The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island Part 6

A WALK UNDER WATER

"That's what it is, Jack," said d.i.c.k, after the first sensation of astonishment had pa.s.sed. "It is more in the bow than on the side, however.

You can see how she narrows a little farther on. This hole is pretty well forward. I tell you what! This is the vessel we saw under water, or the one that stump of a mast belongs to, at any rate."

"I believe it is, d.i.c.k. Probably she drove in here, had a hole smashed in her bow, and then sank. The earth has settled in between the ma.s.ses of rock above and around her, and hidden her, but there is still the fissure down which we have just come."

"This is as good as finding Captain Kidd's treasure, isn't it?" exclaimed young Smith. "We never expected to find anything. Shall we go in and see what more there is, Jack?"

"We may find ourselves in the water before we know it," murmured Jack.

"No, I think we would better stay where we are. It is the safest plan by long odds. It looks like taking too many chances to go into a place like that. Better wait till another time."

"Give me a match or two, Jack," said Percival. "I'll promise not to take too great a risk."

Jack handed him the matches, and he struck them, and advanced a step or two into the opening.

"It is plenty wide enough," Percival said. "Yes, these are ship's timbers, all right. She must have struck hard to make such a gash. We are on a level with the lower deck. I can't see much cargo around, but there is a way aft. This must be a sort of steerage, and the lower hold where the cargo is stored is below us. I believe we could walk right ahead to the after bulkhead, and if there happens to be a door in it, as is often the case, straight into the after cabin."

"If there were anything to make a torch of, d.i.c.k, I'd go with you," said Jack, "for I am as much interested as you are in this strange find, but we don't know what we might stumble against or into what hole we might fall.

Wait, d.i.c.k. We shall not probably leave the island for some time, and there will be opportunities to find out more about it."

"Yes, I suppose so, but I would like to find them out now. However, you have the right of it, and it is just as well to be cautious."

"Besides, I have only a few more matches left, and we must get back to where we started. If you and I were alone----"

"Yes, quite right," and d.i.c.k came out, as his matches were extinguished, and they started back.

A match or two gave them all the light they wanted till they began to ascend, the way up being more difficult than coming down, and both older boys being obliged to a.s.sist the younger one.

However, they reached the top at last, the light seeming to be almost dazzling after they had been used to the darkness for even the short time they were down in the strange place.

"I never knew the sun to be so bright," said Jesse W. "It's like what men say coming up out of a deep well is."

"We'll go there again," said Percival. "I want to know more about the place. Better not say anything to the other fellows. We'll have them swarming over the place if we do, and then there is more or less danger in going down there."

"I believe you want to keep the discovery all to yourself in case we did find treasure there," said Jack. "Probably there is nothing more than a lot of spoiled beef and some old clothes."

"Oh, after we have seen all there is to be seen I don't care, but I do want to have it to ourselves until we have had a chance to see all there is to be seen. Think of going into a vessel through a hole in the side.

Very few people can say they have done that."

"There'll be no getting the vessel out of that now," said young Smith. "I wonder how old it is!"

"It cannot be so very old," replied Jack. "If she were, the moss and slime on that stump of a mast would be thicker, and there would not be so much of the stump. Probably she is filled with water in any event."

"There was none in the part we saw."

"No, as that was above water, but the lower part undoubtedly is. I do not believe we could go all the way through as d.i.c.k suggests."

They went back to the place where they had left the boat, made their way down and rowed back to the yacht, where they went on board, and saw some of the boys, telling them of visiting the reefs, but saying nothing of the strange discovery of the vessel among the rocks.

There was a very high tide that night, but Captain Storms decided that it would be very unwise to try to pa.s.s beyond the reefs, none of the openings being wide enough and the surf very heavy.

"There is no use, young gentlemen," he said to Jack and d.i.c.k and a few others. "We will have to stay here for a time until I can get in connection with the outside world. Then, perhaps, some one may know about this place, and a way out of it. One vessel has gone down here, and I don't care to be the next, and leave my mainmast sticking up out of the water to show folks the way to destruction."

"We saw that stump ourselves," said Jack. "Was that wreck long ago, do you think?"

"Not so many years, twenty, perhaps, or maybe less. The rocks would hold her tight, but I don't believe there's much left of her. Nothing worth taking away, I guess."

Jack gave d.i.c.k a peculiar look, and neither of the boys told what they had seen.

The boys had lessons and a lecture that afternoon, and again the next morning and in the afternoon were free to go about as they pleased, explore the island or go out on the water with some of the sailors.

"I want to take another look at that old vessel," said Percival to Jack after dinner. "I have borrowed a stout rope and an axe, and I have my pocket light with me. Will you go along, Jack? I suppose we should take J.W. with us, but he is a little fellow, and there might be danger."

"If we find anything whatever we can take him another time," said Jack. "I don't want anything to happen to the young fellow. Some of the boys may be saying that I took him to a dangerous place just to have the name of rescuing him again."

"You don't mind what such fellows as Herring and some of the rest say, I hope?" sputtered Percival.

"Not altogether, but it is annoying all the same."

"What those fellows need is a good thrashing."

"Well, I don't like this constant wrangling, and I keep away from them as much as possible and don't give any cause for talk."

"Which is the cheapest kind of goods dealt in. Never mind them, but come along and make another investigation of the wreck. I believe we may find something in it."

"Spoiled beef and rotten clothes," laughed Jack. "However, I will go with you, d.i.c.k."

They took the boat and rowed to the woody point where they made fast, and climbed to the top as before, having much less trouble on account of not having the younger boy to a.s.sist.

They made their rope fast to a tree near the edge of the hole among the rocks, and by its help descended to the bottom, then lighting their way to the hole in the side of the vessel.

With the axe Percival cut away the jagged edges of the timbers at the opening, and then he and Jack pushed forward, using the axe now and again as rubbish of various kinds came in their way.

They could see boxes and bales and casks on either side as they went on, there being a pa.s.sage-way between the tiers of the cargo, and here and there a post or stanchion had half fallen and impeded their progress, obliging them to cut it.

As Percival had predicted, there was a door at the end of the bulkhead, dividing the hold from the cabin, but this was fast.

"It is not very thick," said Percival. "I believe I can break it in with a blow of the axe."

"Wait a moment, d.i.c.k," said Jack cautiously. "Listen! It strikes me I hear the sound of water. We don't want to let a flood in on us. It is likely that the after hold and cabin are full of water, and we don't want to be swamped."

Percival put his ear to the door, and then flashed his light through the keyhole.

"There's nothing there, Jack," he said. "If there were water it would come through here. We have gone so far, and I'd like to go the rest of the way and get to the cabin. I believe we can. There is probably a pa.s.sage on one side of the companion leading to the after cabin."

"Yes, and the companion is open, and the place full of water."