in what manner they had gone to work; but I was
satisfied that they had not attempted to tow the scow any distance; it
would not have been possible for them to do so. It was comparatively
easy to move her with setting-poles, but they could have done nothing
with the unwieldy craft in the deep water. I therefore concluded that
they had merely pushed her out into the lake, and then turned her
adrift. It was probable that she had been driven ashore by the
north-west wind somewhere in the vicinity of Cannondale.

What the conspirators had done with the Splash was not so clear to me,
for not one of them knew anything about the management of a sail-boat.
She had a pair of oars on board, and it was probable they had rowed
her, as they had the other boats. All the sentinels agreed in their
statements that the wind had blown pretty fresh in the night, and I
was not quite willing to believe that the ten faithless ones had
pulled the four boats the whole distance to Parkville, which was nine
miles, in the heavy sea that must have been caused by a brisk
north-west wind. They were not boatmen enough to undertake such a job,
or to carry it through if they did attempt it.

Cannondale lay to the south-east of Pine Island, and with the
prevailing wind of the night, it was an easy matter to accomplish the
two miles which lay between them. After a great deal of thinking,
reasoning, and studying, I came to the conclusion that the Splash,
and perhaps two or three of the four row-boats,--for the conspirators
had added one to our original number,--were not farther off than
Cannondale. The wind was still fresh from the north-west, and the
traitors would hardly care to pull even a single boat eight miles. The
steamer, on her way to Parkville, would touch at Cannondale about one
o'clock, and I surmised that the deserters would return in her.

I made up my mind, in view of these facts and suppositions, that it
would be advisable for some of our party to visit Cannondale before
one o'clock. Pine Island had sometimes been used as a picnic ground,
and the people had been conveyed thither in a steamer. Near the south
station, in the deepest water, there was a rude pier of logs built
out, for the convenience of landing the parties. This loose structure
suggested to me the means of reaching the main shore; and, without
waiting for breakfast, I "piped" away my boatmen, and proceeded to
build a raft.

Placing three large logs in the water, we lashed