“Yes, I dare say it is. Any risk that a person takes for the sake of expected profit is a speculation, I suppose.”
“That’s about the size of it,” nodded the skipper.
“But, first of all, I’d like to take a run out to that farm to-morrow and gather the rest of those harvest apples. There’s fully another load to be got, and if I don’t take them they’ll rot on the ground.”
“I’m in this, too, am I, Dick?” asked Joe, anxiously.
“Why not, if you’re willing?”
“You can bet your suspenders I’m willing to go, all right.”
“Then that’s settled. Do you mind if I bunk aboard here to-night, Captain Beasley?” asked Dick.
“You’re welcome to sleep, and eat for that matter, aboard the Minnehaha as long as she’s here, young man. I admire enterprise in a fellow of your years, and you seem to be loaded to the hatches with it. If you aren’t a millionaire one of these days, it’ll be because the trusts we read about and the plutocrats have gobbled up all the wealth that’s lying around loose.”
Soon after that, the two boys retired to the forward compartment of the hold and turned in, but they had so much to talk over and plan for the future that it was nearly midnight before they fell asleep.
They were on deck at sunrise.