The interior on which he now gazed was wholly ceiled, so as to make the walls of double thickness, and conceal every bit of the framing.
The perplexed boy noticed these details at a glance; and as he stood staring blankly about him, the uncomfortable suspicion began to force itself into his mind that perhaps this was not the _Venture_ after all.
"If I have run off with some one else's raft, I declare I shall just want to disappear!" he exclaimed to himself.

"I do believe I shall be too ashamed ever to go home again.

Oh dear! There is another steamboat." The notes of a deep-voiced whistle, evidently near at hand, caused the boy to hasten outside.

He could see a huge confused mass dimly looming out of the fog ahead, and a little to one side of him.

At the same moment he heard the wild jangling of bells, the terrified shoutings, and then the awful crash that denoted a collision.