"Now for that big fish of yours--where is it?" asked Frank of his
brother, as they prepared to enter the circular building which forms one
of the finest educational features of New York.
"We'll find it when we get inside," was the answer. "It's a porpoise,
and the accounts of it in the papers said it cut up all manner of
tricks. Porpoises are very playful, you know."
"I thought it was a dolphin," Frank remarked.
"Well, maybe dolphins are playful, too, but this is a porpoise I want to
see."
"A ham sandwich and a cup of coffee would be more in my line," was the
other's comment. "Don't be too long at this fishing game, Ned."
"I won't. Then we can come out and get a bite. There are plenty of
restaurants around here."
Together they entered the aquarium, and were soon gazing with interested
eyes at the porpoise, which was kept in one of the large central tanks.
Around the walls of the place were other tanks, with the light coming in
from the top in such a way that the fish were plainly visible. There was
a new exhibit of fishes from Bermudian waters, and looking at them after
having watched the porpoise for some time, Ned remarked:
"Well, Frank, if we are ever lucky enough to get on a battleship that's
sent to Bermuda, I suppose we'll see such fish as these in their native
waters."
"Yes, it would be great!" agreed Frank, and as he spoke he noticed that
a man standing near him and his brother looked at them in a peculiar and
sharp manner. Frank did not like the looks of the fellow, and he was
even less pleased when the man moved a little nearer and addressed them.
"Are you lads from some ship?" he asked. "If you are, shake! I'm from
the _Kentucky_ myself, on shore leave, and it does my heart good to meet
a couple of the boys in blue. What's your berth?"
"We haven't any," Frank said, hoping to pass the matter off lightly and
leave the man, for he did not like his face or manner.
"Excuse me," the fellow went on, "but I thought I heard youse say
something about a battleship--"
"Oh, that was just talk," broke in Ned, more open and ingenuous than his
brother. "We've been talking of getting on a battleship for some time,
but I don't suppose we ever shall."
"Well, it's a great life, believe me!" exclaimed the man. "I've put in
eight years of it. Hard work, but lots of fun, too. I've seen these fish
swimming around so thick that you'd think there wasn't enough water for
'em," and he waved his hand--not a very clean hand, Frank thought--toward
a tank of angel fish.
"Have you been in Bermuda?" asked Ned, eagerly.
"Lots of times," boasted the other. "Two or three times the ships I was
on were sent there on cruises. It's a great life. Are you boys stopping
in New York?"
"For a while, yes," assented Frank, not wishing to give too much
information about themselves to a stranger. He well knew the wiles of
some of the unprincipled men of New York.
"I took you for strangers," the fellow went on, and there came a queer
gleam in his eyes.
"We're Columbia students," put in Ned, who was very proud of the fact.
And then, like a pang, it came to him, that he and his brother would
have to give up their places at the university. No longer would they be
able to keep on with their studies there. Well, there was no use in vain
regrets.
"I thought youse looked like college boys," went on the man who claimed
to be a sailor. "But what's the trouble? Flunked in your studies that
you want to get on a battleship? You can't be officers first crack after
you enlist, you know."
"Oh, that talk of battleships didn't amount to anything," Frank said,
wishing the fellow would take himself off. "And we don't expect to be
officers. Ned, come along," he said, "it's time we were going."
They started for the exit, but their new acquaintance persisted in
following them. And when Ned, who was an ardent fisherman, stopped at
another tank, the stranger halted also.
"I wouldn't like one of those chaps to get after me," the man said,
indicating two big green morays. The eel-like fish were swimming about
and tearing to shreds a smaller fish that had been put into their tank
for food.
"They are fierce," agreed Ned, pressing close to the tank.
"And they'll attack a man, too," went on the sailor. "I knowed a feller
once--he was on the same ship with me--he went swimming overboard when we
was in the tropics, though he was told not to on account of sharks and
these morays; but he did, and he got his all right."
"How?" asked Frank, interested in spite of himself.
"He was all chawed up. We just managed to get him out of the water
alive. If youse go on a battleship, look out about swimming over the
side when you're in tropical waters."
"I guess there isn't much chance for us," remarked Frank. "Come, Ned,"
he went on, "we really must be going!"
At that moment another man came up, evidently in something of a hurry,
and he pressed eagerly forward to look at the morays. He shoved against
Frank with some force, and Frank, in turn, collided with the stranger
who claimed to be from one of the United States battleships.
"Here, look where you're shovin' to!" the sailor called to the newcomer.
"What do youse mean by bunkin' inter my friend here in that way?"
The other did not answer for a moment, but looked the speaker over from
head to foot, and an angry look came over his face.
"What's gittin' inter youse?" the second man demanded. "I didn't step on
your corns, did I?"
"No, but you shoved my friend here," and the sailor indicated Frank,
"and I won't stand for anythin' like that. Not for a minute, no sir!"
"Aw, ain't your friend got a tongue of his own?" roughly demanded the
newcomer. "I didn't hear him kickin' none!"
There was contempt in his tone, and anger also.
"It really doesn't matter," Frank said. "I have no doubt it was an
accident."
"Of course it was," insisted the man who had offended. "Youse is a
gentleman, youse is, an' I apologizes."
"Does that mean I ain't no gentleman?" asked the sailor, in fierce
tones.
"Youse kin take any meanin' from it youse likes," was the cool answer.
The newcomer was about to walk away, when the sailor stepped up to him
quickly, fairly crowding Ned and Frank together to do so, and he grasped
the shoulder of the fellow who had apologized to Frank.
"I'll show youse who's a gentleman!" cried the sailor. "You can't insult
me, nor bunk inter friends of mine!"
The two stood close together glaring at one another, with Ned and Frank
between them. A crowd gathered in front of the moray tank.
"Come on, Ned, let's get out of here!" whispered Frank into his
brother's ear. "There'll be a fight in a minute, and we don't want to be
mixed up in it."
The two belligerents separated for a moment, and the lads slipped out of
the throng. As they did so an officer sauntered up.
"Here, youse! Cut out that rough stuff and beat it!" he said to the two
quarrelsome men. The latter never so much as replied, but quickly
disappeared in the crowd. There was some laughter.
"One was afraid, and the other didn't dare," commented a man.
"Come on, now, don't crowd," advised the officer, and the throng thinned
out, while Ned and Frank, glad they had escaped any unpleasantness,
emerged into Battery Park again.
"Did you see enough?" asked Frank.
"Sure. Now I'm ready for the next thing on the programme. Say, that
sailor was a friendly chap all right, wasn't he?"
"Too friendly," Frank said. "I didn't want him to get into a fight on
our account."
"I should say not. But maybe he meant all right."
"Well, I'm not so sure of that. What time have you? It must be nearly
one o'clock."
Ned reached toward his vest, where he carried his father's gold watch.
He had chosen that as a memento of his dead parent, Frank taking a
peculiar old ring that he valued highly. But instead of pulling out the
watch it was the empty chain that dangled from Ned's hand.
"Why--why--" he began, a blank look coming over his face. "Why, where's
dad's watch? I never left it anywhere! I had it not an hour ago, when we
went in there! Now it's gone!"
Frank uttered an exclamation.
"You've been robbed, Ned!" he cried. "Those two fellows--I see it now!
That was only a game! They--"
He paused, and hurriedly reached into his inside coat pocket.
"They robbed me, too!" he exclaimed. "They've taken the pocketbook and
all our money! Ned, we've been robbed!"