e."

"Can anyone think," suggested Jack, "of any possible place in which
we have not yet looked for that wrench?"

"I'm--too--tired to--think," drowsed Hal.

His voice startled the others. Now, that they came to examine their
own conditions a bit more keenly, they began to understand that they,
too, were fast sinking into a drowsy state.

Was the coming end, too, to be painless?

"There's no use looking," replied Jacob Farnum, in answer to Jack's
question. "There isn't a single place left to explore. We--"

Whether Mr. Farnum thus broke off because he had lost his thought,
or whether he dreaded to say the omitted words, none of the others
even troubled to guess.

Bill Henderson started in to sing. There were a few angry gasps of
protest until the others slowly realized that the air sounded like
that of some hymn. The words, however, were in a foreign tongue,
picked up in the course of the seaman's wanderings over the world.

Then their resentment softened. If Bill preferred to meet the end with
a hymn on his lips, perhaps that was the best thing for all of them.

It crept over them, now, that they felt choking sensations, with pain
and buzzing in their ears. Then the end must be near. Unconsciousness,
at any rate. That loss of the senses would be the end, so far as any
of them could know.

"Now, give thanks with your last real thoughts," cried Bill, hoarsely.
"Gentlemen--this is--glorious! We're going fast! The
last--croak--is upon us! Good--bye!"

CHAPTER XIX

JACK STRIKES THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY

"Down below! Down, down, down!" croaked Bill Henderson.

He pointed below, with one forefinger, laughing wildly. The others,
sure that the seaman had lost his mind under the crushing force of the
catastrophe, felt pity for him, though the man's actions and words also
helped to increase their own terror.

To cap the climax Henderson got painfully to his feet and tried to dance
a jig. That was carrying things too far in the then state of mind of
the rest of the company.

"Henderson, confound you," cried Captain Jack, half savagely, as he
rose, "keep quiet and sit down! Act like a man. You--"

To emphasize his order the young captain pushed against the seaman's
breast, intent on shoving him into a seat. Just as he did so, Captain
Jack paused aghast, for an instant. Then he shouted hoarsely:

"Friends, _I've found the wrench!_"

That brought them all to their feet, while Bill Hend