It did not take him and the officer long to move the box away from its proximity to the fire, for the case was not heavy, though it was of good size, and then the officer having called up an order to some of his fellow seamen on deck, a rope was let down, and the box hoisted up.

“Whew!  That was a narrow escape!” exclaimed Tom as he saw his case go up on deck.  “I suppose I shouldn’t have had that stored here.  But there were so many things to think of that I forgot.”

“Yes, it was a risk,” commented the officer.  “But what are you going to do with that sort of stuff, anyhow?”

“I may need it when we get among the wild tribes of South American Indians,” answered Tom non-commitally.  “I’m much obliged for your help.”

“Oh, that’s nothing.  Anything to save the ship.”

At that moment there were confused cries, and a series of shouts and commands up on deck.

“We’d better hurry out of here,” said the officer.

“Why?”

“The captain has just ordered steam turned in here.  I hope there isn’t anything of yours that will be damaged by it.”

“No, everything else is in waterproof coverings.  Come on, we’ll climb out.”

They hurried from the compartment and, a little later clouds of quenching steam were poured in from a hose run from the boiler room.  The hatch was battened down, and then the smoke ceased to come up.

“The danger is practically over,” the captain assured the frightened passengers.  “The fire will be all out by morning.  You may go to your staterooms in perfect safety.”

Some did, and others, disbelieving, hung around the hatch-cover, sniffing and peering to discover traces of smoke.  But the sailors had done their work well, and a stranger would not have known that a fire was in the hold.

The captain had spoken truly, and in the morning the fire was completely out, a few charred bales of cotton being the only things damaged.  They were hauled up and dumped into the sea, while Tom, making a hasty inspection of his other goods placed in that compartment saw, to his relief, that beyond one case of trinkets, designed for barter with the natives, nothing had been damaged, and even the trinkets could be used on a pinch.

“But what was in that box?” asked Ned, that night as they got ready to retire, the excitement having calmed down.

“Hush!  Not so loud,” cautioned Tom, for Mr. Damon was in the next stateroom, while Eradicate had one across the corridor.  “I’ll tell you, Ned, but don’t breathe a word of it to Rad or Mr. Damon.  They might not intend to give it away, but I’m afraid they would, if they knew, and I depend on the things in that box to give the native giants the surprise of their lives in case we—­well, in case we come to close quarters.”

“Close quarters?”

“Yes, have a fight, you know, or in case they get so fond of us that they won’t hear of letting us go—­in other words if they make us captives.”