There might be fish there, but most likely not, the Captain said, and it ought not to arouse any suspicions of the wreckers that he wanted to try it.
They sailed ahead for the inlet, but Pete may have been correct when he told his shipmates, old and young:
"They're a-watching us. They mean to see if we're just after fish."
"There comes that thing!" exclaimed Sam; but Pickering caught his arm.
"Don't you point, boy! Don't anybody look at it! Fish away. I guess it isn't worth much, but they needn't see us get it."
The Elephant had not begun her remarkable voyage very early in the day, and more time had passed than her boy crew were aware of. Her commander, however, had kept track of the tides and the hours, like the sharp old fisherman that he was.
"We went out with the tide," he said to Pickering. "It's turned to run in now. Those chaps'll wait for that stuff at the other end of the inlet. I don't want 'em to guess that we know a thing about it; but it'll be good and dark before we get home."
"My folks know I went fishing," said Sam. "They won't care."
"Mine won't, if they learn that I'm with Captain Kroom," said Pete. "They know he doesn't come home early— Hullo! Blue-fish!"
He had struck one; he pulled it in rapidly, but, the moment it came within reach, Captain Kroom seized it and stood straight up in the boat, hailing the wreckers with: