When the three, using a boat an officer found nearby, reached the main cabin of the Sea Lion they found Jack and Frank sitting by the table, handcuffed, repeating over and over again their individual and collective opinion of the police of Vallejo. Jimmie seemed to take great delight in taunting them.
"Black Bears in chains!" he roared.
"Huh, where have you Wolves been?" demanded Jack. "These cops said they had you in a pen!"
While the Coroner was making his examination the chief ordered the irons removed from the wrists of the boys. For a time the Coroner appeared to be puzzled. He lifted the hands of the apparently dead man and dropped them again. Then he held a pocket mirror before his lips.
"Look here," he said, presently, "I don't believe this man is dead."
"I hope you are right," Ned said, hopefully. "Still, the poison I got near killed me, while he must have gotten much more."
There was a short silence, during which the Coroner held his watch.
"Over there, straight to the west," Ned said, pointing from the conning tower of the submarine, "is the coast of China, not far from seventy-five miles away."
"And there, to the north," Frank said, "lie the Taya Islands. The big fellow beyond is Hainan."
The sun was going down into the Gulf of Tong King like a ball of red fire, and the night was far from cool.
Jimmie declared he could hear the water hiss as the sun dipped its red rim under the waves. The boy now stood by Ned's side, looking over the wonderful scene.
"We've been somewhere near here before," he said. "You remember the time we came over to this side of the world and found a key to a treaty box? Well, we wasn't far from this spot at one time."
"Right you are," Frank replied. "Only we hope to find something more important than a key now. I hope they've had use for a cell key in connection with that mix-up at Mare Island Navy Yard."
"It was rotten to let that fellow get away!" Jimmie declared. "I just knew they would."
"We were all so astonished at the recovery of Lieutenant Scott," Ned observed, "that we overlooked a few things we ought to have kept in mind. Wasn't it glorious! Think of Scott coming out of it all right at last!"
"Well, he said he was a fixture on the coast until he found the man who came so near killing him," Frank said, in a moment, "and I hope he'll make good."
"Huh," Jimmie interrupted, "if you think that fellow is on the Pacific coast yet, you've got another think comin'. You remember the Diver left San Francisco just about the time we did."
"What has that to do with it?"
"Most nothin' at all, only he sailed in her."
"You're a wise little man!"
"And, what's more, we'll see the Diver come pluggin' along here before we get this job done," Jimmie went on. "That Captain Moore and his son are out for blood."
"But the Diver will require at least a couple of months to get here," urged Frank. "We can get away before that time."
"You don't know what the Moores will do," Ned said. "I rather agree with Jimmie, that we shall see something of the Diver before we leave this part of the world."
"I hope so," Frank said.
"Well, who's for the bottom of the sea?" demanded Jimmie. "I want to see what's down there before the Bogy Man gets me."
"I don't mind going down," Ned said. "Come on, we'll close the top hatch and drop to the bottom, then, if conditions are right, we'll enter the water closet, put on the diving suits, and take a walk on the floor of the big water."
"Suppose we all go," suggested Frank.
"Perhaps it may be well for two to remain aboard in order to help the others out, if necessary," Ned observed.
"All right," Frank said. "Catch a fish by the tail and bring him in for supper."
"To-morrow," Jimmie said, "you can take a run on the riparian rights an' chase whales."
"I'll wait and see whether you boys come out alive," laughed Frank. "I'm a little leary about mixing with the funny little fishes. Some of 'em may bite!"
After a thoroughly interesting voyage, the boys had at last reached the scene of their labors. It was now the 20th of October. The Sea Lion had rode securely on the float, and Ned and his companions had spent most of the time during the journey under the great hood which covered the submarine, studying the mechanism and making themselves thoroughly familiar with the big machine.
Arriving off the Taya Islands, the float had been submerged by opening the sluiceways and filling the tanks with water. The Sea Lion behaved admirably when she came to the surface after cutting away from the companion of her voyage.
As there were no appliances for lifting the big float, she was now at the bottom of the sea for all time, unless broken away from the water-filled tanks by divers, in which case the upper works would come to the surface. It was with feelings of keen regret that the boys saw the great barge, as it might well be called, lying, deserted, on the ocean floor.
As has been shown by the conversation between the boys in the conning tower, Lieutenant Scott had fully recovered from the effects of the poisonous fumes he had inhaled in the submarine on the night of Ned's arrest at South Vallejo. Physicians stated at the time that his recovery was due to the fact that the conning tower hatch was open when the deadly gas was released. Ned, it was also stated, would have been dead in a few moments if the hatch had been closed.
Search had been made, both by the police and the naval detectives, for the author of the mischief, but he had not been found. It was believed that his purpose in reporting the result of his own deviltry to the chief of police was to secure the arrest of the boys on the Sea Lion and make off with her.
Ned did not say so, when discussing the matter with the officers, but he was satisfied that the Moores were at the bottom of the trouble. The Captain had resigned, and had been observed lounging about the wharf in New York where the Sea Lion lay, and had, it was afterwards learned, been seen in San Francisco on the day before the arrival of Lieutenant Scott and the Boy Scouts.
In reaching this conclusion Ned assigned envy as the prime motive on the part of the Captain and his son. They had expected to be assigned the duty of searching the ocean floor for the wreck of the mail steamer. In their great disappointment nothing was more probable than that they had resolved to hamper the efforts of their successful rivals in every way.
But there was still another view of the case which might be considered. The gold in the hull of the wrecked steamer would become the spoil of the first submarine to reach her.
With the double incentive, greed joined to a thirst for revenge, it would not be at all strange if the Moores had risked everything in their efforts to prevent the Sea Lion leaving the Navy Yard on her long trip. It was Ned's private opinion, too, that the son had been the one to sneak into the submarine and attack the Lieutenant with the poisonous gas.
