playing is blind-man's-buff or hide-and-seek, but it
certainly resembles both."

Musing over this new aspect of the situation, the young engineer
hastened back to his hotel and breakfast. In the dining-room, a few
minutes later, a waiter was leaning over him, and asking, for the third
time, "Tea or coffee, sir, an' how'll you have your eggs?" when the
inattentive guest suddenly caused him to jump as though galvanized, by
bringing his fist down on the table with a crash, and exclaiming, "No,
by the great hornspoon, it can't be that way either! What's that you
say? Oh yes, of course. Coffee, soft-boiled, and as quick as you
can." Having delivered this order, the young man fixed his intent gaze
on a brown spot ornamenting the table-cloth, and resumed his thinking.

It had just occurred to him that, according to all accounts, the raft
from which he had taken that skiff had come down the river to this
point two days before. So how could Winn Caspar, who had only escaped
from the island a few minutes before he and Bim made good their own
retreat, have reached the same place and joined that raft without
attracting attention? Both the day and night watchmen at the
wharf-boat had assured him that no such boy as he described had been
seen on the water-front. They also said that the raft had been there
all the day before, and that when it left it held only the three men
who came with it. "Of course he might have been inside the 'shanty'
when I was aboard, though I can't see how he got there, nor why he
should join a strange raft anyway," argued the young man. "At any
rate, it's my business to find out whether or not he is aboard it now.
How about using the skiff, though? If it is the one Winn ran off with,
it belongs to that Sheriff fellow. Like as not, he has already sent
word down the river to have it picked up. In that case, if I was
picked up in it, I might be accused of stealing it, which would never
do in the world. No; to be on the safe side I must leave the skiff
here, and take the first down-river steamboat that stops at this
landing. First, though, I'll advertise for Winn in this town, and if I
don't find him on the raft, there may be news waiting for me here when
I come back."

This was the plan upon which the young engineer decided to act, and
immediately after breakfast he proceeded to put it into execution.

There was no paper published in the place, but it did contain a
makeshift sort of a printin