Chap strode ahead of all. He liked to walk alone, and look about, and make observations for himself, and besides this, he happened to remember that he was captain of the Rolling Stones, and that, whenever it was practicable, it was proper for him to be in advance. When they reached Salt Lake they found the little steamer lying about a quarter of a mile from the shore, on which there was no sign of pier or landing-place. The wagons and carts drove directly into the lake, the bottom being hard sand, and splashed along to the Winkyminky. When they reached it, the water was a little over the hubs of the wheels, and when the vehicles in turn drove up to the side of the boat it was easy, even for the old gentleman and his wife, to step directly on to the lower deck. There was a small flat-boat near the shore, into which the pedestrians got, and a negro boy poled them to the steamboat. The little Winkyminky was very much crowded, there being a dozen passengers on board when our friends arrived, but the old couple and the ladies were accommodated with beds, the captain giving up his room; the children were to be stowed into various corners, while the men and boys cheerfully undertook to find places to sleep when night came. At first the boys wondered that larger steamboats were not put upon this line, so that passengers could be more comfortably accommodated, but they had not gone very far before they found why the Winkyminky was so small. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXVIII. A PLOT AGAINST CHAP. When everybody who was going had leisurely gone on board the little steamboat, and the two or three negroes who were not going had deliberately got off into the flat-boat, and the engineer and fireman had followed the example of everybody else on board, and had gone to take a look at Adam’s little bears, which he had brought with great care from Titusville, stowed away in the front part of the wagon, and when there really seemed to be no reason why a start should not be made, the anchor was hauled up and the engineer signalled to go ahead. Among the passengers were the two young men who had stolen the boat; but they kept as much out of the way as possible, appearing especially anxious to avoid Adam and the boys. They spent most of the time in the engine-room and lived with the crew, probably hoping that by so doing the story of their misdemeanors and banishment from Titusville might not be told on board. The boys, however, knew that they were on the boat; but, as they had not the slightest desire either to speak to them or look at them, the two miscreants were avoided quite as much as they wished to be. After leaving the lake, which is a small body of water, the boat entered a narrow stream, which twisted and turned and bent back upon itself in such curious loops and curves, that few persons would have supposed it navigable by a steamer, until they had seen the Winkyminky perform the feat.