“Oh! I don’t really believe there’s any danger, lad, but in these Southern waters it’s always wise to keep an eye to windward for squalls, and by that I mean sharks.”
“Gee whiz! I forgot that!” exclaimed Ballyhoo; and then thinking that he saw Jack laughing in his sleeve he hastened to add: “but that doesn’t faze me one little bit. I guess I could get out of the way of a lazy old shark any time.”
Accordingly, Ballyhoo commenced to undress. He was a regular water duck when it came to all such aquatic sports as boys delight in, and could both swim and dive in a way that no other fellow in all Melancton ever equalled.
Somehow neither of the others seemed to care to follow his example, though he called out to them to “come in, the water’s fine.” Jack was too much interested in his camera just then, while Oscar didn’t feel like it. The thought of any peril hovering around did not keep him from copying Ballyhoo’s example; but he had suffered terribly from sunburned shoulders not a great while before, and hardly liked the idea of taking the risk again.
While Ballyhoo and two of the crew frisked in the water, seeming to be having a glorious time, Jack and Oscar sat there on the upper deck and talked.
“How little we dreamed when we first read that wonderful book of Jules Verne,” the former was saying, “that the time would come when all of us might experience many of the very sensations he described so well.”
“That’s a fact,” his chum admitted, “yet here we are aboard an undersea boat, and bound on an enterprise almost as romantic as that of the Nautilus. The combination of searching for lost treasure at the bottom of the sea, and also taking motion pictures of the ocean depths, is something worth while.”
“Look at Ballyhoo cutting up in the water, will you, Oscar. That chum of ours can give a big lead to either of those two men, and then make circles around him. Hey! Ballyhoo, better not get too far away, you know!”
“Oh! that’s all right, Jack,” answered the other, who had gone a third of the way toward the palm-fringed shore of the island; “nothing doing along the danger line. You fellows don’t know what you’re missing, I tell you.”
The boys busied themselves in purchasing some tropical fruits from one of the natives who had paddled out in their canoes for barter. They also had shells and some nautical curios, but the boys did not purchase any of these.