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CHAPTER XVII.
THE TRUTH, BUT NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH.
Winn was greatly perturbed by hearing from the _Whatnot's_ engine-room
the inquiries concerning Sheriff Riley's skiff, and Cap'n Cod's
replies. He had not meant to steal the boat, of course, but it now
seemed that he was regarded as having done so, and was being hotly
pursued by some one interested in its recovery. It was not the Sheriff
himself, for the voice was a strange one; so it was probably one of his
men, who undoubtedly had one or more companions. Winn was too ignorant
of the world to know whether escaping from a sheriff who had unjustly
arrested him, and running off with his boat, would be considered a
serious offence or not. He only knew that while perfectly conscious of
his own innocence, he yet felt very much as though he were fleeing from
justice. He had not even known until that minute that his late captor
was a sheriff, nor could he imagine why he had been arrested. What he
did know was that some one well acquainted with the fact that he had
taken a skiff not his own was now searching for it and for him. This
was sufficient to alarm him and fill his mind with visions of arrest,
imprisonment, and fines which his father would be compelled to pay.
Then, too, the Captain of this strange craft on which he had just found
an asylum, but from which he would already be glad to escape, had
declared himself to be a friend of Sheriff Riley, and well acquainted
with his boat.
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