CHAPTER V.
HOW THE VOYAGE WAS BEGUN.
When Winn Caspar turned into his comfortable bunk aboard the raft on the night of the storm, it never once occurred to him that the _Venture_ might float before morning.

She never had floated, and she seemed so hard and fast aground that he imagined a rise of several feet of water would be necessary to move her.

It had not yet rained where he was, and the thought that it might be raining higher up the stream did not enter his mind.

So he went comfortably to bed, and slept like a top for several hours.

Finally, he was awakened so suddenly that he sprang from the bunk, and by the time his eyes were fairly opened, was standing in the middle of the floor listening to a strange creaking and scratching on the roof above his head.