“Jewels—gold—silver!” Chick spoke in awed tones. “A treasure ship!”
“Yes,” the young Indian nodded. “I was a schoolboy then. I went to Carlisle, and then enlisted in a cadet training school for naval pilots, but several years ago, when I was about to be graduated, the hard times struck the world and the navy decided not to take on any more flyers, and I was too young to become a commercial pilot, so I gave up my course and went to work at whatever I could get.”
“Many an army and navy cadet has been disappointed by learning he couldn’t keep on, after his enlistment term,” commented Mr. McLeod.
Garry, who had always felt a respect for the older man, now began to feel a strong liking for the straight-forward Indian, his son.
“I went to work at a Long Island moving picture studio as an extra,” John went on. “There I saw a chance to write and sell a story—and we made quite a good amount of money by playing in it.”
“We enjoyed your acting in ‘Red Blood and Blue,’” Don commented.
“But what about the map?” Chick broke in. “While we were working at Long Island City,” John informed him, “I used my spare time to study the swamps, and discovered that there was a spot, near this airport, known as Devil’s Sink. I was in the swamp a great deal, but if there had ever been a ship, the mud had covered every trace of it. We gave up, Father and I. But—and this is why I’ve told you all this—because I took an interest in aviation, I was around the seaplane base that was here before the airport was begun. I met some of the flyers. I suppose they wondered about our investigations, but of course we kept close mouths.”
“Any of us would!” agreed Garry.
“Father went back to the Catskills, to continue his doctoring,” John completed his astonishing revelation, “I went ‘on tour’ with the first of our films, making ‘personal appearances.’ That was before we had the smoke-trick scene thought out.
“When I came home Father told me about several of the airport folks, who had been visiting him. One was a pilot who said he was in the mail and commercial end of it——”