CHAPTER XX
A NIGHT OF ANXIETY
Had the lightning struck Dick and knocked him overboard?
Such was the terrifying question which Sam asked himself as he stared out of the pilot-house window into the darkness before him. Another flash of lightning lit up the scene and he made certain that his big brother was nowhere in sight.
"Tom! Tom!" he yelled down the tube, frantically,
"What now, Sam?"
"Dick is gone—struck by lightning, I guess. Come up!"
At this alarming information Tom left the engine room at a bound and came on deck almost as soon as it can be told. He met Sam running toward the bow.
"Where was Dick?" he screamed, to make himself heard above the roaring and shrieking of the wind.
"At the forward rail, on the lookout. He was standing there just before that awful crash came, and I haven't seen him since."
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