"So do I."
"You going to tell uncle about if, the drinking, I mean?"
"You think I ought to?"
"I sure do."
"Then I will."
Bob got a chance to speak to his uncle a few minutes later and told him what he knew.
"I suspected it," Mr. Lakewood said, shaking his head doubtfully. "But don't say anything to anyone else. Most of these seafaring men will take a drink when they get a chance and, unless he's brought some of the stuff on board, he won't get another chance for some time. But I don't like the man for some reason, though I can't just say why."
The weather now was perfect, and the Valkyrie ploughed steadily southward, the boys enjoying every minute of the time. Each night, at ten o'clock, they started up the photoradio machine and ran it for a few minutes but, to their disappointment, they failed to get any reply. Finally they reached Colon, at the entrance to the Panama Canal. They were to lay up there for several hours to refill the oil tanks, and, as soon as they docked, the two boys started for the post office. As they expected, they found letters from home and were much pleased when they learned that the pictures which they had sent by photoradio had come in fine.
"Then it's sure that father has something wrong with his end of it, when it comes to sending," Bob said as they started from the building intent on seeing as much of the place as possible in the few hours. They returned to the boat a half hour before starting time, and the first man they saw as they crossed the gang plank was Josh Kelley, and he looked, as Jack afterward remarked, as though he would enjoy biting a ten penny nail in two.
"What's the matter with his nibs?" Bob asked Pat as soon as they were on deck.