DICK GOES TO SEA
Three days after Dick's talk with his mother, he boarded a Key West
steamer just as it was leaving its New York pier. He sat on the deck
and watched busy ferry-boats in the river, fussy tugs and
chug-chugging launches in the harbor, and the white-winged yachts
and great ocean steamers in the lower bay. He looked back from the
Narrows upon the receding city, to the east upon Coney Island with
its pleasure palaces, and to the southwest upon the great curve of
Sandy Hook. Every step upon the deck near him brought his heart into
his mouth in dread of what he knew he had to face. When the steamer
was opposite Long Branch and there was small chance that he could be
sent back, he inquired for the captain, whom he found talking to
some young girls among the passengers. This somewhat reassured
Billy, for he felt that the captain wouldn't eat him up in the
presence of the young ladies, and he stood waiting with his cap in
his hand until the captain spoke to him.
"Do you want to see me, my boy?"
"If you are Captain Anderson, I do, sir."
"All right, go ahead."
"I want you to set me to work, sir."
"Why should I set you to work? Do you belong on the boat?"
"Not yet, but you see it's this way. I had to get to Key West and I
thought I'd work my passage with you."
"Why didn't you ask me before we left the dock?"
"Because I was afraid you wouldn't take me, if you could help it,
and I had to go."
"You cheeky little devil, I believe I'll chuck you overboard."
"Oh!" said a brown-eyed girl who stood beside the captain, "you
mustn't do that!"
The captain laughed and said to Dick:
"I hope you understand that you owe your life to this young lady.
Now, go and report yourself to the cook and tell him to put you on
the worst job he's got."
"Thank you very much, Captain, but couldn't you make it the engineer
instead of the cook? I'd rather work than wash dishes."
"I'd like to oblige so modest a boy. Report to the chief engineer,
give him my compliments and tell him you are to have the hottest
berth on the boat. He'll probably set you to shoveling coal."
Dick thanked him again; then looking into the face of the girl, he
said:
"Thank you, Miss Brown-Eyes, for saving my life," and, bowing low,
turned away.
"Captain, couldn't you see that he was a gentleman? What made you
give him such hard work?" asked the girl.
"Because he was such a cheeky gentleman that if I let him stay on
deck he would take command of the boat by to-morrow and all you
young ladies who helped him would be guilty of mutiny and would have
to be executed."
Dick was put to work in the engine-room, oiling the machinery. Some
of the work was easy and safe, some of it was easy but not safe. Oil
cups had to be filled as they flew back and forth, bearings must be
oiled after great steel rods had flashed by and before they
returned. The swift, silent play of the great piston and the steady
motion of the resistless, revolving shaft, half hypnotized the boy
and he stood, dazed and in danger, until called down by the sharp
rebuff of the engineer.
"'Tend to your business, there. Don't watch that shaft or you'll go
dotty."
On the second day of the trip there was trouble in the fire-room.
The steamer had started on the trip short of firemen and now a
fireman who had fallen in the furnace-room, striking his head on the
steel floor, was lying unconscious in his berth. The pointer on the
steam-gauge fell back, the engine slowed down, crisp commands came
from pilot-house to engine-room, sharper messages passed between
engine and fire rooms, while overworked men grew sullen and
threatened to throw down their shovels.
Dick offered to do the work of a fireman, but the engineer shook his
head and said:
"That's a man's work, boy."
"Give me a shovel and a chance."
And they were given him. He soon learned to throw the coal evenly
and feed the furnaces like a fireman, but his unseasoned body shrank
from the fierce heat; he staggered back from the hot blast every
time he swung open a great furnace door and, until the clang of its
closing, he could scarcely draw a breath. He threw off his jumper
and his white skin fairly gleamed in that grimy place. The other
firemen looked curiously at that slight, boyish form which was doing
a man's work like a man and there was no more shirking in front of
those furnaces. The fireman nearest the boy often pushed him aside
and spread shovelfuls of coal over his grates, rushing back to his
own work that it might not fall behind. A strong beam wind sprang up
and the boat rolled badly, while Dick, with his hands blistered,
fought fiercely to keep off seasickness and to keep up his fire.
Up in the main saloon and around the deck a young girl wandered as
if she wanted something without quite knowing what it was. She
climbed stairs under the sign "passengers not allowed," went in and
out of the pilot-house and, meeting the captain, asked if she
couldn't go wherever she wished on the boat. He replied:
"Yes, Miss. I appoint you third mate, with power to give any orders
you please and go wherever you wish."