Leaving Frank and Jack in the machine room, Ned and Jimmie entered the water chamber and closed the door, which, however, was provided with a plate glass panel of great thickness, so that light from the other room supplied plenty of illumination.
It was not designed to submerge the Sea Lion until the boys were all ready to step out. Four deep-sea suits hung on hooks in the water chamber, one for each of the boys.
These suits were not much different from those usually worn by deep-sea divers. They were of seamless rubber composition, braced across the breast with bars of steel in order to offset the great pressure of the lower levels and give the lungs plenty of room for expansion.
The helmets, which fitted on the neck of the suits, were lighter than those in ordinary use, but fully as strong. The cords attached to the helmets were very long, and the air-hose admitted of a range of at least three hundred feet.
By the side of each suit lay an electric searchlight of special construction and a long steel pole, shaped something like a crowbar, but very slender and strong. This latter for defense in case attack should be made by some monster of the deep.
"Say," Jimmie grinned, slipping on his suit, "these spring suits look to me like someone to button us up in the back."
"I don't see where you find buttons," replied Ned.
"Look here, then!"
The boy pointed to the screws designed to secure the helmets.
"You button me up, and I'll button you up," Ned laughed. "We've got to learn to do such things."
"I'll catch a shark an' get him to learn how," cried Jimmie. "I wonder how I would look in this suit walkin' down the Bowery. Gee! I bet the boys would jump out of their skins if they saw me comin'. They'd think their master had come to claim 'em!"
The boys worked industriously for a time, settling themselves in the rather clumsy suits, and then all was ready save putting on the heavy helmets. Jimmie pointed to a belt about the waist of his suit.
"What's that for?" he asked, pulling at a hook which was suspended from the steel circlet.
"That's to hang your searchlight on," was the reply. "There may come a time when you'll want both hands to operate that spike thing you've got to carry."
At last the helmets were adjusted, the cords and air-hose attached, and then Ned motioned to the boys, watching with grinning eyes through the plate glass panel, to turn on the air. The first sensation on receiving the air was one of exhilaration, but this soon passed off.
Ned saw, by looking through the immense goggles which Jimmie wore, that the lad was almost bursting with laughter, but he knew that this effect would soon pass away. He pushed a button, and signaled to Frank to fill the water tanks.
As the water chamber filled the boys felt a cold circle rise from their toes to their heads. They felt a sinking motion, and soon the mysterious life of the ocean became visible through the outer glass door of the water chamber.
The Sea Lion dropped evenly to the bottom. The supply of air was as perfect as it could well be. When the faint jar told Ned that the submarine was at last resting on the bed of the tropical sea he released a heavy bar which held the door, pushed it back against considerable pressure, and stepped out.
Jimmie followed, and Ned stopped long enough to point to the lines as a warning that they should not be allowed to become tangled, and struck off. It was early in the evening, and there was a moon, almost at the full.
The depth at that point was not great, scarcely more than sixty feet. The pressure of the water overhead made walking rather difficult, and the boys were strange to the lines they were drawing after them, but they made good progress until they came to the end of the air-hose.
It was not as dark under the waves as might have been expected. The light of the sun penetrates, ordinarily, to a depth of not far from forty feet, and the moon's rays on this night were very strong. It was not light enough for the boys to see objects around them, but there was a soft illumination above their heads not dissimilar to the faint haze of light which lies over a country landscape situated at no great distance from a city bright with electricity.
By using the searchlights, however, the boys were able to distinguish objects directly about them. They were on a level plain of pure white sand. Ages and ages ago this pavement laid so smoothly on the ocean floor had existed in the form of rocks.
Through countless years it had faced the assaults of the waves, until at last, in utter defeat, it had succumbed to the mighty force and dropped in fine grains to the lower levels of the world. It seemed to Ned that it had lain there for centuries, with never a storm to pile it into ridges or break its level surface into pits.
The scene about the boys was indescribably beautiful. The inhabitants of the sea rivaled the rainbow in brilliancy of coloring. There were more forms of life in sight than either of the boys had ever imagined in existence.
Queer-shaped sea creatures with long tails darted about the rubber-clad figures, and now and then an inquisitive fish with curious eyes poked its nose against the eye plates, as if intent on discovering what sort of creature it was that carried a sunrise in its head.
There were monster creatures in sight, too, and Jimmie jabbed at one of them and brought blood. This brought others, and in a short time the boys found themselves surrounded by a school of sharks.
Ned threw himself down on the sandy bottom and motioned to Jimmie to do likewise. This seemed to surprise the sharks, for they nosed around for only a moment longer. Seeing no opportunity of getting under their prospective dinners, they switched their tails angrily, like a cat in a temper, and swam off about their business, if they had any.
But Ned had little interest in the sea life about him. At another time, and under other conditions, he would have enjoyed the novelty of the scene to the fullest, but now he was anxiously watching for some indication of the presence of the wreck of the Cutaria.
He was as certain as it was possible to be that the Sea Lion had descended almost at the exact spot where the ill-fated vessel went down. The hull should be out there in the sand somewhere, and he lost no time in making his investigations.
But there was nothing on the smooth surface to show that any vessel had ever rested there. Away to the north, however, the boy finally saw what looked like an elevation.
His flashlight, however, would not throw its beams to the point of interest, and he decided to return to the Sea Lion, rest for the remainder of the night, and shift the submarine in the morning.
Motioning to his companion, therefore, he turned toward the door to the water chamber. They had proceeded only a few steps when something seemed to pass over their heads.
It was as if a heavy cloud had drifted over a summer sky, outlining its shape on the fields below for an instant and then passing on. Jimmie caught Ned's arm and pointed upward.
It was plain that the little fellow had caught sight of something his companion had missed, but of course he could not explain then and there what it was. Ned hastened his steps, and soon stood at the door of the water chamber, which had been left open.
