headway, Rob knew he could never expect
to reach home unless he could discover a better mode of conveyance than
this.

He unstrapped the machine from his wrist to examine it better, and
while holding it carelessly in his hand it slipped and fell with a bang
to the deck, striking upon its round edge and rolling quickly past the
cabin and out of sight. With a cry of alarm he ran after it, and after
much search found it lying against the bulwark near the edge of a
scupper hole, where the least jar of the ship would have sent it to the
bottom of the ocean. Rob hastily seized his treasure and upon
examining it found the fall had bulged the rim so that the old dents
scarcely showed at all. But its original shape was more distorted than
ever, and Rob feared he had utterly ruined its delicate mechanism.
Should this prove to be true, he might now consider himself a prisoner
of this piratical band, the members of which, although temporarily
disabled, would soon regain consciousness.

He sat in the bow, sadly thinking of his misfortunes, until he noticed
that one of the men began to stir. The effect of the electric shock
conveyed by the tube was beginning to wear away, and now the buccaneer
sat up, rubbed his head in a bewildered fashion and looked around him.
When he saw Rob he gave a shout of rage and drew his knife, but one
motion of the electric tube made him cringe and slip away to the cabin,
where he remained out of danger.

And now the other four sat up, groaning and muttering in their
outlandish speech; But they had no notion of facing Rob's tube a
second time, so one by one they joined their leader in the cabin,
leaving the boy undisturbed.

By this time the ship had begun to pitch and toss in an uncomfortable
fashion, and Rob noticed that the breeze had increased to a gale.
There being no one to look after the sails, the vessel was in grave
danger of capsizing or breaking her masts. The waves were now running
high, too, and Rob began to be worried.

Presently the captain of the pirates stuck his head out of the cabin
door, jabbered some unintelligible words and pointed to the sails. The
boy nodded, for he understood they wanted to attend to the rigging. So
the crew trooped forth, rather fearfully, and began to reef the sails
and put the ship into condition to weather the storm.

Rob paid no further attention to them. He looked at his traveling
machine rather doubtfully and wondered if he dared risk its po