the hundred dollars they gave you?" asked theyoung engineer.
"Certainly," replied Glen, with an air of surprise, and adding, ratherstiffly, "though I didn't think, Billy, that _you_ would require proofof my truthfulness."
"I don't, my dear boy, I don't!" exclaimed Billy Brackett. "I wouldbelieve your unsupported word quicker than the sworn statement of mostmen. I want to look at that money for a very different purpose."
So a roll of brand-new bills was handed to him, and he examined themone by one with the utmost care.
"There are two hundred dollars here," he said at length. "Is thisBinney's share of the reward as well as your own?"
"No. I had a hundred-dollar bill, and Mr. Caspar seeing it, asked if Iwould mind taking small bills for it, as he wanted one of that amountto send off by mail; so, of course, I let him have it."
"Oh, my children! my children!" murmured Billy Brackett, "why will youpersist in attempting to travel through this wicked world without aguardian? Of all the scrapes from which I have been called to rescueyou, this might have proved the most serious."
"I don't see how," said both Glen and Binney.
Winn knew, and he smiled a little self-complacent smile as hereflected, "This is a little worse than any mess I ever got into."
"You would have seen quickly enough if you had tried to spend thismoney," said Billy Brackett, "for you would undoubtedly have beenarrested on the charge of counterfeiting. Those same fellows put Winnhere in that fix a short time since, besides getting away with athousand dollars' worth of wheat that he had in charge, and now theyhave come very near serving you the same trick."
Here Winn's smile faded away rather suddenly, while Glen exclaimed,
"Do you mean to say that these bills are counterfeit?"
"I do," replied Billy Brackett; "and if you doubt it, take them to thefirst bank you come across and ask the cashier."
"But the City Marshal took some just like them," argued Glen, catchingat the only straw of hope in sight.
"So much the worse for the City Marshal, and I for one shall let himsuffer the consequences. He had no business to accept a reward forperforming a simple act of duty, in the first place; and in the second,the readiness with which he delivered this raft to the first claimantswho came along makes it look very much as though he could be bribed."
"Well," said Glen, in a despairing tone, "if what you say is true, andI know it must be, we are in a fix. That hundred dollars was to payour expenses to New Orleans; now I don't know how we shall get there."
"New Orleans! Are you bound for New Orleans?"
"Yes, and that's how we happened to be here, and to find this raft.You see, my father, General Elting, you know, is going to CentralAmerica to make a survey for the Nicaragua Canal, and Binney and I areto go with him. The party is to sail from New Orleans some time inJanuary, but he had to go to New York first. As there were a lot ofinstruments and heavy things to be sent to New Orleans, he thought itbest to ship them by boat; and as we wanted to take the river trip, helet us come in charge of them. We knew we should have to transfer fromthe Ohio River boat at this point, but we didn't know until we got herethat we must wait three days for the New Orleans packet. As therewasn't anything else to do, we have put in the time hunting andfishing, and last evening we ran across this abandoned raft about amile up the Mississippi. We had a time getting it in here, I can tellyou. When we did, and reported it to the City Marshal, he showed us atelegram from a Mr. Winn Caspar, asking him to look out for just such araft. We knew this must be the one, for we had found this book lyingon the table, with the name 'Winn Caspar' written all over thefly-leaf, as though some one had been practising the signature. Sureenough, a man who said his name was 'Winn Caspar' turned up thismorning, bringing a friend with him. They told a straight enough storyof how their raft had been stolen near St. Louis, and described itperfectly. They even described the interior of this 'shanty' andeverything in it, including this identical book, as though they hadlived here all their lives. So, of course, both the Marshal and wethought it was all right; and I don't see even now, if this is yourraft, how those fellows knew all about it as they did. The only thingthey slipped up on was the broken door, and they owned they couldn'taccount for that. It seems as if some one must have boarded the raftbefore we did and broken into the 'shanty.' The men said there wasn'tanything missing, though. Perhaps you can tell us what has beenstolen."
"No," replied Billy Brackett, "I can't tell that, but I can tell whobroke in that door. I can also relate a tale of adventure andmisadventure in connection with this raft that would excite the envy ofany member of the Second Division, including even the Baldheads, andyou, who were the most reckless young scapegrace of the lot."
Whereupon the young engineer told these inter
ested listeners the wholehistory of the _Venture_ from the time the raft was put together downto the present moment. In it he included the _Whatnot_, Cap'n Cod,Sabella, Solon, Reward, and Don Blossom, Sheriff Riley, the"river-traders," Clod, Aunt Viney, and, above all, Bim, who barkedloudly, and rushed wildly about the room at this honorable mention ofhis name.
When the story was finished, Glen Elting heaved a deep sigh, and saidto Winn, "Well, you have had a good time. I thought we had about thebest times any fellows could have when we crossed the plains with BillyBrackett last year, but it seems to me that you are having just aboutas much fun right here on this muddy old river as we had out there. Ionly wish we had a raft." Then turning to Billy Brackett, he asked,"What are you going to do next?"
"I don't know," was the reply. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm sure I don't know."
"Then lend me your ears. You want to get to New Orleans, and so do we."
"Do we?" interrupted Winn, in surprise, looking up from the book oftravels on the title-page of which his name was written so many times,and which was the very one he had been reading the last evening he hadspent on this raft.
"You do!" exclaimed both Glen and Binney.
"Certainly," was the calm reply. "It is the only market for timberrafts that I know of south of St. Louis, and as we can't go back, weare bound to go ahead. So, as I was saying when rudely interrupted,both you and we want to go to New Orleans. You have no money--realmoney, I mean--with which to get there, and we need at least two extrapair of hands to help us get this raft there. So why not ship yourstuff on board here, and help us navigate this craft to our commondestination?"
"Do you truly mean it, Billy Brackett?"
"I truly mean it. And if you are willing to go as raftmates with us--"
"Are we willing? Well, I should smile! Are we willing? Why, BillyBrackett, we'd rather go to New Orleans as raftmates with you and WinnCaspar than to do anything else in the whole world just at present.Eh, 'Grip'?"
"Well, rather!" answered Binney Gibbs.