As Jimmie pushed into the water-filled apartment by his side and Ned was about to close the door and expel the water from the chamber, as well as from the tanks of the submarine, something which flashed like polished steel hurtled through the water and struck the bottom just outside the doorway.
Ned stepped out and picked it up. It was a keen-edge knife, such as sailors carry. On the handle was a single initial—"D."
Ned knew what that meant. Through some strange agency, by means of some unaccountable assistance, the Diver had reached the scene of the proposed operations of the Sea Lion.
From this time on, it would be a battle of wits—perhaps worse!
In response to Ned's hand on the lever, the water door closed and the pumps in the next compartment soon cleared not only the sea vestibule but the tanks of the submarine of seawater.
In a moment the Sea Lion lifted to the surface, and Ned lost no time in relieving himself of his helmet. Then, still attired in the rubber suit, he hastened to the conning tower, where he found Jack, glass in hand, sweeping the moonlit sea eagerly. There was a faint haze off to the west, but nothing more. Whatever had passed above the submerged boat, on the surface, had wholly disappeared, though the time had been very short.
"What did you see?"
Ned asked the question because Jack's manner indicated excitement, if not anxiety.
"Just a shadow," was the reply.
"It might have been a shadow, passing over the moon, the shadow of a cloud, or a cloud itself," suggested Frank, sticking his head out of the hatchway.
Ned pointed to the sky. There was not a cloud in sight.
"It must have been something of the kind," Jack mused, "for no boat could get out of sight so soon."
"Not even a submarine?" asked Ned.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Did you see a submarine?"
Both questions were asked in a breath.
"No," replied Ned, "I did not see a submarine, but I don't believe any cloud passing over the sky would drop anything like this."
He passed the knife to Jack and took the glass. Jack opened his eyes wide as he examined the weapon and noted the initial on the handle. He turned impulsively to Ned.
"Where did you get it?" he asked.
"At the bottom."
"Did you find it lying there?"
"It fell just as I reached the water chamber."
"Then how the dickens did the Diver get away so soon?" demanded the boy.
"It sure did fall from the Diver," agreed Frank, taking the knife and examining it.
"It would seem so," Ned replied, "but, of course, the initial may be merely a coincidence."
"I guess we're in for it."
"But how did the Diver get here so soon after our arrival?" asked one of the boys.
Ned looked grave for a moment, and then replied, his manner showing how fully he appreciated the importance of his words:
"What I fear is that she got here first."
"And found the wreck?"
"She might have done so."
"Did you see anything of the Cutaria down there?" asked Frank.
"Not a bloomin' thing," answered Jimmie, making his appearance on the conning tower.
"The Diver might have towed it away," suggested Jack.
"Impossible!" cried the others, in chorus.
"Anyway," Jack continued, "we're up against the real goods now. If theDiver is here we'll have a scrap."
"But suppose it should be some other outfit?" asked Frank. "Some pirate outfit after the gold?"
"Still there would be a scrap."
"That's one advantage of goin' with Ned," Jimmie edged in. "You most always get into a scrap!"
"Well," Ned said, presently, "we may as well drop down and keep our lights low. If the Diver is here, the Moores are aware of our presence, and we must be prepared for anything."
In ten minutes the submarine lay at the bottom of the sea, with no lights showing, every plate glass window having been shuttered on the outside by a system of protection which was one of the best features of the craft. Then Ned explained that he had seen, at some distance, an apparent elevation rising from the sand.
"That may be the wreck," he said.
"I move we go and see," shouted Jimmie.
"In the darkness?" asked Frank.
"It is as light out there now," Jack declared, "as it will ever be, unless some subterranean volcano lights up and makes fireworks on the bottom, so we may as well be off."
"All right," Ned said, in a moment. "I was meditating a little rest to-night, but it may be advisable to get to work at once. For all we know the Moores may be stripping the wreck, even now."
"What I can't understand," Jack said, sticking to the first proposition, "is how the Diver got here in such good time."
"As has been said, it may be some other craft," Frank consoled.
"Don't believe it," insisted Jimmie. "The boat that dropped that knife is a submarine, else how could she disappear so suddenly? She may be watching us now."
"Or her divers may be prowling around the Sea Lion!" Jack created a little sensation by saying.
"What would be the use of prowling around outside the boat?" askedJimmie. "They couldn't hear anything, or see anything."
"But a torpedo will act under water," suggested Frank. "Those chaps are equal to anything."
"Shall we go out and look around?" asked Jack.
Ned hesitated. He really was alarmed at the situation. He knew how desperate the Moores must be, and he had no doubt that in some strange way the Diver had been brought to the scene of the wreck.
"If you and Frank are partial to a moonlight stroll under sixty feet of water," he finally said, "you may as well put on your water suits and look around."
"Leave Jimmie here to watch the boat and come with us," urged Jack.
"Go on," Jimmie advised. "I can run this shebang, all right. Go on and see what you can see."
"If we are going out to-night," Ned said, after reflection, "we may as well shift the Sea Lion and inspect the bottom over where we saw the apparent elevation."
"Yes; that may be the wreck," Jack admitted.
So the submarine was moved a short distance to the north, about the space which had seemed to separate the boys from the elevation, and preparations were made for going out. Jimmie was rather pleased at the idea of being left in charge of the submarine.
"Of course you'll not touch the machinery," Ned warned. "All you can do is to see that the air pumps are kept going. Any motion of the boat, you understand, might break or disarrange the hose carrying the air to us, so be careful."
"Oh, I guess I don't want to murder any of you," laughed the little fellow. "Go ahead and I'll run things all right on board the boat. I could operate her anywhere."
The Sea Lion was lifted only a trifle in order to make the change to the new location. As she moved along she was not much more than a fathom from the level sand below.
This was done by regulating the water in the tanks to the pressure at the depth it was desired to navigate. The delicate mechanisms designed to show depth, pressure, air value, and all the important details of a submarine were absolutely perfect.
