CHAPTER XXXV. RUPERT MAKES A DISCOVERY.
It was not easy for Rupert to form plans in his present destitute condition. The money which he had lost was a minor consideration. The boat and provisions were much more important.
Besides this, he still had his gun and his watch. Both these were likely to prove useful.
He wondered a little why Ben had not taken the watch. But his wonder diminished when he remembered that Boone had told him one day that he had never owned a watch.
"How, then, do you tell time?" Rupert inquired.
"By the sun," answered Ben.
Rupert had tested him more than once, and found that from long and close observation his guide could always guess within a few minutes of the correct time. To Ben the watch had no value, and it didn't occur to him that he might raise money on it when he reached the settlements.
Rupert felt that he must lose no time in forming some plan of reaching the point from which he started. He went down to the river, faintly hoping that he might see Ben returning in the skiff, but this he owned to himself was extremely improbable.