Nor had Teddy ’phoned again, except once to tell Don that he was trying frantically to get in touch with his father but had not yet succeeded. But no other message followed, and Don was forced reluctantly to give up hope of his boy friend taking the trip with him.
The day came at last when they were to go to New York, there to board the Cleopatra, the vessel on which their passage was booked. There were tender partings from Ruth, in whose cheeks the roses were again coming from the knowledge that her mother was alive. They promised to keep in frequent touch with her by cable.
There were warm good wishes also from Dan and Mrs. Roscoe and Jenny. The hired girl’s agitated feelings were revealed by the unusual vigor with which she chewed her gum.
“Good-bye, Mister Don,” she whimpered. “Don’t get trompled by no cambles an’ don’t get et by no crockumdiles an’ don’t fall down in none of them Egypt tombs.”
Don promised that he would be careful, and the party stepped into the car and were driven down by Dan to the station, where they took the train to New York.
The Cleopatra was to sail the next morning at eleven, and two hours earlier Don and his uncles went on board. The ship was new and well equipped, their staterooms were favorably located and satisfactorily furnished, and to all appearance they would have a comfortable and, they hoped, a speedy voyage.
Don quickly arranged his belongings in his cabin and then went out on deck, which was humming with the activity always prevailing on a steamer on the point of sailing. He hung over the rail looking eagerly for one particular face among the many that thronged the pier. In his last talk with Teddy he had told him of the steamer he would take and the day and hour of sailing, and he confidently expected that his chum would be on hand to see him off.
But Teddy did not appear, and when at last the gangplank was drawn in and the great vessel edged her way out into the river, Don turned away with a feeling of disappointment. What on earth had kept his friend from being on hand? It was not like Teddy to fail him in anything.
But though a sore spot remained in his heart, the first days of the voyage were full of interesting things to engross his attention. The weather was fine, and he spent most of the time on deck, enjoying the cool breezes, the never ending fascination of the ocean, and studying his fellow passengers.
These last embraced more varied types than usual, because many of them were natives of countries that bordered on the Mediterranean and were clad in the picturesque garb of their various lands. There were many Greeks, Algerians, Tunisians and Egyptians, the latter of whom were of special interest because of the preëminent place that Egypt held in his thoughts.