“I could just manage to see through the glass,” Ballyhoo explained, “that it had trees and scrub, and plenty of those queer mangroves growing all along the edge of the shores. The skipper told us the water was quite deep, too, and that we’d be likely to see all sorts of tropical growth, once we went down.”
“Yes, although he hasn’t ever been here before in a submarine,” Oscar went on to say, “he has often looked through a water glass, and hunted for sponges that way, so he knows what these tropical waters can hold.”
“Huh! I was just thinking!” Ballyhoo exclaimed in a stage whisper, “that it looks kind of spooky off yonder toward the Key, as we see it now in this queer light. Oh! did you notice that, boys? Really and truly something flashed up right ashore, then!”
“I saw it, too,” admitted Jack, and Oscar followed with:
“No question about it, the island isn’t as deserted as Captain Shooks thought. It may be that first light came from a sponging vessel anchored on the other side of the Key, and that some of her crew are ashore, meaning to turn turtles when they crawl up on the beach; though it’s generally in the Spring of the year they come out to lay their eggs in the warm sand.”
The skipper, coming on deck just then, was put in possession of such facts as they had accumulated. Apparently he did not much like the news. It would interfere considerably with their intended movements, for they could not very well remain on the surface in the daytime without being seen, and their presence suspected.
To allay any suspicions, in case they met with some cruising pleasure yacht while in the vicinity of the treasure island, the wily captain had laid out a plan of campaign quite original. The boys entered into it with more or less zeal, since they were always ready for a lark.
Captain Shooks, while an American, could speak German like a born native of the Rhine country, and it was his intention to make frequent use of this language, so as to cause the inquisitive pleasure voyagers to believe the craft to be a hostile German submarine, lying in this isolated quarter to wait for stores and torpedoes, so as to commence a raid on the Allies’ oil vessels coming out from Mexican ports with cargoes for the British trade.
The skipper decided that in all probability the explanation given by Oscar to account for the presence of the lights might be the true one. Nevertheless, they must not run any unnecessary chances so early in the game. It might be the Dauntless after all, for Captain Shooks had a very great respect for the sagacity of that tricky mariner who commanded the black steam yacht.
And so a little later on he decided they had gone as close to Coco Key as common prudence would dictate. Accordingly, the boys were ordered below, the hatches closed, and the boat sank below the surface of the sea.