CHAPTER XIIIRECOVERING THE TREASURE
“You’ll have to pay for that boat, Captain Shooks!” said the officer; for the boys had seen some time before that the man in the stern of the cedar motor-boat was dressed in some sort of blue uniform, and wore a cap with gold braid, though this latter had been lost when he went overboard at the time of the crash.
The skipper of the submersible laughed good-naturedly.
“Oh! my company will be only too glad to settle your bill, Mr. Anstey,” he said. “I remember you now, and also that once on a time we were both working for the Hecla people. I was sorry to have to smash into you like that, but it was unavoidable. When two old filibusters like Badger and me get to swapping blows, it’s going to be a case of ‘dog eat dog.’ You had it in for me, and I played you a trick worth two of yours, that’s all.”
“But it’s a nice situation of affairs,” blustered the other, as though trying to make the most ofa bad situation, “when a peaceable man can’t travel on the high seas, and minding his own business at that, without having a reckless pirate run him down, and nearly drown his crew.”
“Oh! tell that to the marines, Mr. Anstey,” laughed the skipper. “You were minding some other people’s business all the time you hid there on that Key, and watched what we were doing. And you meant to carry the news to Badger, sure you did, only my young friends here happened to go ashore, and saw you starting off. So since it would ruin some little plans of ours if you ever got back to Badger, I made up my mind you’d stay with me as my guests until we’d sucked the orange dry.”
“Then you have found something, have you?” asked the other quickly.
“Take it out in guessing,” he was drily advised by Captain Shooks, who saw no reason for telling all he knew.
“And you’re going to keep us aboard your old tub, are you?” continued the other, as he glanced at the homely looking undersea boat, which, when compared with the jaunty steam yacht on which he served, might be compared to a canal-boat.
“Tub or not,” said the skipper grimly, “it’s built for the sort of work we’re doing right now. And what’s best of all, when we don’t want any spies to take a look in on us we just give a kick, and go down fifty or a hundred feet below, to stay there as snug as you please for hours and hours.”
“Well, you’ve got us, all right, and I supposewe’ll have to make the best of a bad bargain, Captain Shooks. But I give you fair warning that I mean to escape the first chance I get.”
“Thank you for telling me,” laughed the other; “I’ll make sure that your chance doesn’t arrive until we’re all through here. I reckon now your craft is hiding over behind yon Key to the northeast of us?”
“You wouldn’t expect me to tell you that, Captain,” replied the other, shutting his lips together resolutely.
“And it also seems,” continued Shooks, “that you suspected pretty strong like that Coco Key was going to be our first stop; so Badger ran down here ahead of us, sent three men ashore in that mosquito craft, which could be hidden among the reeds and mangroves, and then made for the shelter of that other Key to wait for news; is that right, Mr. Anstey?”
“Nothing to say,” the other snapped.
“Well, I’ll give orders to have a place fixed for you down below,” continued the captain, with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “There you’ll have to stay, and eat your three meals a day, until we’re ready to pull out of here, when mebbe I’ll put you ashore with some grub, and maroon you there. But you’ll not be given a chance to spy on us or get away, make up your minds to that.”
“Better than we could have looked for, under the circumstances,” admitted the officer, doubtless knowing how much more severely his commander would likely have acted under similar conditions,for Badger was known as a cruel as well as daring adventurer.
They were now well on the way back to the island, around which their course would take them, until once more the float made of empty oil barrels and planks had been regained.
Since the spies had already watched them making this, and knew everything excepting the very last discovery, there was no need to hurry them below. Captain Shooks, however, was not the man to take chances. He understood that Anstey was likely to attempt any sort of sudden, desperate move if by so doing he thought he could cripple their industry, and give his commander a better opportunity to win out.
“We’ll just tie your hands behind your backs, my friends,” he told the trio, “for I wouldn’t like to tempt you to get in worse trouble. You can sit here a little while, and I’ll see that the cargo hold is arranged for your accommodation. You’ll have to get used to the darkness, for I’ll give you no light except a hand torch to use when you are being fed. That goes, you understand?”
None of the three made any attempt to rebuff the sailor who brought stout cord and fastened their wrists behind their backs. They understood that any foolishness on their part would only arouse the tiger in the skipper, causing a frown to take the place of that smile.
