"Sam, are you all right?" asked Dick and Tom, in a breath.
"Oh, yes, after a fashion," answered the youngest Rover. "But they handled me pretty; roughly."
"And you, Hans?"
"I dink I vos peen putty vell hammered alretty. Py chimanatics! I vish I could drow dem all oferpoard, ain't it!"
"We are in a box, in more ways than one," said Tom.
"What did they do to you?" questioned Dick, and then Sam and Hans told their stories, adding that they had been taken from the staterooms but a few minutes before, brought on deck, unbound and ungagged, and sent down the iron ladder as already mentioned.
"I was afraid first they were going to throw us overboard," said Sam. "I think Sack Todd is equal to it, and that Gasper Pold is about as bad."
The four youths talked the situation over for a good hour, but could reach no satisfactory conclusion. They did not wish to submit to the others and yet they realized that they were "in a box" as Tom said.
"I know one thing—I want a drink of water," said Sam. "I am as dry as a salt fish."
"Yah, I vont me a trink, too," added Hans.
"Well, you'll have to go without," answered
