When Professor Pludder, the President, and their companions on the aero-raft, saw the three men on the bluff motioning and shouting to them, they immediately sought the means of bringing their craft to land. This did not prove to be exceedingly difficult, for there was a convenient rock with deep water around it on which they could disembark.
The men ran down to meet them, and to help them ashore, exhibiting the utmost astonishment at seeing them there.
"Whar in creation did you come from?" exclaimed one, giving the professor a pull up the bank. "Mebbe you're Cosmo Versál, and that's yer Ark."
"I'm Professor Pludder, and this is the President of the United States."
"The President of the Un——See here, stranger, I'll take considerable from you, considering the fix yer in, but you don't want to go too far."
"It's true," asseverated the professor. "This gentleman is the
President, and we've escaped from Washington. Please help the ladies."
"I'll help the ladies all right, but I'm blamed if I believe yer yarn. How'd you git here? You couldn't hev floated across the continent on that thing."
"We came on the raft that you see," interrupted Mr. Samson. "We left the
Appalachian Mountains two weeks ago."
"Well, by—it must be true!" muttered the man. "They couldn't hev come from anywhar else in that direction. I reckon the hull blamed continent is under water."
"So it is," said Professor Pludder, "and we made for Colorado, knowing that it was the only land left above the flood."