"More than enough," answered Matt, "if that is the way you want it, Mr. Townsend."
"It isn't the way I want it—not by a long chalk!" declared Townsend, vehemently, "but it seems to be the way I've got to have it. I've not only lost the Grampus, but I have also proven false to the promise I made the Man from Cape Town. If I felt that I could go on, with the least show of success, I'd not hang back; but I'm crippled, and I feel that, owing to the lack of proper medical attention, I'm getting weaker and weaker all the time!"
Heartfelt regret mingled in the words with the pain Townsend was suffering.
"How far is it from Palm Beach to Turtle Key, Mr. Townsend?" asked Matt.
"Less than a hundred miles, straight across the Florida Straits."
"If this landward breeze holds," went on Matt, musingly, "we could reach Turtle Key in three hours after we left the mainland."
Townsend shifted his position a little and fastened his gleaming black eyes speculatively on the young motorist's face.
"What do you mean by that?" he demanded.
"If you can't go to Turtle Key," said Matt, quietly, "why can't the rest of us go? We may not stand so good a chance of recovering the Grampus as though you were along and able to help, but we might be able to find whether or not there's an iron chest on the island; and, if we had the opportunity, we might do what we could to recapture the submarine."
"I can't order you to do anything like that, Matt, but I had decided, in my own mind, that you would say something like you have just said. That's your style, my boy. If you want to go and look for the island and the iron chest, well and good. It will be worth twenty-five hundred more to me to know that I tried to carry out my promise to the Man from Cape Town, and that I couldn't do it because the iron chest was only a figment of his disordered imagination. Go and look for the chest, but it won't do for you to attempt to cope with Jurgens and the ruffians with him in the Grampus. Yesterday, when it began to grow upon me that I could not see this expedition through to the end, I drew up a copy of that stolen chart as nearly as I can remember it. I believe the copy is fairly accurate."