The next few seconds seemed like hours to the helpless lad, then a dark speck appeared in the water above him quickly growing in size until he could see that it was Chris fighting his way downward with long steady strokes and following the air hose in his descent. The little negro was nearly exhausted when he reached the bottom. Thrusting the end of the line he had brought into Charley's hand, he turned upward and shot to the surface like a rocket. Charley whipped the line about his waist and gave the signal to pull up. He was swiftly pulled to the surface, hauled aboard the boat, and his helmet removed. Chris, breathing heavily, was standing by the mast, the water dripping from him. Walter and the captain, pale with fear, stood close beside him.
"Thank God, you're safe, lad," cried the old sailor, tears in his eyes. "We feared the air hose would part before Chris could get to you. We had just pulled on the life-line and found it had come loose from you when we discovered the boat had gone adrift. I reckon, she must have chafed her cable in two against a sharp piece of coral. Queer how everything happens all at once that way, sometimes."
It was clear the simple old sailor did not suspect that the trouble was anything but an accident, and Charley hastened to reply,
"All is well that ends well, but I've nearly had the life scart out of me. I don't think I'll ever want to go down again."
He was watching Manuel closely as he spoke and he noted with satisfaction the expression of relief on the Greek's swarthy face. If he could only keep him from thinking that he knew anything about the gold and had not discovered his treachery, he hoped to be able to avoid open violence until they were prepared and ready for it. He was convinced that the Greek was too cowardly to risk the danger of being shot in open mutiny so long as he thought himself unsuspected and free to scheme their removal without danger to himself.
The diving boat was worked back to her old position, another anchor dropped, and donning their suits the divers resumed operations below. When they came to the surface at the end of their two hour trick below they seemed strangely excited and conversed eagerly with Manuel and the rest of the crew. Charley was for awhile puzzled to account for their excitement, but 'ere long the solution came to him. Like all plans intended to deceive, his had contained a fatal defect.
"Walt," he whispered to his chum, "those chaps have noticed that some of the gold has been removed from that box. We are in for trouble, now, I fear." The Captain and Chris were warned to be on their guard but it seemed that the warning was unnecessary, the excited talk amongst the crew soon ceased and the fresh divers quietly prepared for their descent.
But in spite of the quietness, there was a tension and earnestness in the crew's manner which made the anxious little party of chums feel that they were standing at the edge of a powder mine which might explode at any minute.
"I would rather have open fighting than this awful waiting," Walter whispered.
"We will have that soon enough," said his chum, grimly. "It will come as soon as we try to make them get the schooner under way."