un me
down, you'll pay for this yacht!"

There was a jangling sound of a bell on board the steamer, and the pilot
in the pilot house was seen to send his wheel spinning over with frantic
haste at the same moment that the headway of the steamer grew less.

"Will she clear us?" cried Hodge.

"She is bound to cut us in two!" shouted Diamond. "There isn't breeze
enough for us to get out of her way!"

"Vere vos der life breserfers?" squawked Hans. "I vant to got me onto a
life-breserfer a hurry in!"

The Dutch lad made a headlong leap for the companion way. At the head of
the steps he stubbed his toe and down he went head first.

It happened that Bruce Browning had heard the commotion on deck, and,
strange to relate, it had aroused him so that he was coming up.

Bruce had just started to go above when Hans came flying through the air
like a huge toad, struck him full and fair, and both went down in a heap
on the cabin floor.

"Dot seddles id!" yelled the frightened Dutch lad. "Der yocht vos
sunkin' und I vos a goner!"

"You blundering Dutch chump!" gasped Bruce, when he could catch his
breath. "What is the matter?"

"Didn't you toldt me der yocht vos sunkin'?" shrieked Hans. "Id haf run
ofer a pig sdeampoat! Uf you kept myseluf drownting from I vill haf to
got oudt und valk ashore!"

Browning managed to get himself together and rise to his feet. Then he
hurried up the companion way and reached the deck just in time to see
the huge white hull of a steamboat looming above the yacht.

But Merriwell's prompt action and steady nerve had saved the _White
Wings_, for the steamer, with motionless paddlewheels, was slipping
past, the yacht having cut square across her course.

It was a close shave, and a few white faces looked over the forward
starboard rail of the huge steamer.

"If you chaps knew your business you would be at anchor instead of
cruising round in this fog," called a hoarse voice from the steamer.

"If you knew your business you would blow your fog whistle while running
through a fog bank," returned Frank Merriwell, promptly.

"That's the stuff, Merry!" grated Hodge, whose face was still pale. "How
do you suppose they happened to do such a thing?"

"Probably that bank of fog is narrow, and they only ran into it a few
minutes ago. Perhaps they did not strike heavy fog till just before they
broke through and came into view."

"Well, it was a piece of reprehensible carelessness, and it's lucky the