When it was within a hundred yards of The Rolling Stone, this boat, the approach of which Chap had not noticed, was run ashore, and the two untidy young men, each carrying a gun, came walking down the narrow beach.
When they were near the boat, Chap heard them, and looking up, was very much surprised to see these strangers. They saluted Chap in a friendly way, and as The Rolling Stone was near the shore, they stepped on board, and sitting down, began to talk to him.
The untidy young men asked Chap a great many questions, all of which he answered freely.
“So you’re in a great hurry to get North?” said one of them.
“Oh, yes,” said Chap. “You see, our friends don’t know where we are, and we wouldn’t stop anywhere, if we didn’t have to.”
“And the rest of the party has gone off and left you here by yourself,” said the other. “We was a-wonderin’ as we was comin’ down what you was doin’ here on the boat.”
“I tried to fish,” said Chap, “but I couldn’t keep her out.”
“If you fellers want to git up the river in a hurry, you ought to have a smaller boat that’ll sail ag’in the wind better’n this one. Now we’ve got a little boat up there that we want to send back to Titusville, and you’ve got one you want to send back to John Brewer. If you say so, we’ll trade, and that’ll suit all parties.”
“Oh, we wouldn’t think of that,” said Chap, rather contemptuously, looking up at the craft they had left. “Your boat is entirely too small for us, and this suits us first-rate. It’s a regular little yacht.”
“Yes,” said the other, looking around him, “she’s a mighty comfortable boat.”