“There he comes at last!” Ballyhoo presently announced, as a boy was discovered heading their way, and well laden with bundles.
Jack turned out to be a well-built young chap, with a thoughtful face, and the glow of an enthusiastic artist in his eyes. He soon climbed aboard the strange boat, after which the Captain’s voice was heard giving orders. Then they could feel the quiver that told them the engines were beginning to work; cables were cast off, and a cheer broke from the group on the shore, some of them laboring men belonging to the shipyard, others relatives of those aboard, or it might be stockholders in the venture.
Soon afterwards they had left the city of Baltimore behind them, and were moving smoothly and swiftly down the bay. After that would come the open sea, with its mysterious influences, its terrible storms, dreaded calms, and all surrounded by the halo of romance of long-gone centuries.
The three boys sat there on the miniature upper deck long after the voyage had really begun, saying little, since their hearts naturally enough were heavy because of the fact that they had finally severed the ties that bound them to the loved ones at home.
And so they started down the great Chesapeake Bay, bound for the tropics.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See “The Motion Picture Comrades’ Great Venture.”
[2] See “The Motion Picture Comrades Through African Jungles.”
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST DIP UNDER THE SURFACE
By degrees this feeling of depression passed away. They were healthy boys, and as such could not long remain in the grip of the “blues.” It was all their own doings, too, and they were headed for an experience that certainly no other young fellows had ever been given before.