A WALK UNDER WATER
"That's what it is, Jack," said Dick, after the first sensation of
astonishment had passed. "It is more in the bow than on the side, however.
You can see how she narrows a little farther on. This hole is pretty well
forward. I tell you what! This is the vessel we saw under water, or the
one that stump of a mast belongs to, at any rate."
"I believe it is, Dick. Probably she drove in here, had a hole smashed in
her bow, and then sank. The earth has settled in between the masses of
rock above and around her, and hidden her, but there is still the fissure
down which we have just come."
"This is as good as finding Captain Kidd's treasure, isn't it?" exclaimed
young Smith. "We never expected to find anything. Shall we go in and see
what more there is, Jack?"
"We may find ourselves in the water before we know it," murmured Jack.
"No, I think we would better stay where we are. It is the safest plan by
long odds. It looks like taking too many chances to go into a place like
that. Better wait till another time."
"Give me a match or two, Jack," said Percival. "I'll promise not to take
too great a risk."
Jack handed him the matches, and he struck them, and advanced a step or
two into the opening.
"It is plenty wide enough," Percival said. "Yes, these are ship's timbers,
all right. She must have struck hard to make such a gash. We are on a
level with the lower deck. I can't see much cargo around, but there is a
way aft. This must be a sort of steerage, and the lower hold where the
cargo is stored is below us. I believe we could walk right ahead to the
after bulkhead, and if there happens to be a door in it, as is often the
case, straight into the after cabin."
"If there were anything to make a torch of, Dick, I'd go with you," said
Jack, "for I am as much interested as you are in this strange find, but we
don't know what we might stumble against or into what hole we might fall.
Wait, Dick. We shall not probably leave the island for some time, and
there will be opportunities to find out more about it."
"Yes, I suppose so, but I would like to find them out now. However, you
have the right of it, and it is just as well to be cautious."
"Besides, I have only a few more matches left, and we must get back to
where we started. If you and I were alone----"
"Yes, quite right," and Dick came out, as his matches were extinguished,
and they started back.
A match or two gave them all the light they wanted till they began to
ascend, the way up being more difficult than coming down, and both older
boys being obliged to assist the younger one.
However, they reached the top at last, the light seeming to be almost
dazzling after they had been used to the darkness for even the short time
they were down in the strange place.
"I never knew the sun to be so bright," said Jesse W. "It's like what men
say coming up out of a deep well is."
"We'll go there again," said Percival. "I want to know more about the
place. Better not say anything to the other fellows. We'll have them
swarming over the place if we do, and then there is more or less danger in
going down there."
"I believe you want to keep the discovery all to yourself in case we did
find treasure there," said Jack. "Probably there is nothing more than a
lot of spoiled beef and some old clothes."
"Oh, after we have seen all there is to be seen I don't care, but I do
want to have it to ourselves until we have had a chance to see all there
is to be seen. Think of going into a vessel through a hole in the side.
Very few people can say they have done that."
"There'll be no getting the vessel out of that now," said young Smith. "I
wonder how old it is!"
"It cannot be so very old," replied Jack. "If she were, the moss and slime
on that stump of a mast would be thicker, and there would not be so much
of the stump. Probably she is filled with water in any event."
"There was none in the part we saw."
"No, as that was above water, but the lower part undoubtedly is. I do not
believe we could go all the way through as Dick suggests."
They went back to the place where they had left the boat, made their way
down and rowed back to the yacht, where they went on board, and saw some
of the boys, telling them of visiting the reefs, but saying nothing of the
strange discovery of the vessel among the rocks.
There was a very high tide that night, but Captain Storms decided that it
would be very unwise to try to pass beyond the reefs, none of the openings
being wide enough and the surf very heavy.
"There is no use, young gentlemen," he said to Jack and Dick and a few
others. "We will have to stay here for a time until I can get in
connection with the outside world. Then, perhaps, some one may know about
this place, and a way out of it. One vessel has gone down here, and I
don't care to be the next, and leave my mainmast sticking up out of the
water to show folks the way to destruction."
"We saw that stump ourselves," said Jack. "Was that wreck long ago, do you
think?"
"Not so many years, twenty, perhaps, or maybe less. The rocks would hold
her tight, but I don't believe there's much left of her. Nothing worth
taking away, I guess."
Jack gave Dick a peculiar look, and neither of the boys told what they had
seen.
The boys had lessons and a lecture that afternoon, and again the next
morning and in the afternoon were free to go about as they pleased,
explore the island or go out on the water with some of the sailors.
"I want to take another look at that old vessel," said Percival to Jack
after dinner. "I have borrowed a stout rope and an axe, and I have my
pocket light with me. Will you go along, Jack? I suppose we should take
J.W. with us, but he is a little fellow, and there might be danger."
"If we find anything whatever we can take him another time," said Jack. "I
don't want anything to happen to the young fellow. Some of the boys may be
saying that I took him to a dangerous place just to have the name of
rescuing him again."
