DURING the next two days Guy was as light of heart as a boy could possibly be. He messed and bunked with the sailors, and soon begun to feel so much at home among them that he would not have gone back into the cabin if he had been allowed the privilege. It is true he sometimes told himself that these unkempt, swaggering fellows in blue flannel shirts and canvas trousers were not just the sort of men that he had been in the habit of associating with at home. But after all he cared very little for that. He expected to mingle with rough characters and lead a rough life all his days, and the sooner he commenced the sooner he would get used to it.
He saw the steward occasionally, but that worthy never noticed him. He knew of course that Guy could not leave the steamer until she made a landing, and if in the meantime the crew were disposed to take him and care for him, it was no concern of his. All he wanted of Guy was to keep away from that part of the vessel devoted to the use of the cabin passengers.
Guy also saw Bob Walker every day, but never spoke to him. Indeed he was not allowed an opportunity, for whenever Bob caught a glimpse of him he would throw up his head, stick his cigar (and he always had one in his mouth) up toward his right cheek, and walk off with all the independence imaginable. This always made Guy very angry.
“He thinks he is some, but he’ll be glad to sulk away and hide himself before we reach Chicago,” soliloquized Guy. “He smokes at least ten or a dozen cigars every day; and twelve cigars at ten cents each amount to a dollar and twenty cents—in two days, two dollars and forty cents. He told me he didn’t have half a dollar in his pocket; and if that was the truth, where does he get those cigars? I don’t wonder Flint suspects him. I would have suspected him myself if I had been sharp.”
On the evening of the fourth day after leaving Norwall, Flint hurried into the crew’s quarters, where Guy was dreaming away the time in his bunk, and shook him roughly by the shoulder.
“Roll out now,” said he. “Saginaw is close by. We shall be alongside the pier in half an hour, and you must be ready to get off. Where’s your dunnage?”
“Here it is,” said Guy, pulling his valise and bundle out of an empty berth.
“What have you got in that carpet-sack? I heard something rattle, and you lift it as though it was heavy.”
“So it is. I’ve got my hunting equipments in here.”
“Roll ’em out, and let’s have a look at ’em.”