Rollo, having found his fishing line, shut and locked his trunk, and ran down stairs. As soon as he had gone, Mr. George rose and rang the bell. Very soon the waiter came to the door. "This young gentleman who is with me," said Mr. George, "wishes to go on board this raft, and sail down the river a little way." "Yes, sir," said the waiter. "Rudolf is arranging it for him." "Very well," said Mr. George. "And now I wish to have you send a commissioner secretly to accompany him. The commissioner is to remain on the raft as long as Rollo does, and leave it when he leaves it, and keep in sight of him all the time till he gets home, so as to see that he does not get into any difficulty." "Yes, sir," said the waiter. "But let the commissioner understand that he is not to let Rollo know any thing about his having any charge over him, nor to communicate with him in any way, unless some emergency should arise requiring him to interpose." "Yes, sir," said the waiter, "I will explain it to him." "And choose a good-natured and careful man to send," continued Mr. George; "one that speaks French." "Yes, sir," replied the waiter; and so saying, he disappeared, leaving Mr. George to go on with his writing. In the mean time Rollo had gone down to the shore with the waiter Rudolf, and was standing there near a boat which was drawn up at the foot of the landing stairs, watching the raft, which was now getting pretty near. There was a great company of men at each end of the raft. Rollo could see those at the lowest end the plainest. They were standing in rows near the end of the raft, and every six of them had an oar. There were eight or ten of these oars, all projecting forward, from the front end of the raft, and the raftsmen, by working them, seemed to be endeavoring to row that end of the raft out farther into the stream. It was the same at the farther end of the raft. There was a similar number of oarsmen there, and of oars, only those projected behind, just as the others did before. There were no oars at all along the sides of the raft. The fact is, that these monstrous rafts are always allowed to float down by the current, the men not attempting to hasten them on their way by rowing. All that they attempt to do by their labor is to keep the immense and unwieldy mass in the middle of the stream. Thus they only need oars at the two ends, and the working of them only tends to row the raft sidewise, as it were. Sometimes they have to row the ends from left to right, and sometimes from right to left, according as the current tends to drift the raft towards the left or the right bank of the river.