Two Boys of the Battleship: or, For the Honor of Uncle Sam

CHAPTER VII – “LETS ENLIST”

For a moment Ned stood staring at his brother as if he could not believe the words he heard. He remained holding the dangling chain, to which, only a short time before, his dead father’s valuable gold watch had been attached.

“Robbed! Robbed!” murmured Ned, blankly.

“Exactly,” answered Frank. “Why, see, they twisted the end right off your chain! That’s a regular pickpocket’s trick. And as for my wallet – well, I ought to be kicked for letting them get away with it!”

“But who took it?” asked Ned.

“Those two men, of course. They were working together!”

“But they didn’t know each other, Frank. Why, they were going to fight!”

“That was only their trick, Ned, to take our attention off what they were doing to us. It is an old trick. I ought to have known it. But they were good actors, and they got away with it. Oh, hang it all! How stupid I’ve been!”

“Not any more than I was, Frank. But it doesn’t seem possible that those men were friends, after the way they talked to one another. They were so – ”

“Look!” suddenly exclaimed Frank. “Doesn’t that look as if they were friends?”

He pointed across Battery Park, where, walking rapidly toward the station of the elevated, were the same two men who had so nearly, apparently, come to blows in the aquarium. The men were walking along close together.

“They don’t seem very unfriendly now,” said Frank, bitterly.

Ned set off on the run toward them.

“Where are you going?” asked Frank.

“After those fellows! They shan’t get away with my watch and your money without a fight.”

“I’m with you!” cried Frank. “It’s as much your money as mine, though. I had it all together. Come on, we’ll see if we can catch ’em, but they’ve got the start of us.”

The two clever pickpockets had indeed an advantage. But Frank and Ned set off on the run, the younger lad crying loudly:

“Stop those fellows! Stop those men! They robbed us!”

His cry attracted considerable attention, and a crowd was soon following our heroes, for it does not take even such an exciting cry as “Stop thief!” to collect a throng in busy New York.

“Stop those fellows! Stop ’em!” yelled Ned.

“They’ve got our money!” added Frank.

By this time the thieves were aware of the commotion behind them. They had evidently anticipated pursuit, for at the sound of their victims’ cries, and at the sight of the crowd that had gathered to help in the chase, the two men separated.

Where one went Frank and Ned could not see, as a pillar of the elevated structure hid him from sight. But the other ran up the stairway, and Frank noticed, with despair, that a train was just pulling into the station.

“He’ll get away on that,” thought Frank, “and the other will be lost in the crowd.”

And that was exactly what happened. When Frank and Ned, somewhat out of breath, reached the elevated structure neither of the men was in sight. But a policeman, attracted by the throng and the sight of the two excited boys, ran over from where he was standing in front of a steam-ship ticket office.

“What’s up?” he demanded, sharply.

“Pickpockets,” explained Frank briefly. “Two of ’em – they robbed my brother of his watch, and took my pocketbook – ”

“Any money in it?” snapped out the policeman, while the crowd pressed around to hear what was going on.

“Sure – all we had,” and Frank spoke a little bitterly.

“Where did it happen?”

“In the aquarium. The men ran over here. One went up to take the train. Maybe we can catch him.”

“Maybe,” agreed the officer. “We’ll have a try. Come on – sprint!”

He himself led the way up the elevated stairs, followed by Frank, Ned and some curious ones.

But the train had pulled out, and save for the ticket-chopper there was no one on the platform.

“Do you see him?” demanded the officer, rather needlessly.

“No,” answered Frank. “He’s gone all right. And I guess there’s no use chasing after the other one.”

“Give me a description of them,” suggested the policeman, “and I’ll report it. The detectives will do what they can, but I guess I needn’t tell you there isn’t much chance,” went on the officer. He evidently regarded Frank and Ned as New York lads, and indeed they had the smart appearance of those who are familiar with the metropolis.

“No, I guess we can score that up to profit and loss,” said Frank, gloomily.

“At any rate, give me your names and addresses,” suggested the policeman. “I’ll have to make a report of it to the station,” and he took out notebook and pencil.

Most of the crowd had left the elevated station now, seeing no further chance for excitement, and standing on the platform, Frank gave an account of the affair, telling how, by the clever ruse of a pretended quarrel, the men had so engaged the attention of his brother and himself that they never noticed the trained and nimble fingers of the pickpockets taking the watch and money.

