e 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