"Forgetful you mean," supplemented Ruth. "Well, anyhow, we have fine weather for the start." The schooner was well out from the dock now, and the pilot was in charge, so there was nothing for Captain Brisco to do for the present. He had gone to his cabin, and the stranger, or, rather, Hen Lacomb, to give him the name bestowed on him, was with the commander. "I wish I knew what they were talking about," said Alice, and, without intending to do so, she spoke aloud. "Who?" asked Ruth. "Really, you are saying the strangest things this morning, Sister mine!" "Oh, I was thinking--thinking----" Alice was rather at a loss for words to explain. "You must have some of your new roles on the brain," went on Ruth. "I know I've been doing a lot of thinking over mine. They are nearly all nice ones, I'm glad to say, but I don't like the parts we have to take in the shipwreck. Fancy having actually to jump into the water." That was one of the things required, according to the scenario. "There's no danger," Alice said, as she and her sister reached the stateroom they were to share. "Oh, but think of _sharks_ in those Southern waters!" "I'm not going to think of them," declared Alice. "Besides, we shall be in the water only a short time, and the motorboat will pick us up. It will be nice and warm." The plan of the shipwreck included the jumping overboard of some of the company, and their rescue in small boats, or by the motorboat _Ajax_, that would follow, with Russ in it taking the moving pictures of the "thrilling scenes." "Well, that doesn't come until toward the end," Ruth remarked, "so I'm not going to think about it until then. Now let's unpack." Ruth and Alice had comfortable, if rather restricted, quarters in a small cabin containing two bunks. Their father was near them, and the other members of the company had rooms scattered about. The ship's crew, of course, berthed forward, and the two mates, of whom Jack Jepson was one, were quartered with the captain. Alice wondered what would be the standing of Hen Lacomb. She learned a little later when she saw him taking his bag "aft." That meant he was to be treated as an officer. There is all the difference in the world on a sailing ship, whether a man bunks "forward" or "aft." In the latter case he is either an officer or a passenger, and in the former case he is classed as a member of the crew, a "foremast hand," and, as such, has no authority. "Hen Lacomb is evidently someone in power," decided Alice, though she said nothing to her sister or father, or even Jack. She managed to learn, by judicious questions, that Hen, as she began to think of him, was a friend of Captain Brisco, and a sort of passenger-helper on the _Mary Ellen_. And now that the voyage was really started, those who were to take part in the play began to consider their roles.