CHAPTER XXIX. A LUCKY CHANGE OF STATEROOMS.

Robert found that the afternoon boat for Muskegon left at half past three, so there was still time left in which to get back to Mrs. Gibbs' house for a late dinner.

At the boarding house he found a short note from Livingston Palmer.

    "Mr. Gray is going to go into business again," it read; "with one office here and another in New York. He is going to take me back and he says you can return too, if you desire."

"That's nice," thought Robert. "But I'll have to see Dick Marden before I decide upon what's best to do next."

While waiting for dinner he penned a hasty reply to the note, and also a letter to his mother. In the latter he mentioned that he had seen Palmer, and that his step-father had called upon him,[Pg 246] and urged her to keep her financial affairs entirely¹ under her own control. He was careful to send the letter in care of Mr. Blarcomb, for personal delivery only.

"She'll get that, I know," he said to himself. "And I hope it does some good."

At the proper time our hero went down to the dock and boarded the Arrow, as the steamer was named. He found about two hundred passengers besides himself bound for Muskegon and other points along the Michigan shore. Besides passengers the Arrow carried a large quantity of baggage and freight.

The distance from Chicago to Muskegon is about one hundred and twenty-five miles. The Arrow was rather a slow boat and did not reach the latter point until some time in the early morning, so that Robert must spend a night on board. This being so, he lost no time in obtaining a berth².

He had just turned away from the clerk's office when he saw two men approaching. They were Hammerditch and Le Fevre.

"Hullo, they are going too," he thought, and was about to step out of sight, when the Englishman espied³ him.

"Humph! so you are going with us," said the man, with a scowl⁴.

[Pg 247]

"Not with you," answered Robert quietly. "I believe this is a public boat."

"You have been following us again."

"Excuse me, Mr. Hammerditch, but I never followed you in my life."

"Then why are you on this boat?"

"Because I am going to take a trip in her."

"To Muskegon?"

"That is my affair."

"I suppose if we get off at Muskegon you will get off too."

"Perhaps I shall."

"Don't you know that you may get into a good deal of trouble through following us, young man?"

"As I said before, I am not following you. I have my own business to attend to and I am attending to it."

"Bah, do you think we will believe zat," burst in Jean Le Fevre. "You are von spy. Perhaps you are von—vot you call heem?—von detective."

At this Robert laughed. "No, I am no detective. Only a young fellow out for business."

"Zen you are on ze way to Timberville, hey?"

"If I am that is my business."

At this the French Canadian began to dance around and shook his fist in Robert's face.

[Pg 248]

"I know you!" he shouted. "But ve vill see who comes out best! Ha! ve vill see zat!"

"Hush⁵!" interrupted Hammerditch. "Don't raise a disturbance⁶ on the boat," and he led his companion away to the upper deck.

"I shall have to keep my eye on them," thought Robert. "That Frenchmen wouldn't like anything better than to get into a fight. I might fight one of them, but I don't think I could get the best of both."

Once on the upper deck and away from observation, Hammerditch began to talk earnestly to his companion.

"We made a mistake by quarreling with him," he said.

"I cannot see eet," muttered Le Fevre.

"If we had made friends with him he might have shown us the map."

"Ha! zat is so."

"I would give a good lot to get hold of the map," continued the Englishman. "Our false map may help us some, but that real map ought to be out of the way."

At this Le Fevre clutched his companion by the arm.

"I haf an idee," he whispered. "Let us see if ze boy has got a stateroom."

[Pg 249]

"We can find that out at the office."

"And if he is to sleep alone."

"All right."

A little later they went to the office and looked over the register.

"Here he is—Robert Frost, room 45," said Hammerditch.

"Anybody else in zat room?"

They looked over the register, but could find nobody else.

"He will haf ze room all to himself," chuckled⁷ Jean Le Fevre. "Now if I can find a way to open ze door——"

"You mean to search his valise for the map?"

"To be sure."

"A good idea. We must work the plan, by all means," replied Hammerditch.

In the meantime Robert had gone to the bow of the boat and was enjoying the sea breeze.

Presently the clerk of the boat came up, followed by two burly Germans.

"I believe this is Mr. Robert Frost," said the clerk.

"That's my name," answered Robert, wondering what was wanted.

"These gentlemen are brothers and desire a stateroom together," explained the clerk. "If[Pg 250] you do not mind I would like to put you in stateroom No. 50, along with a very nice gentleman named Porter, and give these gentlemen No. 45. Otherwise I will have to put one of them with you and one with Mr. Porter. They prefer to be together."

