Tim's eyes slowly opened, and the color came back into his pale cheeks. They had taken off his heavy oilskins, which he wore when found in the after compartment. He looked around on the kind faces of Dick and his chums, who were crowded about the stateroom door. "I'm still here--am I?" asked Tim, faintly. "Yes, and we're glad to see you," spoke Dick. "We thought sure you had gone to pay Davy Jones a visit, as Widdy would say. But whatever in the world possessed you to do it, Tim? Were you in there all the while?" "I guess so," answered the newsboy, while a spasm of pain shot over his face, as a lurch of the ship wrenched him in his berth. "Something's the matter with my ankle," he went on. "Bad sprain," said Captain Barton, briefly. "That, and the knock you got on the head, made you insensible. You had a bad time of it. There's a lump on your head as big as a coil of rope." "How did you come to go in there?" inquired Dick. "Just to see what was there," replied Tim, with a faint smile. "I heard the engineer talking about the shaft tunnel, and the thrust block, and the propeller, and I wanted to see what they looked like. So I crawled in----" "You couldn't see the propeller from inside the yacht," broke in Paul. "The screw is outside." "I know that, now," went on Tim. "But I wanted to see what _was_ in there. There wasn't anything else to do, and as the storm kept us all below decks, I thought I'd do a little exploring. I put on my oilskins, to keep my clothes clean, and crawled in the back part of the yacht. I found the shaft, and saw it going around, and then I must have slipped on some oil, or something, and fallen. Anyhow, it all got black, and I didn't know anything for a long time. Then I woke up, and felt a terrible pain in my leg and head. I tried to move, and crawl out, but I couldn't. I called, but no one answered." "The noise of the storm was too loud," suggested Henry. "Maybe," assented Tim. "Then I must have fainted again, and, when I got conscious once more, I yelled louder. Then I heard some one running away----" "That was me," confessed Widdy. "I thought you was a mermaid." "I wish I had been one," replied Tim, with a rueful smile. "Then I'd have known better than to crawl in where I did. But I kept on calling, though I was getting weaker, and then----" "Then we came," finished Dick. "Now, don't think any more about it. We'll doctor you and feed you up, and--well, don't go in there again." "Don't worry--I won't," promised Tim, and then he took some quieting medicine which the captain mixed for him. They left him to sleep off the effects of his ordeal, and the boys gathered in the main cabin, for a sort of impromptu thanksgiving meeting. The atmosphere of gloom had been dispelled, and they were all happy again, for the thought of one of the members of the yachting party being drowned would have spoiled the whole outing.