Then I lifted him into our boat, and as his face came close to mine I recognized him as the former "wife" of the doctor, the robber who had masqueraded as a woman and who was evidently the electrical expert of the pair.
I passed a lashing upon him quickly, and then went to Smith. My poor friend and shipmate was gasping in pain, lying upon the boat's bottom. I examined him, and found two wounds, one through his arm and another through his chest, both bullets being from a high-powered automatic and having passed cleanly through.
In a few minutes I had anchored the wreck of the launch which had swamped to the gunwales, and was running for the fort at the Hook, where I arrived fifteen minutes later, with Smith unconscious.
Here I turned him over to the surgeon and, getting help from the officer in charge, I ran quickly back to the buoy. The dead body of the doctor was still lying in the swamped boat, and the men removed it.
Then I got a pull upon the drag line, and was not surprised to find it caught to something very heavy. Three men helped me haul it in, and it came slowly.
A bight of chain appeared upon the surface. We caught hold of this, and hove it in also. At each end were iron boxes weighing at least two hundred and fifty pounds each. In spite of our misfortunes I gave a yell. It was the gold at last.
Young Simpson told how it was done after he had been turned over to the authorities. He had already been sentenced for the crime, and would therefore not have to suffer again, having served his term.
He told glibly how they had done the job during the two hours they had after the treasure room was closed and the ship warping out and down the channel. The time had been ample, and the rest of the voyage was just to cover up, to throw us off the track. They had the cutting outfit in the trunk that had weighed so heavy, and had taken it away to throw overboard, which they did long before we came near them in the schooner.
They had kept the trunk, but when they saw we were after them they had sunk it with a buoy, knowing that we would probably see it in the smooth sea and were aware of the old smuggler trick of sinking treasure down at the end of a fine line and small mark.
Then they had decided to make no resistance, believing rightly that the easiest way was the best. They had taken their sentence based upon the circumstantial evidence in the case, and they were just about to get their treasure when we nabbed them. They had originally intended to get it in their schooner at their leisure, but we had stopped that. The location of the buoy at the turn of the channel marking the run to sea was a safe place to drop anything. It would hardly be disturbed for some time.