Stooping suddenly, he picked something from among the leaves by the trail. It was Mildred’s lost handkerchief. He held it out for Kennedy to see, but neither said a word.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE BATTLE
Meanwhile, Dave and Doris were warming to the search for the small trading boat that had meant so much to Kennedy and Mildred.
Having found the approximate location where the little supply schooner sank, Dave climbed into the steel ball and was lowered into the deep. For an hour after that, with the steel ball always close to the bottom, they sailed about in ever widening circles. From time to time Doris called on the radio:
“See anything?”
“Yes, a whole flotilla of jellyfish,” would come Dave’s laughing answer. Or—“there’s an ancient wreck off to the right—goes back to pirate days, I’m sure. But I don’t catch the faintest gleam of a white schooner.”
When at last he returned to the surface and was released from his spherical prison, he complained of eye-strain.
“Let me go down with you,” Doris pleaded. “I’ll be eyes for you. Together we can’t fail to find the schooner. We just must get it located!”
“What do you say, professor?” Dave turned to his superior.
“What’s the bottom like?”