CHAPTER XXI
A MYSTERY EXPLAINED
“Why, boys, look at this!” cried Jimmie, his voice rising to a shriek then trailing off into a whisper. “Did you ever see the like?”
“Let’s see!” put in Frank, crowding forward. “What is it?”
Eagerly the boys gathered around the open compartment. They heard distinctly the tinkle of coins as Jimmie seized a handful and let them slip one by one back into place. Again and again the boy dived his hands into the yellow mass of metal. He raised handfuls of coin to look at them a moment, then let them drop from his grasp.
“Good Night!” he ejaculated at length, turning a round-eyed face to the man who stood smiling beside the group. “Why, you must have enough here to buy a farm and build a fence clear around it!”
“Quite likely I have!” declared the other quietly. “But there are two or three other wrecked vessels that I wish to visit before I stop. I have the exact locations charted and have examined the interiors.”
“Why didn’t you take the gold away with you, then?”
“For the very simple reason that I found one pair of hands not enough to perform the task. I could have taken the gold away from the sunken wrecks, but the matter of getting it ashore was another thing!”
“Why, what’s to prevent?” asked Ned wonderingly.