“Yes, it is an old trick,” the policeman said. “It’s often been worked before. I’ll go back to the aquarium with you and see if any of the attendants noticed the two men, so I can get a description of them.”

“One of the officers inside ordered them out when they seemed likely to fight,” proffered Ned.

“I’ll have a talk with him,” decided the policeman. But he could get nothing more than a general description of the two thieves, and from that he did not recognize them as any well-known criminals.

“Well, give me your names and addresses,” said the policeman again, when it became evident that nothing more could be done.

Frank complied, stating that they lived in Ipswhich.

“We might as well call that our home,” he said to Ned afterward. “It’s the only real one we ever had, and maybe we’ll get back to it some day.”

“I hope so,” sighed his brother. “But what are we going to do now, Frank? We surely are up against it good and hard!”

They had left the aquarium for the second time, parted from the officer, and were now by themselves. The crowd had melted away. There had been no chance for any real pursuit of the pickpockets.

“Yes, we’ve got to consider what to do,” said Frank, and his voice had in it a serious note.

“I’m half starved,” murmured Ned.

“So am I,” added Frank. “We’ve got enough money left to buy us a few meals, anyhow. Luckily I held back a little change,” and he produced it from a pocket the thief had not found. “We’ll go and get a bite, and then we’ll be better able to consider matters,” he went on, as he led the way hastily up and across Broadway, toward a restaurant.

The meal was grateful to the boys, who had had nothing since early morning, and it was now nearly two o’clock. They did not talk much during the process of eating, for they did not want to let their troubles be known. But a careful observer might have seen anxious and rather gloomy looks on the faces of both lads.

“Well, now what?” asked Ned, as they came out of the eating place.

“Let’s walk down around South Ferry,” proposed Frank. “The elevated train that one of those fellows took went in that direction. Those thieves will have to meet again, and it’s barely possible that we may see them on the street. If we do, we can have them arrested.”

“Not much chance,” commented Ned, shaking his head.

“No, but every chance is worth taking.”

“Oh, yes, sure.”

Together they walked down toward the lower end of the Island of Manhattan – the location known as South Ferry, where the waters of the East and Hudson River mingle.

Frank was thinking hard. He and his brother had between them now only the clothing they had left at the Pennsylvania station, and a few dollars that the thief had not taken. It would hardly last them two days if they had to engage a boarding place.

“Say, that’s the life all right!” suddenly exclaimed Ned. Frank saw him pointing to a gaily-colored poster which depicted some sailors landing on a tropical island, while in the distance, on the blue waters of a palm-encircled bay, was a battleship. It was one of Uncle Sam’s attractive posters, calling for young men to join the navy.

“Yes, that does look enticing,” admitted Frank.

And then, before he could say any more, Ned clapped him heartily on the back, and exclaimed so loudly that several passersby heard it and smiled:

“Let’s enlist! Let’s enlist, old man! That will solve all our troubles!”

CHAPTER VIII – JOINING THE NAVY

This time it was Frank’s turn to stare at his brother as Ned had stared at him when Frank announced that they had been robbed. And as Ned had done, so did Frank, for the moment saying nothing. Then, finally, as Ned continued to stare at him with a smile on his face, Frank repeated:

“Enlist?”

“That’s what I said,” replied his brother. “Look on that picture – and then on, this!” and by a gesture he indicated himself and Frank. “Here we are,” he went on, “almost penniless in New York. By a strange trick of fate we’ve lost everything that we formerly had. We’ve either got to beg, or go to hunting work to keep from starving. On the other hand – look at those fellows! If they haven’t just had the very finest kind of a meal I don’t know what I’m talking about!”

Ned pointed to the bright and cheerful picture of the blue-jackets.

“Say, you’re getting quite dramatic,” commented Frank, as he drew nearer to the poster, which was one of two put on a V-shaped board standing in front of a hall entrance, in which was a placard announcing

NAVY RECRUITING STATION

“Dramatic!” echoed Ned. “I guess you’d get dramatic, too, if you saw starvation staring you in the face.”

“Worse and more of it,” murmured his brother.

