hesitated; but
finally said it was his, and he had left it in the woods when the team
came. Inquiry proved that he had taken no rifle with him. He had no
doubt lent it to Griffin Leeds.

We were to have stayed at this landing one day longer, but when I told
Owen and Colonel Shepard that the river had fallen two inches in the
morning, they decided that it would not be safe to remain any longer.
The shower must have raised the river a little; and if we went at once,
we might get over. I ordered the mules to be taken on board; and as
soon as they and the wagons were shipped, I intimated to Cornwood that
we were ready to resume our trip. To my astonishment he protested
against going, and declared there would be no difficulty about the
water. We had no idea, he insisted, of the game in the woods.

"Cast off the fasts!" I shouted to the deckhands, from my place on the
saloon deck.

Cornwood looked in the direction of the woods, and seemed to be greatly
troubled. He evidently thought his agent was still in the woods, and I
was not disposed to undeceive him. The deckhands hauled the fasts on
board, and the boat began to drift down the river. Very reluctantly the
pilot went to the wheel, and after some manoeuvring got the Wetumpka
headed down the river. He still kept one eye on the shore.

My father had dressed my wound as soon as we got on board. It was not
much more than a scratch, though it made my neck so stiff for a couple
of days that I could hardly turn it. I had it bound up, and just as the
boat was approaching the shoal place, Cornwood asked me what ailed my
neck. It was clear enough that he did not know what had transpired in
the woods.

"In accordance with the plan you arranged with Captain Boomsby before
you came on board of the Sylvania, I have been shot," I replied. "The
ball, instead of going through my head, only grazed my neck. Your man
is a very bad shot."

"My man! Who is my man?" demanded Cornwood. But I saw that he was pale
under the charge.

"Griffin Leeds, of course," I answered. "But you have managed it very
clumsily, from the moccasin down to the shooting. You ought to have
employed a man that could hit the side of a house at sixty feet."

"I don't understand you," gasped he.

"Yes, you do. But the game is up. The gentleman who came to-day is my
father, and Captain Boomsby will give up the chase as soon as he sees
and knows him."

"I am sure I don't know what you are talking about."

"Then