CHAPTER X.

THE PROFESSOR IS KIDNAPPED.


The faces of all grew grave. A leak at sea is a serious menace. The
point at which the water was entering the Southern Cross was soon
found to be through a sprained plank a little below the water line.
Captain Hazzard ordered canvas weighted and dropped overboard around
the leak so that the pressure of water would hold it there. The
carpenter's gang then set to work to calk the hole temporarily.

In the meantime the Brutus had put back, blowing her whistle
inquiringly.

"Send them a wireless message telling them what has happened," the
commander ordered Frank, who hastened to obey.

The captain of the Brutus ordered out his boat as soon as Frank's
message had been conveyed to him and came aboard the Southern Cross.
He agreed, after a consultation with Captain Hazzard, that it would be
necessary to put in somewhere to refit.

"We are now off the mouth of the Santa Cruz river in Patagonia," said
Captain Barrington, "it is a good place to lie to. I was there once on
a passenger steamer that met with an accident. We can shift the cargo
to the stern till we have raised the bow of the Southern Cross, and