CHAPTER X

THE DETECTED THIEF

"Do you expect to be seasick, Joe?"

"I don't know, Mr. Folsom. This is the first time I have ever been at sea."

"I have crossed the Atlantic twice, and been sick each time. I suppose I have a tendency that way."

"How does it feel?" asked Joe curiously.

Folsom laughed.

"It cannot be described," he answered.

"Then I would rather remain ignorant," said Joe.

"You are right. This is a case where ignorance is bliss decidedly."

Twenty-four hours out Folsom's anticipations were realized. He experienced nausea and his head swam.

Returning from a walk on deck, Joe found his guardian lying down in the stateroom.

"Is anything the matter, Mr. Folsom?"

"Nothing but what I expected. The demon of the sea has me in his gripe."

"Can I do anything for you?"

"Nothing at present, Joe. What art can minister to a stomach diseased? I must wait patiently, and it will wear off. Don't you feel any of the symptoms?"

"Oh, no--I feel bully," said Joe. "I've got a capital appetite."

"I hope you will be spared. It would be dismal for both of us to be groaning with seasickness."

"Shall I stay with you?"

"No--go on deck. That is the best way to keep well. My sickness won't last more than a day or two."

The young man's expectations were realized. After forty-eight hours he recovered from his temporary indisposition and reappeared on deck.

He found that his young companion, had made a number of acquaintances, and had become a general favorite through his frank and pleasant manners.

"I think you'll get on, Joe," said he. "You make friends easily."

"I try to do it," said Joe modestly.

"You are fast getting over your country greenness. Of course you couldn't help having a share of it, having never lived outside of a small country village."

"I am glad you think so, Mr. Folsom. I suppose I was very green and I haven't got over it yet, but in six months I hope to get rid of it wholly."

"It won't take six months at the rate you are advancing."

Day succeeded day and Joe was not sick at all. He carried a good appetite to every meal and entered into the pleasures of sea life with zest. He played shuffle-board on deck, guessed daily the ship's run, was on the alert for distant sails, and managed in one way or another to while away the time cheerfully.

They had got into the Gulf of Mexico, when, one day, there was an unwonted commotion in the steerage.

A poor German had lost forty dollars, the entire capital he was carrying with him to the new country.

"Some tief has rob me," he complained, in accents of mingled grief and anger. "He has rob me of all my gold. He has not left me one cent."

"When did you miss the money?" inquired the first officer.

"Just now," said the poor German.

"When did you see it last?"

"Last night when I went to mine bed."

"Did you take off your clothes?"

"No."

"What men sleep near you?"

The German pointed to two. The first was a German.

"But he would not rob me. He is mine friend," he said. "He is Fritz."

"Who is the other man?"

The German pointed to Henry Hogan, the same man who had defrauded Joe.

"The man's a fool," said Hogan. "Does he mean to say a gentleman like me would steal his paltry money?"

"He hasn't said so," said the first officer quietly. "He only said that you slept near him."

"He'd better not accuse me," blustered Hogan.

The officer was a judge of human nature, and Hogan's manner and words made him suspect that he was really the guilty party.

"My man," said he, "you are making a fuss before you are accused. No charge has been made against you. The man's money has been taken, and some one must have taken it."

"I don't believe he ever had any," said Hogan.