"
While Winn was eating his late breakfast, Billy Brackett, only a couple
of miles away, was gazing with an expression of the blankest amazement
at his nephew's note-book. "How in the name of all that is mysterious
and improbable did this book happen to be in that coat, that coat in
that skiff, that skiff on that raft, and that raft here? It certainly
seems as though I had brought the skiff from the raft--at least this
man says I did. You are certain that I came in that identical boat,
are you?"
"Certain, sir," replied the watchman to whom this question was
addressed.
"No one else could have come in this skiff, and then gone off in mine
by mistake?"
"Impossible, sir. I have been wide-awake all night, and there has not
been another soul aboard this wharf-boat until just now. Besides, I
took that coat from the skiff just after you left it last evening."
"Then," said Billy Brackett, "the chain of evidence seems to be
unbroken, incredible as it may appear, and it stretches from here
straight away down the river--book coat, coat skiff, skiff raft, raft
Winn. Now, in order to bring its ends together, and recover my
long-lost nephew, I must again overtake that raft. I must start as
soon as possible after breakfast, too. I don't know whether the game
Winn and I are playing is blind-man's-buff or hide-and-seek, but it
certainly resembles both.
Pages:
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139