Lieutenant Danvers knitted his brow, thoughtfully, as he hurried down the stairs, then followed Ewald through a steel trapway into the cramped compartments under the cabin flooring.
In three or four minutes Mr. Danvers came up again.
"It's all right," he said. "I can't see that the leak threatens to become serious, unless we should happen to hit that mast-stump again."
"I believed it was all right," the young captain replied, quietly, "after having heard Mr. Somers's report."
"You three boys certainly stick together and admire each other, don't you?" laughed Danvers.
"We've every reason to, sir. We three have been trained together in this work. No one of the three knows anything that the others don't," came Benson's matter-of-fact reply.
"When I went below you made some remark about not letting the derelict off too easily, Benson. What did you mean?"
"Why, I believe we ought to get square with that old sunken hulk," retorted Captain Jack, wheeling around and eyeing the naval officer.
"Great Scott! You mean that we ought to blow up the derelict?"
"Isn't it usually the Navy, sir, that gets such jobs to do?"