“I don’t believe the captain will find any fault with you,” said Bob. “I’ll do what I can to smooth the thing over.”
“It’s like you to do that,” returned Gaines gratefully. “You were the same with Cassidy, that other time when he came in from the River Izaral, and I remember I thought you were rather too easy on him.”
“We all thought that,” said Speake. “And I’m free to say that I think Bob’s too easy on us.”
“That bag with the gold pieces was left down in the torpedo room,” went on Clackett.
“It was?” queried Bob, deeply interested.
“Yes. I left it there. I wouldn’t have touched it with a ten-foot pole.”
“That will pay for a new periscope ball and mast,” said Bob, “and for the provisions and gasoline we used up on this trip. Taking it all together, we’ve had a very successful cruise——”
“Hot and lively,” put in Speake.
“And short,” added Gaines; “that’s the best part of it. If it had kept up much longer, I’d have been down with heart failure. We not only had a close call in the matter of losing the ship to Fingal and his gang, but likewise in the matter of that submarine mine. My nerves are in rags, and I hope Nemo, junior, isn’t going to sit down on us too hard. That would be about the last straw!”
“Hard luck that we couldn’t have nabbed Don Carlos,” wailed Speake. “I’d have taken particular pleasure in herding him with the rest of our prisoners.”