Raymond S. Spears

“ Crimson, that night, had seen something that he would always tell about—a river lad who would not be daunted, and who turned to face whatever a reward of eleven hundred dollars might mean, for that sum was too large to have been offered for some whim, as a mere hundred dollar reward had seemed to be.
Quietly they drove down the long bend, turned safely into Ash Slough, and dropped down to Crimson’s boat. But Jep would not stop there, even to have a cup of coffee.
"We’ll go straight to headquarters!" he declared, now that his mind was made up. "You’ll get Mr. Carruth, won’t you?" ”

“ After supper he put Jep and the baby into a hunting cabin-launch, and drove up Ash Slough. Two hours later he left them in a fisherman’s cabin-boat moored in the woods along the banks of Beef Island Chute.
"Si Drury here’ll take care of you, and I’ll keep you posted about them tryin’ to find you," Crimson assured the boy. "Us river folks takes care o’ one another, for if we didn’t stand by one another, the Up-the-Bankers’d drive us off the river, and then where’d we be? ”

“ I haven’t done any wrong; I’ve done the best I knew how. But Driftwood and me’ve just got to go and face the music! I don’t know what’s the matter, and I don’t care—much!—for I’m through runnin’ away! ”