“I have been thinking a great deal about our next course,” Mr. Neale stated. “One reason that I anchored just here is this: It is a deep enough channel between the mainland and the Key for us to navigate the Belle without danger of grounding or running onto a coral ‘needle.’ My intention has been to sail along the outer side of the archipelago; but I wonder, now, what you think of trying the inside channel, between the mainland and the Keys.”
“We’d miss the place where the wreck was marked, if we go the inside way,” objected Nicky.
“True,” admitted the captain, “but, on the on the other hand, fellows, we would come to a point opposite where we think that should be, and we’d work outward from the inner channel.”
“But we’d miss the route we marked down, from memory, the way it was on our half of the map. That took in at least two of the Dipper islands,” Cliff reminded him.
“Here is my reason for wanting to do something else,” Mr. Neale said quietly. “If we go the outer way there may not be a safe anchorage in case of a storm. You will remember that the old galleon was supposed to have been wrecked on ‘needles’ and I can assure you that those sharp, coral spikes are no pleasant thing to have under your hull in any sea that lifts the sloop and drops her down hard.”
“I know another good reason,” Tom chimed in. “We don’t suspect Sam of having anything to do with stealing our map—because he was hit on the head and his map was taken——”
“So he says!” corrected Nicky. “We haven’t any proof, and he’s the only one we can think of who would have had any reason——”
“But we don’t actually suspect him,” Tom insisted. “He hasn’t made a suspicions move or done a wrong thing since we started out. But what I meant to say was: We don’t suspect him, but we do know that somebody has the maps—both halves, probably.”
“I see what you are driving at,” Cliff declared. “If somebody else is after the treasure, we would be right in sight if we anchored in the outer place; and we’d be a sort of ‘marker’ for them.”
“That was my idea, also,” said Mr. Neale. “And if Sam did have anything to do with the loss of our map, a change in our plans may cause him to betray some emotion. We can’t suspect him, but we can’t exonerate him, either.”