THE JOURNEY BEGINS.
“Well, boys,” said the professor, “have you had enough breakfast?”
“I don’t know whether I have had enough or not,” responded Jo. “But I’m afraid I can’t eat any more.”
“That’s bad,” remarked the professor. “I’m afraid there is something wrong with you. Still, if you go on deck, perhaps you will be better by dinner time. But while we are down here you might pick out your staterooms. This is the captain’s room, and this is mine. That is the engineer’s room. But you can take any of the others you want.”
Looking over the rooms about which there was really little choice, Jo and Tom selected one to their liking, and Juarez decided on the invitation of John Berwick to room with him as he was going to act as assistant engineer on the voyage. This left Jim with a cabin to himself.
The boys had but just settled the matter when they were startled by a series of loud and angry exclamations from the professor.
“Now, what do you think of that?” he cried, when the boys rushed into the saloon where he was standing holding up his handbag in which a long slit had been cut with a sharp knife.
“Their audacity passes all bounds!” he went on wrathfully. “They have got it at last.”
“What is lost?” asked Jim.