Although they had been passing through these fields of water ferns and tree-like forms for only half an hour or so, the boys were ready to declare that the reality far exceeded even their most sanguine expectations.
“Of course,” Jack admitted when they commenced talking about their work, and what a satisfaction it was not to be disappointed, “this thing will get a bit monotonous in due course, unless we keep on meeting up with new sights. But then down here in these depths there’s apt to be something novel happening any old time; just as that terrible fight between the two species of sharks turned out.”
“We had the same sort of luck out in Africa, remember,” Ballyhoo reminded the other two chums. “Whenever things got a little dull along would come something out of the ordinary to liven up the show. When we got through taking pictures of all the wild animals that could be met with in the jungle and the forest, why, what followed but that trip to the black king’s kraal, where we saw his army drill, and watched ’em do the Lion Dance to the tune of a horrid din.”
The crew had before this fallen away from the ports, and gone back to their customary work. They saw little that was attractive about those waving forests of singular submarine growths; though the prospect of another fight between some of the denizens of the depths would have brought them rushing forward again.
“Notice how the skipper keeps lunging from side to side as we move along?” observed Oscar. “He is scouring the ground as he goes forward. By the time we’ve made several revolutions around Coco Key we’ll know whether there was any truth in that old yarn about the sunken hulk, or not.”
“Well,” ventured Ballyhoo, with a shrug of his shoulders that was intended to express incredulity, “so far as I’m concerned I reckon it was only a fishy story that some newspaper man got up just to fill space. You never know how much to believe of anything you see in the newspapers nowadays, when the reporters are paid for space.”
“The proof of the pudding is the eating of the same,” laughed Oscar; “so we’ll not quite condemn that yarn until we’ve proved it to be a bad egg. You’d feel pretty cheap, Ballyhoo, if we really did uncover something in the shape of an old hulk, whether it held any treasure or not.”
“Oh! I surely hope they do, for the captain’s sake, yes, and for Uncle Abner’s, too; because he’s sunk a wheen of good hard cash in this venture, that he may never get back again. With us, now, it’s different, I claim, for we’re going about a legitimate business. Let us get our pictures, and it’s going to line our pockets with gold. That’s the way to do things, according to my notion.”
“Stop and think,” said Jack, “how would we ever have found such a glorious chance to accomplish what we’re aiming to do now if it hadn’t been for this same wildcat treasure hunting expedition you’re harping on? Sometimes it’s cruel to look a gift-horse in the mouth, Ballyhoo.”
“Kick me, Oscar,” said the other contritely, “for I certainly deserve it. And after this I’ll try and keep my thoughts to myself, especially when they run counter to the balance of you. Sure I hope the captain’ll strike it rich, and locate this Aladdin stuff—or was it King Midas who had everything he touched turned straightway into gold, even the coffee he drank at meals?”