In a minute more Dick started to carry the searchlight to the deck. He had turned off the light proper, consequently the way to the companionway was rather dark. He had almost reached the top of the steps when Sam heard a scream, saw a flash of fire, and then Dick came tumbling to the cabin floor in a heap, with the battery and light beside him. "My gracious, he's been shocked!" burst out the youngest Rover; and, forgetting all about his burn, ran to his brother's assistance. "What's that noise?" came from the deck. "Dick's been shocked by the searchlight!" cried Sam. "Come down here, somebody, and let us see what we can do for him." "Shocked, is it!" cried Sergeant Brown. "If that's the case, look out that somebody else don't catch it." Tom came tumbling down, followed by both police officers, and Dick was picked up and deposited on the couch. Then Sam kicked the searchlight and batteries into a corner. "They can stay there for all I care," said he. "They are too dangerous, unless, a chap knows just how to handle them." Dick lay with his eyes wide open, but unable to move. Tom bent down and announced that his heart was still beating. But little in the way of restoratives were at hand, and the most they could do was to rub the youth's body in an attempt to restore the circulation. "Oh, I hope he isn't permanently injured!" cried Tom. "If he should turn out a cripple it would be awful!" "That's so," answered Sam. "Poor Dick! He's as bad off as if those rascals had shot him." Slowly Dick came to his senses. But he was very weak, and soon he discovered that he was powerless to move his left arm. "It's all numb," he announced. "It feels as if it was dead." "Let me shake it for you," said Tom, and both brothers went to work, but with small success. The arm hung down as limp as a rag, and the left leg was nearly as badly off, although Dick said he could feel a slight sensation in it, like so many needles sticking him. "You see, I've been afraid of that battery right along," said Martin Harris. "The professor got shocked once, and he limped around for a long while after." "But he got over it at last, didn't he?" questioned Tom eagerly. "I can't say about that. He went off, and I haven't seen him since," was the unsatisfactory reply. The injuries to Dick and to Sam had somewhat dampened Tom's ardor, and he wondered what they had best do next, and spoke to the police officers about it. "I don't know of anything but to turn back to shore," said Sergeant Brown. "We've lost them in the dark, and that is all there is to it. If we go ashore we can send out an alarm, and as soon as the _Flyaway_ is spotted, somebody will go out and arrest everybody on board--I mean everybody but the young lady, of course." "But they may come ashore in the dark."