All through that hot day they continued to push ahead. The captain knew
where the Key lay that was to be his destination, and being a good
mariner, he was laying his course directly thither. By taking the usual
observation at noon he found his bearings, and could alter his course
more or less in consequence. Then there were small islands they passed
from time to time, some of which bore characteristics that he could
recognize, either from having seen them before, or because they were
thus described on his chart as landmarks.
“The skipper tells me he has sailed all through the Caribbean many
a time in years that are past,” Oscar informed his two chums that
afternoon, as they sat there on the “hurricane deck” and took things
easy.
“I guess it would be hard to mention a particular spot on the globe
where the old man hasn’t cruised in his time,” Jack observed. “And how
strange it is that of late we should run across two such roamers as our
skipper here and Ballyhoo’s Uncle Abner Crawley.”
“Call it three while you’re about it, please, fellows,” interrupted
Ballyhoo, “for while we’ve really not actually had the pleasure of
meeting the gentleman face to face so far, we feel that we know him
just the same, because he keeps haunting our track. I refer to that
born trouble-maker and adventurer, Captain Josephus Badger.”
“Oh! there are rafts of just such men in the world!” Oscar declared,
“if only you happen across them, fellows who are rolling stones of
fortune, seeking spots for their operations where men are at war
with their fellows, living by their wits at times, and at others
making fortunes by running cargoes of contraband goods or arms past
a blockade. Right now across in Europe thousands are doing just that
same thing, trying to get food and things into Germany through neutral
countries, and the open sea.”
“Hello!” exclaimed Ballyhoo just then, “listen, will you, boys?”
“The engines have stopped running!” observed Jack, partly rising to his
feet as though to look around and see whether this could be accounted
for by anything in sight, and immediately adding: “but there’s only an
island some distance beyond, and not a sign of any vessel.”
“Perhaps the engines have broken down?” suggested Ballyhoo.
“A poor guess, I predict,” said Oscar. “They’ve been tested under all
sorts of strain, and it isn’t likely they’d go back on us as easy as
that. If you asked me now, boys, I’d say that yonder Key is the one
we’re aiming to reach, and that our skipper isn’t in any great hurry to
draw in there before nightfall.”
“Just what is in the wind, lad,” observed Captain Shooks, who had
thrust his head above the combing of the little deck hatch while the
boys were exchanging these views. “We’ll drop down until we’re almost
awash, and in that way manage to avoid attracting attention in the
gathering darkness, as we approach yon island. Yes, it is Coco Key,
marked on our chart as the place for trying out our glorious plans.”
Of course this was pleasing news for the three chums. Things were going
to take on a substantial change with them. Prowling around there on
or near the bottom of the sea, endeavoring to locate the hulk of the
treasure ship that was said to have been sunk there many, many years
before, they would be also given an opportunity for observing those
amazing sights which Jack meant to catch with his magical camera.
So they continued to gaze at the still far distant Key through the
glasses. Of course they could not have seen any human being, but
Ballyhoo, who really possessed remarkable vision, stoutly declared he
could trace a thin column of smoke rising above the tree-crowned isle.
The others being unable to locate this sign of Coco Key being
inhabited told Ballyhoo that it must be a vein of clouds he saw; but,
nevertheless, he stubbornly persisted in sticking to his assertion.
“You wait and see who’s right, that’s all, fellows,” he told them, for
Ballyhoo, as we have seen on other occasions, was a very stubborn chap,
and ready to “nail his flag to the mast before giving up the ship.”
So they continued to move on at half speed. So low in the water did the
submarine lie that no one without the aid of a good glass could, from
the Key, have detected its presence amidst the choppy little waves. And
presently, after the sun had sunk amidst the gathering clouds, there
was no danger of their coming being known.
After they had eaten their supper the boys once more mounted to the
upper deck. It was only natural that they should feel an intense
interest in this lonely little Key that lay directly in the path of the
hurricanes bred amidst the terrible Windward Islands.
“It seems to be covered with vegetation, all right,” Ballyhoo was
saying, as if that fact caused him to wonder. “You’d think that long
ago the storms that cross this stretch of the old Caribbean would have
just wiped out every trace of such a little spot of land.”
“Well, there must be some reason why they haven’t,” Oscar advanced.
“It may be a reef that lies to the northeast, and protects Coco Key
whenever one of those hurricanes swoop down here. I’ve got an idea,
though, that they gather force as they go, and are a whole lot worse
hundreds of miles further on, when they strike Cuba, or Jamaica, and
then sail over to Galveston.”
