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 pilothouse 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." 

No more was said by either, but holding fast to whatever came to hand, the two Rovers worked their way forward until they reached the rail where Dick had been standing. They now saw that the foretopmast had come down, hitting the rail and breaking it loose for a distance of several feet. 

"The mast must have hit Dick and knocked him overboard," said Tom, with a quiver in his voice. 

"Oh, Tom!" Sam could say no more, but his heart sank. 

The two boys stared around helplessly, not knowing what to do. Dick was very dear to them and they could not bear to think that he was lost, and forever. 
What happened to the rail?
 They now saw that the foretopmast had come down, hitting the rail and breaking it loose for a distance of several feet. 