As they came nearer the boys saw that it must be indeed their ship, the ship which, wrecked on the treacherous shallows, had been left there to rot by the indifferent natives. If they had known what treasure lurked in that dilapidated hulk!
But right there doubt took hold of the boys. Suppose there was no treasure after all? Suppose they had come on a wild-goose chase? Well, they would at least know whether they had or not pretty soon. That thought in itself was a thrill.
The vague outline of the ship, seen through the heavily falling snow, looked enormous. One of the masts was gone entirely, but the other two stood intact, rising gauntly, like skeleton fingers pointing toward the sky.
Desolate, forsaken, coated with ice and snow, listing crazily to one side, it was a forlorn enough object, but to the boys it was the most beautiful and welcome sight they had ever seen. For, within that battered derelict, what riches might be hidden, what promise of adventure!
The boat scraped along the side of the wrecked ship, and with a loop of rope Mooloo fastened the two together.
Lucky then for the boys that their muscles had been trained in outdoor sports at Rockledge. If they had not been just as agile and strong as they were, they would never have been able to scramble aboard the ice-coated, slanting deck of the wrecked ship.
They finally managed it, however, and Mooloo, who had tied a rope about the oilskin-covered package in the bow of the small boat, shouted to them to hoist it aloft.
This they did and, seeing that Mooloo was about to join them, set to work with their sharp-pointed spears to hack away the ice and snow that covered the hatches.
It was hard work, and in the process the boys forgot that they had ever been cold and by the time one of the ancient hatches was disclosed they were perspiring with the effort.
Even harder work it was to pry loose the cover. But when this was at last accomplished and they peered down into the dark interior of the ship, something in the look of it made them draw back. Suddenly they were not quite so anxious as they had been to descend into that yawning hole.