“After coming all this way too,” added Teddy, even more dejectedly.
“The only thing we’ll have to show for the trip will be the shark, I guess,” said Lester.
“Well, that would be enough if we hadn’t gotten 167 anything else,” declared Fred. “But I’m not so sure that we came on a fool’s errand after all.”
“What makes you think we didn’t?” asked Bill. “What do we know that we didn’t know before?”
“Well,” suggested Fred, “we hadn’t heard before of that phrase Mr. Montgomery used over and over. ‘It’s where the water’s coming in.’”
“That’s nothing at all,” affirmed Bill decidedly.
“I have a hunch it does mean something,” replied Fred, “and I’m going to keep mulling it over in my mind until I find out what the meaning is.
“By the way, Ross,” he went on, turning to their new-found friend where he sat brooding a little way apart from the rest, “we’ve learned something since we saw you first that may interest you. We’d have told you earlier this afternoon, but we’ve been traveling in different boats, and then when we got on shore we were so busy with cutting up the shark that we didn’t get a chance till now.”
Ross looked up eagerly.
“What is it?” he cried, getting up and joining the group.