"They must not get away at all hazards," Jay told himself. He hated to go, for his own disposition was to confront these chaps and demand of them by what right they had helped themselves to the gold that reposed here in American waters where only qualified agents could search it out. But that, of course, would have been foolhardy. The only thing to do was to get back to the Jules Verne and report his find.
The trip back was as easily negotiated as the trip over. The distance was short, not more than two hundred yards at most, and the athletic diver found himself still strong and sturdy as he came alongside the Jules Verne. A low soft whistle brought Dick to the rail in a hurry.
"That you, Jay?" came the friendly challenge. To which Jay replied affirmatively, and was quickly drawn aboard by the eager hands of his friends.
"What luck?" asked Captain Austin, who came up on the qui vive.
Jay motioned them all into his stateroom and there, while Dick and Larry rubbed him down and helped him into his clothes, Jay told the whole story as rapidly as he could. Captain Austin, Dick, Larry and Jay—these composed the group—with the addition of Fismes, who was snoring in one corner. Wide-eyed, they sat hearing the whole narrative. Patiently they heard him through.
"Did you recognize any of them at all?" asked Captain Austin.
"No, not one, except that one looked familiar," replied Jay. And then, in explicit detail, he told of him who seemed to be the leader of the trio in the cabin, who sat with his back turned.
"I could not get a look at his face, but he looked familiar to me and I've been trying to place him in my memory," added the youth.
After deliberating for a time Captain Austin decided to get in touch with the revenue cutter Marblehead and tell them the whole story. If the pirates decided to slip away in the night the slow-going Jules Verne with her diving bell, the Nautilus, could not pursue. But the fast little revenue cutter could overhaul them in a hurry.