CHAPTER XVWHEN MORNING CAME
The setting sun told them that evening was near at hand. Captain Shooks had determined to work through the whole night, using shifts so as to make the labor continuous; and he himself promised to share this duty with the two divers.
The sooner they exhausted the chances of finding more of the treasure the better. With theDauntlessso close at hand their operations might be brought to an abrupt termination at any time. Should Captain Badger become alarmed at not having received a report from his spies, and start out to investigate, of course the result would be the discovery of the float, and a windup of the work.
Jack, for one, was not sorry. He fancied that he had made about all the pictures possible in that particular field, but believed there were other submarine depths waiting to be explored, and made to live in motion pictures, for the education and enjoyment of untold millions of patrons of the “movies.”
This being the case, Jack, as a true artist, eagerlyawaited the time when they should start out to seek those new fields of adventure. With him the finding of the long lost treasures of the sea took second place; of far more importance was the discovery of those rare curiosities that had, ever since the world began, been hidden from the eyes of mortal man, but were now about to be revealed in all their startling grandeur.
Oscar and the skipper talked matters over late into the night, when the others had retired to their bunks. The work was still going on, lanterns being used on the float to show the men how to carry on their operations. By the dim light of these the diver was sent down below, and the pump kept laboring steadily so as to give him a plentiful supply of air.
It made a weird scene, and one Oscar would never forget. Indeed so fascinating had it become to the boy that it was midnight before he could tear himself away from the society of the captain, and seek his own bunk. There he dreamed of untold treasures coming up from ocean depths, accompanied by all manner of terrible monsters fashioned after the manner of Chinese dragons, and those gigantic lizards of prehistoric days, such as we see now and then fancifully sketched in publications, or discover arranged in museums of fossil remains.
It had been arranged upon the conclusion of their work in this particular spot at Coco Key, to seek still another Caribbean Sea island, where their map told of a more modern sinking of a vesselbelieved to carry much specie in its safe. After that they could take their choice of numerous contemplated enterprises, even passing through the Panama Canal, and continuing their search in the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Jack had been a strenuous backer of this last suggestion. Of course he wanted to have a chance to capture a series of pictures dealing with the famous waterway connecting the two oceans, and which would add more or less spice and variety to his work.
So far as that was concerned both Ballyhoo and Oscar were quite as enthusiastic as Jack about the project of passing through the canal. They had heard and read so much about those wonderful locks, and the strategical value the canal added to the defense of Uncle Sam’s dominions, that it was only natural all of them should wish to see the same with their own eyes.
When Ballyhoo, chancing to awaken, heard the steady sound of the pump going outside, and turning on the electric current close to his hand found that it was past seven, he gave a shout that aroused both his mates.
“Time we showed a leg, I’m telling you, fellows!” was the burden of his call. “I c’n smell breakfast in the air, to boot, and it must be broad daylight out there.”
“The pump is still wheezing,” remarked Jack, “which tells that they’ve kept it up steady all night long. They’ll be about played out by now, and must have a rest.”
“There, it’s stopped working now. I wonder how many more of those jolly bricks they’ve hauled up,” observed the Jones boy, as he hurriedly proceeded to get his clothes on. “From the fact of their keeping busy while we slept I reckon they must have been meeting with some good luck. I hope they don’t weight the old tub down with the stuff so there’ll be danger of her foundering. Sometimes a fellow can get too much of a good thing; I’ve been in that fix myself when they had a party at our house, and ice cream left over.”
“Don’t worry about that,” laughed Oscar. “If it comes to it the captain can jettison heaps of stuff to make room for the ingots. Those barrels and planks took up a lot of space, you remember. And if necessary some of us could go back on a regular steamer.”
“Of course you’re only joshing me when you say that, Oscar,” remonstrated Ballyhoo reproachfully. “There will be plenty more queer things to be seen in this under-the-sea hunt, and we started out to get all there are.”
Soon afterwards they climbed to the upper deck, to find Captain Shooks just coming over from the raft. One of the divers had been hauled to the surface, and the men manning the air pump had quit work.
“Looks like we had about come to the end of our rope here, lads,” remarked the skipper pleasantly, though he did look tired to death from being on duty so long, not to mention the severaltimes he had donned a diver’s suit and gone below.
“Cleaned out, do you mean, Captain?” demanded Ballyhoo.
“Well, we haven’t found anything since three o’clock this morning, when the last pair of bricks came up,” replied the other, yawning wearily, “and I rather reckon all the balance of the stuff must be buried under fathoms of sand outside the hulk.”
