ons, and a minute
description of both the raft and of Winn, whom he did not hope to
recognize, the young engineer and his four-footed companion set forth
soon after supper on their search for the missing boy. An hour later
they too were being swept southward by the resistless current of the
great river.

CHAPTER V.

HOW THE VOYAGE WAS BEGUN.

When Winn Caspar turned into his comfortable bunk aboard the raft on
the night of the storm, it never once occurred to him that the
_Venture_ might float before morning. She never had floated, and she
seemed so hard and fast aground that he imagined a rise of several feet
of water would be necessary to move her. It had not yet rained where
he was, and the thought that it might be raining higher up the stream
did not enter his mind. So he went comfortably to bed, and slept like
a top for several hours. Finally, he was awakened so suddenly that he
sprang from the bunk, and by the time his eyes were fairly opened, was
standing in the middle of the floor listening to a strange creaking and
scratching on the roof above his head. It had aroused him, and now as
he listened to it, and tried in vain to catch a single gleam of light
through the intense darkness, it was so incomprehensible and uncanny,
that brave boy as he was, he felt shivers creeping over his arms and
back.

Could the sounds be made by an animal? Winn knew there were wild-cats
and an occasional panther in the forests bordering the creek. If it
was caused by wild-cats there must be at least a dozen of them, and he
had never heard of as many as that together. Besides, wild-cats
wouldn't make such sounds. They might spit and snarl; but certainly no
one had ever heard them squeak and groan. All at once there came a
great swishing overhead and then all was still, save for the howling of
the wind and the roar of a deluge of rain which Winn now heard for the
first time.

The boy felt his way into the forward room and opened the door to look
out, but was greeted by such a fierce rush of wind and rain that he was
thankful for the strength that enabled him to close it again. Mingled
with the other sounds of the storm, Winn now began to distinguish that
of waves plashing on the deck of the raft. Certainly his surroundings
had undergone some extraordinary change since he turned in for the
night, but what it was passed the boy's comprehension.

After a long search he found a box of matches and lighted the lamp