Two Boys of the Battleship Part 6

"Have you been in Bermuda?" asked Ned, eagerly.

"Lots of times," boasted the other. "Two or three times the ships I was on were sent there on cruises. It's a great life. Are you boys stopping in New York?"

"For a while, yes," a.s.sented Frank, not wishing to give too much information about themselves to a stranger. He well knew the wiles of some of the unprincipled men of New York.

"I took you for strangers," the fellow went on, and there came a queer gleam in his eyes.

"We're Columbia students," put in Ned, who was very proud of the fact.

And then, like a pang, it came to him, that he and his brother would have to give up their places at the university. No longer would they be able to keep on with their studies there. Well, there was no use in vain regrets.

"I thought youse looked like college boys," went on the man who claimed to be a sailor. "But what's the trouble? Flunked in your studies that you want to get on a battleship? You can't be officers first crack after you enlist, you know."

"Oh, that talk of battleships didn't amount to anything," Frank said, wishing the fellow would take himself off. "And we don't expect to be officers. Ned, come along," he said, "it's time we were going."

They started for the exit, but their new acquaintance persisted in following them. And when Ned, who was an ardent fisherman, stopped at another tank, the stranger halted also.

"I wouldn't like one of those chaps to get after me," the man said, indicating two big green morays. The eel-like fish were swimming about and tearing to shreds a smaller fish that had been put into their tank for food.

"They are fierce," agreed Ned, pressing close to the tank.

"And they'll attack a man, too," went on the sailor. "I knowed a feller once-he was on the same ship with me-he went swimming overboard when we was in the tropics, though he was told not to on account of sharks and these morays; but he did, and he got his all right."

"How?" asked Frank, interested in spite of himself.

"He was all chawed up. We just managed to get him out of the water alive. If youse go on a battleship, look out about swimming over the side when you're in tropical waters."

"I guess there isn't much chance for us," remarked Frank. "Come, Ned,"

he went on, "we really must be going!"

At that moment another man came up, evidently in something of a hurry, and he pressed eagerly forward to look at the morays. He shoved against Frank with some force, and Frank, in turn, collided with the stranger who claimed to be from one of the United States battleships.

"Here, look where you're shovin' to!" the sailor called to the newcomer.

"What do youse mean by bunkin' inter my friend here in that way?"

The other did not answer for a moment, but looked the speaker over from head to foot, and an angry look came over his face.

"What's gittin' inter youse?" the second man demanded. "I didn't step on your corns, did I?"

"No, but you shoved my friend here," and the sailor indicated Frank, "and I won't stand for anythin' like that. Not for a minute, no sir!"

"Aw, ain't your friend got a tongue of his own?" roughly demanded the newcomer. "I didn't hear him kickin' none!"

There was contempt in his tone, and anger also.

"It really doesn't matter," Frank said. "I have no doubt it was an accident."

"Of course it was," insisted the man who had offended. "Youse is a gentleman, youse is, an' I apologizes."

"Does that mean I ain't no gentleman?" asked the sailor, in fierce tones.

"Youse kin take any meanin' from it youse likes," was the cool answer.

The newcomer was about to walk away, when the sailor stepped up to him quickly, fairly crowding Ned and Frank together to do so, and he grasped the shoulder of the fellow who had apologized to Frank.

"I'll show youse who's a gentleman!" cried the sailor. "You can't insult me, nor bunk inter friends of mine!"

The two stood close together glaring at one another, with Ned and Frank between them. A crowd gathered in front of the moray tank.

"Come on, Ned, let's get out of here!" whispered Frank into his brother's ear. "There'll be a fight in a minute, and we don't want to be mixed up in it."

The two belligerents separated for a moment, and the lads slipped out of the throng. As they did so an officer sauntered up.

"Here, youse! Cut out that rough stuff and beat it!" he said to the two quarrelsome men. The latter never so much as replied, but quickly disappeared in the crowd. There was some laughter.

"One was afraid, and the other didn't dare," commented a man.

"Come on, now, don't crowd," advised the officer, and the throng thinned out, while Ned and Frank, glad they had escaped any unpleasantness, emerged into Battery Park again.

"Did you see enough?" asked Frank.

"Sure. Now I'm ready for the next thing on the programme. Say, that sailor was a friendly chap all right, wasn't he?"

"Too friendly," Frank said. "I didn't want him to get into a fight on our account."

"I should say not. But maybe he meant all right."

"Well, I'm not so sure of that. What time have you? It must be nearly one o'clock."

Ned reached toward his vest, where he carried his father's gold watch.

He had chosen that as a memento of his dead parent, Frank taking a peculiar old ring that he valued highly. But instead of pulling out the watch it was the empty chain that dangled from Ned's hand.

"Why-why-" he began, a blank look coming over his face. "Why, where's dad's watch? I never left it anywhere! I had it not an hour ago, when we went in there! Now it's gone!"

Frank uttered an exclamation.

"You've been robbed, Ned!" he cried. "Those two fellows-I see it now!

That was only a game! They-"

He paused, and hurriedly reached into his inside coat pocket.

"They robbed me, too!" he exclaimed. "They've taken the pocketbook and all our money! Ned, we've been robbed!"

CHAPTER VII-"LETS ENLIST"

For a moment Ned stood staring at his brother as if he could not believe the words he heard. He remained holding the dangling chain, to which, only a short time before, his dead father's valuable gold watch had been attached.