“Well, what do you think of it?” asked Ned, as Frank continued to stare at the poster. “We’ve got to do something, so why not do this? You know we’ve both been keen on getting on a battleship, and this is our chance. Maybe we wouldn’t have come to it if it hadn’t been for our misfortune. I’m sure we can pass the examination,” he went on. He and his brother were in excellent physical trim, for they were active lads, always in training.

“Well, since you’ve brought up the matter,” said Frank, speaking slowly, “I don’t mind telling you, Ned, that I had something like this in mind all along.”

“You did?”

“Sure. After the crash, and when Uncle Phil had to go away, I knew there’d be a shortage of money. Now, though we have pretty good educations, we haven’t been trained for any work yet. So I looked into this navy business, knowing you were as crazy about battleships as I was, and I found out that not only does Uncle Sam train young fellows to be good sailors, marines and soldiers, but by enlisting in the navy you can acquire a trade at which you can earn your living if you want to quit after your term of enlistment is up.”

“Is that so?” asked Ned.

“It sure is. Why we can learn to become machinists, bakers, firemen, shipwrights, plumbers and fitters, boiler makers, cooks or musicians.”

“Really?” cried Ned.

“Well, I should say so! I read it all up. But your proposition sort of took me – er – ”

“Call it amidships, if we are to enlist,” suggested Ned, with a laugh.

“All right – it sort of took me amidships,” agreed Frank. “I was figuring on looking about New York a bit, trying to get work, perhaps, and then enlisting.”

“And you never told me. Though you did speak something about a chance to get near Atlanta, where Uncle Phil is imprisoned.”

“Yes, that was part of the game. You know when a fellow used to enlist in the navy he was sent to a training ship. Well, that’s all done away with, and now the government has a number of naval training stations on shore, near the water, of course. There’s one at Norfolk, Virginia, and we might ask to be sent there. If we were, we could get leave and go to Atlanta, perhaps.”

“Say, you have it all thought out, haven’t you?” exclaimed Ned, admiringly.

“Not all,” Frank admitted. “And perhaps we couldn’t get to Atlanta after all. But it’s worth trying. So now I’m with you, old man, and we’ll enlist – or try to. Maybe they won’t take us.”

“Oh, I think they will,” Ned said, confidently.

A recruiting officer, in a natty uniform, looked at them closely as they entered the hallway.

“Looking for the recruiting office?” he asked, with a smile.

“Why – er – yes,” admitted Frank, a bit bashfully.

“One flight up – turn to your right,” he directed them.

Ned and Frank went into a barely-furnished room, where two or three men were sitting about. One had a sergeant’s chevrons on his sleeve, and to him Frank spoke.

“We’d like to enlist,” began the lad.

“That’s fine,” was the hearty response. “We’re looking for good lads, and you two seem to size up pretty well,” he added, drawing a pad of paper toward him. “Not running away from home, or anything like that, are you?” he asked, pleasantly enough.

“No; home sort of ran away from us,” answered Ned, with a laugh.

The sergeant looked at him closely for a moment, and then smiled himself.

“What’s the story?” he asked. “That is if you don’t mind telling me. Perhaps it might save trouble in the end,” he suggested.

“We’ll tell you,” replied Frank, and at a nod from the sergeant the other seamen in the room arose, saluted and went out.

“No use telling everyone your troubles,” went on the government’s representative. “Now I’ll listen to as much as you want tell, so go ahead.”

Frank acted as spokesman, and related all that was necessary concerning their change in fortunes. He related the facts of his uncle’s arrest on a political charge, and, to his relief, the sergeant seemed to think lightly of it.

“Well, you certainly are up against it,” he remarked, when the story of the pocket-picking had been told. “As for that charge against your uncle, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in my estimation – I mean as far as any disgrace is concerned.

“Some of those little South American republics are crazy places anyhow, and they’ll do anything to an American who they think has money. I don’t see any reason, in what you’ve told me, why you shouldn’t join the navy if you can pass the physical tests, and you look fit,” he added.

“Oh, I guess we’re all right,” Frank said.

“And we’re pretty well at home on the water, and in and about boats,” added Ned.

“I should think you might be, having lived on Great South Bay so long. That will be a help, too. Some of the recruits get terribly seasick, and though it doesn’t last forever, still it’s just as well to escape it if you can. Now I’ve got to ask you a lot of questions, and you’ll have to answer. First, I suppose both of you are over eighteen years old. Otherwise you’ll have to get your uncle’s consent.”

