But presently something seemed to go wrong
with the pirates; they stopped laughing and
cracking jokes; they looked puzzled; something
was making them uneasy.
Then Ben Ali, staring down at his feet,
suddenly bellowed out,
"Thunder and Lightning!--Men, THE BOAT'S LEAKING!"
And then the other pirates peered over the
side and they saw that the boat was indeed getting
lower and lower in the water. And one
of them said to Ben Ali,
"But surely if this old boat were sinking we
should see the rats leaving it."
And Jip shouted across from the other ship,
"You great duffers, there are no rats there
to leave! They left two hours ago! `Ha, ha,'
to you, `my fine friends!'"
But of course the men did not understand him.
Soon the front end of the ship began to go
down and down, faster and faster--till the boat
looked almost as though it were standing on its
head; and the pirates had to cling to the rails
and the masts and the ropes and anything to
keep from sliding off. Then the sea rushed
roaring in and through all the windows and the
doors. And at last the ship plunged right down
to the bottom of the sea, making a dreadful
gurgling sound; and the six bad men were left
bobbing about in the deep water of the bay.
Some of them started to swim for the shores
of the island; while others came and tried to get
on to the boat where the Doctor was. But Jip
kept snapping at their noses, so they were afraid
to climb up the side of the ship.
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