CAPTAIN CORNING’S STORY
Captain Oran Corning was a heavy-set man with a round and exceedingly
pleasant face. He had a hearty voice, and the boys had listened to him
less than ten minutes when all felt that he was very sincere and all
liked him exceedingly.
“Yes, I heard about that hold-up in Wall Street,” said the captain in
reply to a question from Sam Rover. “I can’t understand why the police
can’t get after those fellows and round them up. Why, those bandits are
worse than the old-time pirates used to be!”
“Of course you understand, Captain, that this affair has upset us very
much,” went on Fred’s father. “And it has completely changed many of my
plans.”
“Well, I thought that might be so. But then I got to thinking that
maybe you’d be more eager to go on the hunt for the _Margarita_ than
ever. Since I was talking to you I’ve got some additional facts
concerning that wreck and the value of the things on board of her, and
I believe it would be a better speculation for you to help me find
the wreck than some of these speculations you fellows go into in Wall
Street.”
“We’re not speculators, Captain,” put in Dick Rover. “That is, we do
not take anything more than regular business risks, the same risks that
all business men have to take. We do not deal in any securities of the
wildcat order.”
“Oh, yes, yes, I understand that! And you’ll excuse me, Mr. Rover, if I
was a little too blunt. But what I meant is that I’m pretty sure that
we can locate that wreck, and, if we can, everybody who puts up his
money in this expedition will get his share.”
“How much do you think was on board the _Margarita_ when she went
down?” asked Fred.
“Well, of course, the exact amount is more or less problematic. I have
found out that when Miguel Torra made his escape he had not less than
fifty thousand dollars in gold with him and he had with him gold and
silverware and jewelry and precious stones amounting to at least one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars more.”
“Gracious! Two hundred thousand dollars!” exclaimed Randy. “If we got
hold of any such sum as that it would help out The Rover Company a
whole lot!”
“Go slow, son! Go slow!” admonished Tom Rover. “Don’t count your
chickens before you’ve even got the eggs.”
“Yes, but, Dad! if there is even a fair chance of locating this lost
steam yacht, don’t you think we ought to take it?” pleaded the youth.
“Certainly! But I would want to know a little more about what I was
trying to do.”
“I won’t promise to go into this affair, Captain Corning. Not that
I don’t trust you, but because this affair in Wall Street needs my
attention,” remarked Sam Rover. “However, I’d like very much to hear
what you have to say. And let me add that my son here and my three
nephews are also greatly interested. These boys were once shipwrecked
in the West Indies and fell in with an old sailor, and between them
they managed to locate a pirates’ treasure which, while it was not
tremendously large, still gave each of them a snug little sum of money.”
“Well, lads, if that’s the case, you ought to be just the young fellows
to help look for the _Margarita_,” and Captain Corning smiled broadly.
“I wouldn’t like any better fun,” answered Andy promptly. “An ocean
trip always did suit me right down to the ground.”
There followed a conversation lasting over an hour, during which time
Captain Corning unfolded his plans while the boys listened eagerly and
even the men were interested, though they could not get their minds
altogether off of their financial troubles.
According to what the captain had to tell, Miguel Torra had set sail
from a small port near Vera Cruz in Mexico at a time when a revolution
was just coming to an end and he was very much in disfavor with those
in authority. There had been a fight and it was not definitely known
how many on shore and on the steam yacht had been killed or wounded.
Then the yacht had sailed eastward with the evident intention of
landing somewhere in the West Indies or on the upper coast of South
America. But there had been mutiny and a great storm, and from what the
captain had been able to learn from an old sailor who had since died in
a seamen’s home down East, the _Margarita_ had been driven on either a
sandbar or the rocks off the coast of Yucatan.
“As near as the old sailor could figure it, the spot was directly north
of a place called Vera Sura.”
“But isn’t it very deep in the Gulf of Mexico?” questioned Jack. “When
we studied geography I remember there was one place there where the
water was terribly deep.”
“That’s true, lad. But along the coast of Yucatan it’s quite shallow
and there are numerous sandbars and submerged rocks. So I have come to
the conclusion that if the _Margarita_ is really there, she may be in
water from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet deep.”
“How did this old sailor, Henry Swall, come to tell you all this?”
asked Sam Rover.
“I helped the old fellow financially. I rather liked him, and I got
him into the seamen’s home. And not only that, I also helped his old
mother who was blind. That made Swall very grateful and that is why he
gave me all these particulars. He had hoped to go on a search for the
_Margarita_ himself. Before he died he signed a paper in which he left
everything he had to me.”