“I’m past nineteen and Ned is over eighteen,” said Frank.

“Then you’ll come in all right. Now for the rest of it.”

The two boys who hoped soon to be doing duty on a battleship, answered many questions over which I will not go into details here. They had to tell of their past history, give their birthplace, the date, and many other details.

“It’s a little late for the doctor to-day,” went on the sergeant, when he had written down the replies of Frank and Ned. “You’ll have to be pretty thoroughly looked over by him. Can you come back to-morrow?” he asked.

“Sure,” replied Frank.

“And now – er – I don’t want to butt in, but how are you fixed for money? You said you were robbed, and – ”

“Well, we have a little left,” said Frank.

“Now, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” broke in the sergeant. “I’ll just send you to my boarding place, and be responsible for you. There is a vacant room there you can bunk in. If you are accepted you can easily pay the small charge from your wages. If you are turned down – well, I guess it won’t break me to stake you to one night’s lodging.”

“Oh, perhaps we have enough,” said Frank, quickly.

“Save what money you have, friend!” interrupted the officer, with a smile and a wave of his hand. “You may need it before you begin drawing any cash from Uncle Sam. Now you can sit here until my trick is up, which will be in about two hours, or you can go out and see the town. Come back about five-thirty, and I’ll take you to my place.”

“I guess we’ve seen about all of the town we care to,” said Ned, significantly, patting the empty pocket where the watch had rested.

“We could go up and get our valises,” suggested Frank.

“Good idea,” the sergeant told him. “Go ahead, and come back here, where I’ll meet you.”

As Frank and Ned went down to the street again the younger lad remarked:

“Well, we’ve joined the navy. Now we’re going to be the two boys of the battleship.”

“We’ve joined all right,” agreed Frank, “but we haven’t actually been accepted. The doctor has yet to see us.”

“Oh, we’ll pass all right,” asserted Ned, confidently.

CHAPTER IX – AT THE TRAINING STATION

With the valises in their possession our two boys of the battleship, as I shall begin to call them, felt a little less disheartened than at any time since the robbery. At least they had some belongings left, and if worst came to worst, they could sell or pawn their spare clothing, and so get money enough to tide them over their difficulties, or, provided they could not secure admission to the navy, until they could get work.

“And if we can’t get a job with Uncle Sam,” said Ned, as they were on their way down town again from the Pennsylvania Station, “maybe we can get on some ship that goes to the republic of Uridio.”

“What do we want to go down there for?” asked Frank.

“To see if we can’t prove Uncle Phil’s innocence,” was the quick answer.

“If we only could!” murmured Frank. “That would be fine! But I guess we’ll have to leave that to the lawyers and politicians.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” agreed his brother.

Our two rather lonesome boys, who greatly missed the kind ministrations of Mrs. Brun, the genial housekeeper, were made welcome by Sergeant Berk at his boarding house, which was not far away from the recruiting station.

Frank and Ned slept well in spite of being in a strange place, for they were very tired. It had been a hard day for them. But before turning in for the night Frank sent a letter to his uncle at the Atlanta federal prison, telling of the intention of himself and Ned to join the navy.

“And if we do, dear Uncle Phil,” Frank wrote, “and are lucky enough to be sent to Norfolk, we’ll try to come to see you.”

The next day Ned and Frank had to undergo a rigorous examination by a doctor.

“And what I don’t find out about you, if I pass you, the medical officer at the training station will, and he may turn you down,” said the physician, grimly.

“Well, we’ll hope for the best,” said Frank.

Neither he nor his brother really feared the examination. They had passed the first requirements, which state that to be successful applicants must be able to read and write English, that they must be American citizens (native or naturalized), that they never have deserted from any branch of the naval or military service of the United States. Neither had Frank or Ned ever been convicted of any serious offense, in which case special permission to enlist would have had to be obtained from the Bureau of Navigation.

“Well, now to get down to business,” said the doctor, when he had made some entries on his blanks. “You know that you – let’s see – your name is Frank Arden, isn’t it?” and he turned to the older brother.

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, since you are past nineteen, you must have a height of at least sixty-four inches, bare-footed, and weigh not less than 125 pounds.”