So the three boys entered the water chamber, leaving Jimmie grinning through the glass panel. When the boat was brought to the bottom they opened the outer door and stepped out.
The Sea Lion had traversed only a short distance, yet the surface upon which the lads walked seemed very different from the smooth sand level Ned had seen before. There were now little ridges of sand, and now and then a pit opened up almost under their feet.
A dozen yards from where they emerged from the submarine they came upon the elevation which Ned had observed on his first trip out. It was not, however, a submerged rock or a bit of harder soil in the desert of sand. It was the hull of a wrecked vessel.
Ned moved along one side of the wreck, as far as his air-hose would permit him to go, and was satisfied that he had found the lost mail ship. The sand was already drifting against her sides, but she was still far from buried.
On the port side, about a third of the way to the stern from the bow, the boy discovered the wound which had brought the stately vessel to her present position. She lay, tilted about a quarter, in eighty feet of water.
Ned wondered why passing vessels had not discovered her. The tall stacks had been beaten down, probably snapped off at the collision, but the superstructure was high, and not far below the surface, Ned thought.
After motioning Jack and Frank to remain at the break in the side of the ship, Ned clambered up and, being careful to protect his air-hose and line from the jagged edges of the wound, crept inside. His electric flashlight revealed the interior only a short distance ahead of him, but at the very outset he saw that some of the air-tight compartments remained intact.
There was a lifting, swaying motion occasionally which told him that there was still air imprisoned in the broken ship. At that distance from the surface there would be no wave motion to produce the oscillations he observed.
"It is very strange," he mused, as he clambered over bales, chests and boxes in the hold, "that the ship should have gone down so quickly. Telegraphic reports at the time of the accident—if it was an accident—stated that she sank slowly. It would require only a little assistance to bring her to the surface."
The boy made his way as far into the interior as he could with his comparatively short air-hose, and then turned back to where he had left Jack and Frank. He had found it impossible, on account of the shifting to the prow of the hold cargo, to reach the cabin and the captain's offices without entering from the top deck.
As he turned around he stopped an instant, his attention attracted by a sound which seemed to come from beyond the bulkhead back of him. It sounded almost like the hiss of escaping steam. The lad knew that it must be a strong vibration which could thus make itself felt at that distance below the surface and through the heavy helmet he wore.
The more he considered the matter the clearer became the fact that it was actually uniform sound he heard. That is, sound brought to his ears by the water.
Some force might be moving the water, and the motion might be conveying to his ears, through the thin sides of the air-hose, the story of the action of the waves, if waves could be created at that depth.
As he listened to the steady beating he became convinced that some unknown power was at work in the wreck. What it was he could not even guess.
Then he heard sharper sounds which seemed to be created by steel striking steel. The jar brought the sound waves to his ears quite distinctly.
"Either I'm going daffy," the boy mused, "or there is some one at work on the wreck."
He left the hold and, without giving the others to understand that he had discovered anything of importance, began an examination of the sand along the line of the bottom. His air-hose was not long enough to admit of passing entirely around the vessel, so he motioned to the boys to accompany him and turned back to the submarine.
"Did you hear anything down there?" asked he as soon as the helmets had been removed.
"What are you talking about?" asked Frank, with a laugh. "Water would not convey sound to the ear."
"But the jar of water would," observed Jack. "I heard a jar while I was down there."
"I don't believe it!" Jimmie cut in.
"When in swimming," said Frank, "did you ever sit on the bottom of the swimming hole and pound two stones together?"
"Of course," laughed the little fellow.
"And you heard a noise?"
"I believe I did, but it was not such a noise as one would hear from the same cause in the air."
"Well," Ned went on, "I heard noises down there, too, and I'll tell you right here that I'm alarmed."
"Scared!" roared Jimmie.
"Alarmed at what?" demanded Frank. "I didn't see anything to be alarmed at."
"I have no theory as to what it was I heard," Ned went on, "but I'm going to get a longer air-hose, shift the Sea Lion so she will hang over the wreck, and go down again right away."
"I'm ready!" laughed Jack. "I want to hear that noise again."
"Do you think there are men down there removing the gold?" asked Jack.
"If there is anybody at work on the wreck," Ned replied, "they may be removing the gold or they may be searching the vessel for incriminating documents."
"I guess any documents found down there will be pretty wet," laughedJack.
"They may be in sealed boxes," Ned replied. "Anyway, if there are important documents on board they might be rendered legible by proper and judicious handling." "Here we go, then," Jack exclaimed. "I'll expel the water in the tanks until the Sea Lion rests at the right altitude, over the wreck, and we can enter by way of the decks."
"But what will the other fellows be doing while we are getting into position?" asked Frank.
"Gettin' ready to cut our lines, probably," interposed Jimmie.
"That's a fact," Jack said. "If there are men working in the ship they must be supplied with air by a submarine. How could that be done, I'd like to know."
"They might anchor the submarine some distance away," replied Ned, "and lay an air-hose along the bottom. If attached to the hose leading into the helmets before being placed, two or three might work from such a supply, and such a system, too, would obviate a good deal of the danger to be feared from crossed lines."
"You've got it all figured out!" cried Jimmie.
"Well," Frank intervened, "I'll bet that he has it right. Those Moore persons were not born yesterday."
"That's right," Jack admitted. "We saw enough of the Captain in the Black Bear club-room in New York to know that he is an expert in the submarine business. He may be an imitation fop and a bounder, as he would say, but he certainly is next to his job."
"Why wouldn't it be a good idea to sneak around in our water suits until we find the lines an' cut them?" asked Jimmie.
"That would be plain murder," Ned replied.
"I guess they wouldn't hesitate long if the conditions were reversed," Frank suggested, "still, I wouldn't like to be in with anything as brutal as that."
"Come to think of it," Jimmie admitted, "I wouldn't, either."
