“I can’t give you any of the details of what happened shortly after that because I don’t know them,” went on the youngest Rover boy. “But I do know there was a row on board the steam yacht and a terrible storm came up and then the crowd tried to get back to land. The Margarita was wrecked and everything on board was lost.”
“What became of Miguel Torra and his bunch?”
“It is supposed that he and all the others lost their lives. But nobody seems to be sure of that.”
“Well, where do we come in on this, Fred?” demanded Randy.
“I’m getting to that,” answered his cousin. “Did you ever hear my dad speak of old Captain Corning?”
“Seems to me I have,” answered Jack. “I think your father once made some pretty good investments for the old sea dog.”
“That’s the man. My father likes him very much and thinks he’s very reliable. Well, to cut a long story short, Captain Corning knows all about this affair of the Margarita and he’s now looking for somebody to finance him so that he can go on a hunt for this missing yacht.”
“But if she’s at the bottom of the ocean how are you going to get to her?” demanded Jack. “Even the best of the divers find it impossible to get down beyond a certain depth. If they could get down as far as they wanted to, they could raise all sorts of sunken ships and get treasures worth billions.”
“Well, I believe that Captain Corning has his own ideas as to where the steam yacht is located. And more than that, I think he has an idea that if the divers can’t get down to her in their ordinary outfits they can make use of a newly invented diving bell and reach the Margarita that way.”
“All very interesting,” declared Andy. “But where do we come in?”