Part 5 (1/2)

After a good night's rest he was on hand early at the great steamer, where there was such a scene of bustle and confusion as he had never seen before, not even in New York There was a throng of ht, and there was a constant din of noisy voices, which, co steam, made it impossible to carry on a conversation Archie hurried aboard to find the steward, who ialley and introduced hie, fat Frenchman, with small, blue eyes set far back in his head He seeht that he would like hister vant to vork, eh! Eef he do, I say you pare zis potate for dinee as quick you can” And the fellow pointed to a great bag of potatoes and a paring-knife ”Now you sit zere in da corner,”

continued the cook, ”and keep out uf ht an apron with hian work The cook watched him closely, so that Archie soon learned to pare the potatoes very nicely, and of course he was able to get along faster and faster as he becareat effort, to get the bag finished in time for dinner, or luncheon, as it was called on the bill of fare, and then he soon had to begin on other vegetables, which were to be served at themeal There were more potatoes, and some turnips and apples as well, to be prepared, and it kept the boy busy all the afternoon, cleaning as hard as he could, and never seeed hi ready on ti under a rather severe etables finished in tiht be allowed to rest for awhile, but he soon realised his in work on the potatoes for breakfast if he didn't want to get up at two o'clock in theand pare thean to clean and scrape It was ten o'clock before he had finished, and he found himself too tired to spend any time on the after-deck with the crew, but went at once down into the small, stuffy room where he was to sleep with so over, and his hands were all sore fros were not very pleasant in this bedrooh to be able to lie down on the hard straw tick and go to sleep

He slept soundly until he akened at four o'clock in theby the second cook, who ordered him up-stairs to work There was no time to wash, and no place where he could wash, so the boy was obliged to go up just as he was,so And once up-stairs there were various chores which aiting for hi until breakfast was served And then it was tiain This turned out to be the invariable daily prograed Had it not been for the thought that by doing this he was saving money to send home, he would have been miserable indeed, but this idea kept hied to keep cleaning vegetables in the galley during the whole period of his suffering The days when he was ill in this ere the e, and Archie often described afterward his feelings as he sat peeling potatoes with a bucket standing beside hi he was obliged to get up at four o'clock and start work again It was the sa day after day, tiresome and monotonous, so that Archie wasn't sorry when the beautiful island hove in sight, and they anchored in the picturesque bay of Honolulu

Once at Honolulu, Archie's terlad, indeed, to get ashore, where he learned that the transport had not yet arrived, but was expected in two or three days'

tihtseeing, and he spent his ti every quarter of Honolulu and seeing every side of life in the Hawaiian capital He found it a delightful place There wasto see, the people were pleasant to meet, and the climate was perfect He was almost sorry when he learned that the transport had anchored in the bay!

CHAPTER XIV

THE VOYAGE ON THE TRANSPORT--A STORM AT SEA--ARRIVAL IN MANILA

THE transport did not re Archie had several things which he wanted to do In the first place, he felt that he ought to write the story of his experiences so far, and send it to Mr Van Bunting; so he did sit down and describe in detail his experiences at cleaning vegetables on board the Pacific liner He wasn't sure whether this was anything that Mr Van Bunting would care to print, but he decided to send it on, anyhow He would have been surprised had he observed the enthusiasm hich this letter was read in the Enterprise office a er in any doubt as to whether it was anything worth printing had he read the Enterprise of the following day, when the letter appeared on the second page as one of the chief features of the paper

Before leaving, too, Archie sent a long, cheerful letter ho seasick on board the liner, or of his having had to work so hard He devoted his letter to telling of the ht prospects for beco a successful newspaper man He wrote a shorter letter to Jack Sullivan, which was intended to be read to all the members of the Hut Club, for Archie felt that it was noof his success He found it very hard to realise, away off here in Honolulu, that he had ever been a member of the club, and that he had ever lived in tents behind the barn He felt very manly now, and his boyhood seemed far away behind him, so far away that he now felt like a hteen He was beginning to realise that age is not always governed by years alone, but that experience does much to make one old

