“What do you suppose he is talking about, Dad?” asked Shirley.
“I don’t know,” was the reply, “and I don’t care.”
“All buncombe,” agreed Colonel Ashton.
“Well, I don’t care what it is,” exclaimed Shirley. “We have set our hearts on this trip, and we are going to take it. That’s all there is about that.”
“Good for you, Shirley,” agreed Mabel.
Dick Stanley was the only member of the party who did not speak. He sat quietly in his chair, thinking.
CHAPTER V.—ABOARD THE YUCATAN.
The Yucatan, upon leaving New York, did not head straight for Colon. Her route took her down the coast, where she would make several stops. The first would be at Savannah, then Jacksonville, and the third, and last before touching at Colon, would be Havana, Cuba.
Mr. Willing had selected this vessel for the simple reason that it did put in at these southern ports, for he wished to give the girls an opportunity of seeing as much as possible on the journey. After rounding into the Pacific, following her passage of the Panama Canal, the vessel was scheduled to put in at the seaports of several of the Central American republics and one or two Mexican ports.
Mr. Willing, Colonel Ashton, Dick and the two girls stood forward on the gallery deck of the great ship as she got under way and slowly backed out of her slip into the North River.