Although this was just a guess with Oscar, the probability is the boy
struck what might be the exact truth. Later on Captain Shooks told them
his experience was all along those lines; and that it took those West
Indian hurricanes some time to get going at their full force; so the
probability was they did not strike Coco Key as furiously as when days
afterwards they were reported going at a hundred and ten miles an hour.
All lights were “doused” so that not by a glimmer would their coming
be made known. And, sitting there, always watching ahead, it was not a
great while after coming on deck that the boys discovered what seemed
to be a far distant gleam.
“What do you suppose it can be?” queried Ballyhoo Jones.
“I’ve held the glasses steadily on it,” reported Jack, “and there’s no
doubt it’s a light of some kind, and not a star near the horizon, as I
thought at first.”
“Could it be a fire on some other island back of Coco Key?” continued
Ballyhoo.
“I’d say no to that, and for several reasons,” Oscar interrupted. “In
the first place you forget that the skipper told us Coco lay all alone
here in this desolate section of the Caribbean Sea. Then again a fire
always wobbles, now bright and again dim. That light is steady, if too
far away to be figured out.”
“You mean that it must be on some vessel, then, don’t you, Oscar?” Jack
asked.
“Nothing else,” he was told. “The boat must have been behind the Key
when daylight was with us, which would account for our not seeing the
same.”
“Whew! I bet you it’s that Artful Dodger, Captain Badger,” ventured
Ballyhoo.
“The skipper will be coming up on deck before long,” Oscar continued,
“and we’ll call his attention to the suspicious light. From what he
says I don’t believe any spongers or loggerhead turtle fishermen could
be away over here; though it might be possible. They cruise about
everywhere looking for some corner where they can pick up a cargo.
These West India ‘conchs,’ as they call them, are pretty daring chaps,
I’m told.”
But a short time later Ballyhoo announced that the strange light had
vanished, nor did they glimpse it again, though looking many times.
“Chances are the boat has slipped behind the island again,” Jack
ventured to say, “or else for some reason those aboard have decided
they don’t need any light, just as we’re doing.”
While the night was fairly dark, at the same time it was later on
possible for them to tell where the island lay. The mass seemed to make
a shadow on the water that resembled a dark spot.
“I could just manage to see through the glass,” Ballyhoo explained,
“that it had trees and scrub, and plenty of those queer mangroves
growing all along the edge of the shores. The skipper told us the
water was quite deep, too, and that we’d be likely to see all sorts of
tropical growth, once we went down.”
“Yes, although he hasn’t ever been here before in a submarine,” Oscar
went on to say, “he has often looked through a water glass, and hunted
for sponges that way, so he knows what these tropical waters can hold.”
“Huh! I was just thinking!” Ballyhoo exclaimed in a stage whisper,
“that it looks kind of spooky off yonder toward the Key, as we see it
now in this queer light. Oh! did you notice that, boys? Really and
truly something flashed up right ashore, then!”
“I saw it, too,” admitted Jack, and Oscar followed with:
“No question about it, the island isn’t as deserted as Captain Shooks
thought. It may be that first light came from a sponging vessel
anchored on the other side of the Key, and that some of her crew are
ashore, meaning to turn turtles when they crawl up on the beach; though
it’s generally in the Spring of the year they come out to lay their
eggs in the warm sand.”
The skipper, coming on deck just then, was put in possession of such
facts as they had accumulated. Apparently he did not much like the
news. It would interfere considerably with their intended movements,
for they could not very well remain on the surface in the daytime
without being seen, and their presence suspected.
To allay any suspicions, in case they met with some cruising pleasure
yacht while in the vicinity of the treasure island, the wily captain
had laid out a plan of campaign quite original. The boys entered into
it with more or less zeal, since they were always ready for a lark.
Captain Shooks, while an American, could speak German like a born
native of the Rhine country, and it was his intention to make frequent
use of this language, so as to cause the inquisitive pleasure voyagers
to believe the craft to be a hostile German submarine, lying in this
isolated quarter to wait for stores and torpedoes, so as to commence
a raid on the Allies’ oil vessels coming out from Mexican ports with
cargoes for the British trade.
The skipper decided that in all probability the explanation given by
Oscar to account for the presence of the lights might be the true one.
Nevertheless, they must not run any unnecessary chances so early in
the game. It might be the _Dauntless_ after all, for Captain Shooks
had a very great respect for the sagacity of that tricky mariner who
commanded the black steam yacht.
And so a little later on he decided they had gone as close to Coco Key
as common prudence would dictate. Accordingly, the boys were ordered
below, the hatches closed, and the boat sank below the surface of the
sea.
Lower than they had ever gone before the boys realized they were
dropping, until finally the electric lights were switched on, and
looking eagerly out through the observation search ports they could
catch their first glimpse of the vast world that lay at the bottom of
the ocean.