Dorothy shuddered. “Go under the water, you mean?” she questioned. “Oh! Frank, is it safe?”
“Safe? Surely! I have been down many a time in boats much like this. Of course—I won’t deceive you—accidents are always possible, but there is really little risk, if the machinery works well. And we can’t tell about that till we try. Don’t be afraid, dear. God has been too good to us to let it all come to naught now.”
“I’m not afraid, Frank. I’m not afraid anywhere with you, my king of men.”
Howard had something to say to this, but it is scarcely worth setting down; lovers’ confidences seldom are. By and by he started up. “I’m afraid we’re as mad one way as those people on the galleon are in another,” he smiled. “I’m wasting valuable time that should be used in getting you out of this before Forbes finds us. He’s sure to be looking up this place very soon.”
A thought struck Dorothy. “Oh, those poor people!” she exclaimed. “Can’t you take some of their gold for them, Frank? A little money will mean so much to the Joyces. They are too old to go to work again, and——”
“It would come in rather handy with me, too. But I don’t see— By George! Yes, I think I do! Let’s look.” He dived down again into the body of the submarine and soon reappeared, his face radiant.
“There is about five tons of detachable lead ballast in the bottom,” he cried, joyously. “We can take it out, and put gold in its place—two million dollars’ worth. If you will wait here. I’ll go and tell the others. Maybe they are tired enough to listen to reason now.”
They were! Howard found them all sitting glumly on the deck of the galleon, glaring despairingly at the great pile of gold bars they had extracted from the hold. One by one they had dropped their loads and sank down where they stood, when, with increasing weariness, the situation had at last dawned upon them. When Howard approached, they did not heed him further than to cast savage glances in his direction. Then they returned to contemplation of the gold.
Howard understood the situation without words. “You oughtn’t to have worked so hard,” he observed, in a matter-of-fact tone. “You, especially, Joyce. And you, Mrs. Joyce. You’ll feel this to-morrow. But now that you have gotten all the gold up here, I’m glad to tell you that I’ve got a boat outside that will carry us, and just about this much gold besides—say a third of a million for each of us. The rest, I’m afraid, we’ll have to abandon.”
