CHAPTER VIII.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE RAFT.
When Winn and his new acquaintance stepped outside of the "shanty," it did not seem to the boy that the river was falling, or that the raft was in a particularly dangerous position.

He would have liked to examine more closely into its condition, but his companion so occupied his attention by describing the manner in which he proposed to remove the wheat, and so hurried him into the waiting skiff, that he had no opportunity to do so.
The "river-traders'" camp was not visible from the raft, nor did Mr.
Gilder, who handled the oars, head the skiff in its direction.

He rowed diagonally up-stream instead, so as to land at some distance above it.

There he asked Winn to wait a few minutes until he should discover in which direction his partners had gone.

He explained that one of them had been left in camp at a considerable distance from that point, while he and the third had been rowing along the shore of the island in opposite directions, searching for drift-logs.