“I can qualify there all right,” said Frank.

“And as for your brother, he must weigh not less than 115 pounds, and be also sixty-four inches tall.”

“I’m that all right, though Frank is more,” put in Ned.

“Well, a little more in Frank’s case won’t matter – so much the better,” the surgeon remarked.

He then went into medical details, which need to be touched on only to remark that neither Frank nor Ned was found to have any physical defect that would bar him from the service. Their teeth were good and sound, and of course you know that of late years the United States government, as well as all foreign governments, requires that their best fighters have good teeth. Those that are filled are counted as sound, provided there are not too many of them.

It is not so much to “bite the enemy,” as one soldier, who was refused enlistment, said he seemed expected to do, as it is that with unsound teeth food cannot be properly chewed, and in these days “an army fights on its stomach.”

“Well, I can’t find anything the matter with you,” announced the doctor pleasantly, after the examination was over.

“You tried hard enough,” Frank remarked, laughing.

“Well, that’s my business – I have to do it. I wouldn’t want to pass you and have you sent to a training station, only to learn there, later, that you must be rejected. That would be a bad mark against my ability.

“But as it is, I’ll almost guarantee that you’ll pass when you come up before the medical officer. I wish all the recruits were as strong and healthy as you two.”

This was a fine compliment, and Frank and Ned appreciated it.

“Well, so far so good,” remarked Sergeant Berk, when the doctor had put away his stethoscope and finished filling out the blanks. “Now you boys will have to be sent to a training station, and at present my orders are to ship all enlisted men from here to Norfolk. I hope you don’t mind going there, but if you do perhaps you can get a transfer later.”

“Norfolk suits us right down to the ground!” exclaimed Frank. “We may get a chance to see our uncle,” he added.

“Not right away, I’m afraid,” was the sergeant’s answer. “You’ll be kept pretty busy learning your new duties. Are you going in for any special line of work?”

“Why, we want to work on a battleship!” exclaimed Ned. “Fire the guns, I suppose.”

“Yes, most new recruits do,” was the comment. “But every one can’t be a gunner. You know Uncle Sam has to have a lot of different workers on his ships. There are those who are expert in steering, others who do nothing but cook. Then there are men who handle the anchors, others who man the boats, and even stenographers and typewriters are needed. Just to mention a few I might specify clerks, waiters, nurses, copper-smiths, plumbers, boilermakers, painters and stewards.

“And to make sure that he will get the best of help in these lines of work,” went on the sergeant, “Uncle Sam trains men to fill the different positions. They are much better able to do their work with training, than they would be without.”

“And do we have to select what branch we’d like best?” asked Ned.

“Well, in a way, yes, though of course you’ll be picked for what you are best suited, or for what is most needed.”

“I want to be a gunner,” declared Frank.

“And so do I,” added his brother.

“Well, good luck to you,” said the sergeant, with a smile. “You may get your wishes.”

Frank and Ned were now apprentice seamen, or they would be when formally passed by the medical officer at the training station. They were to leave New York with a squad of other enlisted men the next day, and that night they wrote to their uncle telling of their progress.

Frank wanted to pay Sergeant Berk for the boarding house accommodations, but the officer said there was plenty of time for that. And so, in due season, our heroes found themselves on board a train that was headed for Norfolk.

“Well, we don’t know where we’re going to land, but we’re on our way,” said Ned, slightly changing the words of the song.

“That’s right,” agreed his brother. “But I guess we’ll make out all right.”

“I’d feel a little better if I felt there was some way in which we could help Uncle Phil,” murmured Ned, musingly.

“Well, maybe we can, after we get aboard some ship, and know just what we are about,” replied Frank.

But he little realized how soon his words were to be brought to his mind again with peculiar force.

The journey to Norfolk was without notable incident, save that once Ned thought he saw one of the men who had robbed Frank. But it proved a false alarm.

“And maybe it’s just as well,” said Frank.

“How so?” asked Ned.

“Well, if we got our money back now we might not want to keep on and join the navy.”

“Oh, no danger of my backing out now!” cried the younger lad.

“No, I guess not,” was his brother’s reply.

In time, they arrived at Norfolk, and were soon at the naval training station, where, with some other recruits, they were taken in charge by a petty officer to prepare for the second and more rigorous medical examination.