Shortly afterwards the captain came along, and they seized upon him.
He was looking anything but downcast, and in reply to the flood of
eager questions with which the Camera Boys deluged him imparted the
information that to the best of his belief they had actually run into
the object of their search.
He also told them that it was his intention to stand by the hulk until
morning, and then get busy carrying out the plans that had long ago
been arranged.
Of course it would not be necessary to remain below during the night,
so he was about to give the signal to the engineer and the man at the
wheel to rise to the surface; only strict orders were being passed
around that the utmost silence must be enforced; all lights, too, were
forbidden.
After the skipper had gone on the boys talked it over again.
“Guess he hasn’t forgotten that light on the Key,” remarked Ballyhoo.
“More than likely,” added Jack, “he’s got that sly adventurer, Captain
Badger, on his mind. He knows that individual has played many a
desperate game, and also how he’s said to be the most tricky subject
that ever led an expedition through a blockade.”
“Suppose then that we have come on the old hulk,” Ballyhoo continued,
seeking further information, since he was not quite sure in his mind
about certain things, “what would be the programme, do you think,
Oscar?”
“Oh! that’s all been cut and dried this long while,” he was told. “Of
course we would mark the spot where the wreck lies in deep water, so
we could find it again, if for any reason we had to cut and run--for
instance, if we happened to see that other boat coming along, Oscar.”
“Yes, I understand all that, but how do they expect to get working at
the wreck, for I happen to know they have several divers’ suits aboard
here?”
“Listen, and I’ll try to explain,” the other went on. “We carry a large
number of empty oil barrels in our small cargo space, also planks with
which to make a float, just as they do on the lakes in front of hotels
and cottages. Get that, Ballyhoo?”
“Surely, and I begin to see that you’re going to say about the diving
part of it, too, Oscar. That float will make a working place for the
operation.”
“Just what it will,” Oscar further explained. “They have some sort of
windlass they use to help raise the diver, whose armor is terribly
heavy, you understand. It is also meant to lift up any cargo the man
who goes down may gather while working about the wreck. Sometimes this
is heavy machinery, or it may be a ship’s safe that they’re trying to
salvage.”
“But will a little float like that stand being knocked about by the
waves, for they must run pretty high here sometimes?” Ballyhoo added.
“But those are the times when no work will be attempted,” he was told.
“There’s also a chance, if the wind is coming from the quarter that I
think it is, we’ll find that the Key itself will act as a buffer to the
waves, and on this side it will be almost calm.”
“I declare, you seem to think of nearly everything, Oscar,” the Jones
boy exploded. “Now, the captain said we were to ascend, but so far as I
can see we’re only moving around to another side of that great bunch of
stuff covering the wreck.”
“Then I reckon he means to approach from several different quarters,”
proceeded Oscar, “so as to get an idea of just how it lies. In that way
a mistake may be avoided such as would cost us dear in the end.”
This sort of procedure continued for nearly an hour. By that time the
boys figured that they had run close to the wreck on as many as six
different occasions. There was no longer the slightest doubt about the
object lodged in the midst of that submarine growth being the hulk of
a long sunken ship. Thanks to the play of their powerful searchlight
they had been able to make out just how the wreck was lying, and also
figure which would be the best method of entering the same, when the
diver was sent down.
Finally they changed the programme, and the steady laboring of the
electric engines announced that the water ballast reservoirs were being
emptied. This meant the captain was bound for the surface again.
So they finally emerged, with every light either fully extinguished or
else so effectually concealed that there would not be the slightest
chance for a hostile eye to discover their presence there on the water.
An anchor was silently let go, and the submarine lay there, all snug
and secure. The boys hastened to get on deck to secure a breath of pure
air before seeking their bunks for the balance of the night.
It was just as dark as ever; indeed, after being accustomed to the
powerful light that had been used while they were below it seemed worse
than before to Ballyhoo, who rubbed his eyes and whimpered that he
feared he must be going blind, for somehow he just couldn’t see a thing
around him.
They had been warned not to converse above whispers, which instructions
all of them faithfully carried out. Sounds carry wonderfully over the
water, as they very well knew; an oar striking against the side of a
rowboat makes a noise that can be heard a mile away, according to the
condition of the atmosphere at the time.
“Look up, and you’ll see the stars,” Oscar told him. “But it is
terribly black around here. I can just barely manage to find where the
island lies.”
“You don’t happen to notice any lights ashore, do you?” asked Ballyhoo,
as though he kept that significant fact constantly on his mind.