A little later, with a dark waterproof drawn tightly over her light
dress, she opened the door leading to the engine-room, and clinging
to the heavy brass rail, climbed slowly down the narrow, greasy iron
stairway till she stood beside the mighty engine. The engineer
hastened to her side.
"It's against the rules and very dangerous, Miss, for a passenger to
come into this room."
"But the captain told me I could come."
"All right, but please be very careful and hold tight to that rail.
I am afraid I haven't any right to let you stay, anyhow."
"Thank you very much and I'll be very careful."
The girl watched the engine for some time and then crept slowly
along a steel bridge that looked like a spider's web, from which she
could look into the furnace-room, with its roaring fires, scorching
heat and constantly clanging iron doors. For some minutes she gazed
silently, then turning quickly, hurried across the bridge, up the
greasy stairs and on to the main saloon where she found her father
in a big arm-chair, buried in a book. The girl first pulled the book
out of her father's hands, then, sitting on the arm of his chair,
clasped her hands on his shoulder and whispered eagerly into his
ear.
"Daddy, I want you to get that boy out of that hot place down in
the bottom of the boat where he is at work. I know he's sick, for I
saw him lean up against the wall and shut his eyes and he was just
as white--"
"Why, Molly, where have you been to see all this?"
"First, I went where the big engine is, then I went a little farther
and saw--Oh! Daddy, hurry, please; if you don't I know he'll die."
"So you want me to get this boy up in the saloon to play with you?"
"I don't mean that at all, Daddy. I should think you'd hate to see
anybody worked to death down in that hot hole."
"Well, I'll see the captain about it as soon as I have finished my
book."
"Don't you think you'd better see him now? I'm quite sure you won't
enjoy your book while I'm here and I've decided to stay with you for
the present."
"All right, Molly, come along," and they hunted up the captain, whom
they found sitting near the pilot-house.
"Captain, I have taken an interest in that stowaway of yours. Is
there any objection to having his name put on the cabin list, at my
expense, of course?"
"No kick coming from me," said the captain, "though we _are_
short-handed in the fire-room and the boy has been doing a man's
work there. I don't believe he will accept your offer, for he's an
independent little cub and, as I have put him to work, I can't
insist upon it."
The captain sent a deck-hand for Dick, and the boy appeared on deck
in overalls and jumper, cap in hand.
"Dick," said the captain, "this gentleman has put your name on the
passenger list. The purser will give you a room and a seat at the
table."
"Oh, Captain, please don't take me from my work. I know I've got to
leave it if you say so, but--"
"No, you haven't," interrupted the captain; "you are on the pay-roll
and can hang on to your job as long as you do your work."
Dick's face was still troubled as he turned toward Molly and her
father, meeting a reproachful look from the girl, which made him
wonder if he had seemed ungrateful for the kindness shown him, and
said:
"I want to thank you a thousand times for your kindness and I will
come to the cabin if you think I--Have you any boy of your own,
sir?"
"Yes, I have a boy of about your age."
"If he were here, in my place, what would you like to have him do?"
"I'd be proud of him if he did just what you're doing, my boy."
Tears were in Dick's voice as he said:
"Thank you very much, sir," then, turning to Molly, a roguish smile
lit up his face as he bowed to her, saying:
"Thank you again, Miss Brown-Eyes."
The next day when Dick was off duty, instead of going to his bunk,
he dressed himself carefully and went up on the promenade deck. It
was quite contrary to the rules, but the officers only smiled and
looked away, while many of the passengers spoke to him, for the
story of his having refused cabin passage was pretty well known on
the boat. He walked about restlessly, as if in search of something
or somebody, until he caught sight of a girl in the extreme bow of
the boat, looking down upon the water twenty feet below her. Dick
suddenly discovered that he wanted to look over the bow, too. A
minute later he was leaning on the rail behind the girl, looking
down upon a school of porpoises, or herring hogs, which were playing
about the boat. A jet of water and spray curled upward from the
cutwater of the steamer, which was running at high speed, but the
graceful little creatures kept abreast of her without apparent
effort. There were twenty or thirty of them, gliding in and out as
gracefully as if they were moving to the measure of a waltz.
