“Then why doesn’t he show up?”
“Because he’s been hidden,” replied Bill.
“Oh, that’s too fantastic an idea,” cried Mullen.
“I know it sounds wild—almost crazy, in fact, but I simply cannot help feeling it.”
“I wish I could think the same way,” said Mullen, and the tone of his voice left no room to doubt that he meant what he said.
In the meantime, how was it with Jack? Confined in the stuffy cabin, lighted only by the smoky lamp, his head ached intolerably from the cruel blow that had been dealt him. In fact, it was not till the following morning that he felt himself again.
Neither of the men who had made him a prisoner came near the cabin in which he was confined, and although he tried shouting for aid till his throat was sore, nobody appeared to hear him. The boy began to be seriously alarmed over his predicament.
Radwig had told him in so many words, that neither he nor Schultz intended to return to the cabin. The water and bread left him would not suffice for more than a few hours. By the time the cabin was entered by some employee of the ship, it was entirely probable that the aid would come too late. Luckily for him, his mental anguish was not increased by knowledge of the story of his death by drowning that had circulated through the ship. Had he known of this, it is likely that, plucky as the lad was, he would have given way entirely to despair.
The cabin was an inside one, so that there was no porthole through which he could project his head and call for aid. Examination of the small chamber, even to the length of pulling up the carpet, showed that there was no means of escape short of forcing open the door and that Jack, strong as he was, was unable to accomplish, although he wore out his muscles trying it.
The hours passed by with dragging feet until it seemed to the boy that he must have been in the bolted cabin for years instead of hours. The lamp guttered and went out, leaving him plunged in pitchy darkness. It was the last straw. Jack flung himself on the bunk and buried his head in his hands. How long he lay thus he did not know, but he was aroused and his heart set suddenly in a wild flutter by the sound of approaching footsteps and voices.