k
in a heap on one of the pilot-house cushions. He felt that the steam
yacht must have been struck and every nerve in his body tingled and
quivered. Only after a strong effort was he able to pull himself
together and clutch the wheel once more.

"Dick must have felt that," he murmured. "I wish--"

Another flash of lightning, but less vivid, interrupted his meditations.
He looked out of the front window towards where Dick had been standing.
Then he gave a cry of alarm.

His big brother had disappeared!

CHAPTER XX

A NIGHT OF ANXIETY

Had the lightning struck Dick and knocked him overboard?

Such was the terrifying question which Sam asked himself as he stared
out of the pilothouse window into the darkness before him. Another
flash of lightning lit up the scene and he made certain that his big
brother was nowhere in sight.

"Tom! Tom!" he yelled down the tube, frantically.

"What now, Sam?"

"Dick is gone--struck by lightning, I guess. Come up!"

At this alarming information Tom left the engine room at a bound and
came on deck almost as soon as it can be told. He met Sam running
toward the bow.

"Where was Dick?" he screamed, to make himself heard above the roaring
and shrieking of the wind.

"At the forward rail, on the lookout. He was standing there just
before that awful crash came, and I haven't seen him since."

No more was said by either, but holding fast to whatever came to
hand, the two Rovers worked their way forward until they reached the
rail where Dick had been standing. They now saw that the foretopmast
had come down, hitting the rail and breaking it loose for a distance
of several feet.

"The mast must have hit Dick and knocked him overboard," said Tom,
with a quiver in his voice.

"Oh, Tom!" Sam could say no more, but his heart sank.

The two boys stared around helplessly, not knowing what to do. Dick
was very dear to them and they could not bear to think that he was
lost, and forever.

Suddenly, as another flash of lightning lit up the scene, Sam caught
sight of something dark lying just a few feet away. He rushed over,
to see Dick lying in a heap, his head under his forearm.

"Dick! Dick!" he cried. "Are you killed?"

There was no answer, and now both Tom and Sam knelt beside their
brother and raised him up. His face was pale and the blood was flowing
from a cut over the left temple.

"The topmast hit him when it came down," said Tom. "Let us carry him
to the cabin."