t!" came from Dora. "What will be the
end?"

"The Tacoma is sinking!" was the cry from out of the darkness.

"Are we really sinking?" gasped Nellie as she clutched Tom.

"Yes, we are," came from Sam. "Can't you feel the deck settling?"

They could, only too plainly, and in a minute more the water seemed
to be running all around them. The cries continued, but it was so
black they could see next to nothing.

What happened in the next few minutes the Rover boys could scarcely
tell, afterward. An effort was made to get out a life-boat, and it
disappeared almost as soon as it left the side, carrying some sailors
with it. Then some red-fire blazed up, lighting up the tragic scene,
and revealing a schooner standing close by the steamer. The sailing
vessel had her bowsprit broken and part of her forward rail torn away.

"If we must die, let us die together!" said Dick, and they kept together
as well as they could. Old Jerry was with them, and said he would do
all he could for them. He had already passed around life-preservers,
and these they put on with all possible speed.

Then followed a sudden plunge of the steamer and all found themselves
in the waves of the ocean. They went down together, each holding the
hand of somebody else. When they came up, Tom was close to a life-line
thrown from the sailing vessel and this he clutched madly.

"Haul us in!" he yelled. "Haul us in!" And the line was pulled in
with care, and after ten minutes of extreme peril the boys and the
girls and Captain Jerry found themselves on board of the sailing
vessel, which proved to be a large three-masted schooner.

All of our friends were so exhausted that they had to be carried to
the cabin and here Dora and Grace fainted away completely, while
Nellie was little better off. Tom had had his left arm bruised and
Dick was suffering from an ugly scratch on the forehead. It was fully
an hour before any of them felt like moving around.

In the meantime the two vessels had separated, and though red fire
was burned twice, after that, and rockets sent up, nothing more was
seen or heard of the Tacoma or those left on board.

"But I don't think she went down," said Captain Jerry. "She was too
well built for that." And he was right, as events proved. Much crippled
the steamer two days later entered Honolulu harbor, where she was
laid up for repairs.

Worn out completely by what they had passed through, the boys slept
heavily for the rest of the nigh