"Couldn't you empty the shot out?" asked Harry.

"And lose it all?" asked Tony, with an aggrieved expression upon his
watery face.

"But how did it happen?" Harry earnestly inquired. "What were you doing
in the boat?"

Tony did not immediately answer. He rubbed at his legs, and then he
tried to wipe his face with his wet coat-sleeve, but finding that only
made matters worse, he accepted Harry's offer of his handkerchief, and
soon got his countenance into talking order.

"Why, you see," said he, "I kept on up the creek till I got opposite
John Walker's cabin, where it's narrow, and there's a big tree a-lyin'
across--"

"Still following that thing?" interrupted Harry.

"Yes," said Tony; "an' then I got over on the tree and kep' down the
creek--"

"Still following?" asked Harry.

"Yes; and I got a long ways down, and had one bad tumble, too, in a
dirty little gully; and it was pretty nigh day when I turned to come
back. An' then when I got up here I thought I would look fur John
Walker's boat--fur I knew he kept it tied up somewhere down this
way--and save myself all that walk. I found the ole boat--"