"I don't get the idea of these incriminating documents," Jack said, in a moment. "That is one thing I did not pay attention to in the talk with Captain Moore at the clubroom."
"What he said was this," Ned explained. "The Government is accused, in certain hostile foreign circles, of conspiring with the leaders of the revolution now brewing in China. He declared that the Washington officials were even charged with sending the gold to the rebels by the roundabout way of the present Chinese Government."
"You'll have to come again!" laughed Frank. "I'm dense as to that part of it. It is too subtle for me."
"Me, too," Jimmie asserted.
"All I know about it," Ned answered, "is that Captain Moore declared that the rebel leaders were purposely posted as to the shipment of the gold, and that they were to seize it as soon as it left the protection of the American flag, if they could. At least they were to be given a chance to do so."
"Even in that case," Frank reasoned, "the Washington people wouldn't be foolish enough to place incriminating papers with the shipment. The whole scheme might fail, you know."
"It does look pretty fishy," Ned remarked, "but the ways of diplomacy are often crooked ways. Anyway, it is claimed by some that the mail boat was rammed, that it was no accident that sent her to keep company with McGinty at the bottom of the sea."
Jack expelled the water from the tanks of the Sea Lion until the instruments in the machine room showed her to be near the surface, and, as Ned estimated, directly above the wreck. Then an anchor was sent out, to prevent any possible drifting, and Ned, Frank and Jack put on their helmets again.
The lines used for signaling and the air-hose had both been spliced, and it was figured that any part of the wreck could now be visited. The drop lines were also longer, and the machinery for hauling the divers up on signal was made ready for use.
"We can't walk out and in the Sea Lion now," Ned said, "and a good deal depends on the vigilance of the boy left in the boat. Watch for the slightest signal, Jimmie," he warned.
The touching of a lever unwound the lifting and lowering lines when all was ready, and in a minute the three boys found themselves on the upper deck of the wreck. It was tilted at an angle of about twenty degrees, so great care was exercised in traversing it.
As Jimmie swung the lever which lowered the three boys he peered out of a darkened window. He saw only the dim surface light.
"They've got sense enough not to show any light," he mused, "so the thieves won't know what is going on unless they see the shadow overhead, or run into one of the fellows."
Leaving Frank, as the most cautious of the boys, to guard the lines and air-hose when they touched sharp angles, Ned, accompanied by Jack, advanced down the main companionway and was soon in the large and handsomely furnished cabin.
Then the electric searchlights were put to use, and the great apartment lay partly exposed to view. Their entrance into the room seemed to create something like a current in the water, and articles of light weight came driving at them.
Ned turned sick and faint as a dead body lifted from the floor and a ghastly face was turned toward his own. A few unfortunate ones had gone down with the ship, and most of the bodies lay in this cabin.
Those who had remained on deck until the final plunge had, of course, drifted away. However, the boy soon recovered his equilibrium, and went about his work courageously, notwithstanding the fact that many terrifying forms of marine life swam and squirmed around him.
Clinging to heavy tables and chairs to prevent slipping, the boys made their way to that part of the ship where, according to their drawings, the captain's cabin had been. Their first duty was to make search for any sealed papers which might be there.
The room was located at last, and then Ned motioned to Jack to extinguish his light. The boy obeyed orders with a feeling of dread.
It was dark as the bottomless pit in the cabin now, and fishes and squirming things brushed against his legs and rubbed against the line which was supplying him with air.
In all the experiences of the Boy Scouts nothing like this had ever been encountered before. In Mexico, in the Philippines, in the Great Northwest, in the Canal Zone, in the cold air far above the roof of the world, they had usually been in touch with all the great facts of Nature, but now they seemed separated from all mankind—buried in a fathomless pit filled with unclean things.
The door of the captain's cabin was closed. Ned put his ear against it, then reached out and took Jack by the arm. The latter understood the order and crowded close.
From the other side came sharp blows, and through the keyhole came the glow of illuminated water. Ned's worst fears were realized. Some one had reached the wreck in advance of his party.
He knew that he could not justly be censured for the activity of his enemies, and yet the thought that he was in danger of failing in his mission brought the hot blood surging to his head. He did not stop at that time to deliberate as to how the hostile forces had gained this advantage in time.
He did not even try to solve the problem as to the personality of the hostile element. The men working on the other side of the door to the captain's cabin might have crossed the Pacific in the Diver, or they might have been recruited from foreign seaports.
The question did not particularly interest him. The point with him was that they were there.
And, now, what course ought he to pursue? For a time, as he stood against the door, he could reach no conclusion.
Directly, however, the important question presented by the unusual situation came to the boy's mind. It was this:
Where was the boat into which the workers on the other side of the door proposed to remove the plunder?
The Diver, or some other efficient submarine must be close at hand. The men who were searching the captain's room were being supplied with air from some source.
And here was another question:
Had the gold already been removed?
It seemed to Ned that the first thing for him to do was to locate the submarine. For all he knew, prowlers from her might be nosing around the Sea Lion.
He had left the door to the water chamber open, of course, and so it must remain until he returned. Jimmie, owing to a defect afterwards corrected, could not expel the water while the door was open, nor could he close the door from the interior.
Fearful that some mischief was on foot, he grasped Jack by the arm and hastened back to where Frank had been left. His first care should be to find the exact location of the hostile submarine and then see that no air-hose reached from her to the Sea Lion.
The three boys passed out of the wreck and came to the stern of the once fine ship. She had gone down prow first, and the stern was a little above the level sand floor of the sea.
Instead of passing around the stern and coming out on the other side, the boys halted and crouched down, so as to see under the keel. As the outer shell of the ship was here at least a yard above the bottom, it was plain that the cargo had swept forward when she went down, thus holding her by the nose.
There was no longer any doubt as to what was going on. There, only a few yards away, lay the dark bulk of a submarine. Only for a light glimmering through the closed door of the water chamber it could not have been seen at all.
