here and
there on his journey. It was spring time, and the farmers were glad
enough to employ him for a day or two each. The wages were meagre
enough, but Duncan accepted them gladly, the more so because the farmers
in every case gave him board besides. Now and then he secured odd jobs
as an assistant to mechanics. In one case he stoked the furnaces of a
coal mine for a week.

But he did not remain long in any employment. As soon as he had a trifle
of money or a little stock of provisions to the good, he moved onward
toward the river.

His one dominating and ever-growing purpose was to reach Cairo. What
fortune might await him there he knew not at all, but since he had
scratched that address on the butt of a pistol, the desire to reach
Cairo had daily and hourly grown upon him until it was now almost a
passion. The name "Cairo" in his mind had become a synonym for
"Opportunity."

It was about the middle of May when the toilsome foot journey ended at
Wheeling. There Duncan, still wearing his tattered uniform, made
diligent inquiry as to steamboats going down the river. He learned that
one of the great coal-towing steamers from Pittsburg was expected within
a few hours, pushing acres of coal-laden barges before her, and he was
encouraged by the information, volunteered on every hand, that the work
of "firing up" under the boilers of these coal-towing boats was so
severe that a goodly number of the stokers always abandoned their
employment in disgust of it, and deserted the boat if she made a landing
at Wheeling, as this approaching one must do for the reason that a
number of coal-laden barges had been left there for her to take in tow.

It was Guilford Duncan's hope to secure a place on her as a stoker or
coal passer, to take the place of some one of the deserters. This might
enable him, he thought, to earn a little money on the way down the
river, instead of depleting his slenderly stocked purse by paying
steamboat fare.

With such prospect in mind he ventured to go into the town and purchase
a pair of boots and a suit of clothes fit for wear when he should reach
Cairo. His worn-out uniform would answer all his purposes while serving
as a stoker.

When the steamboat, with her vast fleet of barges, made a landing,
Guilford Duncan was the first man to leap aboard in search of work.
Unfortunately for him there were few or no deserters from in front of
the furnaces on this trip. He could not secure employment as a s