not make any port except that of
my destination and that will be, if we have luck, in about six days from
to-night. I am sorry that you will have to remain with me against your
wishes, but you will admit that I am not responsible for your coming
aboard. In fact, if you will pardon the allusion to the little accident
back there, you are very lucky to be where you are and not tucked away
in Davy Jones' locker. I shall consider you my guests and you may have
the free run of the ship, but it will be impossible for you to leave it
until we reach port. Make the best of the situation, boys. It has been
forced on us both."

Harry jumped up impulsively, and held out his hand to the big man across
the table.

"Do not think we are ungrateful, sir. We know that we owe our lives to
you and that you risked yours to save us from drowning. But you forget
that we have folks ashore who will think we are drowned if we cannot get
some word to them."

The big skipper jumped to his feet, grasped Harry's outstretched hand
and shook it warmly.

"My boy," he said, "it is unfortunate and I regret it as much as you,
but it cannot be helped. If we pull through this voyage all right, you
will be able to get a message to your folks in the course of two weeks.
Now, it is pretty well into the night and I must go on deck for the last
watch, so you had better turn in."

As he spoke, the captain opened a door that led off the cabin and
disclosed a room as large as an ordinary stateroom with two berths on
each side.

"Here are four bunks. Turn in and sleep well. By the way, begin to feel
any little qualms at the stomach yet?"

The steamer, while like a house in comparison with the small boat in
which they had been tossed about, was still rolling and heaving in the
heavy seas with which she was battling. But the boys were all good
sailors and none of them felt anything like an attack of seasickness.

Harry, whose anxiety for the worry and pain which his absence would
cause those on shore, could not get off his mind the subject, and in a
persistent way returned to it like a terrier to a bone.

"Well, captain," he said, "admitting that for some reason which you do
not care to tell us, it is impossible for you to land until the end of
your voyage; will it not be possible to hail some passing vessel and
send a message back that we are safe and sound?"

The captain's face darkened, and a look such as the boys had not seen
there before, spread over