Ned, rather reluctantly it must be confessed, followed the doctor into the cabin they had so lately quitted. The scientist began to gather up notebooks and papers and stuff them into his pockets.
“That won’t do!” cried Ned. “If you have to jump overboard they’ll get soaked!”
“But I’m not going to jump overboard!” was the calm reply, and it was to be noted that the doctor was now more calm than was Ned.
“You may have to,” was the grim response. “Haven’t you got a bit of oiled silk, or rubber, or something, you can wrap your papers in? That will protect them from the sea water.”
“Oiled silk? Oh yes, I have something like that,” the doctor decided, after thinking a moment. He produced an oilcloth bag, saying:
“I use this to cover my specimen boxes when I go out in the rain. Will this do?”
“It will have to!” exclaimed Ned, and he began stuffing into the receptacle the papers he gathered up from the various places where they were scattered about the doctor’s cabin. “Lively now!” cried the lad. “We may not have much time!”
“I must save all I can!” murmured the doctor. He gathered up book after book of notes, and as fast as he handed them to Ned the Motor Boy stuffed them into the water-proof bag.
“Everybody on deck!” shouted a voice outside the cabin door. “Everybody on deck! We’ve got to abandon ship! She’s leaking like a sieve!”