Anxious to see if any damage had been done, the boys lost no time in boarding the “Gray Gull.” Confuse-us greeted them with wagging tail and plaintive cries, but his constitution did not seem to have suffered.
“They’ve eaten about four days’ grub; that’s what they’ve done,” remarked Jack, indignantly.
“Lucky they didn’t take your painting along, Jack,” said Joe.
But Jack’s suspicious glances rested on a guileless, innocent face.
Fred presently slipped off, and they saw him hovering like a shadow around the spot where he had lost his glasses. He returned shortly, bearing them in triumph.
The visitors were much interested in the house-boat. Redfern soon after joined them and, of course, heard all about the latest adventure.
They passed a jolly afternoon. The artists talked entertainingly of their experiences abroad; about roughing-it trips through France, Switzerland and Italy; of climbing Vesuvius and sleeping on the cliffs at Capri; of ancient Pompeii, and the historic ruins in Rome.
“Dandy chaps,” remarked Jack, when they had gone.
“Aren’t they, just?” said Tom. “Did us a good turn, too.”
“Awful easy life, being an artist,” quoth Aleck. “All they have to do is to sit down and paint pictures; then people come along and say, ‘That’s bully—swell—out of sight,’ eh, Jack?”