CHAPTER XIX. THE STORM.

As Ned had foreseen, a storm was brewing. It was one of those sudden summer storms that come up almost without warning and rage furiously over the Sound. The big thunder heads rolled up rapidly till the entire sky was overcast.

Saki was sitting on the stern seat. Ned, with a gleam of satisfaction, saw that the Jap looked frightened. Indeed the weather promised to be bad enough to alarm even an experienced sailor, which Saki surely was not.

Under the dark clouds the sky was shot with an angry, lurid, copper color. The sea had turned leaden and began to heave suddenly. Still Kenworth, driven by his hatred of Ned, kept on.

It appeared that he hardly cared what became[Pg 152] of himself or his companion, so that he could have his revenge upon Ned. As a matter of fact, Kenworth by no means liked the looks of the weather himself. But it would have been unsafe to remain ashore with Ned, as neither the midshipman nor Saki knew with whom he had been conversing during his brief liberty. For all they could tell, although it did not appear probable, an ambush might have been laid for them. Therefore, they had decided to cruise about till it grew dark.

Ned, for his part, determined to say nothing more. He sat on a midship seat, the handcuffs on his wrists, watching the coming storm.

The wind began to moan in an eerie sort of way. It sounded like the actual voice of the coming tempest. The sea began to whip up into white caps. Suddenly the black storm curtain was ripped and rent from top to bottom by a jagged streak of livid lightning.

Saki turned a sort of pasty green. His knees[Pg 153] almost knocked together. The motor boat was a narrow-waisted, wasp-like craft, and did not appear to be suited for heavy weather.

"Maybe so we better go back," suggested the Jap in a shaky voice. He glanced apprehensively at the mighty canopy of the storm overhead.

Kenworth turned on him almost savagely.

"We'll go back when I get good and ready," he said. "I want to see how much this white-livered braggart can stand. Yes, I mean you, Strong."

There was a sweeping blast of wind. It was followed by a blinding flash and then a roar like the rumble of a million celestial chariot wheels. The Jap hid his face while the lightning seared and streaked the sky as if an egg had been spattered to smithereens on a blackboard. The very air smelled sulphurous.

"I—I guess we'll go back," said Kenworth.

Just then a wave struck the side of the bow and reared its white crest high above the tossing[Pg 154] craft. Saki sprang to his feet as the salt water came dousing down in a regular cloudburst. It drenched Kenworth to the skin and tore from the Jap a frightened shout.

"Hope you like it," grinned Ned, the only collected person on the boat. The dark frenzy of Kenworth's mad passion had passed and now he saw with panic-stricken eyes the danger they were in. The wind was howling furiously and the waves were piling up on every side. It seemed impossible that the lightly built craft could live much longer in the tumult of waters.

Saki was in a panic of fear. Crouched on the bottom of the boat, his yellow face looked, in the glare of the almost incessant lightning, like some hideous war-mask of the old Samurai.

Ned gazed about him. The outlook was bad, very bad. And then there were those handcuffs. If only he could get them off. He addressed the terrified Saki.
"You drop that wheel, and we'll all go to Davy Jones!" shouted Ned.—Page 155

[Pg 155]

"Here, you, take these handcuffs off. At once, do you hear me?"

He felt no fear of the groveling wretch at his feet. He even emphasized his remarks by a threatening gesture of his foot.

"Oh! Oh! Honorable Saki much frightened!" wailed the Jap.

"You contemptible yellow cur," snapped Ned, "brace up! Do you hear me? Come now, quick, the key."

The Jap actually managed to struggle to his feet and produce the key. Kenworth saw what he was doing.

"Stop that!" he yelled, and began to let go of the wheel. A shout from Ned brought him to his senses.

"You drop that wheel, and we'll all go to Davy Jones!" shouted Ned.

Kenworth gripped the spokes again. If ever fear was written on a face, it was on his. The thought of the death that was so near paralyzed[Pg 156] him. Perhaps he thought of that other storm off the Cuban coast when Ned had brought them safely aboard through a wilder sea than this.

The Jap's teeth chattered as he unfastened the handcuffs and Ned jerked his hands free.

"Now hand over that gun. Quick, now," snapped out Ned.

The Jap was so terrified that he would have done anything he was told. With hands that shook, he handed over the pistol. Ned took possession of it with grim satisfaction.

The chance that he had hoped against hope might come had arrived. He was on even terms with his foes. But would that fact do him any good? The storm was raging so furiously that Ned, with all his optimism, could not hope that the motor craft would live through it.

The only thing to be done, as he saw it, was to run for the lee of a point of land some distance off. If they could reach this in safety, they might have a chance. If not, and the storm[Pg 157] continued to increase in violence, there was hardly one chance in a thousand for them.

The angry lightning hissed and crackled and the thunder boomed with ear-splitting clamor as Ned made his way forward to Kenworth's side. When he arrived there, he seized the other by the shoulder and shouted in his ear.

"Steer for that point yonder! It's the only chance we've got."

Kenworth, in his fear forgetting everything but the instinct of self-preservation, obediently headed the storm-stressed craft around.

It was at that moment that another sea broke upon the little vessel.

There was a sputter and a series of coughs from the engine, and simultaneously the motor, upon which all depended, went dead.