CHAPTER II.
A VOYAGE TO YUCATAN.
FOR five days after Kit’s arrival on board the North Cape the steam winches were at work ten hours a day with their deafening clatter, first in hoisting the remainder of the hemp bales out of the hold, then in taking in what shipping men call a “general cargo,” consisting in part of barrels of flour, boxes of tea, cases of cloth, hats, shoes, and other things necessary in a country where little but hemp is produced.
On the fifth day there came indications that the ship was about to sail. The last of the piles of merchandise on the wharf disappeared, the winches stopped, and two of the hatches were battened down. Kit was prepared for this, for he was now a legal member of the ship’s family, having signed the crew list. He had written home and had received his mother’s permission to go to sea, coupled with many loving expressions and much good advice; and had received, too, an affectionate letter from Genevieve, and a little bundle containing the clothing he had left at home.
Early in the afternoon the Captain’s bell rang, and it was Kit’s business to answer it.
“Go tell the chief I want steam at eight o’clock,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Kit answered, and ran up to the chief engineer’s room to deliver the order. When he left the chief’s room he was stopped near the engine-room skylights by the boatswain.
“Here, youngster,” said he, “run up for’ard and ask the first officer to send me the load-water-line; I’ve got to take soundings.”
“Yes, sir,” Kit answered again, and was about to start on the errand when he was stopped by Tom Haines, the fourth engineer, a pleasant-faced young Scotchman of about twenty, who was leaning against the skylights.
“Don’t go, young ’un,” Haines said; “he’s trying to make a fool of you. The load-water-line is painted on the side of the ship; besides, we don’t take soundings lying at a wharf.”
Kit laughed good-naturedly at the joke, and Haines added:—