The Radio Boys Under the Sea; or, The Hunt for Sunken Treasure

by Eulalie Osgood Grover

  CHAPTER XVIII

  GOLD AND JEWELS

  For answer, Phil extended the small black bag toward them. Dick grabbedit with a cry and the others crowded around him. Bimbo pressed close,his mouth hanging ludicrously open.

  With trembling fingers Dick fumbled with the strings of the bag thenplunged his hand to the bottom of it. The hand returned, grasping threegolden coins, the first fruits of the treasure.

  For a moment pandemonium reigned. The boys acted like crazy men. Theygrasped each other about the waist and rollicked in a sort of wild wardance about the place, shouting at the top of their lungs. Bimbo's mouthwas stretched in a grin that must have hurt.

  "Yassir," he was saying over and over again, his rich darky voice raisedabove the din, "I don said ef anybody could find dat dere gol'entreasure, dat man was Marse Phil. Yassir, dis nigger done allus saidMarse Phil de greatest treasure hunter what is. Yassir!"

  After they had quieted down sufficiently to care to hear details, Philrecounted his adventures in the hull of the ship, not even omitting thepart where he had stumbled over the dead man's bones.

  At this part in the narrative Bimbo was seen to gaze apprehensively overhis shoulder. Trying to attract as little attention as possible, hecrept nearer to the absorbed group about Phil.

  However, Bimbo was not the only one who felt an uncanny chill in theatmosphere. For a moment each one had put himself in Phil's place, hadstumbled over some horrible object, the skeleton of a man whogenerations ago had lived and breathed.

  "Gee, Phil," Tom said, in an awed voice. "I bet a little company wouldhave come in handy just then--something beside dead men's bones."

  "You said something," replied Phil fervently adding, with a gleam in hiseyes that seemed to be reflected from the gold itself, "But when I foundthat chest burst wide open, spilling out its golden contents, believeme, I forgot all about skeletons and everything else. I even forgot thatmy oxygen was running low. Say, but that was a sight!"

  "You lucky dog," cried Steve, enviously. "What do you mean by hoggingall the fun, anyway?"

  "I haven't," replied Phil, with a grin. "Didn't I bring a chunk of it upwith me?"

  "You sure did," said Jack Benton, adding, with an attempt to control hisown excitement. "Tell me something, Phil. How much wealth, in UnitedStates money do you figure there is down there in the hold of the ship?"

  "I don't know," returned Phil, slowly. "You see there were some preciousstones, too and it would be hard for me to give the value of them. Thentoo, for all we know, the other chests may not contain anything of valueat all."

  "Say not so," cried Steve reproachfully. "What are you trying to do,anyway? Throw gloom on this happy party."

  "Nothing like it," grinned Phil, adding as he took up the little blackbag and emptied the rest of its contents on the table. "Look at thatdiamond and that ruby. They must be worth a small fortune inthemselves."

  The boys gasped. They had been so absorbed in Phil's story that they hadtaken it for granted that the handful of coins which Dick had broughtforth was all the bag contained. They had not even examined the coinsclosely. The mere fact that they were gold had been enough for themthen.

  Now they regarded the exquisite jewels which Phil had brought up fromthe bottom of the sea almost with a feeling of awe. It seemed impossiblethat they could be real.

  But they were real. Even the boys, inexperienced in such matters as theywere, could tell that. And as Phil had said, they were tremendouslyvaluable.

  "Were there many more like these?" asked Jack Benton softly.

  Phil shook his head.

  "There were mostly coins," he said, "with a handful of gems sprinkled infor good luck. I believe the treasure, in that one chest, at least, wasalmost all gold."

  "Well, what do we want, the earth?" demanded Dick as he examined thecoin he held. "Look here fellows," he added, "This gold piece is a queersort of duck. It has Spanish lettering on it----"

  "A doubloon, probably," said Jack Benton. "And this coin I have is aFrench louis----"

  "And mine's a guinea," broke in Tom with a chuckle. "These guys seem tohave gathered their plunder from all parts of the world."

  "I guess it didn't make much difference to them what nation they stolefrom," Jack Benton agreed. "They played no favorites. But say, justlisten to that storm, fellows," he interrupted himself as the windwailed wildly about the cave. "It's worse than the gale that greeted usand drove us on the rocks."

  "Sure is a beauty," said Steve. "Lucky we have a cave to live in. Can'tbe blown down, at any rate."

  Phil moved across to the door of the cave and stood looking out into thehurricane.

  "It must have been just such a storm," he remarked softly, as though hewere more than half speaking to himself, "in which the pirate shipfoundered centuries ago. Seems kind of queer, someway."

  "What seems queer?" said Dick who had come to stand beside him.

  "Why," said Phil, still with that strange air of speaking to himself,"that there should be such a storm on the very day when we have brokeninto the hull of the dead ship. It's uncanny----"

  A frightened wail from the corner where Bimbo had taken refuge broughthim up short and he faced about with a sheepish laugh.

  "Don't mind me, fellows," he said. "I guess I'm still a little shaken upfrom what I saw down there today in the cabin of that poor old hulk. Thestorm sort of brought it home to me. Well," he added, striving to makehis tone sound matter-of-fact, "suppose we talk over plans for rescuingthe treasure. I'll feel easier when we have it safe right here under ournoses."

  What was that strange uneasiness that had taken possession of him? Evenin the excitement of making plans and the jubilation of the boys hecould not entirely shake it off.

  Here they were alone on this island where in all probability no one elsehad set foot for many years. The adventure of this day had met withsuccess beyond his wildest dreams. The treasure was there--was theirs.All they had to do was to take it. There was no earthly reason to feeluneasy and yet he was uneasy.

  All during the long hours--and they sat up way into the nightexulting--he was haunted by a sensation of impending evil. Thinking thathe was overwrought by the day's adventure, he tried to dismiss thesethoughts but without very much success.

  Long after his comrades were sleeping soundly he lay staring into thedark. Once he caught himself straining his ears to catch some fanciedsound.

  The storm had died down and the night, save for the low drumming of thewaves on the beach, was so still that he could almost hear his heartbeat.

  What was he listening for, he asked himself. The night was breathless.He could have heard nothing. Then, calling himself all kinds of a foolhe turned over and went to sleep.

  He woke, struggling through a sea of unconsciousness, with the distinctfeeling that an unseen presence was near him. Not fully awake, he sprangto his feet, revolver in hand.

  Was it imagination that the figure of a man, vague and indistinct as thenight itself, slipped from the cave? His vision was blurred with sleep.Impatiently he rubbed a hand across his eyes.

  With a bound he was at the door of the cave--outside, straining his eyesin an effort to pierce the shadows.

  There was nothing. No sign, no sound save the monotonous moaning of thewaves upon the beach.

  He walked a little way, searching, his revolver held ready for action.Still he saw nothing. Reluctantly he turned back toward the cave.

  He lay down again but not to sleep. For a long time he lay there,watchful, alert. As the first faint grey of dawn tinged the sky herelaxed his vigil and fell asleep.