When Claude had taken leave of his cousin he turned to say a word to Thompson, but that fellow had put his hands behind him. He was not going to take leave of him as Carl had done. Claude saw in a moment that he could not say anything to the foreman, so he turned on his heel and walked away.
“I am surprised at you,” said Carl, when Claude had passed on out of hearing. “Were you not sorry to see him go?”
“No, I was not,” said Thompson emphatically. “I have been in constant hot water ever since he has been on the ranch. I told you at the start that I did not think you would like Claude, and I hit it, did I not?”
“You put your hands behind you because you did not want to bid me good-by, did you?” said Claude, turning about in his walk to grit his teeth at the foreman. “Well, I will bet you that before night you cannot shake hands with anybody. I will get a couple of men after you who will leave you in the river.”
Carl did not intend to go on board his old vessel until he had been the length of the levee and had satisfied himself that there was no boat getting ready to sail before she did. It was not necessary that he should go on every one he saw to make inquiries. Some of them had their destinations printed on canvas and hung up on their hurricane-deck railings—for example, “For Vicksburg,” “For Cairo,” and for “New Orleans”—but he had yet to see one that was to sail up the river.
“I guess we had better go aboard our old boat and take our chances,” said Carl, after he had grown weary of examining the steamers. “Those officers are like old friends to us, and somehow I feel safer in their presence than I would anywhere else.”
“That is what I say,” answered Thompson. “If I was back at the ranch I tell you you would have to get somebody else to come with you.”
Carl laughed and led the way aboard their own boat, where they secured a couple of chairs and sat down to wait until the steamer was ready to sail. They had already left their luggage (each one of them had a valise) in the hands of the porter, and when they saw the clerk go into his office Carl thought he would pay his passage and get a better room than they had in coming down. Thompson kept close at his side wherever he went. The presence of so large an amount of money made him terribly uneasy, and he did not want to let Carl out of his sight.
“You are going back with us,” said the clerk, after Carl had told him the object of his visit. “We will go up to-morrow, and she will be the first one out. We are to take on some army rations for those fellows at Fort Scully, and it won’t be any trouble at all for you to wait three or four days until that little boat comes down. Five dollars, please.”
“But you see we don’t want to wait,” said Carl, pulling out his ten dollars. “We are impatient to get back to our ranch as soon as possible.”