“I can’t ship you as cabin-boy; got one already. You will get more money by going before the mast, and you want to make all you can, don’t you? I’ll fix it for you.”
The agent dipped his pen into the ink and wrote A. B. after the name Guy had signed, and Guy, ignoramus that he was, never tried to prevent him. If he could make more money by going as an able seaman of course it was to his advantage to do it. That was the way he looked at the matter then, but before many hours had passed over his head he took a different view of it. He learned through much tribulation that honesty is the best policy one can pursue, even though he be a sea-faring man.
The agent having prevailed upon Guy to sign articles, seemed on a sudden to lose all interest in him. It is true that after he paid him his advance he accompanied him to a store and assisted him in making some necessary additions to his outfit, but he hurried through the business, his every action indicating that he was impatient to be rid of Guy. When all the purchases had been made he took a hasty leave of the boy and told him to go to Rupert’s boarding-house and stay there, holding himself in readiness to go aboard his vessel at six o’clock that night. If he was not on hand when he was wanted, he would find the police after him.
CHAPTER XIV.
SHIPPING A CREW.
“HUMPH!” said Guy to himself, as he shouldered his bundle and started toward Rupert’s boarding-house, “there is no danger that I shall have the police after me. If Flint is going out in the Morning Light of course I must go too, for he is the only friend I have in the world, and I am bound to stick to him. I don’t see what made that shipping agent grow so very cold and distant all of a sudden. I wish now, since he has shown himself so very independent, that I had examined that paper before I signed it. He was very polite until he got me to put down my name, and then he was almost ready to insult me. I can’t imagine what need I shall have of all these thick clothes he made me buy,” added Guy, as he shifted his heavy bundle from one shoulder to the other. “I thought it was warm up the Mediterranean. I knew he tried to fool me when he told me about the pearls and diamonds, but I don’t care. I shall see something of the world and be my own master, and perhaps when I return I will have money enough to take me out to the Rocky Mountains. I haven’t given up my idea of being a hunter, and I never shall.”
Guy passed a dreary afternoon at the boarding-house, in spite of the friendly efforts of the landlord to make things pleasant for him. That gentleman talked incessantly and told wonderful stories about the rapid promotions and sudden fortunes that were sure to fall to the lot of everybody who was fortunate enough to go up the Mediterranean on the clipper-ship Morning Light. But Guy, green as he was, did not believe them. He did not care to talk either, for he was very lonely and wanted to see Flint. Contrary to the landlord’s promise, the sailor did not make his appearance at the supper table, the host accounting for his absence by telling Guy that Flint did not feel very well and wanted to sleep as long as he could.
“May I see him?” asked the boy.
“No, he doesn’t want to be disturbed,” was the reply. “I have just been to his room to tell him you were here, and he asked me to tell you to go aboard your vessel at six o’clock, and he will come as soon as he awakes.”