“You’ll have to get your feet wet again, Jule,” Case said. “Just drop over into the cockpit and see if you can see any hole in the bottom.”
Jule did as requested, floundering and splashing about in the water as though he considered the enterprise only a bit of fun.
“Nothing doing here!” he shouted back. “There’s no hole in the bottom that I can see. There may be one under the double floor in the cabin but I don’t believe it.”
“Look for the sea-cock,” cried Captain Joe, leaning over the gunwale of the Rambler. “It may have been opened. It ought to be right there in the cockpit close to the wall of the cabin.”
Jule felt around in the water for a time, ducked his head under in order to get closer to the bottom now and then and finally raised his dripping face with a shout.
“I’ve found it!” he cried. “The sea-cock was wide open and that’s what sunk the launch.”
“Wonder Fontenelle wouldn’t have investigated,” said Case.
“The launch was probably sunk in the night,” Captain Joe suggested, “when the members of the party were away. When they returned to the boat, of course, they had no grappling apparatus or anything to help raise her, and so they just went away and left her in the mud.”
“That’s probably it,” Case said, turning on the pump.
“Hold on,” Jule cried. “You wait till I get something to plug this sea-cock with. I can’t turn the valve. It’s rusty.”