Phil had come, in this time of stress, to live mainly within himself. He was too much absorbed with his responsibilities to be able to put them aside, or even to treat them lightly. “I’m ‘IT,’ and so I’m responsible,” he had said to Ed, “and I must think. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to talk, and sometimes I’m too tired to talk. I must just give orders without explaining them. You explain it all to the other fellows, and don’t let them misunderstand. I don’t like the job of commanding, even a little bit. But you fellows set me at it, and I accepted the responsibility. I’ll bear it to the end, but--” “We all understand, Phil,” said Irv Strong, who had joined the brothers. “Your crew was never better satisfied with its captain than it is to-day. But it will be still more loyal to-morrow and next day, and every other day till the voyage is ended.” Then in lighter vein--for Irv never liked to be serious for long at a time--he added: “Why, I wouldn’t even whisper if you told me not to, and you remember Mrs. Dupont posted me first, and you next, as irreclaimable whisperers.” But to return to the night in question. When Phil was waked he took a lantern and made a minute inspection of the boat, inside and outside. Then he dropped into a skiff and rowed away to examine the moorings critically. On his return he said to his comrades:-- “The boat is leaking a good deal more than I like. The strain she received back there, yesterday or the day before, or a thousand years ago--I’m sure I don’t remember when it was--is beginning to tell upon her. One pump is no longer quite enough to keep the water in the bilge. We must keep both going--not quite all the time, of course, and not very violently, but pretty steadily. So that’s the order for to-night. Two fellows on watch all the time, and both pumps to be kept going most of the time. I’ll sleep till two o’clock. Then wake me, and I’ll take my turn at a pump.” The boys would have liked to exempt him from that duty. But his tone did not invite question or protest of any kind. It did not admit even of argument. It was a command--and Phil was commander. CHAPTER XXVII A STRUGGLE IN THE DARK But Phil was up long before the hour appointed. It was not yet midnight when he got out of his bunk to get a drink of water. As he did so he stepped into water half way up to his knees. He instantly aroused his companions. “The boat is sinking,” was his explanation. “Get to the pumps quick.” Then lighting a lantern he made a thorough search of the hold in the hope of finding and stopping the leaks, but it was without avail. With two boys at each pump the water could be kept down. That fact was established by an hour’s hard work. “But we can’t keep up that sort of thing,” said Phil. “We must stop the leaks or abandon the boat.” He thought for a while. Then he said to Ed:--