“But how could Badger have got here ahead of us, I want to know?” gasped Ballyhoo.
“Who said it was that pirate?” roared the skipper, gulping in huge draughts of fresh air. “The party who found the wreck was here at least a year ago, though it’s been kept a dead secret, for some reason or other. See, here are some coins I managed to find scattered around on the floor in the cabin, with a lot of other truck. They’ve been lying there for some time, I warrant you; you can see how they’re half covered with green mold. Well, that’s the full amount of the Shannon’s hoard our Company will ever set eyes on. So it’s up to us to get away from here in a jiffy, and make for some other field, where better luck may be waiting for us.”
CHAPTER XVIII
IN THE CANAL LOCKS
Despite his keen chagrin, the skipper was not at all discouraged.
“We would have won out easy enough,” he protested stoutly, as he watched the men dismantling the float, since there was no use of loitering longer at that place, because the prize had already been taken; “yes, we could have guzzled all that stuff ourselves if only some enterprising chap hadn’t stepped in before us.”
“Which goes to show,” said Ballyhoo, “that of all the agencies so far invented, and tried out, intended for finding treasures lost in the deep sea, the diving boat takes the cake. There’s no place within reason where you can’t go to look around, and locate missing wrecks. But let’s hope we’ll strike better luck next time.”
“Oh! one shot out of two is going some, you must remember,” Jack told him; “and, besides, think of all the thrilling pictures I’ve been able to pick up. Why, from the standpoint of art alone, this expedition ought to be considered a booming success. And then those nice, dull-looking bricks will each pan out something like ten thousand dollars.”
“Please don’t think I’m complaining, Jack!” exclaimed the Jones boy, with a grin. “Fact is, I’d call this well worth while just to see what we’ve already done. Some of the things that have happened to us, or under our watchful eyes, will never fade from our minds. I know I’ll shiver when any one mentions the word sharks. I’m seeing things in my dreams these nights, and you needn’t be surprised to hear me let out a shriek any old time. If an ant bit me I’d imagine my leg had been snapped off between those terrible sharks’ teeth.”
By the time the barrels and the planks had all been safely stowed away, and the undersea boat turned her prow in the direction of the great canal entrance, black smoke discovered in the east told of an approaching vessel. When Captain Shooks learned this he laughed heartily, apparently under the belief that it might be the Dauntless.
“Late to the feast, as usual,” he observed merrily. “I wonder now if Badger, when he hears about that empty safe in the captain’s room below, will take it for granted we cleared it out. I hope he does, for I’d like to rub it into him good and hearty. It’ll take a heap to wipe out the debt I owe Cap. Badger.”