“It certainly is dead slow----” remarked Frank, when a sudden hissing stopped him. The hissing was followed by a roar as of an explosion and before they could realize it the cabin began to fill with steam. “Gracious, the boiler must have burst!” ejaculated Mark. “Boiler burst!” came from the others. “We had better get out on deck, boys!” called Professor Strong. “Something is certainly very much wrong.” He had scarcely spoken when there came another roar and worse hissing. A yell went up from some other passengers and immediately there was wild confusion on all sides. “Oh, Professor, are we going down?” cried Hockley in terror, as he clutched Professor Strong’s arm. “I hope not, Jacob,” was the reply. “Come, we will get to the deck and provide ourselves with life preservers.” But to reach the deck through that cloud of steam was by no means easy. Hockley was frantic and began to yell for help. In the meantime Professor Strong and Frank reached a number of life preservers and passed some to the others. At last they found themselves outside on the wet and dark deck, wondering what was going to happen next. CHAPTER V THE DEFENSE OF JANUARY JONES “We’ll all be drowned, I know we will!” The remark came from Hockley. His teeth chattered so that he could scarcely speak. “If there is any real danger I should think the captain would have the boats lowered,” said Mark, who, now that the first scare was over, was more calm than any of the other boys. “Perhaps it is not as bad as we anticipated,” said the professor. “Tie this life preserver on me, will you?” asked Hockley of Sam. He already had one preserver around his waist and now wanted this on his breast. “All right,” replied Sam, and did as requested. In the meantime all listened for the sound of another explosion. Would it come, and if it did, would it send them skyhigh? Certainly it was a moment of terrible suspense. “I--I know we’ll go up,” chattered Hockley. “And we’re ever so far from land too!” But they did not go up, nor did anything more in the nature of an explosion occur. The hissing of steam continued for fully five minutes and then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. “I imagine the worst is over,” said Professor Strong, after a painful silence. “Unless I am mistaken that accident was nothing worse than the ripping open of some steam pipes. But it may have cost the life of a fireman, coal heaver, or engineer. If you will all remain here I will investigate.” They promised to stay where they were and he left them, to be gone the best part of quarter of an hour. In the meantime quietness was restored on board, and some of the passengers went back to the cabin, which was now free of steam.