"A what?"
"I mean she's only a freighter that Uncle Sam has hired to carry coal. You won't find enlisted men aboard of her."
"An' do you really think there's a chance for me?"
"I can't say as to that, lad; but I'd make a try for a berth aboard if my mind was set on goin' into that part of the world, which it ain't. The captain went below not ten minutes before the noon-whistle sounded, an' he's likely there this minute."
Teddy gazed inquiringly at this new acquaintance for an instant, as if suspicious that the man might be making sport of him, and then marched resolutely toward the end of the pier, with the half-eaten sandwich almost forgotten in his hand.
After perhaps five minutes had passed, he returned, looking disappointed, but not disheartened, and seating himself by the side of the owner of the two dinner-pails, resumed operations upon the sandwich.
"See the captain?"
"Yep."
"Didn't want a boy, eh?"
"Guess not; he said he'd give me two minutes to get out of the cabin, an' I thought perhaps I'd better go."