"I'll wager old Hankers had him try that game on me in Washington," thought the young diver. "It was done so that I couldn't join the Swallow at San Francisco, and that father might remain behind, too, to get me out of the scrape."
Presently Lemuel Hankers and Pete Rackley came so close that Dave could hear all that was said with ease.
"It is a surprise to me that the Swallow stopped here," Lemuel Hankers was saying. "Do you think she was following us!"
"Can't say as to that," replied Rackley, puffing away at a short pipe he was carrying. "Anyway, she's here. Now what is your game? Out with it."
"The game is that I don't want the Fearlesses to get at the sunken treasure, Pete."
"I've heard that before, Lemuel."
"You have always been my right-hand man, Pete, and I know I can rely on you yet, even though you did make a fizzle of that affair in Washington."
"I didn't know I was being spotted," growled the sailor, for such Pete Rackley really was.
"My game is that you go aboard of the Swallow and ship with Captain Broadbeam. Tell him you are a castaway, and have been here nearly a year."
"But young Fearless knows me."