Reckon she broke adrift from somewheres while her crew was off on a frolic." "You don't say so!" cried Mr.Gilder, excitedly.

"Perhaps it's the very thing we are most in need of, sent by a special providence to crown our labors with success.

I'll go down and have a look at her, while you stay here and help Grim pack up the stuff.

We might as well be prepared for a sudden move, and he'll tell you what we have just been talking about." So Mr.Gilder, donning his rubber coat, a garment that Plater would have scorned to wear, left the clearing through another bushy thicket on the opposite side from that by which his confederate had entered it.
An almost undiscernible path led him to the shore of the island that was washed by the main channel of the river.

Here he struck into a plainly marked trail that followed the water's edge.