ut the captain from the pilot-house on the hurricane
deck.

"Aye, aye, all aboard," was the response from Fritz's friend the deck
hand, who, with only a red flannel shirt on and a pair of check
trousers--very unsailorlike in appearance altogether--stood in the bows.

"Then fire away and let her rip!" came the reply from the captain above,
followed by the tinkle of an electric bell in the engine-room, the
steamer's paddles revolving with a splash the moment afterwards and
urging her on her watery way.

Round the Battery at Manhattan Point she glided, and up the East River
through Hell Gate into Long Island Sound--one of the most sheltered
channels in the world, and more like a lake or lagoon than an arm of the
sea--leaving a broad wake of creamy green foam behind her like a mill-
race, and quivering from stem to stern with every revolution of her
shaft, with every throb of her high-pressure engines!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.

The Rhode Island steamer was a splendid boat, Fritz found, when he came
to look about him; for, she was a "floating palace," every inch of her,
with magnificent saloons and state-cabins stretching away the entire
length of the vessel fore and aft. A light hurricane deck was above
all, on which the passengers could promenade up and down to their
hearts' content, having comfortable cane-bottomed seats along the sides
to sit down upon when tired and no gear, or rope coils, or other
nautical "dunnage," to interrupt their free locomotion on this king of
quarter-decks, which had, besides, an awning on top to tone down the
potency of the western sun.

With three tiers of decks--the lowermost, or main, containing the
engine-room and stowage place for cargo, as well as the men's quarters;
the lower saloon, in which were the refreshment bars, and what could
only appropriately be called the "dining hall," if such a term were not
an anachronism on board ship; and, thirdly, the upper saloon, containing
the principal cabins and state-rooms, in addition to the graceful
promenading hurricane deck surmounting the whole--the steamer had the
appearance of one of those bungalow-like pretended "houses" which
children build up with a pack of cards. Only that, this illusion was
speedily destroyed by the huge beam of the engine, working up and down
like a monster chain-pump on top of the whole structure--not to speak of
the twin smoke-stacks on either side of the paddle-boxes emitting
volume