In early evening the Princess Mary entered the Gulf of Ægina, and Captain Foster laid his course directly for the Corinth Canal. Before they arrived at that cut, however, night had closed down. The boys remained on deck to get what impression they might of the country, but after the ship had traversed the canal, and entered the Gulf of Corinth, nothing whatever could be distinguished on either side. When the boys woke rather late the next morning the Princess Mary was passing between the island of Corfu and the mainland. “What a measly shame!” exclaimed Raymond, when he learned where they were; “here we’ve gone right through the middle of Greece, and we haven’t been able to see one foot of it.” “Well,” said Sidney, “if we could be set down in New York now, I’d give up all chance of seeing any more foreign countries this trip.” All that day and all night the Princess Mary steamed steadily northward. At daylight on the following day the ship was far up the Adriatic, opposite the coast of Austria. When the boys went up on deck they found Captain Foster standing in the bow gazing intently out over the water. “I know I’m silly,” he said when the boys approached, “but I feel like watching every minute for mines, though if they were thick all around us, I shouldn’t know it unless the Princess Mary struck one.” “It seems to me,” said Sidney, “that mining the sea is a barbarous way to make war.” “Yes; but making war any way you please is all of a piece.” “Do you think there is really much danger, captain, that we shall strike a mine?” asked Raymond. “It would seem like being pricked by a needle in a haystack.” “I don’t know how great the danger is,” replied the captain, “but a good many ships have struck mines and been sunk in the North Sea. I have been thinking that you boys ought to know where the life-preservers are, in case anything does happen. I don’t think there are any in your room, but there are some in the main cabin, underneath the couch. You see the Princess Mary never carries passengers, and we haven’t paid much attention to life-preservers. You’d better get out a couple and bring them up on deck, then you can get into them in a jiffy.” “Aren’t you going to get one for yourself, captain?” asked Raymond. “No, I think not. If I had one ready I’d be afraid it would have to be used, and if I don’t get it maybe I shan’t need it. But you boys get them; that will be all right.” The boys hunted out the life-preservers and took two of them up on deck, placing them by the side of the companionway, where they would be easy to grasp in case of necessity. Then the cook announced breakfast and they went down to the cabin with Captain Foster.