“It’s small fun on board of a ship in a storm,” said Sam. “Makes me feel like a chicken boxed up in a hen-house.”
“Really?” returned Darry, dryly. “Now I never was a chicken in a hen-house, so I don’t know how——” and then he broke off short and dodged, as Sam moved as if to throw a book at his head.
“It certainly is dead slow——” remarked Frank, when a sudden hissing stopped him. The hissing was followed by a roar as of an explosion and before they could realize it the cabin began to fill with steam.
“Gracious, the boiler must have burst!” ejaculated Mark.
“Boiler burst!” came from the others.
“We had better get out on deck, boys!” called Professor Strong. “Something is certainly very much wrong.”
He had scarcely spoken when there came another roar and worse hissing. A yell went up from some other passengers and immediately there was wild confusion on all sides.
“Oh, Professor, are we going down?” cried Hockley in terror, as he clutched Professor Strong’s arm.
“I hope not, Jacob,” was the reply. “Come, we will get to the deck and provide ourselves with life preservers.”
But to reach the deck through that cloud of steam was by no means easy. Hockley was frantic and began to yell for help. In the meantime Professor Strong and Frank reached a number of life preservers and passed some to the others. At last they found themselves outside on the wet and dark deck, wondering what was going to happen next.