“Oh, I am going to keep on the water,” replied the Wall Street man. “But I’m going to make a change for a day or two anyway. Take your crew and go over to Macklin’s shipyard, South Brooklyn. There’s a boat over there, the ‘Soudan,’ that I want you to bring around to Pier Eight, North River, by six o’clock to-night. I’ve arranged it all by telephone. You’ll find gasoline, provisions and everything aboard, ready for a start. As you’ll have some time to spare, you can try the boat up the Hudson a little way, if you like, in order to get used to running her. Macklin has your description from me, and will turn the boat over to you, all right.”
“Am I too forward, Mr. Delavan, if I ask how things are going on ’Change?” Halstead ventured.
“Oh, things are coming our way, I believe,” was the cheery response. “It’s too early to be wholly sure, but we’re a lot more ahead in the two million dollars a point game. Oh, by the way, I came near forgetting poor Moddridge. Give him my compliments, please, and ask him to go over to South Brooklyn with you.”
After everything had been locked up aboard the “Rocket” the start for South Brooklyn was made.
“I’m more than glad of this programme,” confessed the nervous one. “I have an idea that a change of boat will make our change of luck a complete one.”
Arrived at the ship-yard Mr. Macklin at once conducted the party down to the slip in which the “Soudan” lay. She proved to be an extremely handsome boat, five feet shorter than the “Rocket,” though broader of beam in proportion. In other words, she was fifty-five feet over all, and fifteen wide at the broadest part of her hull.
“You’ll find everything shipshape and ready, I think,” said Mr. Macklin, fitting the keys to cabin door, the hatchways and other locked places. “I hope you’ll like the boat, Captain.”
“From the little I’ve seen of her she looks as though she had been built for a gentleman’s boat,” replied Halstead.
“You may well say that,” replied the shipyard man. “For example, just step into the cabin.”