“Nothing doing,” reported the other promptly. “If there are people on
the Key, then they’ve either gone to sleep, or else for some reason are
keeping under cover.”
The night air seemed damp and chilly after being below so long, and,
consequently, the boys soon felt that it would be much more comfortable
down in their snug quarters. Besides, Ballyhoo was yawning as though in
need of sleep.
“I’m really ashamed of myself to be gaping so,” he told the others,
“but I just can’t help it. Must be something in the sea air around here
that makes me so terribly sleepy.”
So they presently left the “hurricane deck,” and shortly afterwards
crawled into their berths. The last Oscar knew of anything the boat was
gently moving up and down on the long night swell of the sea, broken
somewhat by the Key near at hand.
Then morning came, and once more they were on deck, for the submarine
had remained on the surface, showing that Captain Shooks anticipated no
serious interruption to his work of the day.
Now they could, for the first time, plainly see the little island Coco
Key. It was not much to look at, a mere hump covered with heavy growth
of trees and brush. A few palmettoes, and several beautiful cocoanut
trees stood up above the rest of the vegetation, and the presence of
the latter doubtless accounted for the name that had been given to the
place.
Perhaps it may have been a couple of miles at the most in
circumference, counting all the little bayous along the shore. In
many places the edge of the water was covered with those singular
trees known as mangroves, which can be found all over southern Florida
wherever salt water abounds. Their seed grows in the shape of a catalpa
“cigar,” so well known to most boys. This drops into the soft mud at
low tide, and roots spring from it in an incredibly short time, so that
another tree is started. Thus they spread and thrive until they form a
veritable thicket.
In Florida at a certain season of the year the leaves seem to exude a
sticky, sweet substance that the bees gather, and which forms the basis
for tons and tons of mangrove honey.
The boys looked long and earnestly at that island. Ballyhoo in
particular seemed to still entertain certain suspicions regarding its
being as peaceful and innocent as outward appearances would indicate.
“I see the skipper has sent out the collapsible boat,” he went on to
say, almost as soon as they reached the deck; “but it doesn’t look as
if the two men in the same meant to land on the Key after all, for
they’re rowing off at right angles to the land.”
“I can give a guess what’s in the wind,” said Oscar.
“Oh! that’s easy,” added Jack. “Captain Shooks wants to make sure that
there’s no boat belonging to spongers or turtle hunters anchored on the
other side of the island; so he’s sending out his men to row completely
around the same, and make a sure job of it before he starts to work.”
“He’ll have his trouble for his pains, I feel sure,” Oscar continued,
“because only a fool would anchor his boat on the windward side of a
Key like this, when he had the choice of getting in its lee.”
Half an hour later the boat came in sight again, and from the opposite
quarter, showing that the men had, indeed, gone completely around the
Key. They reported the coast as clear, though, of course they had made
no landing. While there were numerous little indentations in the shore
line, still the trees and mangroves were not high enough to conceal a
schooner, or even one of the native boats with a mast.
As though this settled the matter in his mind the skipper immediately
gave orders for work to be commenced. The empty and watertight barrels
were first of all brought out, and thrown overboard, though secured
together. Then the carpenters got busy, and the sound of hammering told
that they were making the indispensable float.
It was soon a busy scene, indeed, and half of the morning went by
before the object of their industry took on the desired shape. Care
was taken to make everything as secure as possible, so that it could
withstand considerable pounding.
Finally this part was finished, and even the windows and air pump put
in place. All was now in readiness for the diver, and one of the two
men who had been engaged for this special work began to don his strange
garments, his heavy shoes being weighted with lead, and, to cap all,
the helmet, from which ran the air pipes.
Jack, desirous of catching the full spirit of the occasion, had taken
his camera in the small boat, with Ballyhoo to do the rowing, and
pulling off just a little distance proceeded to faithfully record
all that went on. It would, he believed, make an interesting and
instructive picture. Then, besides, every stockholder in the enterprise
could later on see just how his money was being expended in the effort
to locate and recover long lost treasure.
The diver finally went over the side of the raft, and vanished from
view with only a mass of bubbles on the surface to indicate where he
had gone down. Minutes dragged along, and the men kept working at the
pump so as to keep the diver supplied with plenty of fresh air; though,
in case of necessity, he could depend on the small amount of compressed
air which he carried in a special reservoir.
In the end the long expected signal came, telling that he wished to be
raised. Jack was waiting to get that part of it, so as to complete his
picture of “going down and coming up.” When the man finally appeared,
and his helmet was removed, all on the float gathered anxiously around
to hear what he had to report.