“That means no living being will ever see it again, doesn’t it?” asked Jack.
“Well, if the day ever comes when they get an excavating machine that can work a hundred or two feet under the surface of the sea,” replied the skipper humorously, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d root out heaps of gold that’s been buried for centuries. But till that time comes it’s going to stay hidden.”
“Well, the chef told me to say breakfast was ready, Captain,” Oscar reported.
“And I’ll be mighty glad to get some strong coffee, for I’m played out,” the other admitted.
“But you mean to do some more looking about, don’t you, while we have the apparatus rigged?” Ballyhoo wanted to know.
“I reckon we’ll make a few more tries, lad, before we pull up stakes and clear out,” he was informed. “I’m hoping that something will fetch that old filibuster over this way before we quit. I’d like to leave him the bag to hold.”
All through the night one of the men had beenstationed near the end of the Key, seated in the small boat. His duty was to keep a vigilant lookout for any sign of a moving light; for Captain Shooks had been a little fearful lest the enemy steal on them unawares, and catch them either napping or at work.
This man was recalled by a signal, and another sent off in his place. Then breakfast occupied their attention, nor were any of the boys sorry to find such a bountiful spread put before them.
After that work was resumed at the old stand. One of the divers, who had had several hours’ sleep, was sent down, the other resting meanwhile. Captain Shooks also announced his intention of giving it one more try personally, not being quite satisfied that the “pocket” had been wholly exhausted.
Ballyhoo was wondering whether it would be worth his while to try and see what it was like, but his fear of sharks finally forced him to decide against anything of the sort.
The early hours of the morning wore away. When the diver came up he brought nothing with him, though he had explored diligently in several fresh places.
“I reckon we’ve cleaned the old hulk out,” Captain Shooks had said on hearing his report; “but since I’ve made up my mind to have one last look, here goes.”
Accordingly, he went over the side of the float, and vanished from their sight. The boys were “spelling” the tired men at the air pump. Itgave them something to do, and at the same time relieved the sailors who had been keeping this sort of thing up for many hours.
“I hope now,” Ballyhoo remarked, as he labored manfully, “that nothing happens in the way of an accident, just when we expect to pull out of here shortly. That would be too tough for anything, and we’d miss the skipper dreadfully, too, you know.”
“You old croaker, whatever puts such things in your head?” said Jack scathingly. “He’ll be up again in half an hour or so, if there’s nothing doing; and then we expect to get a move on. As for me I’m crazy to start for that next stand, because there’ll be a chance for a new kind of film business.”
When the captain did appear later on he told them, just as soon as his helmet was removed, that there was no use of any further efforts. The treasure lode had been worked to the bone, and no matter how they continued to search, small chance remained for finding another one of the precious Spanish ingots.
Hardly had he spoken than Ballyhoo made a discovery.
“Hey! what do I see coming this way like fun? A man in our little collapsible, and paddling for all that’s out in the bargain. Guess he’s fetching some news, Captain. There, see him wave his hand; that settles it. He’s sighted a vessel heading this way. Now see us get a move on, will you.”
The man increased his efforts, and soon reached the float where the little group awaited his arrival, the skipper hastily discarding his diver’s suit. Just as the boys had suspected, there was a vessel in sight. Seen through the glasses this boat bore all the marks of the black hulledDauntless.
Immediately the skipper gave orders for making ready to clear out.
“It’s too bad that we’ll have to abandon all these barrels, and the lumber,” he went on to say, “but the time is too short to take the float to pieces and stow the stuff away. Besides, we can easily run in at some port and get a fresh supply. Fetch those three men up from below; we can leave them here on the float to wait for their fellow pirates to come along and rescue ’em.”
The officer and his two men looked curiously about when they came up out of the hatch, and blinking their eyes in the bright sunlight saw the hasty preparations for departure. However, they did not attempt any resistance when ordered on to the raft.
“Your boat is heading this way, and they’ll pick you up in good time,” Captain Shooks told them, at which the officer allowed a sardonic smile to creep over his face, doubtless under the belief that possibly they would be lucky enough to also secure a few of these heavy ingots of gold, such as he had seen brought up from the hulk of the sunken Spanish ship.
There was nothing else to do now. The skipperhad carefully gone over everything, and even had the collapsible boat taken aboard, to be stowed away below. Then the order was given, and the submarine, with anchor raised, commenced to leave the float behind. The three men continued to stand there watching the departing treasure seeking craft, and evidently still anxious as to their own ultimate fate.