“Well, that’s impossible to say,” he was told by Captain Shooks. “They evidently mean to lie low, and trust to these chaps to let ’em know if anything interesting happens. We’ll work like troopers to complete our job. I’ll take my turn at it, too. And all the while we’ll have some one on guard to let us know if any craft shows up. If it looks bad, and we still feel there are things to be got at down below, we’ll dismantle the float and take a dive before they get here. At the worst we can run for it, and fight if hard pushed.”
Apparently, Captain Shooks had the situation well in hand. He did not intend to yield a single point to the enemy if he could help it. And the more Ballyhoo saw of the skipper of the Argonaut the better he liked him.
“If that slick article of a Badger is any improvement on our captain,” he told the others, as they sat there watching Shooks getting ready to equip himself in the armor of the diver who had just come to the surface after an exhausting time of it below, “he must be a holy terror, that’s what; because the skipper of our boat seems to be right there with the goods, every time. Oscar, didn’t I hear you saying you’d like mighty much to go down in one of those suits, and see what the old hulk looks like at close quarters?”
“Yes, and later on this afternoon, if the skipper is willing, I’m meaning to try one little trip. I may not be as good in the water as you, Ballyhoo, but I’m tall and strong, and think I could stand my turn playing diver.”
“But Oscar, you did go down once before, you remember,” said Jack.
“Yes, when that diver came up from the city to discover what had happened to the outlet of the lake by the big dam. The water was thirty feet deep, too. I made good friends with the man, and he let me put on his suit, and creep down the long ladder. So I stood there at the bottom, and saw what he was doing to fix things. Ever since then I’ve had a longing to make another try; and when we agreed to join this expedition I told myself I’d do the same at the first chance.”
The diver who had just come up had not managed to run across any further prizes. He said he had covered quite some territory inside the hulk; but it was dark even in spite of his electric torch, made especially for underwater work, slippery and very hard to get around even to an old hand.
Captain Shooks went over the side, and was lowered by means of a rope, though a stout ladder extended part way down, to give the diver a fair start. After reaching the foot of this he must swing free, and depend on those above to keep lowering him until the ground was gained.
The time passed away. It was long after the middle of the short afternoon, when again Captain Shooks appeared. Apparently he had not been successful in his laborious search, for he sat down at once, and allowed them to unfasten his helmet.