ce asked in a curiously strained voice.

"I mean that this is an old vessel, 'made over,' as we would say of a
dress, Alice, it can't be as good and strong as a new one would be, and
in a storm----"

"Oh, don't be nervous!" broke in Alice. "Here, I'll ask Mr. Blake," and
she stopped the first mate who was hurrying to and fro directing the men
at their work of making everything snug below and aloft.

"Isn't she safe, Mr. Blake?" Alice appealed.

"Who?" the first mate wanted to know.

"This ship."

"I--I think so," he said. "Yes, surely," he added quickly. "We will ride
out the storm, never fear. It hasn't gotten here yet, and we may only
get the outer edge of it. But you must excuse me now," and he hastened
along the deck.

"There!" cried Alice. "What did I tell you?" she asked triumphantly.

"Well, I'll stay here with you a little while," Ruth agreed. "Then I'm
going below and----"

"Bundle up all your possessions and sit on a life preserver," broke in
Alice with a laugh. "Oh, Ruth, you are--hopeless!"

"Yes, but look at that!" and the older sister pointed to the west. There
had been a rapid change. There was more yellow in the clouds now and
less blackness, though there was enough of that ominous color too.
"Doesn't it scare you, Alice?"

"Not so much, no. Of course I've never been in a bad storm down here,
and I don't know what they do to one. But I think we'll weather it, as
the sailors say. But I wonder what Mr. Pertell is doing?"

She motioned to the manager who was seen amidships, talking to Russ, the
chief camera operator. They were near the big motorboat _Ajax_, which
still rested in the cradle on deck.

Mr. DeVere was also in conversation with the manager and his chief
helper.

"Let's go over and see what it is," suggested Alice. "Maybe they are
frightened too."

"I wouldn't blame them," murmured Ruth, with a nervous glance over her
shoulder at the oncoming storm.

The two girls joined their father and the others. Pop Snooks, the
property man, who could make almost anything from a brick wall to a
king's palace, on short notice, was called into the consultation.

"I'm sure they're going to do something!" Alice exclaimed, as she
noticed Mr. Pertell beckon Captain Brisco to him. And when the girls
reached the group they learned what was afoot.

"Why yes, you'd have time for some pictures before the storm gets here,"
Captain Brisco was saying. "It's evidently going to be slow in
breaking."