The men who were working in the wreck had taken no chances in leaving the boat. Their lines and air-hose passed through the outer door in well-guarded openings, and the interior was as safe from intrusion as a walled-in fortress.
Ned regretted that he had not observed the same precaution in leaving the Sea Lion, still he did not believe that his boat had been attacked. After a few moments devoted to observation, Ned crept around the keel and looked down the side of the ship which lay toward the submarine. Men with electric lamps in their helmets were working there.
They appeared to be forcing an entrance into the lower hold of the ship through a small break in the shell. This led him to the conclusion that the way to the very bottom was blocked from the inside, and that the gold—if it had been stored there—had not yet been removed.
He returned to his chums and all three started back to the Sea Lion. The men about the wreck were all so busy that it did not seem to Ned that they knew of the presence there of his submarine.
Still, he searched the bottom, as he passed along, with both hands and feet for any line which, leaving the stranger, might be leading to her rival. Finally he discovered, much to his annoyance, a hauling line and an air-hose leading in the direction he was going.
"I'm afraid," he thought, "that Jimmie is in trouble."
Left alone in the Sea Lion, Jimmie spent most of his time watching from a darkened window. He could distinguish little in the faint sifting of moonlight which dropped down from the sparkling surface of the sea, but there was companionship even in that.
He had been instructed by Ned to keep the interior dark, and so he watched the ocean floor for the lights which his chums might be obliged to turn on. As the reader knows, however, the exploring party showed no lights at all until the interior of the wreck had been gained.
Listening and waiting, half inclined to admit that he was just a little bit lonesome, the boy stood at his post for about a quarter of an hour. Then he saw an opaque object moving toward the submarine.
It was not a shark or other monster of the sea, for it walked upright and seemed to move up and down as it came to the little undulations in the ocean floor. When it came nearer Jimmie moved toward the door of the water chamber.
"That must be Ned," he thought, "comin' back alone. Now, I wonder if anythin' has happened to Frank an' Jack?"
For a moment the heart of the lad throbbed wildly, then he calmed himself with the thought that in case of accident he would have been notified by the lifting lines. The air machine was working perfectly, too, and this indicated that all was well below.
Finally the moving object came to a position about ten yards distant from the submarine and stopped. He was now about fifty feet below the window out of which Jimmie looked, for the Sea Lion, as has been said, lay well up from the bottom, not exactly over the wreck but not far from it.
In a moment the boy saw the glimmer of a lamp down where the man was, and saw that it was moving about on the bottom. Lights, of course, do not show in water as they do in air, and so it was only a faint illumination that Jimmie observed.
Still, he could see that whoever was carrying the light was fumbling about on the bottom. He watched intently for a moment and then saw the man coming toward him, swimming straight up.
"I guess it's one of the boys," Jimmie mused. "He must have lost his line, and when I saw him fumbling he must have been removing the weights designed to hold him down in spite of the air in the helmet."
This appeared to be a good explanation, and the boy stood with his face pressed against the glass panel of the water chamber door, waiting for whoever it was to enter, close the apartment, and push the lever that controlled the exhaust which emptied the chamber.
At last the swimmer clambered into the chamber, and the waiting boy was about to switch on a light when a suspicious action on the part of the other caused him to hesitate. He could observe the actions of the man in the water on the other side of the glass panel quite clearly now, and was alarmed at what he saw him doing.
Instead of drawing his air-hose in with him and coiling it carefully so as to clear the doorway and still leave free passage for the air which was being pumped into it, he laid the hose carefully in a slide-covered groove in the edge of the door. The hose did not seem to be quite large enough to fill the groove, and the fellow took something soft and pliable from a pocket and wrapped around it.
Then he closed the door and pushed the lever which released the power that forced the water out of the chamber. Only one inference was to be drawn from the scene which Jimmie had witnessed.
The man in the water chamber was a stranger. This was merely an attempt to get possession of the Sea Lion.
The fellow was breathing air pumped into his hose by some other boat than the Sea Lion. He had cast off his weights in order to gain the chamber, which neither one of the boys would have found necessary, as they would have been carried up by the machinery which worked the lifting and descending lines.
Another thing the boy realized, as he waited with anxiety for the next move. The man, whoever he was, was thoroughly familiar with the plan of the Sea Lion.
The grooves in the edge of the door had been planned so as to give entrance to visitors who were not receiving their air from the Sea Lion. No one was believed to know anything about this arrangement—no one save the builders and the Secret Service men.
While Jimmie watched, the intruder moved the lever and the water in the chamber began to lower. When the water was forced out fresh air was automatically forced in.
Before long the intruder disconnected his hose with his helmet and threw the end over a hook provided for that purpose. When the water was all out he knocked heavily on the door leading to the room where Jimmie stood.
"There'll be doings here directly," the boy thought.
Again and again the visitor beat upon the door, but Jimmie gave no sign. He could not well observe the man now, for, with the water out of the chamber, the light carried by the man inside shone brightly against the glass panel, and the boy would have been observed had he stood close to it.
Jimmie grew more anxious as the seconds passed. He was trying to put away the thought that the intruder had cut the air-hose attached to the helmets of his friends.
For all he knew all three boys might be lying drowned, on the floor of the ocean. The thought was unbearable, and he resolved to banish it in action.
His first impulse was to disconnect the exhaust and fill the chamber with water. The man in there had disconnected his air-hose and would soon drown.
But the brutality of such a course soon presented itself, and Jimmie cast about for some other method of meeting the dangerous situation. He could hear the visitor fumbling at the door, and wondered if he knew the secret of opening it.
After a time it seemed to the listening boy that the fellow was feeling in the right locality for the hidden spring which would open the door from the other side, and sprang for the bar which secured it against such entrance. Then he dropped the bar and stood wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"If I bar the door," he mused, "that robber will cut the air-hose protecting the boys outside, if he has not already done so. I've just got to let him in here an' take chances."
