"But, Dick--"

"Not one word, Mumsey, except to say you'll take that bet. I can get
a ride to New York on a boat, any day. Then I'll go to the Mallory
Line and work my way to Key West on one of their boats; and from Key
West I can find a fishing boat that will land me on the west coast
of Florida somewhere within a hundred miles of Ned, and I'd walk
that far just for the fun of surprising him."




CHAPTER II

DICK GOES TO SEA


Three days after Dick's talk with his mother, he boarded a Key West
steamer just as it was leaving its New York pier. He sat on the deck
and watched busy ferry-boats in the river, fussy tugs and
chug-chugging launches in the harbor, and the white-winged yachts
and great ocean steamers in the lower bay. He looked back from the
Narrows upon the receding city, to the east upon Coney Island with
its pleasure palaces, and to the southwest upon the great curve of
Sandy Hook. Every step upon the deck near him brought his heart into
his mouth in dread of what he knew he had to face. When the steamer
was opposite Long Branch and there was small chance that he could be
sent back, he inquired for the captain, whom he found talking to
some young girls among the passengers. This somewhat reassured