Part 13 (1/2)
Rick and Scotty backed far enough away so that the sharks could no longer be seen Then, heading toward the reef, they started for the surface Scotty was slightly in the lead, and Rick kept glancing back in case one of the big fish decided to follow But they reached the surface without incident and broke water about two hundred feet fro aqualung tubes with snorkels, they swam on the surface, faces down, alert for sharks When they reached the floats, Scotty kept watch from the surface while Rick dove to untie the lines
As they climbed on the floats and lifted masks, Scotty and Rick pointed and yelled ”Hey!” sis Rick had seen the _Water Witch_ pass through the reef and head for the cabin cruiser, tied up at the pier in front of the house occupied by the fancy frogmen!
Rick turned and looked at the cruiser, then at the house He was in time to see the front door close There would have been plenty of time for someone to drop the chicken from the cruiser and then cross the reef and tie up at the dock
”I'll bet that's where the chicken came from,” Rick said harshly
”That's a bet I won't take,” Scotty returned ”But you can bet we'll find out!”
CHAPTER IX
Wreck of the ”Maiden Hand”
Tony Briotti exaht from the bottom, then took his knife and scraped at it Under the covering of rowth, red rust appeared He looked at Hobart Zircon ”Recognize this, Hobart?”
”There's only one thing I can think of that fits the shape, Tony Bar shot”
”My conclusion exactly” Tony weighed the thing in his hand He grinned at the boys ”Adventure-prone, and lucky Describe the place where you found it”
Rick did so, concluding, ”The patch didn't look anything like a shi+p, though If that's what you're thinking”
”After two centuries, the shi+p would no longer look like a shi+p But this is unquestionably a bar shot for an ancient cannon It was used to cut shi+p's rigging, and to knock down e of that sort It's likely that the pirates, or the _Maiden Hand_, would have carried bar shot”
”I think you have found the shi+p,” Zircon told theood one There was a heavy quake in this region about a year ago I had occasion to recall it a half hour ago e found a slight fault at the southern tip of the island that had uncovered an Indian midden”
”And a fine one,” Tony added ”You boys can dive for treasure if you want to I've some work of my own to do”
”Incidentally,” Scotty reot to send up a buoy Hope we can find the place again”
”We can”
”What confusion?” Zircon asked
Rick told him ”A freshly killed chicken was dropped near us And itwhen it hit the water, because we suddenly had a shark convention around us” He pointed to the boat tied at the pier, now far behind the ”And we think that was the boat that dropped it”
”It eighted,” Scotty added
The scientists looked at each other Tony grunted ”It ht a freshly killed chicken and throw it over the side?”
”No reason at all,” the big scientist said, ”unless he wanted to createa chicken wouldn't ensure harm to divers below,” Tony objected