He hastened to the back of the room and brought a long coil of rope. Making a running noose in one end, he released several loops from the big coil and held them loosely in his hand.
"I wonder if I can assist him into our princely apartments?" thought the boy, whimsically. "If I can get this rope around his body and over his arms, I'll be the boss of the precinct! I expect he'll tumble around a good deal, but I guess I can quell him!"
The boy waited in the darkness until a faint click told him that the intruder had discovered the spring. This was followed by a slam as the sliding door fell back.
Then all was still. Jimmie, hidden in the shadows, prepared to throw his lasso as soon as the visitor left the doorway.
"Hello!"
The voice carried a hoarse challenge.
"Any one here?"
The man was still in the doorway, and was swinging his light about so as to give him a better view of the room.
"If he would only drop his arms!" Jimmie mused. "I'd like to hit him with a ballclub!"
Directly the fellow did drop his arms, and at the same moment stepped out of the shelter of the doorway. This was what Jimmie had been waiting for, and he lost no time in acting.
The rope cut the air and descended over the intruder's head and arms. The lad's hours of practice while playing cowboy now proved to be of great worth.
Jimmie gave a quick jerk as the rope landed and he ran to the back of the room. He heard the other fall, and knew by the weight that he was dragging him.
When he gained the wall he switched on the light and reached to a shelf for a weapon. When he faced his captive he held an automatic revolver in his hand.
By this time a torrent of expletives was coming through the helmet opening where the air-hose had entered. The prisoner rolled about on the floor, trying to get to his feet.
"Whoo-pee!" shouted the boy. "Look what one can catch out of the ocean!"
A roar of rage was the only answer.
"Take off that helmet!" commanded the boy.
A muffled challenge came from the interior.
"All right," said the boy, "then I'll take it off for you. But I'll have this gun handy, and if you try any foolishness you won't hold water when I get done shootin'."
Before long the helmet was off, and Jimmie was looking into as evil a face as he had ever seen. It was the face of a stranger, and yet there seemed something familiar about it.
"What sort of a game is this?" demanded the captive. "If you know what's good for you, you'll quit this cowboy business."
"Who are you?" asked Jimmie.
A snarl was the only reply. The enraged man was tugging fiercely at the rope.
"Quit it!" warned Jimmie. "I'll have to put you to sleep if you try that."
"You don't dare!"
"Don't four-flush!" the boy advised.
"Release me!"
Jimmie sat down and leveled the weapon at the struggling man.
"I guess I'd better shoot," he said, calmly. "I suppose you've cut the boys' air-hose, and I'll have to get back to New York the best way I can—alone. So, you see, I can't be bothered with you."
The captive ceased his struggles and managed to rise to a sitting position. His eyes were not so threatening as before.
"No," he declared, "I didn't cut the hose."
"Why? You're equal to such a trick."
"I was told not to."
Jimmie hesitated a moment. He wished devoutly that he could believe what the fellow said.
"Who told you not to?" he then asked.
The captive shook his head.
"I don't know his name," he said.
"And you are sailing with him?"
"All I know is that he is called the Captain."
"I see," said the boy. "Now, how comes it that you know so much of the plans of the Sea Lion?"
"What makes you think I do?"
"You found the groove in the door, and also the spring that opens the door to the water chamber."
"Oh, that!"
"Well?" the boy flourished his weapon, though nothing could have induced him to fire on the unarmed man.
"I was told what to do when I got here," was the reply.
"Did you see my chums on the way here?" The captive nodded.
"Where?"
"At the wreck."
"Where is your boat?" was the next question.
"On the other side of the wreck."
"And you are after the gold?"
"Of course."
"And important papers?"
"I know nothing about that."
"What is the name of your boat?"
"The Shark."
"Appropriate name that!" laughed Jimmie. "Used to be the Diver, didn't she?"
"I don't know."
"What did you come here for?"
"To get the boat."
"And remove it?"
"Of course."
"That would have meant death to the boys who are out in the water at this time?"
"I suppose so. Say, there's something wrong with your air machine. I know something about such contrivances, and this one acts as if a hose out in the sea had been cut!"
Jimmie listened for an instant. There certainly was something the matter with the air machine.
"Get a move on!" shouted the captive, "or we'll all be food for the sharks directly."
"Remain quietly where you are, then," Jimmie said, with a significant flourish at the gun which he had no intention of using, except in a case of the direst necessity.
"Go!" shouted the other.
Jimmie did not know what to do. While he had learned a good deal about the submarine, he was by no means an expert in the handling of her. His experience with the air machines had been very slight, as the boys had made little use of them.
"It's getting close in here already!" cried the captive in alarm. "Why don't you do something?"
"What is there for me to do?" asked the boy.
"Release me and I'll fix it," suggested the other.
Before Jimmie could explain the foolishness of this proposition, he heard a pounding at the outer door of the water chamber. He bounded through the open doorway and looked out.
There was a helmeted face against the pane. The boy was motioning for the door to be opened.
"Now," mused Jimmie, "I wonder how he got up there? The lifting lines haven't moved. Why didn't he let me know he was coming up?"
"Hurry!" called the captive.
Jimmie knew, from the flounderings on the floor, that the fellow was again trying to get rid of the rope. He stepped to the door and lifted a hand in warning, then slid the bolts and guards so the water chamber door would open from the outside, then stepped back into the larger apartment and closed the door.
He heard a rush of water and knew that some one was entering. Then, satisfied that all was well, he turned to his prisoner.
The fellow was half out of the rope, and one hand was sneaking toward a heavy ax which lay not far off.
"Cut that!" cried the boy.
He stood guarding the man while the water chamber filled and emptied. Then the door opened and Ned came in, helmet in hand. First, he turned a screw and the trouble at the air machine ceased.
