The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries Part 26

"After that it would seem a little like boasting, but----" he reached into his pocket and pulled out the tuna b.u.t.ton, safely stowed away in a tightly-closed box.

The Deputy Commissioner whistled softly in surprise.

"And did you win this, too?" he asked. "You went to Santa Catalina, then?"

"Yes, Dr. Crafts," the boy replied, and related his experiences while there. He told the story well, and the Deputy Commissioner--who was a master in that art--nodded appreciatively.

"So far as I can judge," he said, "the Bureau is the place for you. But I don't know where to fit you in. It is getting on towards the middle of August, and not only is the work all arranged for the summer, but most of it is done."

"I just want to be at work," pleaded the boy, "for the experience, not for what I can get out of it, of course."

"That sort of arrangement is impossible," answered the Deputy Commissioner; "there is plenty of volunteer work done in the Bureau, but such work is always along the line of special investigation, and it is given to those who are equipped for research, usually university professors. The a.s.sistants are always paid, and you see I couldn't very well create a precedent on your account!"

"No, Dr. Crafts," answered Colin, quite disheartened; "I suppose not."

The Deputy Commissioner tapped on the desk thoughtfully.

"It happens," he said, "that a friend of mine who is attached to the American Museum of Natural History--that's the New York museum, you know--sails for Bermuda next Sat.u.r.day to get some material. He wants to take a helper along, and the Museum provides him with funds for engaging help on the island."

"Yes, sir," the boy said, wondering what was coming.

"Now," the Fisheries official continued, "if he has got to have help it might be a good experience for you to go with him, but you may have to pay your way across. What salary you receive over there would just about meet the expenses of the trip, so that you would break even. Would you like to do it?"

"I'd rather start in on the Bureau," Colin answered, but he was wise enough not to refuse an opportunity, and continued, "but if you think it would be a good thing for me to do, why, of course, I'm ready."

"I think it would be an excellent chance," the Deputy Commissioner said, "because we do very little work around the Bahamas, and none at all in Bermuda, so that it would give you an idea of the fish-life there which, otherwise, you might never get. And if you tried any Bureau work now, you would be handicapped by not having started with the other boys, and you'd be so far behind that you might feel badly about it. So the Bermuda opportunity seems to me the best chance."

"What is the purpose of the trip, sir?" asked the boy.

"To prepare a model for the Museum which will give people an idea of the sea-gardens as they really are. Part of the model will be of prepared specimens, I believe, and some will be copies made of spun gla.s.s. I understand that Mr. Collier wants to study especially the sea anemones, the corals, the sponges, and the sea-fans; also, to note the habits of the fish peculiar to the coral reefs, and show them in the model as though they were swimming about in their natural habitat."

"That would be awfully interesting!" said Colin.

"It will teach you a lot," rejoined the Deputy Commissioner, "and you can't ever know too much about sea-life. The real backboned fishes, with which the Bureau princ.i.p.ally deals, are only a small part of the population of the ocean."

"Shall I go and call on this gentleman, then, Dr. Crafts?" the boy asked.

"You had better drop in and see me this afternoon," was the reply. "I'll telephone to Mr. Collier and ask him to take lunch with me and we'll talk it over then. Suppose you come in about half-past two o'clock, and if he takes kindly to the scheme I'll have him meet you here. If he has other plans, why, there's no harm done, and we'll try and think of something else."

Thanking his new-found friend heartily, but not quite sure whether he liked this way of shelving him from the Bureau for a season, Colin made his way to the lower story of the building, where he felt that the two young fur seals were old friends. As it happened, a couple of boys about his own age came along and, overhearing their remarks, Colin joined in, realizing that they had all sorts of wrong ideas about the seals. He waxed so enthusiastic that, as other people came in, they gathered around him and, before Colin was really conscious of it, he had quite an audience. Among them was an old attendant of the Bureau who, as it happened, had been on the Pribilof Islands with Dr. Brown Goode, in 1872. He listened for a while, then said:

"I beg your pardon, sir, but have you been in St. Paul recently?"

"I was there this spring," Colin replied.

"It's just forty years this summer, sir, since I was on the islands.

They tell me there's been great changes." And, without further ado, he commenced to question Colin closely concerning the place, the boy having equal interest in learning what the rookeries were like when the first investigation was made. It was not until lunch-time that he could tear himself away.

Promptly, at the hour appointed, Colin presented himself at the Deputy Commissioner's office and was met by Dr. Crafts' secretary. His pulse was beating like a trip-hammer, and he probably looked nervous, for the secretary glanced once or twice in his direction. Then, wis.h.i.+ng to give news that would be welcome, she said formally, of course, but betraying a sincere kindliness:

"I think Mr. Collier is with Dr. Crafts now."

On the instant Colin detected that the secretary knew something about the matter and wanted to rea.s.sure him, so he smiled back, saying:

"Thank you. I hope it will be all right, then."

The two men were chatting earnestly, and the wait seemed long to Colin, but after a while the Deputy Commissioner called him in.

"This is the boy, Robert," he said. "Colin," he continued, "let me present you to Mr. Collier."

"So you're coming along with me to Bermuda and Florida, I hear," the museum curator said, shaking hands.

Colin looked up at the tall, gaunt figure and caught a twinkle of good-humor in the deeply-sunk gray eyes.

"I was hoping to before, sir," he answered, "and I'm hoping to, even more now."

"That's the way to talk, never lose a chance for a happy phrase," was the reply. "Well, Dr. Crafts here seems willing to go bail for you--although I understand he never saw you before to-day--and I think we could get along all right, so if you're satisfied, I guess we'll call it a deal. There's one difficulty, though."

"What's that, sir?" asked the boy.

"I shall probably need to go to Florida as well, and I should like to have my a.s.sistant stay with me clear through."

"So much the better," the boy responded.

"But I understand you're going to start your freshman year in college?"

"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I'm going to Brown."

"That's what I thought. But you see I don't expect to get back much before the tenth of October, and college will have started by then. I don't want," he continued, his eyes twinkling with fun, "to rob the other fellows of the fun of hazing you."

"I don't think there's much hazing at Brown, sir, and perhaps I shall miss some of the fun of the opening of the year," Colin replied, after thinking for a minute or two; "but I'd much rather take the trip with you, sir, and I can soon catch up with my cla.s.s in any subject the first few lectures of which I may have missed."

"But aren't you supposed to be in attendance on a certain day?"

"Yes, Mr. Collier," the boy replied, "I believe I should be. But Father can fix that all right."

"You think your father can arrange anything, Colin," said the Deputy Commissioner, smiling.

"Well, he always has!" the boy declared.

"If the Florida trip is no barrier," the curator said, "I think that we can call the matter settled. Dr. Crafts told you that you would have to pay your own pa.s.sage?"

"Yes, sir."

"You'll like Bermuda, I think. Everything there's so much worth while."

"There you go again, Robert," said the Deputy Commissioner; "always in superlatives."

"Of course! Who would want to be otherwise?" said the curator. He turned to Colin. "Come and take dinner with me to-night, and we'll talk over the details. Here's my card," and he penciled his address on the pasteboard. "I'll give you some seaweed pudding, carrageen, you know."