CHAPTER IXTHE DIVER AT WORK
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 tohelp 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 sunkenship. 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 thatcan 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 seethe 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 Keyafter 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 waitingto 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.