This boat was placed on board the steamer Bismarck that was bound to St.
Louis.

It was arranged with the Captain to drop them off at Bayou Goula exactly a hundred miles above.

As the steamer, to get ahead of an opposition boat, started an hour before the advertised time, all the newspaper reporters except one, were left behind.

At six o'clock the next morning, Paul and the reporter were landed on the levee at a miserable looking little Louisiana village.

They breakfasted at the solitary hotel; after which they made enquiries in regard to a pilot.
All agreed that a colored man named Gabriel was the best.