All property adrift may be taken up by any person and secured.

(a) Such person must, within two days after the same is taken up, exhibit the property to the district court, and if, in his opinion, it is worth over $30.00, he must issue an order of appraisement to three disinterested freeholders or householders, who, after being duly sworn to estimate the value of such property fairly, must appraise and certify the same to the court, with a description of the property; if not exceeding the value of $30.00, the court must make the appraisement and description of the property.

(b) The court must give the taker a copy of the appraisement and description of the property, retaining the original.

(a) If the appraised value is over $30.00, the taker must, within 10 days thereafter, give notice thereof, once a week for three successive weeks, in a newspaper published nearest to the place where the property was taken up. Such advertisement must state the name of the taker, the time and place, a description of the property, with its marks, and the name of the owner, if known, its appraised value, and where the same is secured or deposited.

(b) If the property is not worth exceeding $30.00, the same must be advertised at the next steamboat landing, if the property was taken up on a navigable stream, otherwise, at the nearest public place, within five days after the taking up.

The owner may, on notifying the taker or the person in possession, and proving the property by his own oath, or the oath of another, satisfactorily to the district court, obtain from such court an order to restore such property on the payment of the legal costs and charges thereon.

(a) The taker is entitled to 10 percent on the appraised value of each bale of cotton and on other property as follows: 25 percent on all under $30.00; between $30.00 and $100.00, 20 percent; between $100.00 and $500.00, 15 percent; between $500.00 and $1,000.00, 10 percent; and on all over $1,000.00, five percent.

(b) The taker is also entitled to the court fees paid by him, the expenses of the advertisement, if published in a newspaper, and reasonable compensation for the keeping, if necessary to preserve the property from loss or injury, to be ascertained as in the case of estrays.

The appraisers, other than the district court, are entitled to $2.00 each, to be paid by the taker.

The owner may prove his property, if appraised at not more than $30.00, within three months; between $30.00 and $100.00, in six months; at more than $100.00, within one year after the appraisement; and, on failure to do so, the right to the same is vested in the taker, under the provisions of this chapter.

If the taker or the person in possession of the property fails to deliver the same to the owner on the order of the district court and the payment of, or offering to pay, all legal costs, charges and expenses for keeping, such owner may recover the same; and the person failing also forfeits, to any person bringing an action for the same, double the appraised value of the property.

If any person conceals, destroys, injures, obliterates or defaces any mark, or disposes of, or carries beyond the state any property taken up adrift, before the expiration of the time allowed by this chapter for the owner to prove his property, he is liable to such owner to the extent of the injury he may sustain thereby.

If the taker dies before the expiration of the time allowed to the owner to prove his property, all the provisions of this chapter, in relation to the giving up of the property, apply to his personal representatives.