He turned to open the case that was placed amidships of the life raft. It was tightly closed by a catch that could be easily opened when one knew how, and Judd seemed to know.
“Is this life raft from the Sherman?” asked Bob. “Did they throw it over when the crash came?”
“It isn’t one from the transport,” the sailor answered. “It’s like some we carried, though. This one is from the steamer Altaire, and I shouldn’t wonder but what that was the derelict that crashed into us.”
“The Altaire!” murmured Bob. “I wonder if we’ll ever see her again. I’ve always wanted to see a derelict.”
“Well, I’d rather see one at a distance, if they’re going to act as this one did,” remarked Professor Snodgrass. “Though I suppose I shouldn’t find fault, as I might never have discovered this crab if I had not gone overboard. The only thing that worries me, though, is that I didn’t get that sea-leech. That’s what was on you,” he added to the sailor. “A sea-leech is one of the rarest specimens of the genus Hirudo, and this was the Hirudo aqua marinis, quite different from the Hirudo medicinalis. What I was particularly interested in was to observe whether the sea-leech had the same three small white teeth with serrated edges which cause the peculiar triradiated wound as has the Hirudo medicinalis.”
Judd stared in amazement.
“Well, if it’s all the same to you,” said Bob, with a smile, “I’d like to try my teeth on some of the food in that box.”
“All right, my boy! I’m with you!” agreed the professor. “I feel a bit hungry myself.”
Judd opened the locker, and to the delight of the three on the raft it was well filled. There was preserved food enough to last them perhaps a week, and a large cask of fresh water—that is, it was comparatively fresh, for no one could say how long the raft had been adrift.
“But it can’t have been long,” asserted the old salt. “My opinion is that the life raft was jarred off the derelict when she hit us. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been floating in the place where we struck the water. Besides, there isn’t any growth or mass of seaweed and barnacles on it as there would be if it had been long in the water.”