Part 19 (2/2)

muttered Sam, shading his eyes from the sun and gazing at the s.h.i.+p. ”I'm blest if both ends don't look alike to me.”

”Then you must be losing your eyesight, Sam. Don't you see how the quarter-deck is cut away astern, while the bow stands high out of the water? Then there's the Flag astern. You'll never see the colors up forward.”

”I can't see everything at once, and you must remember that this is the first time I ever saw a real battles.h.i.+p close enough to touch it.”

The s.h.i.+p was at anchor, and some distance out in the stream. A swaying rope ladder hung from the lower boom on the port side, reaching down to within some four feet of the water's edge.

The river was choppy that morning, and the little boat bobbed perilously. The boys were used to this, however, and gave no thought to it.

”Will you please pa.s.s a line over here for our dunnage?” called Dan.

”Pa.s.s the landlubbers a clothes line,” shouted a voice from the forecastle.

A line, coiled, suddenly shot down from above. Sam chanced to be standing up in the boat at that moment. The line hit him fairly on the top of his red head, flattening him on the bottom of the skiff.

A shout went up from the forecastle.

”You lubbers!” bellowed Sam, scrambling to his feet, nearly upsetting the skiff in his efforts to get his eyes on the man who was responsible for knocking him down. ”I'd duck you if I had you down here.”

”Yes, you would!” came back the prompt answer.

”Yes, I would.”

”Come up here and try it, red-head! We've got some shower baths up in the forecastle.”

”Don't answer him, Sam,” cautioned Dan. ”There is an officer watching us, and we do not want him to think we are a couple of rowdies.”

”Well, we aren't, are we?” demanded Sam indignantly.

”Certainly not. All the more reason why we should act like gentlemen.”

Sam grumbled some unintelligible reply.

”Are you going first, Dan?”

”It makes no difference.”

Dan grasped the swaying rope ladder, known as a ”Jacob's ladder,” and ran up with agility.

”My, the little man must have made a voyage to Africa and taken lessons from the monkeys,” jeered a voice.

”It isn't necessary to go to Africa to find specimens of that animal,”

answered Dan, reaching the lower boom, along which he ran lightly, sprang over the rail and planted his feet on the deck. His first duty was to turn his face toward the stern of the s.h.i.+p and salute the Flag.

By this time Hickey was on his way up the ladder, and in a moment more he awkwardly measured his length on the deck, having caught his toe in the rope railing in scaling it.

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