"Can't," said Sam. "I guess it's fastened to the rope the Captain hooked."
"No, bub, it's hitched to the spar," said the Captain. "Cut it loose, and in with it."
Sam pulled out his pocket-knife, but his fingers trembled so that he hardly could open it. Then he reached over and began to cut away, but before the bit of rope that held the bundle was severed the Captain shouted:
"Wreck it is! Got another catch! It's a valise. There comes the spar, all afloat. Hullo! That's too bad. Somehow I unhitched that sail. It's gone to the bottom."
It was just so. The water-soaked canvas had been buoyed only by the wood, and as soon as that was cut away it went down out of sight.
[to be continued.]
