October,  early – Sam walked along the main street of Keokuk in swirling snow, and found a fifty-dollar bill. Astounded, he later recounted, “It  was a fifty-dollar bill—the only one I had ever seen, and the largest assemblage of money I had ever seen in one spot” [Powers, Dangerous 243]. He  advertised it but after five days with no claimant he felt he’d done enough:

“By and by I couldn’t stand it any longer. My  conscience had gotten all that was coming to it. I felt that I must take that  money out of danger” [MTB 111].

The  trip to the Amazon was now possible. Sam planned to work his way  down the Mississippi and board a ship for Brazil.  He got Orion to use his influence with the head manager, George  Rees, who agreed to pay $5  each for some humorous travel sketches he would send to the Keokuk Daily  Post [MTB  112; Powers, Dangerous 243].  Sam then departed Keokuk, bound for the Amazon. The  found fifty was but one of several miraculous incidents that would serve as  turning points in Sam’s life—or so he later liked to claim.