"De poat is in de water, but I vill hab it prought to de landing-stage for you to zee."
A boatman was sent out to bring in the boat in question, and after a careful scrutiny the trio of adventurers decided it would do, and determined to purchase it, if they could get it at a fair price.
The process of beating the Jew down was no easy task, but Mark seemed quite equal to the wiles of the Israelite, and eventually the bargain was struck, the purchase effected, and the money handed over.
"It's all right enough," said Mark, as they waited whilst the old Jew went to his office to write out the receipt; "the old man is a hard nut to crack, but he's honest, and the boat that he has sold us looks all he has represented it."
Old Jacob soon returned, and the boat was duly handed over.
For the next two or three hours the process of stocking the craft with provisions was gone through, and it was late at night when everything was in readiness for the start. The three companions slept aboard, and at daylight the next morning cast off their moorings and started on their career in the world.
When they said good-bye to Vienna, it was a bright spring morning, and their feelings were in accord with the fresh appearance of the world. No thoughts or anticipations of how their varying fortunes might be marred troubled for one instant their youthful minds. Their hearts were full of hope and the overweening vanity and self-confidence of their years. The East, to them, was paved with gold. Troubles looked like the necessary things to be combatted fearlessly to reach the success that must await them beyond; life, indeed, was one rosy, golden, glorious dream. The stern realities were to come: when their fortitude would be tried, when all that was manly, or otherwise, in them would be brought out, and they would show of what manner of stuff they were made.
The first two or three weeks of the journey passed uneventfully, the wind was in the right direction, and they glided smoothly along the waters of the great and glorious Danube.
Just as the sun was sinking one night towards the end of the third week, they found that the river passed through a dense forest, and decided by way of a change, instead of passing the night in the boat as they had done up till then, to moor her to the bank, and, under a canopy of thick bush, sleep on the bosom of mother earth.
Helmar at once steered for the bank, and the party landed. Drawing the boat up out of the water, they pitched their camp and prepared their evening meal.