“How is that? One of the crew told me that the ship is bound for the States.”
“So she is; but she is going by the way of the Horn and Good Hope.”
“Great goodness! Around the world!” exclaimed Chase, as soon as he could speak.
The sailor replied that that was what some people called a voyage of that kind, and then settled himself between the blankets, while Chase sat bolt upright in his bunk, staring blankly about him.
“Around the world!” he kept saying to himself, as if he could not quite understand the words. He had not bargained for any such extended tour as that, and he was not prepared for it. Could he live for long months, and perhaps years, without any bedding to sleep on, and no clothes except those he then wore? And what would the folks at home think had become of him? Poor Chase was almost overwhelmed at the thought of so long a separation from his friends, and appalled by the dangers, both real and imaginary, which he saw looming up before him; and he wished now, when it was too late, that he had not been in so great a hurry to get out of Cuba. He would willingly have gone back to the Don’s wine-cellar—he was almost willing to say that he would rather be a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards than be in his present situation. He never closed his eyes in sleep. All the night long he rolled about in his bunk, thinking over his troubles; and he was glad when the morning dawned, and the mate came into the forecastle to tell him that the captain wanted to see him on the quarter-deck.
Almost too weak and dispirited to move, Chase managed to follow the officer up the ladder, and in a few seconds more he was standing, hat in hand, before the master of the vessel—a gray-headed old gentleman, who reminded Chase of Uncle Dick Gaylord. He proved to be like Uncle Dick, too, in more respects than one, which was a fortunate thing for the stowaway. He was evidently prepared to say something severe, for his forehead wore a threatening scowl; but when his eyes rested on the crying youth before him, his face softened at once.
“Well, my lad,” said he, “don’t you know that you have no business here?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Chase.