“I hope nothing like that happens to us,” said Dick, with a shudder.  He was not thinking of himself, but of the three girls in the cabin.

“Well, lad, it aint goin’ to be no easy blow, I kin tell ye that,” responded Captain Jerry.

Soon the wind began to whistle shrilly through the air, and the sky became so black they could scarcely see a hundred yards in any direction, Then came some distant flashes of lightning and rolling thunder, and soon the patter of rain.

“Now we are going to catch it,” said Tom, and he was right.  Ten minutes later it was pouring in torrents, and the rain continued to keep coming down as if there was to be no end of it.

“Boys, aren’t you most drowned?” asked Nellie, peeping out of the cabin door.

“No, but you’ll be if you come out here,” called back Tom.

“We can’t stand up and we can’t sit still,” came from Grace.

“Sorry, but you’ll have to make the best of it,” answered Sam.

“Oh, we won’t mind, if only we reach shore in safety,” put in Dora, and then the door was closed again.

On and on swept the Old Glory, through the wind, the rain, and the darkness.  As there was no land near, Captain Jerry paid his whole attention to making the yacht ride easily, an almost impossible task in such a sea as was now raging.

Suddenly from somewhere out of the air came a humming sound.  It grew louder and louder, and the boys felt a strange suction of wind which made them hold tightly to the rail for fear of being pulled overboard by some uncanny force.  There followed a loud snap and a crash, and the mast began to come down.

“Look out for the mast!” screamed Captain Jerry, and all jumped just in the nick of time.  Down came the stick, to strike the rail and shatter it like a pipe stem, and then lay over the deck and over the waves beyond.

CHAPTER VI

ADRIFT ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN

“The mast has gone by the board!” screamed Dick, on rising to his feet.

“That stick will turn the yacht over!” gasped Tom.

Poor Sam could not speak, for a wave had struck him full in the mouth, and he had all he could do to keep from being washed overboard.

The girls in the cabin heard the crash above the roaring of the elements, and let up a scream of alarm.

“Are we going down?”

“Shall we come out on deck?”

“Stay where ye are!” shouted back Captain Jerry, clinging to the wheel with a grip of steel.  Then he turned to Dick:  “Can ye git an ax and clear away the wreck?”

“I’ll try it,” replied the eldest Rover, and he moved cautiously to where an ax rested in a holder.  Soon he had the article in hand, and was chopping away as fast as he could, while Tom, holding to the bottom of the mast with one hand, held Dick with the other.  Sam, in the meantime, cut away some.. cordage with a hatchet which was handy.