"Yes, we had favorable winds," explained Marlowe.
"He must be crazy, or he's no sailor," thought the true son of Neptune.
He was about to ask another question, when Marlowe, who suspected that he had made a blunder, turned abruptly, and walked away.
"He ain't no sailor," said the questioner to himself. "He never lived in the forecastle, I know by his walk."
Marlowe had not the rolling gait of a seaman, and the other detected it at once.
"Went round the Horn in thirty days!" soliloquized the sailor. "That yarn's too tough for me to swallow. What's he got on that rig for?"
Meanwhile, Julius looked around him with enjoyment. Cheap as the excursion was, he had but once made it before. It had been seldom that he had even twenty cents to spare, and when he had money, he had preferred to go to the Old Bowery or Tony Pastor's for an evening's entertainment. Now he felt the refreshing influence of the sea breeze. He was safe from Marlowe, so he thought. He had left danger behind him in the great, dusty city. Before him was a vision of green fields, and the delight of an afternoon without work and without care. He was sure of a good supper and a comfortable bed; for had he not five dollars in his pocket? Julius felt as rich as Stewart or Vanderbilt, and so he was for the time being. But he would have felt anxious, could he have seen the baleful glance of the disguised sailor; for Marlowe, though he had changed his seat, still managed to keep Julius in sight. But there was another who in turn watched him, and that was the genuine sailor. The latter was bent on finding out the meaning of the disguise, for disguise he knew it to be. He was not long in discovering that Marlowe was watching Julius with a malignant glance.
"He hates the lad," thought the sailor. "Does he mean him harm?"
He was making an excursion of pleasure, but he had another object in view. He had a cousin living on Staten Island, and he was intending to make him a call; but this business was not imperative, and he resolved to follow out the present adventure.
"If he tries to harm the lad," said the kindhearted sailor, "he'll have to take me too."