“Fifteen feet with the tide out,” was the reply, “and the tide is out now, so we’d better be getting busy.”
They swung the Rambler over to the north side of the bar and anchored. From this new position, across the white surface of the bottom, they could see the trunk cabin of the Cartier sitting squarely up in the water. The boat had evidently dropped straight down when scuttled, and she now lay on an almost even keel with her nose pointing upstream.
“Now, I tell you, boys,” Captain Joe observed, “one of you must go down and attach a line to her forward towing bitts. I’d go down myself, understand, only I’m so big and clumsy that I might displace too much water in the stream. Who’ll go?”
“I’m the champion diver of the South Branch,” Jule cried, “and I’ll go down and have that line fast in about a second.”
“It’s a long dive,” warned Captain Joe.
“I’ve stood on my head in deeper water than that,” said the boy.
Case got out the rowboat and Jule was taken over to the place from which he was to dive. The end of the cable was passed to him and he dropped down. In a moment, he came climbing up the rope like a young monkey, shaking water over Case as he tumbled into the boat.
“Now get a-going,” he said, “and we’ll have this boat out of the mud before Clay and Alex return. I wonder what we’ll find on board of her.”
“You don’t expect to find a lost channel, do you? Or a casket of family jewels?” asked Case, with a wink.
“I was thinking,” Jule replied, “that we might find something to eat.”