"But you can't stay in hidin' any great length of time, lad. You'd have to come out for food or water after a spell."
"Not if I took plenty with me," Teddy replied, in the tone of one who has already arrived at a conclusion.
"It looks easy enough while you're outside; but once shut in between decks, or cooped up in some small hole, an' you'd sing a different tune."
"I wouldn't if it was a case of seein' dad when we got there."
"But that's the trouble, my boy. You don't know where the steamer is bound. She might be runnin' straight away from him, an' then what would you do?"
"You said she was goin' to carry the coal to our vessels, didn't you?"
"Yes; but that don't mean she'll strike the very one your father is workin' on."
"I'll take the chances," and now Teddy spoke very decidedly.
For an instant it was as if the owner of the two dinner-pails would attempt to dissuade him from the hastily formed determination, and then the man checked himself suddenly.
"I like to see a boy show that he's got some backbone to him, an' it may be you'll pull out all right. It'll be an experience you'll never forget, though, an' perhaps it won't do any harm."