"Something wrong down there!" Dick Monaghan, standing guard over the life lines of his chum aboard the Nemo, sensed the danger of his old Brighton pal. No signal of any kind had come up to him from the depths, and yet he seemed to realize, for some strange reason, that a mishap of some kind had befallen Jay.
"What's that?" called out Captain Austin as he hurried forward to where Dick held the lines over the side of the Nemo.
"I had a hunch of some kind that Jay was in trouble," explained Dick. "I've been trying for the last two or three minutes to get some kind of an answering signal from below, but I can't seem to get him. And there's been such a tugging on the lift lines at times. I don't quite understand it."
"Pump working all right?" asked the captain.
"So far as we can tell, although it seems to have slowed up somewhat," Dick replied, somewhat agitated.
Just then a shout arose from aft the Nemo. The deckmen were hauling something over the side and yelling their heads off with delight.
"Look, a great iron treasure chest," they chorused, as the attention of Captain Austin and Dick was diverted for a moment from the possible plight of Jay Thacker.
True enough, for as they exulted, the iron box containing diamonds that Weddigen had reclaimed from the captain's cabin of the Dominion came over the side, dripping with sediment and seaweed, but firmly held in an encircling chain band.