covered it,
and recognized it as the _Venture_.

He did not know the man standing in the doorway and looking so
curiously at him, nor did he suppose himself known by the other. So,
with a great effort, he strove to conceal the tumult of his feelings,
and to appear natural and self-possessed. He answered the man's curt
inquiry regarding his business there by saying, in as pleasant a tone
as he could command, that he was searching for a lost monkey, which he
thought might have taken to the timber beside which this raft was
moored. "You startled me by throwing open your door so suddenly just
as I was about to knock," he continued; "but you haven't seen anything
of a stray monkey this morning, have you?"

"Not until this moment," answered the man, surlily, "and I don't want
to see any more of him. Good-day."

With this he slammed the door in the boy's face, and then, stealing on
tiptoe to a window, watched for his departure from the raft.

To say that Mr. Grimshaw was rendered uneasy and apprehensive by this
sudden appearance of one whom he suppose to be hundreds of miles away,
and who was also the very person he was most anxious to avoid, would by
no means express his feelings. He was so terrified and unnerved that
for a moment he thought of leaving the raft to its fate, and making
good his own escape while he had time. Then he wondered if it would
not be better to cast it loose and drift away through the fog to some
new hiding-place. It would never do to go without his partners,
though; for, in the first place, he could not manage the raft alone,
and in the second there was no knowing what Gilder would do if he
thought himself deserted and perhaps betrayed. No, he must find his
associates without delay, and warn them of this unexpected danger. He
wondered if the boy were alone. Perhaps he had friends in hiding near
by, to whom he had gone to report. In that case his own safety
demanded that he discover them before they reached the raft. The boy
had already disappeared in the timber, and there was no time to be lost
in following him.

Thus reasoning, Grimshaw left the "shanty," locking its door behind him
as he did so, and springing ashore, hastened up the trail, along which
Winn had disappeared a few seconds before. It took him about three
minutes to reach the far edge of the timber and outskirts of the town.
Here several streets began, and as he could not follow them all, he was
brought to a halt. Whi