or it; that is, if my partners
agree. That will leave five cents a bushel to pay us for landing it,
transferring it to some other craft, and getting your raft afloat.
What do you say?"

"I wish I could ask father about it," hesitated Winn, to whom, under
the circumstances as he supposed them to exist, the offer seemed very
tempting.

"Oh, well," sneered Mr. Gilder, "if you are not man enough now to act
upon your own responsibility in such an emergency, you never will be.
So the sooner you get home again and tie up to your mother's
apron-string the sooner you'll be where you belong."

The taunt was as well worn as it was cruel, and should have given Winn
an insight into the true character of his new acquaintance; but on a
boy so proud of his ability to decide for himself, and so ignorant of
the ways of the world as this one, it was sufficient to produce the
desired effect.

Winn flushed hotly as he answered: "The wheat is my father's, and not
mine to sell; but for the sake of saving it as well as the raft, I will
let you have it at that price. I must have the cash, though, before
you begin to move it."

"Spoken like the man I took you to be," said Mr. Gilder, heartily.
"Now we'll go ashore and see my partners. If they agree to the
bargain, as no doubt they will, we'll get to work at once, and have
your raft afloat again in no time."

CHAPTER VIII.

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE RAFT.

When Winn and his new acquaintance stepped outside of the "shanty," it
did not seem to the boy that the river was falling, or that the raft
was in a particularly dangerous position. He would have liked to
examine more closely into its condition, but his companion so occupied
his attention by describing the manner in which he proposed to remove
the wheat, and so hurried him into the waiting skiff, that he had no
opportunity to do so.

The "river-traders'" camp was not visible from the raft, nor did Mr.
Gilder, who handled the oars, head the skiff in its direction. He
rowed diagonally up-stream instead, so as to land at some distance
above it. There he asked Winn to wait a few minutes until he should
discover in which direction his partners had gone. He explained that
one of them had been left in camp at a considerable distance from that
point, while he and the third had been rowing along the shore of the
island in opposite directions, searching for drift-logs. Thus he alone
had discovered the stranded raft. Now he wished t