“Well, all this certainly sounds very interesting,” mused Sam Rover. He
turned to the boys. “It’s just the kind of a hunt you’d like to go on,
isn’t it?” he added, with a little smile.
“You bet it is, Uncle Sam!” cried Andy.
“And just think of how much good that money would do us if we could get
hold of it!” added his twin.
“Well, Dad, if you thought it was a good thing to go into, why don’t
you let us fellows go into it on our own account?” questioned Fred.
“That is, unless you think we ought to stay here and put in our time
trying to solve this hold-up mystery.”
So far Jack had not spoken and now his three cousins looked at him
inquiringly.
“I hardly know what to say,” said the oldest of the boys. “Of course,
if we can be of any assistance around here we ought to stay. On the
other hand, if there’s a real chance of winning out in this hunt for
the lost steam yacht, I’m in favor of going on the hunt.”
“Would you be willing to put your own money in it, Jack?” questioned
Fred. “I’ll put up every cent I’ve got.”
“So will I!” came from the twins.
“Of course I’ll put up my money! We certainly wouldn’t expect our folks
to do it. In fact, haven’t we already offered our money to them?”
“Are you sure there is no one else who could claim a right in this
_Margarita_ if she was found?” questioned Dick Rover.
“There isn’t a soul who could make a claim so far as I’ve been able
to learn,” answered Captain Corning. “This affair, you must remember,
happened a good many years ago, when Henry Swall was only a young man.
He was over seventy-five when he died last year. So it isn’t likely
that anybody would come forward and make a claim. You must remember
too that the vessel was abandoned at sea, and that would make her the
property of whoever found her.”
“I believe you said you were willing to put up some money in this
affair yourself,” said Fred’s father.
“I’m willing to put up every cent I can rake and scrape together,”
answered the captain quickly. “That amounts to seven thousand dollars.”
“How much money do you think you ought to have to see it through
successfully?”
“Well, we’ve got to charter a vessel and take along a professional
diver or two and perhaps take along a diving bell, too. We may have to
do a lot of exploring before we hit the right spot and we may have to
use dragnets and things like that. Also we’ll have to have a competent
crew and proper provisions, and all those things nowadays cost real
money. I have figured out that we ought to have a backing of at least
twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“That means that you want eighteen thousand dollars in addition to what
you can raise yourself?” questioned Jack.
“Yes.”
“Eighteen thousand dollars divided between the four of us fellows would
be four thousand five hundred dollars apiece!” cried Randy. “I’d be
willing to put up that much right now!”
“Ditto here!” said his brother.
“So would I be willing to put it up!” cried Fred. “But I’d want to go
on the hunt too.”
“Oh, of course, we’d want to go along!” came simultaneously from the
twins.
“If you fellows put up your money, I’d do the same,” said Jack. “But
as things are now, I really think we ought to hold off for a few days
before we decide on this.” He turned to his father. “Don’t you think
so?”
“Perhaps it might be as well, Jack. You boys may be able to be of
assistance here, although I can’t just now see in what way you can help
us. The police are doing everything they can and we now have three
private detectives on the case. The detectives have a better chance
of doing something than any of us have, if the criminals are our old
enemies, for all our enemies know us and of course would get out of
sight and become suspicious as soon as they saw us.”
“And if the bandits were all outsiders, as they may be, then we
wouldn’t have much of a chance of tracing them,” added Randy.
“But about our money?” went on Fred. “Are you quite sure, Dad, that you
don’t want it in your business?”
“Eighteen thousand dollars wouldn’t help us very much, Fred,” was Sam
Rover’s reply. “And if you boys really want to go on this hunt for the
_Margarita_, as far as I’m concerned I’ll say do it and use the money
for that purpose.” As he spoke he looked at his two brothers and Dick
and Tom nodded in approval.
After this Captain Corning went into more particulars of what was in
his mind to do, mentioning a vessel he could charter for the purpose,
and telling of the professional diver and others he might engage for
the trip.
“Gee, we ought to have old Ira Small along!” cried Andy.
“I don’t think he’ll go,” answered Fred. “I thought of him before. But
he’s now in an old sailor’s home and not feeling extra well; so I think
you’ll have to count him out.”
“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” said Jack finally, after talking the
matter over with his father. “We’ll leave this whole matter rest for
two or three days and then give Captain Corning a definite answer;” and
so it was decided.