"
"Well," said Glen, in a despairing tone, "if what you say is true, and
I know it must be, we are in a fix. That hundred dollars was to pay
our expenses to New Orleans; now I don't know how we shall get there."
"New Orleans! Are you bound for New Orleans?"
"Yes, and that's how we happened to be here, and to find this raft.
You see, my father, General Elting, you know, is going to Central
America to make a survey for the Nicaragua Canal, and Binney and I are
to go with him. The party is to sail from New Orleans some time in
January, but he had to go to New York first. As there were a lot of
instruments and heavy things to be sent to New Orleans, he thought it
best to ship them by boat; and as we wanted to take the river trip, he
let us come in charge of them. We knew we should have to transfer from
the Ohio River boat at this point, but we didn't know until we got here
that we must wait three days for the New Orleans packet. As there
wasn't anything else to do, we have put in the time hunting and
fishing, and last evening we ran across this abandoned raft about a
mile up the Mississippi. We had a time getting it in here, I can tell
you. When we did, and reported it to the City Marshal, he showed us a
telegram from a Mr. Winn Caspar, asking him to look out for just such a
raft.
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