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." Musing over this new aspect of the situation, the young engineer hastened back to his hotel and breakfast.