In less than a couple of days, rigged out in a smart pair of overalls, which had been very considerably cut down, he was soon perfectly at home aboard the great liner. But then he was so adaptable. As an up-to-date cabin boy, the captain declared that he never knew his equal.
He became a general favourite, and in a very short space of time he discovered more about airships and internal-combustion engines than many a man would have learnt in six months.
It was no use, therefore, to argue with the boy that he didn't belong to the crew of the Empress. And it just wasn't worth while to inform him that, as he was still of school age, he would be handed over to the authorities, or placed in a reformatory, as soon as the vessel returned to England. Gadget had made up his mind that he wouldn't. In a little while it even became an open question whether Gadget belonged to the airship or the airship belonged to Gadget.
"I hain't argefyin' with you, I'm telling ye. This is the way it should be done!" he was heard to remark to one of the air mechanics one day, after he had been on the vessel about a week. The point at issue concerned a piece of work on which the mechanic was engaged, and Gadget had even dared to express his point of view. The extraordinary thing was that Gadget was right.
Ships and railway engines were all right in their way, but they were not good enough for Gadget. Aeroplanes and airships were much more to his liking. He was thoroughly alive and up-to-date, and though some months ago, when this fever of world travel first seized upon him, he had more than once considered the question of stowing himself quietly away on some outward bound vessel from the West India Docks in London, his fortunate discovery, and ultimate possession of that tattered copy of Five Weeks in a Balloon, had caused him to change his views.
Ever since reading that volume he had had no rest. Even his dreams had been mainly concerning balloons and their modern equivalents, airships.
"I will see the world from an airship," he had confidently announced to himself one day. "I will sail over tropical forests and lagoons, over deserts and jungles."
This had been his dream and his prayer. But unlike many older folk, Gadget had left no stone unturned in order to answer his own prayer. He had carefully followed the newspapers (for he had earned many a shilling by selling them) for the movements of the new air liner and the opening up of the All-Red Route. And when the time had arrived for the airship to sail, watching his opportunity the little fellow had smuggled himself on board, and here he was, having now almost sailed around the world, crossing the Arabian desert on the homeward voyage.
CHAPTER VII
A DUEL WITH WORDS