"I didn't want to come on board in quite the manner I did, though," called out Robert, "and furthermore, don't call me Sphinx in the future. If I'd had the sense of that old hunk of stone, I could have foreseen the danger and been able to avoid it."
"Hurry up, you fellows, and don't talk so much. Let me have a whack at one of those showers," called Dick, who had been forced to wait, there being not enough bathing places to allow all to indulge at the same time. "I want to hurry out of this and take a look around this ship before I go ashore."
"Speaking of leaving," remarked Gordon as he emerged for a rub down, "how do you suppose we are going to leave?"
"To tell the truth, I hadn't thought of that," Dick replied, "and how about your boat? It's all smashed up."
"She was about ready for the junk pile, anyway," said Gordon, "and I was going to give her to the boat club before I left for Annapolis next week."
"I wonder what Uncle Sam does when he smashes up your boats like that?" questioned Donald.
"In this case," Dick vouchsafed, "I rather guess 'Uncle Sam' will say it is altogether our own fault. Poor Tommy was so rattled that he pulled on the wrong rope and steered us right in front of the motor boat even after they had veered off to avoid hitting us."
"Well, if they permit us to take a look around the ship, I am willing to call it square," Gordon remarked philosophically.
A little later the boys were escorted to a vacant stateroom or cabin where they found their underwear already dry and waiting to be donned.
"I call that quick work," exclaimed Gordon, and while he was speaking a knock sounded at the door.