"THAT LOOKED LIKE ANDY!"
What seemed at first as if it was going to be a tedious time of
waiting, proved to be a delightful experience, for our friends found
much to occupy their attention in New York.
Tom and Ned went to several theatrical performances, and wanted Mr.
Damon to go with them, but the odd man said he wanted to visit
several museums and other places of historical interest, so, while
he was browsing around that way, the boys went to Bronx Park, and to
Central Park, to look at the animals, and otherwise enjoy
themselves.
Eradicate put in his time in his own way. Much of it was spent in
restaurants where chicken and pork chops figured largely on the
bills of fare, for Tom had plentifully supplied the colored man with
money, and did not ask an accounting.
"What else do you do besides eat, Rad?" asked Ned with a laugh, the
second day of their stay in New York.
"I jest natchally looks in de jewelery store windows," replied
Eradicate with a grin on his honest black face. "I looks at all de
gold ornaments, an' I tries t' figger out how much better mah golden
images am gwine t' be."
"But don't you go in, and ask what a gold image the size of a man
would be worth!" cautioned Tom. "The jeweler might think you were
crazy, and he might suspect something."
"No, Massa Tom, I won't do nuffin laik dat," promised Eradicate.
"But, Massa Tom, how much DOES yo' 'spect a image laik dat WOULD be
worth?"
"Haven't the least idea, Rad. Enough, though, to make you rich for
the rest of your life."
"Good land a' massy!" gasped Eradicate, and he spent several hours
trying to do sums in arithmetic on scraps of paper.
"Hurrah!" cried Tom, when, on the morning of the third day of their
enforced stay in New York, a letter was sent up to his room by the
hotel clerk.
"What's up?" asked Ned. "I didn't know that you sent Mary word that
you were here."
"I didn't, you old scout!" cried Tom. "This is from the steamship
company, saying that the steamer Maderia, on which we have taken
passage for Mexico, will sail to-night at high tide. That's the
stuff! At last we'll really get on our way."
"Bless my notebook!" cried Mr. Damon. "I hoped we'd stay at least
another day here. I haven't seen half enough in the museums."
"You'll see stranger things than in any museum when we get to the
underground city," predicted Tom. "Come on, Ned, we'll take in a
moving picture show, have our last lunch in the big city, and then
go aboard."
So impatient were the travelers to go on board the steamer that they
arrived several hours before the time set for sailing. Many others
did the same thing, however, as supper was to be served on the
Maderia.
Though it was within a few hours of leaving time there seemed so
much to be done, such a lot of cargo to stow away, and so much coal
to put into the bunkers, that Tom and the others might well be
excused for worrying about whether or not they really would sail.
Big trucks drawn by powerful horses thundered down the long dock.
Immense automobiles laden with boxes, barrels and bales puffed to
the loading gangways. There was the puffing and whistling of the
donkey engines as they hoisted into the big holds the goods intended
for export.
At the side of the steamer were grimy coal barges, into which was
dipped an endless chain of buckets carrying the coal to the bunkers.
Stevadores were running here and there, orders and counter-orders
were being given, and the confusion must have been maddening to any
one not accustomed to it.
"Bless my walking stick!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "We'll never get off
to-night, I'm positive."
"Dat's right," agreed Eradicate. "Look at all dat coal dey's got to
load in."
"Oh, they knew how to hustle at the last minute," said Tom, and so
it proved. Gradually the loading was finished. The coal barges were
emptied and towed away. Truck after truck departed from the dock
empty, having left its load in the interior of the steamer. One
donkey engine after another ceased to puff, and the littered decks
were cleared.
"Let's watch the late-comers get aboard," suggested Ned to Tom, when
they had arranged things in their stateroom. The two boys and Mr.
Damon had a large one to themselves and Eradicate had been assigned
a small one not far from them.
"That'll make the time pass until supper is ready," agreed the young
inventor, so they took their station near the main gangway and
watched the passengers hurrying up. There were many going to make
the trip to Mexico it seemed, and later the boys learned that a
tourist agency had engaged passage for a number of its patrons.
"That fat man will never get up the slope unless some one pushes
him," remarked Ned, pointing to a very fleshy individual who was
struggling up the steep gangplank, carrying a heavy valise. For the
tide was almost at flood and the deck of the steamer was much
elevated. Indeed it seemed at one moment as if the heavy-weight
passenger would slide backward instead of getting aboard.
"Go give him a hand, Rad," suggested Tom, and the colored man
obligingly relieved the fat man of his grip, thereby enabling him to
give all his attention to getting up the plank.
And it was this simple act on the part of Rad that was the cause of
an uneasy suspicion coming to Tom and Ned. For, as Eradicate
hastened to help the stout passenger, two others behind him, a man
and a boy, started preciptably at the sight of the colored helper.
So confused were they that it was noticed by Ned and his chum.
"Look at that!" said Ned in a low voice, their attention drawn from
the fat man to the man and youth immediately behind him. "You'd
think they were afraid of meeting Rad."
"That's right," agreed Tom, for the man and youth had halted, and
seemed about to turn back, Then the man, with a quick gesture,
tossed a steamer rug he was carrying over his shoulder up so that it
hid his face. At the same time the lad with him, evidently in
obedience to some command, pulled his cap well down over his face
and turned up the collar of a light overcoat he was wearing. He also
seemed to shrink down, almost as if he were deformed.
"Say!" began Ned in wondering tones, "Tom, doesn't that look like--"
"Andy Foger and his father!" burst out the young inventor in a horse
whisper. "Ned, do you think it's possible?"
"Hardly, and yet--"
Ned paused in his answer to look more closely at the two who had
aroused the suspicions of himself and Tom. But they had now crowded
so close up behind the fat man whom Eradicate was assisting up the
plank, that he partly hid them from sight, and the action of the two
in covering their faces further aided them in disguising themselves,
if such was their intention.
"Oh, it can't be!" declared Tom. "If they were going to follow us
they wouldn't dare go on the same steamer. It must be some one else.
But it sure did look like Andy at first."
"That's what I say," came from Ned. "But we can easily find out."
"How?"
"Ask the purser to show us the passenger list. Even if they are down
under some other names he'd know the Fogers if we described them to
him."
"That's right, we'll do it."
By this time the fat man, who was being assisted by Eradicate had
reached the top of the gang plank. He must have been expected, for
several friends rushed to greet him, and for a moment there was a
confusing little throng at the place where the passengers came
abroad. Tom and Ned hurried up, intent on getting a closer view of
the man and youth who seemed so anxious to escape observation.
But several persons got in their way, and the two mysterious ones
taking advantage of the confusion, slipped down a companionway to
their stateroom, so that when our two lads managed to extricate
themselves from the throng around the fat man, who insisted on
thanking them for allowing Eradicate to help him, it was too late to
effect any identification, at least for the time being.
"But we'll go to the purser," said Tom. "If Andy and his father are
on this steamer we want to know it."
"That's right," agreed Ned.
Just then there was the usual cry:
"All ashore that's going ashore! Last warning!"
A bell rang, there was a hoarse whistle, the rattle of the gangplank
being drawn in, a quiver through the whole length of the ship, and
Tom cried:
"We're off!"
"Yes," added Ned, "if Andy and his father are here it's too late to
leave them behind now!"