Part 36 (1/2)

”Shut up!” muttered Sack Todd. ”The dose won't kill him.”

”Reckon they are all laid out,” was Gasper Pold's comment, as he peered down the hatchway. ”I'll go down and make sure.” And he pa.s.sed down the iron ladder, pistol in hand.

”How about it?” came from the mate of the _Dogstar_.

”Stiff as corpses,” was the brutal answer. ”I tell you, that dope did the business.”

”Are any of them dead?” asked Dan Baxter, hoa.r.s.ely.

”I don't think so,” was the careless answer. ”No, they are all breathing,” went on Pold.

Sack Todd came down, followed by the mate of the _Dogstar_, and all gazed coldly at the four youths lying on the hard floor around the machinery. Dan Baxter remained at the top of the ladder, shaking as if with the palsy.

”How long do you calculate they'll remain in this condition?” asked Todd, turning to Pold.

”Ten or twelve hours at least,” was the answer. ”And maybe they won't get over it for twenty-four.”

”Any bad effects?”

”Well, sometimes that dope paralyzes a man's tongue for six months or a year.”

”Phew! That's pretty rough.”

”Once in a great while the paralysis doesn't go away at all.”

”In that case, these boys will have it in for you,--if they ever get their hands on you,” said Sid Jeffers, with a wicked leer.

The men talked among themselves for several minutes and then agreed to take the boys up on deck and place them in two of the staterooms off the cabin.

”They'll have to have more air than here,” said Gasper Pold. ”Otherwise they'll surely die on our hands.”

Dan Baxter was called on to a.s.sist, and did so with his knees fairly shaking together. He thought that our friends had surely drank of the dosed water and were in a stupor next to death.

”And if they die, they'll say I was as guilty as the rest!” he groaned to himself. ”Oh, I wish I was out of this!”

It was no easy matter to get the three Rovers and Hans on deck and to the staterooms. Here our friends were placed two on a berth, and, for the time being, left to themselves.

”Boys, we have had a narrow escape,” whispered d.i.c.k, when he at last thought it safe to speak.

”That's the truth,” came from Sam. ”And we have Dan Baxter to thank for it!” he added. ”I can't understand that part of it.”

”I think I can,” answered Tom. ”Baxter is bad enough, but he didn't go in for poisoning us. I am glad to know he isn't quite so heartless as that.”

”Dem fellers ought to be all hung, ain't it!” was Hans' comment.

”The question is, What are we to do next?” asked Tom.

”That question is not so easily answered,” returned his elder brother.

”I know what I should like to do.”