"Oh, Massa Bob," he exclaimed, "there is a ferry-boat coming down the creek with nobody on it, and it's done got stuck ag'inst a snag. Come quick, and we can take it for our own. Findings is keepings."
Bob lost no time in following Clip's suggestion. He hurried to the creek, and there, a few rods from shore, he discovered the boat stranded in the mud, for it was low tide.
CHAPTER XIV. THE BOAT AND ITS OWNER.
The boat was shaped somewhat like the popular representations of Noah's ark. It was probably ninety feet in length by thirty-eight feet in width, and was roofed. Bob recognized it at once as a ferry-boat of the style used at different points on the river, to convey passengers and teams across the river. It was a double-ender, like the much larger ferry-boats that are used on the East River, between New York and Brooklyn.
The creek on which the Burton ranch was located was really large enough for a river, and Bob concluded that this boat had been used at a point higher up.
"I wish I owned that boat, Clip," said Bob.
"What would you do with it, Massa Bob?"
"I'll tell you what I'd do, Clip; I'd go down to St. Louis on it."