re lay revealed upon the shelf a long, dark
object. The ticking was louder now.

He touched the object gingerly, and found that it was held fast in place
by a wire which ran from a screw in the shelf to another screw in the
bulkhead above it, and was thus effectually prevented from moving with
the rolling of the ship. Some excelsior lay upon the shelf, which had
evidently been stuffed between the ticking object and the back row of
cans.

Something--Tom did not know just what, but some sudden
presentiment--prompted him to step quickly through the passage in order
to make sure that he had entered the right room. Then he discovered his
mistake.

The room he had entered was the store-room from which no supplies were
to be taken on the present trip.

He turned back and knelt again, the cans he had removed standing all
about him. One of them, which in his haste he had laid upon its side,
began to roll with the jarring of the vessel, and Tom shuddered with a
kind of panic fright at the sudden noise it made, and with trembling
hands he set the innocent can upright.

Tick, tick, tick, tick....

What did it mean? What should he do?

His next impulse was to run upstairs and report what he had discovered.
He did not dare to touch the thing again.

Then he realized that something--something terrible--might happen while
he was gone. Something might happen in five minutes--the next
minute--the next second!

Still kneeling, for strangely he could not bring himself to move, he
watched the thing in a sort of fascination.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick--it went, on its steady, grim journey
toward----

Toward what?

Still Tom did not budge.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick--it went; heedless, cheerful, like a
clock on a mantelpiece.

And still Tom Slade remained just where he was, stark-still and
trembling.

CHAPTER XVII

ONE OF THE BLOND BEAST'S WEAPONS

Then, of a sudden, Tom Slade, ship's boy, disappeared, and there in his
place was Tom Slade, scout; calm, undismayed--the same Tom Slade who had
looked about him, calm and resourceful, when he was lost in the great
woods, and who had kept his nerve when menaced by a savage beast.

He cautiously removed the encircling wire, lifted the object out with
both hands, finding it surprisingly heavy, and laid it carefully upon
the stationary table where cans were usually assorted and opened.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick--it went cheerfully along on its tragic