Immediately the skipper gave orders for making ready to clear out.
“It’s too bad that we’ll have to abandon all these barrels, and the lumber,” he went on to say, “but the time is too short to take the float to pieces and stow the stuff away. Besides, we can easily run in at some port and get a fresh supply. Fetch those three men up from below; we can leave them here on the float to wait for their fellow pirates to come along and rescue ’em.”
The officer and his two men looked curiously about when they came up out of the hatch, and blinking their eyes in the bright sunlight saw the hasty preparations for departure. However, they did not attempt any resistance when ordered on to the raft.
“Your boat is heading this way, and they’ll pick you up in good time,” Captain Shooks told them, at which the officer allowed a sardonic smile to creep over his face, doubtless under the belief that possibly they would be lucky enough to also secure a few of these heavy ingots of gold, such as he had seen brought up from the hulk of the sunken Spanish ship.
There was nothing else to do now. The skipper had carefully gone over everything, and even had the collapsible boat taken aboard, to be stowed away below. Then the order was given, and the submarine, with anchor raised, commenced to leave the float behind. The three men continued to stand there watching the departing treasure seeking craft, and evidently still anxious as to their own ultimate fate.
CHAPTER XVI
LEFT HOLDING THE BAG
“There she is!” exclaimed Ballyhoo, just as soon as they began to pass out from behind the island, and pointing as he spoke.
It was the Dauntless without any question, and the steam yacht was also heading directly toward the Key behind which all those recent operations had been taking place. No doubt there must have been quite a flutter of excitement aboard the other craft when the submarine was thus discovered coming into view. When they also caught the sunshine glinting from the wicked-looking rapid-fire gun that Captain Shooks had had brought up from below, and placed forward on the deck, possibly they would be apt to think twice before deciding to make any attack upon the rival treasure hunting craft.
The skipper appeared to be heartily pleased when he announced that he could recognize Captain Badger standing there near the wheelhouse of the steam yacht, and staring through his glasses at them.
“I’d give half a year’s wages,” he affirmed, “just to hear the hot stuff he’ll get rid of when he realizes the little trick we’ve played on him. The man who gets the better of the sly old fox has to rise pretty early in the morning. I’ve owed him a grudge of long years’ standing, and now we’re even again.”