“It’s just this way,” Captain Joe replied, “we disappointed them very much when we got the Cartier out of the water. That rascal on the point wanted to have the pleasure of raising the boat himself.”
“Then why didn’t he do it?” asked Alex. “He had time enough before we got here.”
“I don’t know why he didn’t,” answered the captain, “but he didn’t, and now he’s sore because we got to it first. It seems to me that he might have ordered his wrecking apparatus here and got the boat out before we arrived.”
“What do you think he wants of the launch?” Case asked. “According to all accounts, he’s rich enough to buy a dozen.”
“I can tell you about that,” Captain Joe replied with a grin. “You remember when I stood watch one night, and you all said I looked sleepy the next day. Well, that night, I paddled over to the point and heard what those people were talking about. There is something on board the Cartier they want. I couldn’t understand exactly what they said about it, but it is something in some way connected with a safe.”
“The safe on the wall in the lost channel!” laughed Alex. “They think Fontenelle knows how to get to the safe if he can only get to the lost channel first.”
“Well, we got to the launch first, anyway,” Jule suggested. “And it strikes me that we’d better go aboard and look her over. Did you see anything remarkable when you were there, Alex?” he added.
“Didn’t see a thing,” was the reply. “I flopped out of the water into the cockpit and never even looked inside the cabin. I wish now that I had.”
“Come on, then, let’s you and I take a look through the cabin while Captain Joe and Case run the Rambler back to her old position,” Jule suggested.
The two boys sprang down into the cockpit, paused a moment to get their balance and opened the cabin door. As they did so, a scrambling noise was heard inside, and both were knocked nearly off their feet as a body launched against them, turned to the railing and shot over into the river.