“Well, there’s something funny here,” said Don, as he walked down the passageway.
They looked into the rooms, to find each one of them empty. The largest of all had evidently been a bunkroom for the crew.
“Must have had a crew of twelve or more,” decided Jim, after counting the bunks.
There now remained only the hold to explore and they prepared to descend. The hold was reached by a trap door at the end of the passageway, although there was a large door on the deck opening to it. The boys raised the trap and looked down.
“Awfully dark down there,” Terry remarked. “Too bad we didn’t bring a light with us.”
“Yes, it is,” Don agreed, beginning to descend. “But we’ll just give a glance around. We won’t be down there long enough to need a light.”
The short ladder ended abruptly and the boys found themselves at the bottom of the hold. In the darkness they could see lumber piled around them. It had been originally stacked high, but the movement of the waves had caused it to fall together in the middle, forming a complicated and tangled barrier.
“Just as I figured,” said Jim. “It’s a lumber barge. But whoever stacked that lumber made a lousy job of it. It should have been braced, and instead of that it was allowed to stand by itself. Now look at it!”
They decided that lumber was the only thing to be found in the hold, and turned to leave. At that moment there came a terrific pounding somewhere near them. Startled, the boys looked at each other.
“Hey, what’s that?” gasped Jim.