"It vill pe a great favor," said one of the Germans politely.

"All right, I would just as lief go in with the gentleman you mentioned," answered Robert.

"Dank you very mooch," said the German.

"You vos very kind," added his brother.

"All right then, that's settled," said the clerk. "Mr. Frost, I will have your baggage transferred, if you will give me your key."

"I will transfer the baggage myself and take a look at the other stateroom," rejoined Robert.

Our hero and the clerk went below, and Robert took his bag to stateroom No. 50, which was better than the other. Mr. Porter sat outside of the door reading a newspaper, and the clerk introduced the pair. The stranger proved to be a Chicago hardware merchant on his way into Michigan on a business trip.

"I am glad to know you," he said, smiling pleasantly. "I hate to travel alone when there is the chance of an agreeable companion."

[Pg 251]

"Thank you! I think I can say the same," replied Robert, with a smile.

The boy retired⁸ at ten o'clock, and Mr. Porter with him. Soon Robert was sound asleep.

The Germans had gone to bed early, and both were in the land of dreams and snoring lustily when Jean Le Fevre and Hammerditch stole up to the door of stateroom 45.

"This is the one," whispered the French Canadian. "I was lucky to get the pincers, hey?"

"Hush, make no noise, the boy may be awake," said the Englishman, warningly.

While Hammerditch stood on guard Le Fevre inserted a small pincers in the key-hole of the door and managed to turn the key, which was stuck in from the other side.

Then the Frenchman opened the door several inches.

"Ha! he is snoring loudly—he is fast asleep," he thought, not noticing that two persons were in the stateroom instead of one, for the German in the upper berth happened just then to be silent.

In the dim light the French Canadian made out a valise standing⁹ on the floor and grabbed it hastily. Then he came away, shutting the door behind him.

"I haf eet!" he whispered. "Come!" And he[Pg 252] almost ran for the stateroom assigned to him and Hammerditch. Once inside, the pair secured the door and then turned up the light.

"It's a mighty¹⁰ rusty-looking bag," was the Englishman's comment. "Have you got the key?"

"It ees in ze lock," answered La Fevre.

Soon the valise was opened, and out tumbled a few articles of dirty underwear and a pair of embroidered¹¹ slippers¹².

"I don't see any map!" exclaimed Hammerditch, in disgust.

"'Tis ze wrong bag!" groaned¹³ the French Canadian. "See, ze clothing is too big for a boy, and so are ze slippers."

"You've made a mess of it," answered his companion. "Better take that bag back or there'll be a jolly row all for nothing."

Much crestfallen¹⁴, Le Fevre took the bag back. On his second visit he saw both Germans, and he retreated even more speedily than he had on his first trip to the stateroom.

"The cake is dough," announced Hammerditch. "But though we are foiled this time, we must get that map away from the boy, no matter at what cost."

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 berth   

n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊

参考例句：

• She booked a berth on the train from London to Aberdeen.她订了一张由伦敦开往阿伯丁的火车卧铺票。
• They took up a berth near the harbor.他们在港口附近找了个位置下锚。

3 espied   

v.看到( espy的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• One day a youth espied her as he was hunting.She saw him and recognized him as her own son, mow grown a young man. 一日，她被一个正在行猎的小伙子看见了，她认出来这个猎手原来是自己的儿子，现在已长成为一个翩翩的少年。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In a little while he espied the two giants. 一会儿就看见了那两个巨人。 来自辞典例句

4 scowl   

vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容

参考例句：

• I wonder why he is wearing an angry scowl.我不知道他为何面带怒容。
• The boss manifested his disgust with a scowl.老板面带怒色，清楚表示出他的厌恶之感。

5 hush   

int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静

参考例句：

• A hush fell over the onlookers.旁观者们突然静了下来。
• Do hush up the scandal!不要把这丑事声张出去！

6 disturbance   

n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调

参考例句：

• He is suffering an emotional disturbance.他的情绪受到了困扰。
• You can work in here without any disturbance.在这儿你可不受任何干扰地工作。

7 chuckled   

轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
• She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

8 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

11 embroidered   

adj．绣花的

参考例句：

• She embroidered flowers on the cushion covers. 她在这些靠垫套上绣了花。
• She embroidered flowers on the front of the dress. 她在连衣裙的正面绣花。

12 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

13 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 crestfallen   

adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的

参考例句：

• He gathered himself up and sneaked off,crushed and crestfallen.他爬起来，偷偷地溜了，一副垂头丧气、被斗败的样子。
• The youth looked exceedingly crestfallen.那青年看上去垂头丧气极了。