Two Boys of the Battleship: or, For the Honor of Uncle Sam. Webster Frank V.

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СКАЧАТЬ right. But first let’s check our grips in the station. No use carting them around with us,” said Frank.

      This done, they took an elevated train for lower New York, and soon were at the entrance to the aquarium, which is located in old Castle Garden, once the landing place of immigrants, before the Ellis Island station was established.

      CHAPTER VI – ROBBED

      “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 СКАЧАТЬ