Idly the boat floated on the water while Mr. Ravenwood looked in the covering case and around the flywheel.
"There's something jammed down under the flywheel, between it and the keel of the boat," he said. "I can just feel it. Seems to be a bit of rag or cotton waste that I use to wipe off the oil and grease from my hands and to polish the machinery. Wait, I can get it out," he went on, as he thrust his arm down deeper. "I have my hand on it, but it is jammed in pretty tight and——"
He gave a grunt and a pull, and then up came his arm, and in his hand he held something black, which dripped with water and oil.
"There it is," said the young man. "It must have been in the pit for some time to get so soaked as that. I don't remember dropping anything in there. In fact, I'm very careful, for there isn't much room between the rim of the flywheel and the keel, and even a small bit of waste will stop the wheel, just as this did."
"Is it waste?" asked Uncle Tad.
"No, it doesn't seem to be," was Mr. Ravenwood's answer. "Why—why——" he went on in surprise, as he laid the object down on top of the engine cover and examined it. "Why, it's an old leather pocketbook!"
"A pocketbook!" cried Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, and they looked at one another with startled eyes.
"Yes, that's what it is—an old pocketbook," went on Mr. Ravenwood. "How in the world it ever came here I can't imagine, unless——"
"Is it really a pocketbook?" asked Mrs. Brown in a strange voice, and her face was slightly pale as she turned to look at what had been taken out from under the engine. "Let me see it."
"Don't touch it!" cautioned Mr. Ravenwood. "It's soaked with oil and grease."