“Don’t look so,” replied the sailor. “It’s about as bad a wreck as I ever saw. They’ll have hard work lightering the cargo off here. Maybe it’s well insured.”
It was a new and novel experience for the boys to be aboard a big wrecked steamer. They went below, though it was anything but easy, considering the condition of the companionways which were at all angles. They went through the cabins, into some of the staterooms, and saw many valuable articles, but Sam advised them not to touch any.
“I’m not clear on the law,” he said. “I know it’s all right to pick stuff out of the sea, but it may be piracy or worse to take it off a vessel so near shore. We’ll get enough as it is. I see the stuff is fairly tumbling from the hold in the forward part of the ship.”
“Hark! What’s that noise?” asked Jerry suddenly, holding up his hand for silence.
Above the splash of the waves against the side there sounded a long, drawn-out cry.
“It’s a baby! Some one has forgotten their baby!” cried Sam. “The life savers took everybody off, and left the baby behind!”
Once more the cry came. It was a regular wail.
“That’s a cat!” declared Bob.
“I tell you it’s a baby!” the sailor insisted.
This time there came an unmistakable “mew!”