“There’s a boat on fire, floating down the river!”
Phil looked over the fields and could see the heavy black smoke in the direction of the river. Still he did not follow the men, but pushed on towards home faster than before.
“If she’s floating down the river,” he thought, “I can see her from our house.”
The road from Boontown to Hyson Hall was half a mile back from the river, and on his way Phil could get no view of the conflagration, but, as he looked back, he sometimes saw the smoke, which never seemed to be far behind him.
“She’s coming down pretty fast,” he thought.
“The Thomas Wistar is afire!” he said to Joel, when he dismounted at the barn.
“There’s none of my property on board,” remarked Joel, as he took Jouncer’s bridle and led him to the stable.
Hurrying to the house, Phil met Jenny, who told him that Chap Webster and Phœnix Poole had been there, and had gone down to the river.
Phil ran round the house and over the fields to the water. He found Chap and Phœnix in the scow, which they had poled to some distance from the shore, and had anchored over the place where Phœnix had found the side of a ship.
Apparently, they had not been diving, and were now standing in the scow looking at the burning steamer, not half a mile away.