As soon as the transport had anchored in the bay, Archie went aboard to present his credentials to the coeneral very pleasant to meet, and a very appreciative listener as he told of his sche the transport The officer was surprised, of course, that such a young fellow should be going to the islands as correspondent, but the things he said were very encouraging to Archie, ”I tell you what,” the general re the conversation, ”I believe that a young fellow like Dunn, here, can find out a great s than an older ster has ay are two s when they're coainst 'eeneral in this reht not have such a hard tis to write about as he had expected

The transport remained in port but one day, and in thirty hours after her arrival Archie found hiain over the blue Pacific

The weather, for a few days, was almost perfect A cloudless sky overhead, a wars very pleasant aboard shi+p, and Archie began to realise that there are tihtful to be at sea The vessel was veryquarters were but little more pleasant than aboard the liner Archie shared a staterooed to have a lively tiames, told stories, and slept in the afternoons, but all this, of course, grew rather tireso sofficers had expected a gale, so that when it came every one was taken wholly by surprise, and it came so suddenly that there was no time at all for preparation The sky became quickly dark one afternoon about three o'clock, and soon the whole horizon was a reat black clouds, which every moment see the shi+p There was great excitement aboard the shi+p Officers hurried here and there shouting orders to their men, and the cavalry to devise means to save their horses, most of which were stabled upon the deck Archie looked on in breathless interest, and was surprised to find that he wasn't at all frightened He even found hi mental notes of the scene, so that he could send the story of it all to Mr Van Bunting when he reached Manila

There was but little ti about, and it was soon evident that the horses would many of them be lost, because there see theh to break over the bulwarks The stor with a fierce hich swept the waves before it There was but little rain, and the waves rose higher and higher with every an to roll and pitch in a frightful way, so that the soldiers began to think, some of them, that she would certainly sink Finally the waves were so high they dashed theways The cries of the poor horses, as they felt thehtful to hear, and ht of his horse foundering in the raging sea without Before h the watch pointed to but four o'clock, and all lights were burning below deck It was iht above, for no lantern could burn in such a storradually to subside at ten o'clock at night, and a slow steady rain careat extent As soon as it was safe to go above deck, it was found that more than a hundred horses had been lost overboard, and that one mast had been carried away

Down below nearly every man was in his bunk, for there was scarcely a person as not seasick, and one doith all aboard, such was their feeling of despondency Archie was as sick as any of the others, but was able to rew better the next day, he wrote an excellent account of the storm to send to the Enterprise on his arrival in Manila

After this rough weather experience, every man aboard was anxious to reach port, and when, after reat cheer went up froht of land

The transport came to anchor off the forts which had once been Spain's, and it was announced that no one would be allowed to land for two days, until advices could be had from Manila and the interior of the island

This was very trying for Archie, being obliged to sit on deck for thole days, looking at a shore which seeeneral dilapidated appearance of the various buildings and docks

Everything looked different fro he had seen before, and the boy felt that he could hardly wait to be allowed to explore some of those streets which were so narrow, and those houses which were built in such a peculiar fashi+on

Finally, the permission came for the troops to land, and Archie received the per as he wanted to do so And as he had no other plans, the young correspondent decided that it would be a good plan for hii at any rate He knew that they would be likely to be sent to the front immediately, and the front seemed the place for him to be

And then he was already acquainted with many of the men, and with the colonel, and he realised that this would be an advantage to him in his work So he made his plans to keep with them

First they went to Manila, where they remained for a week The quaint old city was a veritable fairy-land of wonders to Archie, who had never before been in a city so ancient, and here there were so s to be seen There seehtful old houses, and interesting churches, and the boy spentevery corner of the island capital The colonel warned him several times that he must look out for robbers and other suspicious characters, but Archie laughed at his fears But the colonel was right, as he found later on