“Now, if the Zoe goes to the bottom we’ve lost everything,” Ned said, not because he feared such a catastrophe, but as a means of causing Vance additional worriment of mind.
“That’s a fact!” the treasurer exclaimed, as if such a possibility had not occurred to him before. “But there’s no way out of it, for we would be little less than fools to leave it behind.”
“How would it do to furnish each coin with a life-preserver?” Roy asked laughingly.
“That might answer,” Ned replied, “and Vance can stand guard over the locker with a gun to prevent their walking away.”
“It’s all very well for you boys to make sport of what I’ve done,” the treasurer replied grimly; “but it wouldn’t have been at all funny if we’d gone on shore to-morrow morning and found it missing.
“Not funny, but strange, considering that there isn’t a soul anywhere around,” Ned replied.
“That may be true at this minute, but no one knows how soon somebody will land here.”
“I don’t s’pose there’s any good reason why Roy and I should try to be merry at your expense, Vance, for as a matter of course it would have been necessary to bring it aboard some time, and since it has already been done there is just so much less work to be attended to. Now where are we goin’ to sleep? This cabin feels as if it had been under water a month.”
“Suppose we bunk in the engine-room? By using the blankets to lie on we shall be all right, and to-morrow I reckon this portion of the yacht will be dried out in proper shape.”
This suggestion of Roy’s was acted upon without discussion, and half an hour later the three boys were sleeping soundly as the little craft rose and fell on the gentle swell.