"Will—will you come below—to our stateroom—for a moment, Mr. Pandrick?" stammered Jessie. "There is something we want to show you. It is really something serious. Please come below at once."
WORK FOR ALL
The skipper looked rather queerly at the two excited girls, but he went below with them without further objection. In fact, Skipper Pandrick was a man of very few words: he proved this when Nell opened the stateroom door and he saw the smoke swirling about the apartment.
"I reckon you girls ain't been smoking in here," he said grimly. "Then I reckon that smoke comes from below."
"Is the ship really on fire?" gasped Jessie.
"Something's afire, sure as you're a foot high," said the skipper vigorously, and stormed out of the stateroom and out of the cabin.