d not
be feared.

That day they were not interfered with, in their possession of the
boat. Charley had the fun of sleeping on its canvas covering, that
night, where, all alone, he swung delightfully as in a great cradle,
while the stars shone down upon him, and the spray from the paddle
wheels occasionally drifted across his face. His father and Mr.
Grigsby seemed to prefer the deck, against the rail.

The voyage down to the Isthmus was rated at seven days from New
Orleans. By the third day most of the sea-sick passengers had
recovered, and everybody settled to enjoy themselves. A number of
gamblers and drinkers were aboard; these kept to the main cabin, where
they sat at cards, robbing whomsoever they might, or stood at the bar
and guzzled quantities of liquor. On the decks the main pastime was
reading California travels like Fremont's explorations, or Richard
Dana's splendid "Two Years Before the Mast"--which Charley knew almost
by heart; or in speculating on "How much gold can I dig in a day?"
That was the favorite question: "How much gold do you suppose a fellow
can dig in a day?" The calculations ran all the way from $100 to
$10,000.

An awning was stretched over the upper deck, for shade; and as the
_Georgia_ sped out of the Gulf and headed south for the Yucatan Channel
under the Tropic of Cancer, between Cuba and Yucatan, the shade felt
mighty good. A number of passengers got out their white suits of linen
or cotton; but the majority of the Forty-niners stuck to their flannel
shirts and coarse trousers and boots.

The third evening they crossed the Tropic of Cancer, and by night were
entering the Yucatan Channel, which led to the famous Caribbean Sea
where pirates used to lurk. The long-nosed man and his partners had
not again bothered Charley and his two partners. They had kept below,
most of the time, in the main cabin, with other roisterers, and it
began to look as if they had decided to let the Adams party alone.

Charley continued to sleep on the boat, swinging over the stern of the
steamer, between sky and sea. Here in the tropics the days were
subject to sudden sharp squalls of rain; and Mr. Grigsby unfastened the
edge of the canvas covering of the boat, so that he could stow the
bedding underneath, when not in use. In case of rain at night, Charley
could crawl under, also, and cuddled between the seats might sleep snug
and dry. Mr. Grigsby had been pretty smart, to seize on that boat whe