Then, at last, Hans Dunnerwust came puffing and stumbling on deck, fairly loaded down with life-preservers. He fell at the head of the companion way, and the life-preservers flew all over the deck.
"Put me onto them kvick!" he squealed. "Uf I don'd haf a life breserfer on ven der yocht sinks you vos a goner!"
The boys laughed at his ludicrous appearance, and he sat up on the deck, staring around blankly.
"Vere dot sdeampoat vos?" he asked, in astonishment.
"Why, the steamer is a mile away by this time," said Hodge.
"If she had run into us, we'd been at the bottom long before this," laughed Frank. "You are too slow, Hans."
"Vale, I done your duty, anyhow," sturdily declared the Dutch boy. "You don'd got me to makin' no mistake in dot."
Then he was set to gathering up the life preservers and carrying them below again.
The encounter with the steamer and the desperate action of Parker Flynn furnished food for conversation on board the yacht. The boys talked it over and over, and it was the general opinion that the presence of Flynn and Snell in company on the steamer was not an accident.
"We'll see more of those fellows before long," prophesied Diamond. "And it strikes me that Flynn is more dangerous than Snell, for he is a desperate fellow. If he had shot anybody on this boat there was no way of making