“I wish I’d thought to ask the ensign just where this vessel was bound,” remarked Joe, as he finished undressing.
“Plenty of time to find out about that in the morning,” replied Bob, with a yawn that threatened to dislocate his jaw. “For the present, all that little Bobby wants is to hit the hay.”
The steady throb of the engines provided a lullaby, and, despite the strangeness of their surroundings, in a few minutes they were all sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion.
A knock on the door by the steward in the morning that had to be several times repeated awoke them. They stretched and looked around them confusedly before they could realize where they were.
“Breakfast ready in half an hour,” called the steward, and went on his way.
Bob reached for his watch, and then sighed as he remembered.
They dressed with some care for their expected meeting with the captain. All were possessed with a sense of keen elation. Here indeed was an adventure they had never looked for, and one that promised to have in it endless possibilities. Overnight they had entered into a new world.
Through the porthole of the cabin the sun shone brightly, but with a frosty gleam, and there was a certain nip in the air as they made their way to the breakfast cabin that set the blood tingling in their veins and made a cup of coffee seem the finest thing in the world.
The tossing of the boat had not in the slightest degree affected their appetites. While they had not been on long ocean voyages, they had had a good deal of experience on the sea off Ocean Point, and were good sailors so no pangs of coming seasickness cast their shadows before, and they ate a meal that would have done credit to the most grizzled seaman that had ever sailed with the decks awash in the “roaring forties.”
They had rather expected to meet the captain at the breakfast table, but learned from the steward that he and the other chief officers of the ship had their own mess. The companions of the boys at the table that morning were the petty officers of the ship and the radio operators. In the main they were a genial, interesting lot of men, full of quips and jokes, and the boys were soon on friendly terms with them.