r if those fellows can have had a hand in
it?"

"What fellows?"

Then Billy Brackett told of his fleeting glimpse of Plater, and of his
consequent belief that the raft and all three of the "river-traders"
must be in that vicinity.

"There's a raft, with three men aboard it, who call themselves
'river-traders,' moored at the edge of that timber, just below the
city," volunteered one of the by-standers, who had overheard the young
man's remarks.

"Will you go with me and point it out?" asked Billy Brackett, eagerly.

"Yes, I don't mind, seeing that this weather makes a bit of slack
time," replied the man.

So requesting Cap'n Cod to wait there until his return, and promising
to be back as quickly as possible, the young engineer and his guide,
followed by several curiosity-seekers, started in search of the raft.
It is needless to say that they failed to find it, though another hour
elapsed before Billy Brackett returned. He was disappointed, but was
possessed of a theory.

"I believe Winn has found that raft," he said to Cap'n Cod, as they sat
together in the small hotel to which they had repaired for a
consultation and dinner. "But he probably discovered it just as those
fellows, alarmed at meeting me, were putting off for another run down
the river. Then he hurried back here, and not finding us, took the
responsibility of starting after them in the _Whatnot_, hoping in that
way to keep them in sight. It was a crazy performance, though just
such a one as that boy would undertake. He is a splendid fellow, with
the one conspicuous failing of believing that he knows what to do under
any circumstances just a little better than any one else. So he has
persuaded Solon that it is their duty to keep that raft in sight until
it is tied up again, and then he'll telegraph to us. It is more than
likely that the raft will stop at St. Louis, in which case they must be
nearly there by this time, and we ought to hear from Winn very soon.
That is my theory, and now I'll run up to the telegraph office and see
if a despatch has come."

There was no message for any one named Brackett, and so, after leaving
word to have anything that came for him sent to the hotel, the young
man hastened back. An up-river steamboat had just made fast to the
levee, and the two anxious men went down to see if her pilot had seen
anything of the _Whatnot_. As they approached they saw by her
splintered bows that she had been in a collision. Ot