Anderson, I do, sir."

"All right, go ahead."

"I want you to set me to work, sir."

"Why should I set you to work? Do you belong on the boat?"

"Not yet, but you see it's this way. I had to get to Key West and I
thought I'd work my passage with you."

"Why didn't you ask me before we left the dock?"

"Because I was afraid you wouldn't take me, if you could help it,
and I had to go."

"You cheeky little devil, I believe I'll chuck you overboard."

"Oh!" said a brown-eyed girl who stood beside the captain, "you
mustn't do that!"

The captain laughed and said to Dick:

"I hope you understand that you owe your life to this young lady.
Now, go and report yourself to the cook and tell him to put you on
the worst job he's got."

"Thank you very much, Captain, but couldn't you make it the engineer
instead of the cook? I'd rather work than wash dishes."

"I'd like to oblige so modest a boy. Report to the chief engineer,
give him my compliments and tell him you are to have the hottest
berth on the boat. He'll probably set you to shoveling coal."

Dick thanked him again; then looking into the face of the girl, he
said:

"Thank you, Miss Brown-Eyes, for saving my life," and, bowing low,
turned away.

"Captain, couldn't you see that he was a gentleman? What made you
give him such hard work?" asked the girl.

"Because he was such a cheeky gentleman that if I let him stay on
deck he would take command of the boat by to-morrow and all you
young ladies who helped him would be guilty of mutiny and would have
to be executed."

Dick was put to work in the engine-room, oiling the machinery. Some
of the work was easy and safe, some of it was easy but not safe. Oil
cups had to be filled as they flew back and forth, bearings must be
oiled after great steel rods had flashed by and before they
returned. The swift, silent play of the great piston and the steady
motion of the resistless, revolving shaft, half hypnotized the boy
and he stood, dazed and in danger, until called down by the sharp
rebuff of the engineer.

"'Tend to your business, there. Don't watch that shaft or you'll go
dotty."

On the second day of the trip there was trouble in the fire-room.
The steamer had started on the trip short of firemen and now a
fireman who had fallen in the furnace-room, striking his head on the
steel floor, was lying unconscious in his berth. The pointer on the
steam-gauge fell back, the engine slowed down, crisp commands came