Van's first meal aboard the Mary Newman was his best, as he found out afterward.
The table the captain and mates ate from was far different from that of the forecastle.
When breakfast was over the mate conducted our hero to the forecastle, and pointed out his bunk to him.
From that moment the rough part of Van Vincent's life began.
The crew, for the most part, were a grimy, villainous-looking set.
But Van was built of the sort of material that never flinches, and he took things as they came in a philosophical way.
Almost the first person he saw when he went on watch for the first time was a sailor with a heavy red beard that nearly concealed his face.
Van at once judged this to be the person who came aboard the vessel in such a mysterious manner, and when he got the opportunity, he broached the subject to him.
The sailor acknowledged such to be the case, but evaded all the questions the boy put to him.
Van sized him up pretty well, and made up his mind that the fellow was a villain of the first water.