Immediately Frenchy and Ikey clamored to be taken, too. Ensign MacMasters without doubt displayed favoritism at this time. He acquiesced in the desires of the two younger boys from Seacove.
"I suppose you would pine away and refuse your chow if you were separated from Morgan and Torrance," the ensign said laughingly. "Get your hammock-rolls and go aboard. I'll fix it with the executive officer."
So, when the steamer started from the towering side of the battleship, the four Navy boys were members of her crew, and likely to experience a variety of adventures.
CHAPTER XVII
BLOWN UP
The change from the huge Kennebunk to the comparatively tiny steamer was great indeed; and for the first few hours of the run shoreward the boys were afraid they would be ill. There was a heavy swell on, and the tender rode up the hill of each roller, and slid down the other side, dizzily.
They were two hundred miles off shore and three hundred from Hampton Roads. The time occupied in the journey could not be much less than three days and two nights. She was much slower than the motor boats; but she sailed much more safely, and the injured man could be made more comfortable on deck under the awning.
The poor fellow complained a good deal about having had his voyage cut short.
"No chance for me to get a crack at the Huns," he repeated again and again.