The Rover Boys in Southern Waters Part 36

"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."

"What, d.i.c.k?" asked Sam.

"I'd like to make all of the gang prisoners."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Tom, in a low voice. "But can it be done?"

"I don't know. For the present let us play 'possum and find out."

"Vot kind of a game vos dot possum?" asked Hans innocently. "I ton't d.i.n.k we got dime to play some games," he added, seriously.

"d.i.c.k means to lay low," explained Sam.

"Vot, lay under der peds?"

"No, keep quiet and watch out."

"Oh! All right, I done me dot kvick enough," said Hans, and fell back on the berth and shut his eyes.

"You fellows keep quiet while I investigate," said the eldest Rover.

"It is so late some of the crowd may have gone to sleep. If so, we may have a chance to capture the others first."

So it was arranged, and making certain that his pistol was still in his pocket, d.i.c.k slid from the berth, tiptoed his way to the stateroom door, and, opening it slowly and cautiously, peered out.

One look into the cabin of the _Mermaid_ told him the apartment was empty. There were two more staterooms, connected, as were those the boys were occupying. With a heart that beat rather violently, d.i.c.k stepped to the door of one of these staterooms. From within came a deep and regular snoring.

"Somebody is asleep in there," he mused. "Who can it be?"

With great care he peered into the room. On the berth rested one of the sailors from the _Dogstar_ and on the floor rested the other, both evidently much the worse for liquor.

The door to the second stateroom was wide open and d.i.c.k caught sight of a form on the berth in there. It was Dan Baxter. The bully was not asleep but was tossing about, as if in either mental or physical distress. As d.i.c.k looked at him he suddenly started up, turned around, and stared.

"d.i.c.k Rover!" he screamed. "Are you alive, or is it a--a ghost?"

CHAPTER XXVI

TURNING THE TABLES

"Be quiet, Baxter," said d.i.c.k, softly but firmly. "Don't you dare to make another sound."

"I--I thought you were--were--asleep," faltered the former bully of Putnam Hall. "That you--"

"That he had drank the poisoned water, eh?"

"Ye--es."

"We did not. We took your advice and left it alone."