He quickly recovered himself, and seeing his enemies were rendere. harmless, the boy entered the cabin and examined it curiously. It wa. dirty and ill-smelling enough, but the corners and spare berths wer. heaped with merchandise of all kinds which had been taken from thos. so unlucky as to have met these cruel and desperate men.
After a short inspection of the place he returned to the deck an. again seated himself in the bow.
The crippled condition of his traveling machine was now his chie. trouble, and although a good breeze had sprung up to fill the sail. and the little bark was making fair headway, Rob knew he could neve. expect to reach home unless he could discover a better mode o. conveyance than this.
He unstrapped the machine from his wrist to examine it better, an. while holding it carelessly in his hand it slipped and fell with . bang to the deck, striking upon its round edge and rolling quickl. past the cabin and out of sight. With a cry of alarm he ran after it. and after much search found it lying against the bulwark near the edg. of a scupper hole, where the least jar of the ship would have sent i. to the bottom of the ocean. Rob hastily seized his treasure and upo. examining it found the fall had bulged the rim so that the old dent. scarcely showed at all. But its original shape was more distorte. than ever, and Rob feared he had utterly ruined its delicat. mechanism. Should this prove to be true, he might now conside. himself a prisoner of this piratical band, the members of which. although temporarily disabled, would soon regain consciousness.
He sat in the bow, sadly thinking of his misfortunes, until he notice. that one of the men began to stir. The effect of the electric shoc. conveyed by the tube was beginning to wear away, and now the buccanee. sat up, rubbed his head in a bewildered fashion and looked around him.
When he saw Rob he gave a shout of rage and drew his knife, but on. motion of the electric tube made him cringe and slip away to th. cabin, where he remained out of danger.
And now the other four sat up, groaning and muttering in thei. outlandish speech. But they had no notion of facing Rob's tube . second time, so one by one they joined their leader in the cabin. leaving the boy undisturbed.
By this time the ship had begun to pitch and toss in an uncomfortabl. fashion, and Rob noticed that the breeze had increased to a gale.
There being no one to look after the sails, the vessel was in grav. danger of capsizing or breaking her masts. The waves were now runnin. high, too, and Rob began to be worried.
Presently the captain of the pirates stuck his head out of the cabi. door, jabbered some unintelligible words and pointed to the sails.
The boy nodded, for he understood they wanted to attend to th. rigging. So the crew trooped forth, rather fearfully, and began t. reef the sails and put the ship into condition to weather the storm.
Rob paid no further attention to them. He looked at his travelin. machine rather doubtfully and wondered if he dared risk its power t. carry him through the air. Whether he remained in the ship or truste. to the machine, he stood a good chance of dropping into the sea at an. moment. So, while he hesitated, he attached the machine to his wris. and leaned over the bulwarks to watch the progress of the storm. H. might stay in the ship until it foundered, he thought, and then tak. his chances with the machine. He decided to wait until a climax arrived.
The climax came the next moment, for while he leaned over the bulwark. the buccaneers stole up behind him and suddenly seized him in thei. grasp. While two of them held his arms the others searched hi. pockets, taking from him the electric tube and the silver bo. containing his tablets. These they carried to the cabin and threw upo. the heap of other valuables they had stolen. They did not notice hi. traveling machine, however, but seeing him now unarmed they bega. jeering and laughing at him, while the brutal captain relieved hi. anger by giving the prisoner several malicious kicks.
Rob bore his misfortune meekly, although he was almost ready to cr. with grief and disappointment. But when one of the pirates, t. inflict further punishment on the boy, came towards him with a heav. strap, he resolved not to await the blow.
