“Be careful that no one sees you when you come aboard,” said Flint earnestly, “or you’ll get me and the engineer in hot water.”
So saying, the wheelsman hurried away, and Guy sat down on one of the bunks near the door to wait until the propeller reached the shore. She had scarcely touched the pier when the steward came up.
“Ah, here you are!” he exclaimed, slapping Guy familiarly on the shoulder. “I have been looking for you. It is time you were making yourself scarce about here.”
“I am going as soon as the gang-plank is shoved out,” replied Guy.
“But I want to see you go. I am well posted in the tricks of you dead-beats, and can’t be fooled easy. Come on. That isn’t all your baggage,” he added as Guy picked up his valise. “You had a bundle when you came on board.”
“If you are better acquainted with my business than I am, you had better attend to it,” replied the boy, who did not like the steward’s domineering tone. “I guess I know what I am doing.”
He pushed past the officer as he spoke, and started down the stairs. On the way he met with Bob Walker, who was loitering around on purpose to see him off.
Bob winked at the steward and nodded familiarly to Guy, who returned the recognition with a savage scowl. When the latter disappeared down the stairs, Bob seated himself on the railing, and drawing a buckskin purse from his pocket, shook it in his closed hands, and smiled complacently. If one might judge by the loud jingling of its contents, the purse was well filled.
“Now, my young boy,” said the steward, when he and Guy had descended the gang-plank that led to the pier, “I shall stand here until I see you safely ashore. Good-by, and the next time you start out on your travels, be sure you’ve got money in your pocket.”
Guy bolted off without saying a word in reply. The extraordinary interest the steward took in his movements was something he had not bargained for, and he was very much afraid that he might not succeed in returning to the steamer without being seen by him or some one else who would order him ashore again.