n't talk the way he did."

"But he stole our raft, and he is a counterfeiter, and there's a reward
offered for him."

"How do you know? Only yesterday some people thought you had stolen a
boat, and were a counterfeiter, and there were two rewards offered for
you," laughed Sabella. "So perhaps this man isn't any worse than you
were. Anyhow, I'm going to like him for his little girl's sake, until
I find out that he is really a bad man."

"I wonder if it could have been Mr. Gilder?" thought Winn, as he
remembered how that gentleman had won his confidence. Then he
entertained Cap'n Cod and Sabella by relating the incident of his warm
reception to the first and only one of the "river-traders" whom he had
met.

By noon of the next day they reached the point at which Billy Brackett
had last seen the raft, and they knew that here their search for it
must begin in earnest. For five days more they swept on down the
mighty river at the rate of nearly a hundred miles a day. They no
longer ran at night, for fear of passing the raft in the darkness, but
from sunrise to sunset they hurried southward with all possible speed.
They made inquiries at every town and ferry landing; they scanned
critically every raft they passed, and boarded several that appeared to
be about the size of the _Venture_, though none of them showed a tent
in addition to its "shanty." During every minute of daylight either
Billy Brackett or Winn watched the river from the upper deck, but at
the end of five days they had not discovered the slightest trace of the
missing raft.

Cap'n Cod became so interested in the chase that he would willingly
have kept it up by night as well as by day, without stopping to give
exhibitions anywhere; but this Billy Brackett would not allow.

"We are certainly travelling faster than they," he argued, "even if
they are not making any stops, which is improbable, considering the
nature of their business. So we must overtake them sooner or later,
and we can't afford the risk of missing them by running at night.
Besides, this is a show-boat, and not a police patrol boat. Its
reputation must be sustained, and though we don't take time enough at
any one place to advertise, and so attract a crowd, we can at least pay
expenses."

So the panorama was exhibited every evening, and Billy Brackett, acting
as lecturer, pointed out the beauties of the "composite" paintings, in
his own witty, happy-go-lucky way, to such audiences a