"She can do fifteen miles submerged, and twenty to twenty-five on the surface."
"Her course to the Bahamas will be more direct than ours."
"True enough, but our speed is so much faster that, in spite of the roundabout course we're taking, we'll be able to reach Turtle Key and be there to receive the Grampus when she arrives."
"Durtle Key," put in Carl. "Dot's vere ve vas going, eh?"
"That's where the iron chest is supposed to be, and, of course, that's where the Grampus will make for. The Bahamas are all of coral formation and are underlaid with many caverns. For the most part, the islands are hollow; and it is in a hollow under Turtle Key that the Man from Cape Town claimed to have hidden the chest."
"Iss dere pread fruit und odder dropical t'ings on der island?" asked Carl, who was looking forward to a brief period of romance in an island paradise.
"As described on the chart," replied Townsend, "Turtle Key is no more than a hummock of coral, bare as the palm of your hand, and with a surface measuring less than an acre in extent. There is no water, no trees, and no inhabitants if we except the turtles."
Carl was visibly disappointed.
"I vas hoping I could climb some trees und shake down a gouple oof loafs oof pread fruit," he mourned, "und I vas t'inking, meppy, dot I could catch a monkey und pring him pack, und a barrot vat couldt say t'ings. Py shiminy, I don'd like dot kind oof a tesert islandt."
"Where is it, Mr. Townsend," asked Dick, "on the eastern or western side of the group?"