“Oh, please ask him to let me stay with you, now that I’m here,” begged Teddy.
He noted with pleasure that the captain no longer addressed him as “young man.” As a matter of fact, the captain, who was extremely fond of the boy, had long ago forgiven him, and the way Teddy had borne himself in the encounter with the rascals aboard the steamer had fully reinstated him in the good graces of his temporary guardian.
The cablegram was dispatched, and then, after some inquiries at a shipping office, the party made their way back to the hotel.
Don and his mother were delighted at the news they had secured.
“I might have known that things would be all right as soon as you got here,” said Mrs. Sturdy gratefully.
“Oh, we old hounds are still some good when it comes to picking up a trail,” replied her husband’s brother, with a grin.
“And now we must get busy and start at once,” said the professor. “Every hour is precious.”
“I can start at almost a minute’s notice,” declared Mrs. Sturdy.
The captain hesitated.
“I know just how you feel, Alice,” he said slowly. “But, really, I think it would be better for you not to go with us. The desert is no place for a woman, and it’s going to be a very hard and trying expedition.”