oisoned!" shrieked Dan Baxter, and his face grew as white as
a sheet.

"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 passed
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, hoarsely.

"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 assist, 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 Dick, 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