ithout seeing or hearing anything of the runaway monkey. Suddenly,
with a low growl, Bim started across the street. His master was just
in time to see a man spring into the open doorway of a store, and slam
the door to as the dog leaped furiously against it.

The glimpse he caught of the man's face was like a lightning flash, but
it was enough. He knew him to be the raftsman who had kicked Bim, and
whom he had rescued from the dog's teeth at Mandrake, more than a week
before. "He is one of those scoundrels who stole the _Venture_, and if
I can only trace him I'll find the raft," thought the young man, as he
dashed across the street after Bim.

Seizing the dog's collar, and bidding him be quiet, he opened the door
of the store and stepped inside. There was no one to be seen, save the
proprietor and two or three startled-looking clerks.

"Where is he?" demanded Billy Brackett, hurriedly. "The man, I mean,
who ran in here just now!"

"That dog ought to be killed, and if you don't take him out of here at
once I'll call the police," said the proprietor of the store,
indignantly. "It's an outrage to allow such brutes to run at large."

"That's the reason I'm holding him," said Billy Brackett; "but where is
the man?"

"I don't know; but I hope he has gone for his gun, and will know how to
use it too. If he don't, I--"

The young engineer did not wait to hear more, for at that moment he
spied a back door standing partly open. That was where his man had
gone, and without paying any further attention to the irate shopkeeper,
he dashed out through it with Bim at his heels.

Winn searched high and low, with the utmost faithfulness, until he
reached the outskirts of the town, but without finding a trace of the
missing Don Blossom. There was a growth of timber lining the
river-bank, just beyond the houses, and the boy ventured a little way
into this, arguing that a monkey would naturally take to trees. It was
so wet and dripping in the timber that he only remained there a few
minutes; but as he turned to retrace his steps, his attention was
diverted by a new object of interest.

He was on a bank of the river, beside which was moored a raft. It was
a timber raft, with a single large "shanty," that had a strangely
familiar look, standing amidship.

"It isn't the _Venture_, of course," thought Winn; "but I'll just step
aboard and inquire if they have seen anything of a raft with a 'shanty'
and a tent on it. It w