Part 15 (1/2)

”Why, you are the very same one--”

”Yes,” he replied, quietly, ”I am the very same one whom you reminded of his own little girl, and who has thought of you very often since. I didn't know that you had reached this place, or I should have come to see you before. I found this monkey a little while ago in possession of some boys who were teasing him, and thought I recognized him as soon as I saw him. I became certain he was yours when some of the boys said they had seen him on a show-boat last evening, and that, after they had had some fun with him, they were going to bring him down here and claim a reward. As I wanted the pleasure of bringing him back to you myself, I bought him of them, and here he is.”

”Then you are not a bad man, as Winn said, but a very good one, as I told him, and now I can prove it!” exclaimed Sabella, with a note of joyous triumph in her voice. ”I'm ever and ever so much obliged to you, and I only wish I could see your little girl to tell her what a splendid father she has.”

”Who is Winn? And what makes him think I am a bad man?” inquired the stranger, curiously.

”Oh, he's a boy, a big boy, that has lost a raft that we are helping him find, and he thinks you stole it. So he says you are a bad man; but I know you are not, and you wouldn't do such a mean thing as to steal a boy's raft, would you?”

”Well, no,” hesitated the stranger, greatly taken aback by this unexpected disclosure and abrupt question. ”No, of course not,” he added, recovering himself. ”I wouldn't steal a raft, or anything else, from a boy, though I might occasionally borrow a thing that I needed very much. But where is this Winn boy now? And where is your uncle?”

”They have gone out to find Don Blossom, and Mr. Brackett and Solon have gone too, but they'll all be back directly, and then you can tell them that you only borrowed Winn's raft, and where you have left it.

Oh, I am so glad it was you that found Don Blossom!”

”Who is Mr. Brackett?” inquired the stranger, glancing uneasily out of the window.

”Mr. Brackett? Why, he is Winn's uncle, though you wouldn't think he was an uncle, or any older than Winn, he is so funny, and he is helping find the raft. But you'll see him in a few minutes, for they said they'd only be gone an hour.”

”I think I'll go and find them, and tell them they needn't hunt any longer for the monkey,” said the stranger, hurriedly.

Then, before Sabella could remonstrate, he had bent down and kissed her, saying, ”Good-bye, and G.o.d bless you, little one,” opened the door, and was gone.

”Seems to me that is very foolish, when he might have seen them by just waiting a few minutes,” said Sabella to herself, as she pulled off Don Blossom's gay but soaked and mud-bespattered coat. ”Now perhaps he will miss them after all.”

The stranger had hardly disappeared before Solon returned to the boat, grumbling at the weather, the mud, and, above all, at the rheumatism that forbade him to remain out in the wet any longer.

”Hit hain't no use, honey,” he said, as he opened the door, ”dat ar Don monkey gone fur good an' all dish yer time. Yo' nebber see him no mo'.

Wha--wha--whar yo fin' him? He ben yeah all de time, while ole Solon ben er traipsin' fro de mud, an' er huntin', an' er huntin'?”

”No, indeed, he hasn't!” cried Sabella, laughing merrily, as she held Don Blossom up to the astonished gaze of the old negro. ”He has just come home.” Then she explained at length how her pet had been brought back to her by such a good kind man.

”Well, ef dat ar ain't a beater!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Solon. ”I's mighty glad de lil rasc'l is foun', anyway, 'kase now we kin be gittin' outen dish yer rheumatizy place. I'll go an' hitch up dat mewel, so to hab him ready to start when de Cap'n come.”

Upon leaving the _Whatnot_, Cap'n Cod had turned to the left, or up along the river-front of the town; Billy Brackett had plunged directly into its business portion, intending to keep on until he reached the hills beyond, on which stood the better cla.s.s of residences; and Winn had turned to the right.

The young engineer, closely followed by Bim, walked for several blocks without seeing or hearing anything of the runaway monkey. Suddenly, with a low growl, Bim started across the street. His master was just in time to see a man spring into the open doorway of a store, and slam the door to as the dog leaped furiously against it.

The glimpse he caught of the man's face was like a lightning flash, but it was enough. He knew him to be the raftsman who had kicked Bim, and whom he had rescued from the dog's teeth at Mandrake, more than a week before. ”He is one of those scoundrels who stole the _Venture_, and if I can only trace him I'll find the raft,” thought the young man, as he dashed across the street after Bim.

Seizing the dog's collar, and bidding him be quiet, he opened the door of the store and stepped inside. There was no one to be seen, save the proprietor and two or three startled-looking clerks.

”Where is he?” demanded Billy Brackett, hurriedly. ”The man, I mean, who ran in here just now!”

”That dog ought to be killed, and if you don't take him out of here at once I'll call the police,” said the proprietor of the store, indignantly. ”It's an outrage to allow such brutes to run at large.”

”That's the reason I'm holding him,” said Billy Brackett; ”but where is the man?”

”I don't know; but I hope he has gone for his gun, and will know how to use it too. If he don't, I--”

The young engineer did not wait to hear more, for at that moment he spied a back door standing partly open. That was where his man had gone, and without paying any further attention to the irate shopkeeper, he dashed out through it with Bim at his heels.