As though this settled the matter in his mind the skipper immediately gave orders for work to be commenced. The empty and watertight barrels were first of all brought out, and thrown overboard, though secured together. Then the carpenters got busy, and the sound of hammering told that they were making the indispensable float.
It was soon a busy scene, indeed, and half of the morning went by before the object of their industry took on the desired shape. Care was taken to make everything as secure as possible, so that it could withstand considerable pounding.
Finally this part was finished, and even the windows and air pump put in place. All was now in readiness for the diver, and one of the two men who had been engaged for this special work began to don his strange garments, his heavy shoes being weighted with lead, and, to cap all, the helmet, from which ran the air pipes.
Jack, desirous of catching the full spirit of the occasion, had taken his camera in the small boat, with Ballyhoo to do the rowing, and pulling off just a little distance proceeded to faithfully record all that went on. It would, he believed, make an interesting and instructive picture. Then, besides, every stockholder in the enterprise could later on see just how his money was being expended in the effort to locate and recover long lost treasure.
The diver finally went over the side of the raft, and vanished from view with only a mass of bubbles on the surface to indicate where he had gone down. Minutes dragged along, and the men kept working at the pump so as to keep the diver supplied with plenty of fresh air; though, in case of necessity, he could depend on the small amount of compressed air which he carried in a special reservoir.
In the end the long expected signal came, telling that he wished to be raised. Jack was waiting to get that part of it, so as to complete his picture of “going down and coming up.” When the man finally appeared, and his helmet was removed, all on the float gathered anxiously around to hear what he had to report.
CHAPTER X
SPIED UPON
After all the diver was not prepared to give any positive report. He had found it a difficult job to get aboard the old hulk, which he said must have lain there many, many years, for it seemed to be of a model that had been in vogue away back in the days when Spanish galleons carried cargoes of gold and silver stolen from the Mexicans across to Spain, many of the clumsy sailing craft being lost on the way.
The presence of part of a high afterdeck betrayed the fact that it belonged to that type of vessel, he told them. At which the captain shot Oscar a look of grim delight, for doubtless he anticipated great things to come.
All of them were of the opinion that they had actually come upon the wreck of the chart, and hopes ran high. The second diver was now ready to take his turn below. Time was a factor in the game. They were in the hurricane belt, and though the period of the year when these “twisters” are supposed to come out of the Windward Islands had passed, still occasionally one is belated.