“I guess nobody will stop you,” said Fred. “There doesn’t seem to be much else to do, as far as I know.”
Billy stretched himself out in the most comfortable corner he could find, but sleep was not as easy as he had imagined. The ship was getting out to sea and was beginning to roll with a long, deliberate motion, that was most unsettling to a landsman. In addition to this, various loose boxes began to shift about, and the boys were in imminent danger of being struck by one of these. In the darkness it was impossible to dodge, and they had simply to trust to luck to escape injury. Evidently the ship was sailing in a hurry, before the cargo could be properly stowed away.
After a while the cargo settled down somewhat, and the danger lessened, but still there were occasional small landslides whenever the ship gave an unusually violent roll.
Bobby had been doing some thinking, and now he gave voice to his conclusions.
“It seems to me there must be an electric light in this place somewhere,” he said. “Probably there’s a switch somewhere if we could only find it. I’m going to look for one, anyway, and it wouldn’t do any harm if you fellows did the same thing, although I hate to disturb Billy’s beauty sleep.”
“Sleep nothing!” exclaimed Billy. “How do you think I can sleep when this old tub is skipping around like one of the clowns in the circus? Anybody that could sleep in this place would have to be pretty tired, it seems to me.”
“Well, if you can’t sleep, get on the job, then, and try to locate a switch somewhere,” said Bobby. “The only thing to do is to feel around the walls and trust to luck that we’ll find one. If we don’t, we won’t be any worse off.”
The boys started out on their quest, more for the sake of having something to do than with any idea of actually finding a switch. But they had hardly started when Mouser gave a cry of triumph, there was a sharp click, and the place was illuminated by two electric bulbs high up under the decks. The light was far from bright, but it was infinitely better than no light, and the boys shouted delightedly at this stroke of luck.
“Bobby, you’re right there with the inspirations!” exclaimed Fred, slapping him on the back.
“Try again and see if you can’t think us up on deck. I wouldn’t put it beyond you.”