Ten minutes later a shore boat landed the entire party from the submarine craft.
“Going with the rest of us, Truax?” inquired Jack, pleasantly.
“No; I'm going to find a boarding-house. That will be cheaper than the hotel.”
So the other four kept straight on to the Maryland House, giving very little more thought to the sulky one.
It was not until after supper that Eph turned the talk back to Sam Truax.
“I don't like the fellow, at all,” declared young Somers. “He always wants to be left alone in the engine room, for one thing.”
“And I've made it my business, regular,” added Williamson, the machinist, “to see that he doesn't have his wish.”
[pg 139] “He's always sulky, and kicking about everything,” added Eph. “I may be wrong, but I can't get it out of my head that the fellow came aboard on purpose to be a trouble-maker.”
“Why, what object could he have in that?” asked Captain Jack.
“Blessed if I know,” replied Eph. “But that's the way I size the fellow up. Now, take that time you were knocked senseless, back in Dunhaven. Who could have done that? The more I think about Sam Truax, the more I suspect him as the fellow who stretched you out.”