Part 12 (2/2)
”I didn't run off with your boat. It ran off with me first, and ran away from me afterwards. If you hadn't taken the oars out I should have rowed into Dubuque and sent some one back to the island with her.
As it was, I had to go wherever she chose to take me, until she set me ash.o.r.e on a tow-head, and went on down the river by herself. I'm glad of it, though, for if she hadn't, I should never have found the _Whatnot_.”
”The _Whatnot_!” exclaimed Billy Brackett. ”Are you living on board the _Whatnot_?”
”Yes, sir, this young gentleman is a guest on board of my boat,” said Cap'n Cod, who now found his first chance to speak; ”and glad as I have been to have him, it would have made me many times happier to know that he was the son of my old friend and commander. Why didn't you tell me the truth in the first place, boy?” And the veteran gazed reproachfully at Winn.
”I did tell you the truth so far as I told you anything. I didn't dare tell you any more, because I heard you say you were a friend of Sheriff Riley, and knew his skiff. So I was afraid you would have me arrested for running off with it, and in that way delay me so that I would never find the raft. Besides, I wanted to wait until I could get a letter from home to prove who I am, and I hadn't a chance to write until we got here.”
”With me, the simple word of Major Caspar's son would have been stronger than all the proof in the world,” said the loyal old soldier; ”and though you did, as you say, tell the truth so far as you told anything, you did not tell the whole truth, as your father certainly would have done had he been in your place.”
”The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” quoted the Sheriff, in his most official tone. ”But look here, Cap'n Cod,” he continued, ”you haven't yet explained what you know of this young fellow, and his suspicious, or, to say the least, queer performances on the river.”
”Cap'n Cod!” interrupted Winn. ”Is your name Cap'n Cod?”
”It is a name that I have been known to answer to,” replied the owner of the _Whatnot_; ”and after my performance of last evening I don't suppose I shall ever be allowed to claim any other.”
”If you had only told me all your names in the first place,” said Winn, with a sly twinkle in his eyes, ”I should probably have done the same.
I have so often heard my father speak of Cap'n Cod's goodness and honesty and bravery, that I should have been perfectly willing to trust him; though I was a bit suspicious of the Sheriff's friend, Mr. Aleck Fifield.”
”It's not the Sheriff's friends you need be suspicious of, my lad, but his enemies,” interrupted Mr. Riley; ”and I wonder if you haven't fallen in with them already. As I now understand this case, you came down the river on a raft until you reached the island near which I found you. What became of your raft at that point?”
”That is what I would like to know,” replied the boy.
”What!” cried Billy Brackett. ”Do you mean to say that you don't know where the raft is?”
”No more than I know how you happen to be here instead of out in California, where I supposed you were until five minutes ago. I haven't set eyes on the _Venture_, nor found a trace of her, since the first morning out from home.”
”Well, if that doesn't beat everything!” said the young engineer, with a comical tone of despair. ”I thought that after finding you the discovery of the raft would follow as a matter of course; but now it begins to look farther away than ever.”
”But in finding me,” said Winn, ”you have found some one to help you find the raft.”
”You?” said the other, quizzically. ”Why, I was thinking of sending you home to your mother; that is, if the Sheriff here will allow you to go.”
”I don't know about that,” said the officer. ”It seems to me that I still know very little about this young man. Who is to prove to me that he is the son of Major Caspar?”
”Oh, I can speak for that,” replied Billy Brackett.
”And I suppose he is ready to vouch for you; but that won't do. You see, you are both suspicious characters, and unless some one whom I know as well as I do Cap'n Cod here can identify you, I must take you both back to Dubuque.”
”Captain Cod,” repeated Billy Brackett, thoughtfully. ”I seem to have heard that name before. Why, yes, I have a note of introduction from Major Caspar to a Captain Cod, and I shouldn't wonder if you were the very man. Here it is now.”
”I am proud to make your acquaintance, sir,” said the veteran, heartily, after glancing over the note thus handed to him. ”It's all right, Sheriff. This is certainly the Major's handwriting, for I know it as I do my own, and I don't want any better proof that this gentleman is the person he claims to be.”
”Would you be willing to go on his bond for a thousand dollars?” asked Mr. Riley.
”I would, and for as much more as my own property, together with what I hold in trust for my niece, would bring,” answered the old man, earnestly.
<script>