Came then this query: 

“What’s that about airship?”

“Never mind airship,” clicked Tom.  “Send help quickly!  Who are you?”

The answer flashed to him through space: 

“Steamship ‘CAMBARANIAN’ from Rio de Janeiro to new York.  Just caught your message.  Thought it A Fake.”

“No Fake,” Tom sent back.  “Help us quickly!  How soon can you come?”

There was a wait, and the wireless operator clicked to Tom that he had called the captain.  Then came the report: 

“We will be there within twenty-four hours.  Keep in communication with us.”

“You bet I will,” flashed back Tom, his heart beating joyously, and then he let out a great shout.  “We are saved!  We are saved!  My wireless message is answered!  A steamer is on her way to rescue us!”

He rushed from the shack, calling to the others.

“What’s that?” demanded Mr. Hosbrook.

Tom briefly told of how the message had come to him in the night.

“Tell them to hurry,” begged the rich yacht owner.  “Say that I will give twenty thousand dollars reward if we are taken off!”

“And I’ll do the same,” cried Mr. Jenks.  “I must get to the place where—­” Then he seemed to recollect himself, and stopped suddenly.  “Tell them to hurry,” he begged Tom.  The whole crowd of castaways, save the women, were gathered about the wireless shack.

“They’ll need to hurry,” spoke Mr. Parker, the gloomy scientist.  “The island may sink before morning!”

Mr. Hosbrook and the others glared at him, but he seemed to take delight in his prediction.

Suddenly the wireless instruments hummed.

“Another message,” whispered Tom.  He listened.

“The ‘CAMBARANIAN’ will rush here with all speed,” he announced, and not a heart there on that lonely and desolate island but sent up a prayer of thankfulness.

CHAPTER XXIV

“We are lost!”

There was little more sleep for any one that night.  They sat up, talking over the wonderful and unexpected outcome of Tom Swift’s wireless message, and speculating as to when the steamer would get there.

“Bless my pocket comb!  But I told you it would come out all right, if we left it to Tom!” declared Mr. Damon.

“But it hasn’t come out yet,” remarked the pessimistic scientist.  “The steamer may arrive too late.”

“You’re a cheerful sort of fellow to take on a yachting trip,” murmured Mr. Hosbrook, sarcastically.  “I’ll never invite you again, even if you are a great scientist.”