“I’ve found out where they keep the key to the oil room, and I’ve found two empty ten-gallon cans which can be filled with gasoline. There is plenty of water, and we can put it into anything that comes handy.”
“What about grub?” questioned Ralph.
“That’s goin’ to be the hardest part of it; but there is a good store of everything in the cook’s galley, and I think we kin git in there and help ourselves after he turns in. Of course we’ll have to be mighty careful. If the cap’n caught me tryin’ to git away, he might shoot me down as a deserter,” went on the lanky sailor, solemnly.
After that the boys, although trying outwardly to appear calm, were keyed up to the utmost excitement. They looked around the forecastle for some things which might hold drinking water and found a dozen or more bottles and likewise the corks that had been in them. Then they found a jug containing some vile-smelling liquor.
“We can empty that jug when the time comes and fill that with water also,” said Ralph. “We can tie it fast to the cable and let it slide down to the motor boat.”
“Gee, that’s an idea!” said Andy. “Maybe we can slide some other things down, too. Then we can cut the cable and haul the stuff on board.”
“I wish we had some chloroform to use on the whole bunch,” said Fred. “Then maybe they wouldn’t wake up until well in the morning, and by that time we might be out of sight.”
That evening all of the boys ate frugally, stowing away as much of the meal as they could in their pockets. Andy also watched his chance, and took half a loaf of bread from one of the other tables which the cook had served.
After another conference with Ira Small, it was decided that Jack and Ralph should aid the sailor in getting the gasoline. The others were to watch their chance and enter the cook’s galley and confiscate anything they could lay hands on in the way of food.
“And don’t forgit the water,” warned Ira Small. “On the ocean that’s more important than something to eat.”