Sometimes one touched the prow or side of the boat; usually they
kept pace with the steamer as evenly as if they were a part of it;
but occasionally one darted ahead at a speed which left the boat
behind as if it were standing still. At last the girl, long
conscious that some one was standing beside her, putting out her
hand to that somebody, said:
"Aren't they dears? Oh!" she added, as her hand was taken and she
looked around, "I thought it was Daddy. Please excuse me."
Dick looked as if he might be persuaded to forgive her, and for some
minutes they stood in silence, leaning over the rail and looking at
the playful porpoises beneath them, when he said:
"I hope you don't think I didn't appreciate your father's lovely
offer. You will never know how grateful I really was to him--and to
somebody else, too, who, I think, had something to do with it."
"Of course I don't think you were ungrateful, but I did hate to see
you at work down in that hot place and I don't see why you couldn't
have come up in the cabin and been comfortable and not had to wear
such greasy clothes."
"How did you know where I was at work?"
"I happened to be looking at the big engine and I walked along a
little way and saw you way, way down near the bottom of the boat in
front of a hot furnace, shoveling coal into it."
"Now I know where that offer came from," said Dick, "and I want you
to see why I couldn't accept it. I wanted very, very much to get to
Key West and I was very glad of the chance to work my passage.
Perhaps it was wrong to come aboard the way I did. I guess it was.
But Captain Anderson gave me a job and made it all right. Now I'm
not ashamed to look anyone in the face, even when I have on my
fireman's clothes, while if I gave up my work and let a stranger
give me what I could earn myself I would feel like a charity scholar
and I don't think I'd have the cheek to speak to you or any one else
on board."
Molly told her father of her talk with Dick and he said:
"I can use that kind of a boy in my business. I'll have a talk with
him when we get to Key West."
Three days later the great steamer lay beside her wharf in Key West.
Dick was paid the full wages of a fireman for the trip and when he
said he wasn't worth so much, was good-naturedly told to shut up and
advised that if he refused to take money that was offered him in
that town he was likely to be caught and exhibited as a freak. He
shed his jumper and overalls and exchanged hearty good-byes with the
whole crew of the steamer. He walked through the saloons, but it was
early, most of the passengers were yet in their berths and neither
Molly nor her father was to be seen. Dick went out on the dock to
inquire for a boat to Chokoloskee, Caxambas or Marco. He was
referred to a Captain Wilson, who told him that the boat for
Chokoloskee had just sailed, was beyond hailing distance and
wouldn't leave again for a week, and that there was no Caxambas or
Marco boat in port. Dick found the captain so genial and friendly
that he told him something of his story.
"I'll fix you out," said Captain Wilson. "I own a sponging outfit
and am just starting out on a cruise, but I'm one man short. So you
come in his place. It will be a short trip, not over four weeks.
You'll make good wages and I'll find you a chance to get to
Chokoloskee when we get back. You can live on board till I find it.
If you stay here you are bound to lose a week and your board
anyhow."
"I'd like to go first rate, but I don't know anything about
sponging."
"You'll learn fast enough. Can you scull?"
"A little. I can row better."
"Have to scull in sponging, but you'll pick that up. Can you come
aboard now? I want to be off."
"I need some clothes and would like to say 'good-bye' to some
friends on the steamer."
"I can fit you out on board with all the clothes you will need on
the cruise, so hurry up and see your friends. I'll wait here for
you."
But Molly and her father had left the steamer and Dick went with
Captain Wilson aboard his sloop, which sailed at once.
The captain hunted up some clothes for Dick to wear while sponging
and as the boy came on deck after putting them on, his first glance
fell on the white sails of a schooner yacht which had just passed
them, but was then two hundred yards away. The beauty of the boat
appealed to Dick and his eyes rested lingeringly upon her. How much
greater would have been his interest had he known that the two
forms which he could see on the deck of the yacht, near the
companionway, were the Molly of whom he was thinking at that moment,
and her father, and that they were talking of him. What a pity that
he couldn't have known that Key West had been searched for him and
that Molly's father had offered a reward for his name and address!
Had Dick come on deck two minutes sooner the bow of the yacht
_Gypsey_ would have been thrown up in the wind and that tiny launch
lowered from the boat's davits in less time than it takes to tell of
it. And then, had Molly's father known Dick's name, he would have
taken the boy to his yacht, if he had had to tie him to do it, but
if Dick had once heard the name of Molly's father it would not have
been necessary to tie him. However, if either had known the name of
the other this story would not have been written.