hat he must have
been asleep, for it was early morning by the pale grey light which stole
in through the glass. The weather seemed to be worse, the yacht
pitching and tossing, and there was a dull, creaking, horrible sound
which kept on, but was smothered out at intervals by a tremendous bump,
which was always followed by a sound as if the vessel had sailed up the
rapids of Niagara river and then beneath the falls.

The confusion increased with the noise, and, holding on with one hand,
Jack pressed the other to his forehead as he stared straight before him
at a big tin box which appeared to his sleep-muddled brain to be walking
about the saloon table, when he opened the tiny state-room door.

Yes, there was no mistake about it; that box was alive, just as
frightened as he was by the fearful storm, and was trying to escape, for
all of a sudden, after edging its way to the end of the table, it made a
bound, leaped to the floor, and began to creep and jump toward the door
at the foot of the cabin stairs.

"What did it all mean?" thought Jack, and he tried hard to collect
himself. Yes, they came on board three or four days before, he was not
sure which. He remembered that. He had been frightfully ill, and oh,
so sick. He remembered that too. Then he recalled about preparing for
the worst last night, when the storm increased, and thinking as he lay
down in his berth, weak as a baby, that it was very grand to be able to
act as his father and Doctor Instow did, for they were perfectly
resigned, and he had seen them sitting down playing a game of chess with
a board full of holes into which the chess-men stuck like pegs.

Then in full force his brain seemed to assert itself. The worst had
come, and it was his duty to awaken his father and Doctor Instow, so
that they might all save themselves by taking to one of the boats or a
raft.

_Boomp! Splash. U-r-r-r-r_!

A wave striking the yacht's bows--the water deluging the deck.

A spasm of fear shot through him, and he made a dash to catch up his
yachting cap and pea-jacket with gilt anchor buttons which he had had on
the previous night; but as soon as he quitted his hold, he was literally
at sea, and the floor of his little state-room rising up, he seemed to
be pitched head-first into his berth as if diving, but he managed to
save himself from injury, and dropped on to the floor, crawled to his
jacket, slipped it on, and then out into the saloon, to see that the tin