He only knew that the distance was increasing with each moment, and that until daylight at least he was powerless to help himself.
As he turned towards the door of the "shanty," he stumbled over something, which, by stooping, he discovered to be the branch of a tree.

To the keen-witted boy this was like the sight of a printed page.
"That accounts for the noise on the roof that woke me," he said to himself.

"The raft was passing under those low branches at the mouth of the creek, and I can't be more than a mile or so from there now." For an instant the idea of paddling home in his canoe and leaving the raft to its fate flashed across his mind, but it was dismissed as promptly as it had come.

"Not much I won't!" he said, aloud.

"I've shipped for the voyage, and I'm going to see it through in spite of everything.