“You’d better go slow on bootleg liquor,” was Captain Corning’s advice. “Remember a deep-sea diver needs to keep his eyesight.”
“Oh, I know good liquor when I see it,” grumbled Amend.
Just before they landed at Key West, which, as my readers must know, is located on the extreme southern point of Florida, Fred, walking forward on the deck, caught sight of Olesen behind the foremast in earnest conversation with Larsen and Smader. The three were talking in Norwegian, and, as before, only an occasional word was spoken in English. But these words interested Fred deeply, and he listened attentively until the sailors had to go off to attend to their duties and the diver walked to the stern. Then the youngest of the Rover boys rushed off to join his cousins.
“Here’s a new one!” he exclaimed excitedly. “I just caught Olesen talking to those two sailors, Larsen and Smader. He mentioned pistols and ammunition several times, and so did one of the other men!”
“Pistols and ammunition!” exclaimed Jack and the twins simultaneously.
“That’s what!”
“Sounds bad to me,” went on the oldest of the Rover boys. “Looks as if they were surely getting ready for a mutiny.”
“Don’t you think we had better tell Captain Corning?” came from Randy.
“I certainly do,” answered Jack. “What do you think, Fred? You heard them talking.”
“I think Captain Corning ought to know all about it, and at once.”