The _Zuyder Zee_, the name of the little steamer, was bound, to the boys' great joy, for Antwerp. She carried salt fish and herrings from Scotland and scented her entire vicinity with the aroma of her cargo. But the boys, as Bill expressed it, would have thought "a limburger cheese ship a paradise" after all they had gone through.
The next morning they steamed up the River Scheldt and came once more in sight of the towers and spires of the historic city which, it will be recalled, they had visited some time before on Jack's first voyage. Captain Van der Hagueen told them that after discharging his cargo he meant to lay up his ship, in which he was part owner, at Antwerp till the war was over. The risk of floating mines in the North Sea was too great to encounter, he declared.
It was in the earlier days of the war and Antwerp, a city strongly fortified, had not been threatened, although every preparation was being made to receive the enemy if they did come. Barricades were being thrown up in the streets and the suburbs, and the thoroughfares were full of the queerly uniformed Belgian soldiers the boys had been so much amused at on their previous visit. Their amusement at Belgian soldiers had given way, by now, however, to admiration and respect for the sturdy little country of fighters that had managed to give a good account of itself against the most formidable army ever assembled.
The boys decided to seek out their good friend M. La Farge, the Minister of Government Railroads, who, it will be recalled, they had served on their first visit, and whose appreciation in the form of two handsomely engraved and inscribed gold watches were at that moment in Jack's money belt, where he had luckily placed them for fear of robbery before they embarked on the _Barley Rig_. It was fortunate that he had done so, otherwise it is doubtful if they would have obtained access to his offices, where they found him overwhelmed with work. The sight of the watches, however, proved an "open sesame" to the Minister's presence, and the boys--who had in the meantime provided themselves with new outfits,--presently found themselves warmly shaking hands with their old friend who was unfeignedly glad to see them.