“Dunno,” answered Joe, doggedly. “Mebbe five or six; mebbe more.”
“That’s it!” exclaimed Mr. Jenkins, “And the wages are twenty-five dollars a month, and all the good food a fellow can eat, eh?”
“More’n he can eat, mostly,” responded the boy. “They gets too much to eat.”
“And when are you going to find that place for me to go a voyage—and berth aft here with you and the captain and mate, like a gentleman, and get my twenty-five a month at easy work?”
“We’ve got it now,” said Joe.
Young Mr. Jenkins sprang from his chair, with an exclamation of delight. He stepped up to the boy and seized him by an arm.
“Say!” he cried; “you’re in earnest now—none of your tricks—do you mean it, really?”
The boy nodded.
“We’ve got two chances,” he said.
Young Mr. Jenkins gave a whistle of amazement.