Adventure Club in Steve's and Joe's room in Sumner. Graduation Day had
sent them scurrying homeward. Then had followed much correspondence with
Steve. After an anxious four days, Perry and the rest had each received
a brief but highly satisfactory telegram: "_Cockatoo_ ours for two
months. Meet Ballinger's Basin, Brooklyn, fourth." But work on the
cruiser had delayed the starting date, and they had now been kicking
their heels about New York for four days. Perry and Phil Street had been
taken care of by Steve, and Joe had had Neil, Han and Ossie as his
guests. At Bay Shore, on the south side of Long Island, the _Follow Me_
was awaiting them impatiently. The _Follow Me_ had been ready to put to
sea for a full week.

Although Steve and Joe had provisioned the _Cockatoo_--which, by the
way, was no longer the _Cockatoo_, but the _Adventurer_, having been
renamed during the process of painting--the crew had not been altogether
idle during their wait. Each had thought of something further to add.
Ossie, who, as a special favour, was to be allowed to try his hand at
cooking, had made several trips between a big department store on Fulton
Street and had returned to the basin laden each time with mysterious
packages, many of which rattled or clinked when deposited in the galley.
Perry had purchased an inexpensive talking machine and a dozen records.
Neil had contributed a patent life-preserver that looked like a
waistcoat to be used by an Arctic explorer and was guaranteed to keep
Barnum and Bailey's fat man afloat. Phil had supplied the cabin with
magazines, few of them, to Perry's chagrin, of the sort anyone but a
"highbrow" would care to tackle. Joe, as an after-thought, had stocked
up heavily with Mother Somebody's Cure for Seasickness. George Hanford
had tried to smuggle on board a black and white puppy about a foot long
which he had bought on a street corner for two dollars and a half.
Steve, however, had objected strenuously and Han had been forced to see