It proved to be in the northwest corner and after some mix-ups, a person was found who could speak English. The American Consul was tracked, cablegrams were sent to Kentucky apprising their families of their safety, and at last our friends were on the train en route for Paris.
It was a long and circuitous journey, over and under and around mountains. They would have enjoyed it at any other time, but Kent was too uneasy about Judy to enjoy anything, and Jim was too eager to get in line to swat the Prussians, as he expressed it, to be interested in Spanish scenery. They traveled third class as they had no intention of drawing too recklessly on their hoarded gold.
After many hours of travel by day and night, they finally arrived in Paris. It was eleven at night and our young men were weary, indeed. The hard benches of the third class coaches had made their impression and they longed for sheets and made-up beds.
“A shave! A shave! My kingdom for a shave!” exclaimed Kent, as they stretched their stiffened limbs after tumbling out of the coach in the Gare de Sud.
“Don’t forget I am a stranger in a strange land, so put me wise,” begged Jim.
“I know a terribly cheap little hotel on Montparnasse and Raspail where we can put up, without even the comforts of a bum home, but we can make out there and it is cheap. The Haute Loire is its high sounding name, but it is not high, I can tell you.”
“Well, let’s do it. I hope there is some kind of a bath there.”
“I trust so, but if there isn’t, we can go to a public bath.”
The Kentuckians were a very much dishevelled pair. They had purchased the necessary toilet articles at Camariñas, but sleeping for nights in suits in which they had already had quite a lengthy swim did not improve their appearance. The submariners had pressed their clothes after their ducking, but Jim’s trousers had shrunk lengthways until he said he felt like Buster Brown, and Kent’s had dried up the other way, so that in walking two splits had arrived across his knees.
“We look like tramps, but the Haute Loire is used to our type. I don’t believe we could get into a good hotel.”