“But what are we to do?” asked Phœnix. “We haven’t got the money to stay here.”
“Well,” said Adam, “I’ve very little money with me, but if I had it I’d lend it to you. But you needn’t bother yourselves about me. I can work my way North somehow.”
“No, that won’t do,” said Phil. “You know we told you that if you’d sail our boat, and show us the way, and do all those things that we don’t know anything about, we’d pay your way North, and we’ll do it, too, as soon as we get money from our friends. But the thing is, what are we to do now? We’ve used more than we expected to, and we didn’t suppose there would be hotel bills here. We thought we’d go right on.”
“Well, now I’ll tell you,” said Adam, “what you’d better do. Just go, all three of you, to the colonel, and tell him the fix you’re in. It’s his business to set things right in this town, and he’ll let you know what you have to do. If anything is to be set up or knocked down, he wants to do it himself.”
“I’m not particularly anxious to have him knock me down,” said Chap.
“It’ll go easier to be knocked down now” said Adam, “than after you’ve run up a great big bill, and I recommend you to go straight to him, and let him know how things stand.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
A NEW EXPEDITION PLANNED.
The boys went up to the hotel, where they found the colonel sitting behind his desk.
Phil was generally expected to do the talking for the party whenever anything important was to be said, and he, therefore, with very little preface or hesitation, informed the big man in the chair of the condition in which he and his friends now found themselves in regard to finances.