"No, Dr. Crafts," answered Colin, quite disheartened; "I suppose not."
The Deputy Commissioner tapped on the desk thoughtfully.
"It happens," he said, "that a friend of mine who is attached to the American Museum of Natural History—that's the New York museum, you know—sails for Bermuda next Saturday to get some material. He wants to take a helper along, and the Museum provides him with funds for engaging help on the island."
"Yes, sir," the boy said, wondering what was coming.
"Now," the Fisheries official continued, "if he has got to have help it might be a good experience for you to go with him, but you may have to pay your way across. What salary you receive over there would just about meet the expenses of the trip, so that you would break even. Would you like to do it?"
"I'd rather start in on the Bureau," Colin answered, but he was wise enough not to refuse an opportunity, and continued, "but if you think it would be a good thing for me to do, why, of course, I'm ready."
"I think it would be an excellent chance," the
Deputy Commissioner said, "because we do very little work around the Bahamas, and none at all in Bermuda, so that it would give you an idea of the fish-life there which, otherwise, you might never get. And if you tried any Bureau work now, you would be handicapped by not having started with the other boys, and you'd be so far behind that you might feel badly about it. So the Bermuda opportunity seems to me the best chance."
"What is the purpose of the trip, sir?" asked the boy.