Disappointment swept over the boat. The diver was empty-handed.
CHAPTER XXII
Check-Out
“Don’t look so worried,” Sammy Mamola said. The skin diver looked up at the disappointed faces. “I didn’t expect to bring up that box on my first dive. Give me a little more time. I do think I may have located it, though.”
Expressions of hope replaced the sad faces aboard the Easy Action.
“I need another tool,” Sammy said. “A short bar, two or three feet long. If what I think is the box, it’s jammed, and I can’t free it without prizing it. What have you got?”
Sammy was treading water, one hand resting lightly on the yawl’s gunnel.
“I’ll look in the tool box,” Biff said.
While he was gone, Sammy told them what he had found below.
“That boat sure took a beating. Everything in the cabin is smashed up. She’s filled with sand, and other sea trash. I had to chase some fish out, too. Especially a small octopus—didn’t want it squirting its ink around, clouding my vision. I found what I think may be your box under a mound of sand and broken sea shells. Couldn’t pull it out, though.”
“Any sign of—”