At midnight he awoke Walter to take his place. "I've solved it," he told him.
"Solved what?" asked Walter, sleepily.
"Their reason for greasing the hose."
"What is it?"
"To attract sharks and lead them to bite it in two."
"The fiends!" Walter cried as the devilish ingenuity of the plot dawned upon him. "What are you going to do about it?"
"Nothing, until we are ready to descend," his chum replied, "then it will be too late for them to practice another surprise for us."
"Are you sure you are right," asked Walter, doubtfully. "They are not sure that we are going to descend, you know."
"I think Manuel feels pretty confident that we will. If we fail to do so, he likely will find some excuse for replacing the greased hose with new ones. You can bet, he's got it all figured out. He is the brainiest villain I ever met up with. Better hurry on deck now, and keep a close watch out. There's no telling what other scheme he's got hatched up."