The white-faced boys saw Yorke catch hold of him, but Jerry sent the twisted-mouthed man reeling with a blow; not until Dailey and Birch flung themselves on him was he quieted. Then he once more became himself, but he had been struck a hard blow; he looked ten years older, as Mart commented below his breath.
"No wonder," said Bob commiseratingly. "Poor old Jerry—he'd been counting on that dynamite to blow up the Pirate Shark, Mart. Just the same, I guess my bullet sent Mr. Shark a-kiting out to the open sea."
Jerry climbed back to the bridge, vouchsafing no comment, but still trembling and muttering to himself. Calling down the tube, he found that the engineer had enough steam up to give the Seamew steerage way, and without further delay he ordered the anchor tripped and rang for half speed ahead.
Slowly the yacht gathered way and swung about, pointing up past the island toward the channel beyond. Beyond this, again, the lagoon continued for a quarter-mile farther, in a rounded bay where little rock-points showed their jagged teeth. As they advanced, the water became deeper, shoaled again, then grew deeper beyond the channel; at last Jerry rang for reversed engines, the cable roared out, and the engines ceased.
"Now, lads," he said, "we're over that there wreck. Let's have a look."
They followed him eagerly enough to the deck, where already the crew were looking over the bulwarks. The water was wonderfully clear, but as it was forty feet deep here, they could make out nothing of the bottom. Just under their ladder and gangway, however, the quartermaster pointed out a deeper shadow of green, which he declared showed the position of the wreck.
"We'll send down a Kanaka in the morning," he said. "And if that there ain't the old wreck, lads, then Jerry Smith is a Dutchman!"
"But what about the shark?" objected Bob stoutly. "You aren't going to send down any men there, Jerry, with that shark hanging around. Not if I know it!"
"Well, them Kanakas lost my dynamite, didn't they?" snarled Jerry suddenly, his face sweeping into quick anger.
"That's no matter," rejoined Mart. "You needn't think we'll stand for any men going down—"