"And where have you been all this time?
I have been here, and in a state of mind, for more than an hour, not knowing what to do.

Some of these men say they saw three fellows go off with the boat soon after we left here, and of course I thought they must be you, Winn, and Solon; but I couldn't understand it at all.

Now that you are here, I understand it still less.

Where is Winn ?" Here the old man paused, quite out of breath, but still questioning his companion with anxious eyes.
"I haven't seen anything of Winn since we all left the boat," replied Billy Brackett, who could hardly comprehend the startling information just given him.

"Do you mean to say that the _Whatnot_ has been stolen?
Great Scott! I wonder if those fellows can have had a hand in it ?" "What fellows ?" Then Billy Brackett told of his fleeting glimpse of Plater, and of his consequent belief that the raft and all three of the "river-traders" must be in that vicinity.
"There's a raft, with three men aboard it, who call themselves 'river-traders,' moored at the edge of that timber, just below the city," volunteered one of the by-standers, who had overheard the young man's remarks.
"Will you go with me and point it out ?" asked Billy Brackett, eagerly.
"Yes, I don't mind, seeing that this weather makes a bit of slack time," replied the man.
So requesting Cap'n Cod to wait there until his return, and promising to be back as quickly as possible, the young engineer and his guide, followed by several curiosity-seekers, started in search of the raft.
It is needless to say that they failed to find it, though another hour elapsed before Billy Brackett returned.