Page:The Boy Travellers in South America.djvu/30

 craft, and relieved the general anxiety with the information that she had sent a line to the land, and there was no danger to the lives of her people, whatever might be the risk to the property. " If anybody was in peril," said he, "I would do all I could to save him ; but when it comes to a mere question of ship and cargo, none of us care to take any risk, or even go out of our course for a minute. It is a serious matter to stop a great steamer like this, and, besides, it is a peril to her passengers and crew. We will save life always, and the property of our own company, but when it comes to the ships of other people, who would, quite likely,

refuse to pay anything for the service without a lawsuit, we mind our own business and keep on our way."

The correctness of his reasoning was apparent to all the listeners, and before the day was over the stranded ship was well-nigh forgotten. They passed the eastern end of Cuba, and then steered between that island and Jamaica. The sight of the palm-trees that fringed parts of the shores reminded the youths of their journeyings in Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, and increased their eagerness to be once more in tropical lands. In the Caribbean Sea they renewed their acquaintance with the