“It’s lucky you were able to bring him up,” Bethune observed.
“I was scared at first,” Jimmy confessed. “Perhaps I should have come up sooner, but he seemed determined to stop.”
“What about the case?”
“We hadn’t time to get at it. You see, it’s not in the strong-room. He made me start cutting out the underside of the deck.”
“The deck!” exclaimed Moran. “Then they must have put the stuff in the poop cabin!”
“I don’t think so. I expect there’s a shallow space between the main beams and the cabin floor.”
“And that’s where the case is? It strikes me as curious; distinctly curious!”
“I dare say; I didn’t think of that. The most important thing is that we ought to reach the case in about an hour.”
“It’s too risky. The tide’s running strong now, and it’s going to be very dark. We have kept clear of serious trouble so far, and I see no sign of wind.”
Jimmy reluctantly agreed to wait until the morning and Bethune went below to get supper ready.