"No," replied Kroom; "it's just so on this other end. It wasn't washed out; it was rubbed out. This 'ere thing's been stole."
He said it almost solemnly, and the boys felt a kind of thrill. There had been excitement enough in the idea of a wreck, and now the Captain had put in thieves also.
"Pirates?" suggested Pete. "Could they have plundered the ship?"
"No, sir!" roared the Captain. "All the pirates are dead long ago. This means wrecks and wreckers over on the south beach somewhere. Come on, boys. I'll cast off the spar. We're going across the bay. I'm no thief. I'm going to see if I can't find an owner for this valise. Ready!"
The spar was left to drift ashore as best it might, only that the Captain said he would go after it some time.
The Elephant was once more free, but her nose was pointed now toward the long low bar of sand, the narrow, tree-less island, which separated the bay from the ocean.
"He's going to run for the inlet," said Pete to Sam. "There's good fishing there, whether he finds any wreck or not."
"We're going too fast to troll," said the Captain. "No use. Besides, we want to get there as soon as we can. If there's anything I hate, it's a wrecker. I didn't think so once, but the first time I was wrecked myself I guess I learned something."
Sam had been staring curiously at the valise, and wishing that the Captain would think it right to open it, but now he turned to look at the old sailor himself. It was a good deal to be out in a boat with a man who had been wrecked. He did not really mean to say anything, but a question came up to his lips, and asked, almost without his help, "Were you wrecked 'mong savages?"
"Yes, sir, I was," growled the Captain, angrily. "We went ashore on the coast of Cornwall, in England, and the folks there believe everything that's stranded belongs to them. They didn't leave us a thing."