The meal finished, they went on deck. The freight schooner that had been struck was nowhere to be seen. Inquiries brought the information that she had not been seriously damaged and had gone on her way.
The two boys found the day rather monotonous. Look where they might, nothing could be seen but sky and water, the one nearly as blue as the other.
“Blue all around makes one feel blue,” remarked Gus. “But I’m thankful I’m over that awful seasickness. If it had kept up much longer I believe I would have died.”
“No one ever dies of seasickness,” said Mr. Whyland, who had come up. “Your health will be better after this dose.”
“Well, it ought to be,” laughed Gus. “I’ve suffered enough. I ought to have some reward.”
“But we do not always get what we deserve in this world,” responded the gentleman, and for a moment a light shadow swept across his brow. “Sometimes both evil and good pass us by.”
At dinner Oliver did full justice to what was passed to him. Gus felt decidedly strange, and it was some time before he could get into the peculiar way of eating that was prevalent. Everything that he had, seemed to be inclined to slide into his lap.
“We can’t stand on much ceremony,” he said. “I think this chicken leg is better in my stomach than on the floor, so here goes.” And he took the extremity of the fowl between his fingers and ate it that way.
That day and the next passed slowly. Gus was of the opinion they would stop at some place before reaching Aspinwall, but in this he was mistaken. They passed close to the coast of Florida, so close in fact that the sandy shore with the tall and waving trees and bushes could be distinctly seen. On the following day they took the course between Cuba and Yucatan, passing not far from the latter on account of the tide. They were now in the Caribbean Sea, with the Bay of Honduras behind them.