If, on the other hand, the "river-traders" had returned and
should make a successful fight, would not their wrath also be directed
towards him for leading their assailants to the hut? In either case,
it seemed to the bewildered boy that his position was decidedly
unpleasant, and he awaited the immediate developments of the situation
with no little anxiety.

Those who had followed him had disappeared like shadows, and Winn could
not detect a sound save the suppressed breathing of the man who had
been detailed to guard him, and who now held his arm.

Suddenly a dog's bark broke the stillness, and a loud challenge,
followed by a pistol shot, rang out through the night air. There was a
confused trampling; the forest echoed with a roar of guns; the door of
the hut was burst open, and a furious rush was made for the interior.

In his excitement Winn's guard loosed his hold of the boy's arm and
took a step forward, the better to distinguish what was going on.

Winn was free, and acting upon the impulse of the moment, he slipped
behind a great tree-trunk, stole noiselessly a few paces farther, and
then dashed away with the speed of a deer back over the trail leading
to the river. He did not pause when he reached the camp in which he
had passed the night so unhappily, but bounded down the bank to the
water's edge. Here he cast loose the painter of the skiff that had
brought Mr. Riley and his men to the island, and, with a mighty shove
towards the channel, gave a spring that landed him at full length in
its bottom. Here he lay breathless and almost motionless for the next
thirty minutes, or until his craft had drifted below the tail of the
island, and was spinning down the main channel of the great river.

CHAPTER XI.

BILLY BRACKETT'S SURPRISING SITUATION.

When Billy Brackett set forth on his search for a nephew and a runaway
raft he did not anticipate any difficulty in finding them. The
appearance of the raft had been minutely described to him, and,
according to this description, it was too distinctive in its character
to be mistaken for anything else. Three shanties, and they of unusual
construction, on a raft of that size formed a peculiarity sufficient to
arrest the immediate attention of all river men. Thus the young
engineer felt certain that by making an occasional inquiry and
proceeding at a speed at least double that of the raft, he could easily
trace and overtake it, even though it should not run