We employed a guide for a day to conduct us safely to the beaten trail, and four days later we were safely settled in the little village of Blanto, on the frontier of France.
Although we had put up with a great many hardships, we enjoyed our tramp, and we only wished our journey had occupied twenty days instead of five, for we felt better each succeeding day, tramping over the rocky pathways. Two nights were spent on the ground under the shadow of the cork trees, while the other nights were spent in huts along the way.
During the tramp our food consisted, principally, of bread, goat's milk and fruit.
One night while sleeping out we were alarmed by the approach of some sort of big animal, which persisted on making our acquaintance. By firing the revolver several times we succeeded in frightening it away, after which we went back to sleep, only to be awakened in the early morning by a Spanish goat herder, who insisted that we had killed one of his dogs. The dead animal proved to be our visitor of the previous night.
At Blanto we made preparation for our railway journey to Paris.
August found us in the gay city of Paris, where we chanced to meet again two of our friends of the cattle boat, Roy Saunders and Philip McDuff.
We arrived in Paris about seven o'clock in the morning. Engaging a four-wheeler we were driven to our hotel, which was situated about a block from the Champs Elysees, the most beautiful boulevard in that wonderful city. After enjoying a good breakfast we repaired to our room, where we discussed the situation, and, I regret to say, it proved a serious one.
We found that our friends, McDuff and Saunders, had spent all the money they had, with the exception of a few francs. Hubert Collins had about enough to carry him to New York, and I had something like seventy-five francs (fifteen dollars). Three days later Collins left Paris for London, from which place he sailed for New York.
We three other fellows remained in Paris, expecting money by every mail, but we had to content ourselves with mere expectations, for letters containing the money never came. We soon realized that our situation was becoming a desperate one, and that we must do something, for our little supply of funds was diminishing daily.
Finally we decided on advertising in the Paris edition of the New York Herald, thinking that perhaps this would bring us an opportunity for some sort of work. Our advertisement read: