s to "turn in," and go to sleep.

Laddie, who with Russ and his father shared a room together, was looking
from the window of the stateroom, out into the dark night, when he
suddenly cried out:

"Oh, there's going to be a big thunder storm! I just saw the flash of
lightning!"

"Are you sure it was lightning?" asked Mr. Bunker with a smile. "I
didn't hear any thunder."

"There it is again!" cried Laddie, and this time a ray of bright, white
light shone in the window, full in Laddie's face.

CHAPTER IV

A MIX-UP

"That isn't lightning," said Russ, who had come to the window of the
stateroom to stand beside his brother and look out.

"'Tis, too!" insisted Laddie, as another flash came. "It's lightning,
and maybe it'll set our boat on fire, and then we can't go to Cousin
Tom's an' dig for gold! So there!"

Mr. Bunker, who was opening a valise in one corner of the room, getting
out the boys' pajamas for the night, had not seen the light shining in
the window, but had seen the glare of it on the wall.

"'Tisn't lightning at all!" declared Russ again.

"How do you know it isn't?" asked Laddie.

"'Cause lightning flashes are a different color," said Russ. "And,
besides, they don't stay still so long. Look, Daddy, this one is
peeping right in our window like a light from Aunt Jo's automobile!"

Mr. Bunker turned in time to see the bright flash of light come in
through the window, and then it seemed to stay in the room, making it
much brighter than the light from the electric lamps on the wall.

"Of course that isn't lightning!" said Mr. Bunker. "That's a
search-light from some ship. Come on out on deck, boys, and we'll see
it."

The bright glare was still in the room, but it did not flare up as
lightning would have done, and there were no loud claps of thunder.

"Well, if it isn't a storm I'll come out on deck and look," Laddie said.
"But if it rains I'm coming in!"

"It won't," said Daddy Bunker with a laugh. "We'll go out for a few
minutes, and then we'll come in and go to bed. To-morrow we'll be at
Cousin Tom's."

Out on the deck of the big Fall River boat they went, and, surely
enough, the light did come from the search-lantern of a big ship not
far away. It was a United States warship, the boys' father told them,
and it was probably kept near Newport, where there is a station at which
young sailors are trained. The warship flashed the light all about the
water, lighting up other boats.

"I