And now the other four sat up, groaning and muttering in their
outlandish speech; But they had no notion of facing Rob's tube a
second time, so one by one they joined their leader in the cabin,
leaving the boy undisturbed.
By this time the ship had begun to pitch and toss in an uncomfortable
fashion, and Rob noticed that the breeze had increased to a gale.
There being no one to look after the sails, the vessel was in grave
danger of capsizing or breaking her masts. The waves were now running
high, too, and Rob began to be worried.
Presently the captain of the pirates stuck his head out of the cabin
door, jabbered some unintelligible words and pointed to the sails.
The boy nodded, for he understood they wanted to attend to the
rigging. So the crew trooped forth, rather fearfully, and began to
reef the sails and put the ship into condition to weather the storm.
Rob paid no further attention to them. He looked at his traveling
machine rather doubtfully and wondered if he dared risk its power to
carry him through the air. Whether he remained in the ship or trusted
to the machine, he stood a good chance of dropping into the sea at any
moment.
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