"Maybe you'd like to take me under your care?" suggested Chet, with a most woe-begone look on his face. "No--I got my hands full with Andy. Here is my train, so I can't talk to yer no longer. Go to work an' earn somethin' to eat, an' the price o' a railroad ticket." And then Josiah Graham swung himself aboard the train, which pulled out from the station a moment later. "Oh, Chet, how could you do it!" roared Andy, when the chums were alone. "I thought I'd split, listening to the talk!" "Wouldn't even give a fellow the price of a meal," returned Chet, coolly. "Well, I rather think he'll be surprised when he gets back to your cabin and finds everything locked up." And then he, too, laughed heartily over the trick that had been played on Andy's shiftless relative. CHAPTER XVII AN ENCOUNTER WITH ICEBERGS "Off at last, Chet!" "Yes, and your Uncle Si didn't stop you, either!" responded Chet, with a broad grin. "If only we could have seen him when he got to the cabin!" exclaimed Andy. "I'll wager he was mad!" "Well, boys, it will be a long while before you see the United States again," remarked Barwell Dawson as he came up. "So use your eyes for all they are worth." "Just what we are doing," answered Andy. The _Ice King_ had cast off her lines quarter of an hour before, and a steam tug had headed her out of the harbor of Rathley. Now, under the steam of her own powerful engines, she was heading straight out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was an ideal day, and the boys were in the best of spirits, even though they were leaving their native land for the first time. Chet was full of the hope that in some manner he would hear something about the missing whaler and his father. The _Ice King_ was loaded "to the brim," as Andy expressed it. Below, every available space was filled with provisions and other necessities, and coal, and on deck many bags of coal were piled up amidships. "To get through the ice, the ship must have a good head of steam on," said Mr. Dawson. "And to have that, we've got to have coal, or oil." "How soon do you suppose we'll strike ice?" questioned Chet. "Oh, any time after we round the coast of Nova Scotia." At the last moment some extra supplies had come on board, and these were still awaiting proper distribution. The boys watched land slowly disappear in the blue haze of distance, and then set to work to assist in making everything ship-shape. "It will seem queer to live on a ship, I'm thinking," said Chet. "I hope we don't get sick," answered his chum. "Oh, I don't think we shall." "Don't be too sure."