What was Weddigen doing now? Dick stopped short in his tracks to watch the maneuvers of the other diver.
CHAPTER XI The Spy!
PEERING intently through the water Dick watched every move of Weddigen. The latter had knelt on the sandy bottom and was tinkering with the steel chest. His back was turned to the Brighton youth and he, to all intents, had no knowledge of the proximity of the latter.
And then Dick made an astounding discovery. Weddigen had unfastened the extra air hose from his belt, turned on the air and was digging a hole in the sand some ten or fifteen yards away from the submarine. A cloud of sediment was stirred up by the air which for the time served the purpose of hiding the diver at his work.
Dick's first impulse was to move forward hastily and make known his presence, thinking perhaps Weddigen was having trouble lugging the chest and needed assistance. But then, it occurred to him, why would Carl be digging a hole with the air line when he had already salvaged the precious box? Why had he not gripped it with a steel cable and sent it aloft to the Nemo?
"By jove! I know what he's doing," exclaimed Dick to himself. "He's trying to lose those plans under the floor of the sea rather than give them back to the government!"
The youth saw red on the instant. A traitor to America! An enemy of the United States Government who, rather than return the plans that he had found, was trying to cover them up where he might return later and dig for them at his leisure.
Just for an instant Dick was undecided whether to return at once to the Nemo and report what he had seen or stay and see it through to the limit. To grapple with Weddigen here under the sea was next to impossible. Heavily accoutred as he was with diving paraphernalia and weighed down by additional anchors, he could hope to gain nothing by forcibly encountering the big diver in front of him.