Meanwhile, those on the float were working industriously away. One of the divers had gone down again, and the other was sitting there withhis helmet removed, taking in great draughts of fresh air, and looking to the time when he might be called on to once again go down.
While the captain was still below with a couple of his crew, superintending the arrangements in the hold that had contained the barrels and planks, it happened that the diver, who was down, gave a signal, and those on the float commenced hauling at a rope.
“Hello! something’s coming up!” exclaimed Ballyhoo; and with that all of them crowded to the side of the little deck to watch, the three prisoners as well as Oscar and his chums.
The men had no trouble as long as the bag was in the water, but as soon as they attempted to raise it to the float it became necessary for both to exert themselves to the utmost.
Then the stout sack was turned inside-out, and three of those dull-looking, brick-shaped bars came tumbling out. Oscar instantly glanced at the face of Anstey. He saw the other stare as though he could hardly believe his eyes, for, of course, a man of his varied experience knew without being told what those singular looking objects must be.
“By thunder! youdidhit the cache, didn’t you?” he exclaimed, his eyes fairly sparkling with avarice, as he fixed them upon those three dull-looking bricks that he knew would mean a nice little fortune for any one lucky enough to get them in his possession.
Just then the captain appeared, coming up from below. He frowned when he saw how accidenthad revealed more than he wanted the prisoners to know. However, it could not be helped now, since the “cat was out of the bag.” And if his plans carried as he expected, this information would never reach Badger until it was too late to profit him, since he must only find a plundered hulk left behind, as the treasure hunters sailed for their next destination.
So the three men were ordered to follow him below, their hands being once more freed from the bonds. Captain Shooks watched their every movement, and made no bones of showing a pistol he carried.
Later on he came up again, and looked satisfied that he had gotten rid of a nuisance.
“They’ll not be able to break out of the cargo hold, I’m thinking,” he told the boys, who, by their demeanor, were expecting some sort of explanation from him, which the obliging skipper was only too willing to give.
“How long do you think we will be able to work here without being bothered by that old piratical cutthroat, Badger?” asked Ballyhoo, who did not seem at all particular how he called names.
“Well, that’s impossible to say,” he was told by Captain Shooks. “They evidently mean to lie low, and trust to these chaps to let ’em know if anything interesting happens. We’ll work like troopers to complete our job. I’ll take my turn at it, too. And all the while we’ll have some one on guard to let us know if any craft shows up. If it looks bad, and we still feel there are things to begot at down below, we’ll dismantle the float and take a dive before they get here. At the worst we can run for it, and fight if hard pushed.”
Apparently, Captain Shooks had the situation well in hand. He did not intend to yield a single point to the enemy if he could help it. And the more Ballyhoo saw of the skipper of theArgonautthe better he liked him.
“If that slick article of a Badger is any improvement on our captain,” he told the others, as they sat there watching Shooks getting ready to equip himself in the armor of the diver who had just come to the surface after an exhausting time of it below, “he must be a holy terror, that’s what; because the skipper of our boat seems to be right there with the goods, every time. Oscar, didn’t I hear you saying you’d like mighty much to go down in one of those suits, and see what the old hulk looks like at close quarters?”
“Yes, and later on this afternoon, if the skipper is willing, I’m meaning to try one little trip. I may not be as good in the water as you, Ballyhoo, but I’m tall and strong, and think I could stand my turn playing diver.”
“But Oscar, you did go down once before, you remember,” said Jack.
“Yes, when that diver came up from the city to discover what had happened to the outlet of the lake by the big dam. The water was thirty feet deep, too. I made good friends with the man, and he let me put on his suit, and creep down the long ladder. So I stood there at the bottom, andsaw what he was doing to fix things. Ever since then I’ve had a longing to make another try; and when we agreed to join this expedition I told myself I’d do the same at the first chance.”
The diver who had just come up had not managed to run across any further prizes. He said he had covered quite some territory inside the hulk; but it was dark even in spite of his electric torch, made especially for underwater work, slippery and very hard to get around even to an old hand.
Captain Shooks went over the side, and was lowered by means of a rope, though a stout ladder extended part way down, to give the diver a fair start. After reaching the foot of this he must swing free, and depend on those above to keep lowering him until the ground was gained.
The time passed away. It was long after the middle of the short afternoon, when again Captain Shooks appeared. Apparently he had not been successful in his laborious search, for he sat down at once, and allowed them to unfasten his helmet.