"What the dickens!"
Ned stopped short in the middle of the room as he turned and gazed in amazement at the prisoner.
"I've been fishin'," Jimmie explained, with a chuckle.
"What is it you caught?" asked Ned.
"This," said Jimmie, "is the original sea serpent!"
"Looks to me like Moore, Jr.," Ned said.
"No?" exclaimed the boy.
"Are you the son of Captain Moore?" asked Ned.
The other nodded.
"I thought you'd recognize me," he grunted. "I was a fool to come here."
"That's about the only true word you've said since you came on board,I take it," Ned went on.
Young Moore scowled and bent his eyes to the floor.
Ned now turned to Jimmie and asked:
"Why didn't you draw us up?"
"Why," replied the little fellow, "I never got the signal."
"Guess you were too busy getting your sea serpent," smiled Ned.
"Did you pull?" asked Jimmie.
"Sure. Jack and Frank are out there now, ready to beat you up for keeping them out so long."
The prisoner turned his face away from the two and sulked.
"There's the boys now," Jimmie said. "Let them in."
In ten minutes Jack and Frank were in the large room, busily engaged in taking off their deep-sea clothes.
As Frank threw his helmet into a corner he held up the end of a line.
"You see," he said, glancing angrily at the prisoner, who had moved as far away as possible. "The line was cut."
"Aw, it would have come away in your hand when you pulled, then," saidJimmie. "You'd have found that out quick enough."
"I tell you it was cut," Frank insisted. "It was cut and tied to a rock that lies at the bottom. When we pulled we pulled at the big old boulder we saw lying there on the sand. Now, what do you think of that?"
"Why did you do it?" asked Ned, turning to Moore.
"I didn't," was the reply.
"Who did?"
"I don't know."
"I don't believe you."
"There were others besides me," insisted Moore.
Ned made an examination of the end of the three cords. All had been cut. All had been tied to something, for the ends were frayed as if by being twisted about in the hands.
"I presume you thought you were cutting the air-hose?" asked Ned, tentatively.
"I reckon I know a line from a hose," was the reply.
"So you did cut them?"
Frank sprang toward the prisoner with flashing eyes. "I'll show you what such sneaks get here."
Ned drew the enraged boy away.
"He'll get what's coming to him at some other time," he said. "Let him alone for the present."
"But he did attempt to cut the hose!" Jack exclaimed. "We ought to throw him out to the sharks."
"Not now," said Ned, coolly.
"Anyway," Frank said, a smile showing on his face, "he made us swim to the boat."
"He did that himself," laughed Jimmie, "and lost his weights."
"That's the worst of it," Jack remarked, "we've lost our weights, and there's no knowing how we are to get more."
Jimmie now pointed to the air machine.
"Was there something wrong with it?" he asked.
Ned shook his head.
"Working perfectly," he said. "There wasn't a screw loose."
"Well, he," pointing to the prisoner, "said there was something wrong, and I began to think he was right."
"Imagination!" laughed Jack.
Ned now faced Moore and asked:
"Have you taken the gold out of the wreck?"
A shake of the head was the answer.
"Have you discovered any important papers? You know what I mean by 'important.'"
"We have not."
"You came in the Diver?"
"Yes."
"Run her across?"
"No; came on a tow-line."
"I thought so. What steamer towed you over?"
"I can't answer that."
"Why?"
"I'm not permitted to."
"It was a Japanese boat?"
"Well, yes, it was."
"And she kept you out of sight all the way over and dropped you here to do this dirty work?"
"She didn't put a brass band on board of us," replied the captive, sullenly. "What is the meaning of this third degree business? Who do you think you are?"
"Your people know that we are here, of course?"
"Oh, yes, we're not fools. We saw you from the first."
"And they know where you started for?"
"Sure."
"Is your father in the Diver?"
"I refuse to answer any more questions," Moore stormed. "You've got the upper hand now, but the time will come when things will be reversed. Release me!"
"Of course," replied Ned, "we'll release you and give you the run of the boat! You came here to murder us, and so are entitled to the most courteous treatment!"
"Well, quit asking impertinent questions, then," snarled the other."You can at least do that."
Ned hunted up two pairs of handcuffs, ironed the prisoner, and then conveyed him to a little room used for storage purposes. Moore did not appear to like this program.
"If anything should happen," he declared, "I'd be left here to die like a dog."
"And serve you good an' right!" Jimmie consoled.
"What do you expect is going to happen?" asked Jack.
"Oh, I don't know," was the hesitating reply. "Something might, you know."
The boys went out and shut the door, leaving young Moore protesting against the treatment he was receiving.
"Now," Ned said, when the boys were assembled in the large room, "it is plain that the rascals on board the Diver are preparing to attack us, or do something to imperil our lives. You saw how frightened Moore was when he was locked in that room."
"Yes, he seems to fear that he will be brought to death by his own friends," Frank said.
"What do you suggest?" asked Ned.
"Stay an' fight!" urged Jimmie.
"Hide away from them!" Frank proposed.
"Wait here until we see what they propose doing," Jack ventured.
"I think," laughed Ned, "that we'll bunch your advice and utilize it all. We'll hide in some deep spot until we see what they're up to, and then we'll fight."
"I reckon they are about five to one."
This from Frank, who preferred meeting the enemy on dry land.
"Oh, we can't come to a hand-to-hand battle," Ned replied. "We've got to fight submarine fashion."
Without attempting any explanation of this observation Ned proceeded to make a careful inspection of the boat. There was a torpedo tube at the prow, and this he studied over for a long time.
"Goin' to blow 'em up?" asked Jimmie.
"I was thinking," was the reply, "that we might use this as a bluff if we come to a tight place."
"Aw, what's the use?" demanded Jimmie. "You don't make bluffs! You get the winning hand before you call! If I had my way, I'd blow 'em out of the water!"