"You don't mind what such fellows as Herring and some of the rest say, I
hope?" sputtered Percival.
"Not altogether, but it is annoying all the same."
"What those fellows need is a good thrashing."
"Well, I don't like this constant wrangling, and I keep away from them as
much as possible and don't give any cause for talk."
"Which is the cheapest kind of goods dealt in. Never mind them, but come
along and make another investigation of the wreck. I believe we may find
something in it."
"Spoiled beef and rotten clothes," laughed Jack. "However, I will go with
you, Dick."
They took the boat and rowed to the woody point where they made fast, and
climbed to the top as before, having much less trouble on account of not
having the younger boy to assist.
They made their rope fast to a tree near the edge of the hole among the
rocks, and by its help descended to the bottom, then lighting their way to
the hole in the side of the vessel.
With the axe Percival cut away the jagged edges of the timbers at the
opening, and then he and Jack pushed forward, using the axe now and again
as rubbish of various kinds came in their way.
They could see boxes and bales and casks on either side as they went on,
there being a passage-way between the tiers of the cargo, and here and
there a post or stanchion had half fallen and impeded their progress,
obliging them to cut it.
As Percival had predicted, there was a door at the end of the bulkhead,
dividing the hold from the cabin, but this was fast.
"It is not very thick," said Percival. "I believe I can break it in with a
blow of the axe."
"Wait a moment, Dick," said Jack cautiously. "Listen! It strikes me I hear
the sound of water. We don't want to let a flood in on us. It is likely
that the after hold and cabin are full of water, and we don't want to be
swamped."
Percival put his ear to the door, and then flashed his light through the
keyhole.
"There's nothing there, Jack," he said. "If there were water it would come
through here. We have gone so far, and I'd like to go the rest of the way
and get to the cabin. I believe we can. There is probably a passage on one
side of the companion leading to the after cabin."
"Yes, and the companion is open, and the place full of water."
"There is none here, at any rate, and it will be time enough to look for
trouble when it comes," returned Percival impatiently. "Stand aside, old
man, and throw the light on the door so that I can give a good blow."
Jack did as requested, and Percival raised the axe and dealt the door a
sturdy blow, which took it off its hinges and sent it crashing into a
narrow passage beyond.
"There is no water there!" he exclaimed in triumph. "Come on, Jack."
The two boys went into the passage, stepping over the fallen door, Jack
showing the way with the pocket electric light, which was great use to
them in the strange place.
The passage was narrow, not wide enough for the two boys to walk side by
side, and was about two fathoms in length, leading to another door which
was fast like the first.
In many vessels there is a passage like this leading from the after cabin
to the steerage, where the entire hold is not open from the hatches to the
keel, as in big ships, which the captain may use in reaching certain
portions of the cargo with less trouble than in the case of its being
stored in a solid bulk.
"Here is another door, Jack," said Percival. "I don't see any sign of a
companionway from the deck."
"No," said Jack, putting his ear to the door and listening intently. "I
can hear the swash of water just the same, Dick. We had better be a bit
careful."
"We would hear it here, anyhow, Jack. There is water outside, and I don't
suppose there is much depth here. You would be very likely to hear it the
same as you hear water dashing against the side of a vessel when you are
in the hold. It doesn't follow that the water is beyond there."
"No, I guess not. Well, give it a smash, and be ready to run in case there
is water there."
Percival took as much room as he could in the narrow passage, swung the
axe, and sent the door crashing into the space beyond.
Instead of a flood of water breaking in upon the boys, as Jack more than
half expected, there was considerably more light while the sound of water
was more distinguishable than before.
"Well! I declare!" exclaimed Percival, pressing forward.
The boys found themselves in the after cabin of a vessel, which was as dry
as if she had been in her dock, a soft light from overhead showing them
the details of the place perfectly, even without the light of the torch.
"We are under water, Jack!" cried Percival.
"So it seems."
"That light comes from the bull's-eye overhead. The water over it softens
the light. Otherwise, the sun would pour right into the place."
"That would be better than having the water pouring in on us, Dick. The
flashings of that skylight are tighter than most of them, however, or the
water would have gotten in here long before now."
"It is just possible that the glass has been covered with sand which has
been lately washed away. That would fill all the cracks around the
flashings and make them tight. Very likely the wave that sent us in here
has uncovered the skylight, and that is how it is light in here. It is
dry, too, Jack. Why, this is like being in one of the submarines we have
read of."
"Where you slide back a panel and look at the fishes in procession,
through a plate-glass port," laughed Jack. "That always seemed absurd to
me, but there are lots of things that Verne wrote about which have been
more than realized."
"I should say so! Why, his balloons and his submersibles would not be a
patch upon what are actually in use these days."
"Well, now that we know it is safe here, and the water is not going to
pour in upon us, let us have a look at the place," said Jack.