Part 15 (1/2)
He carried the thought further The shadow had gotten upset because he and Scotty had gone swi was hidden At least, that was a reasonable assumption, based on the events at St
Thoear in the house, the attempt to warn them off, and the presence of Steve's erstwhile shadow on Clipper Cay could then be added up
Right here, in this particular area, another men dived often to see, use, collect, or whatever they did with it That would account for their familiarity with the currents!
He started to tell Tony, then reconsidered It was a pretty good hypothesis, he thought, but not supported by ironclad evidence If he told the scientists, theyin the area And he was deteret that treasure--et it there would be no living with Barby, since she would always maintain _she_ could have found it if they had only allowed her to go on their old expedition
Zircon and Scotty broke water and Rick helped the shi+p at that,” Zircon boomed ”We identified as almost certainly a coet it free and bring it up Scotty found what is probably the muzzle of a cannon, buried in the sand”
”There's sothat it's hard to tell what's what,” Scotty added ”But it certainly looked like a cannon muzzle”
”From , I suspect that the portion above the sand is the stern, probably the stern super-structure If the ti off the top should expose the stern cabins”
”That seeood basis for operation Rick, if you'll look in er bar you can borrow You'll both need tools if you're going to take the shi+p apart”
”Anyway, that's enough diving for the o”
While the others got the boat underway, Rick started the compressor in the cockpit and connected up the tanks they had used He alant and had ordered triple tank blocks to give theles were convenient, and diving was a sport it wasn't wise to overdo By the tih with lunch and had rested awhile, the tanks would be fully charged again
As they tied up, Zircon said, ”Tony and I ork at his midden this afternoon You two take the boat We won't need it I'll walk over and take a look every once in a while, and if we see our friends fro”
The boys helped Tony prepare a simple lunch of soup and sandwiches, then all hands retired to the front porch to eat
Up the beach, there were signs of activity around the frogmen's boat As they ate and watched, the boat moved away from the pier and approached the reef, where it anchored Rick went to get the binoculars and focused theht where their buoys floated!
”They're diving at the wreck!” he exclailasses and watched, then handed theist muttered, ”Surely they can't be interested in the treasure It would be simply too much coincidence for the to see what interested us,” Scotty offered, and his explanation seemen surfaced and the boat went back to its pier
”Scotty has it,” Zircon agreed ”From e've seen, I'd say they simply followed our buoy lines down to see e had been doing”
”If that's the extent of their interest, I don't see hoe could object,” Tony said ”Or even if they tried for the treasure we'd have no grounds for objecting The shi+p is anyone's property after all these years”
Rick said flatly, ”We won't do any objecting, but we'll do plenty of watching We're going to get that treasure if it's there, whether the fancy frog Octopus
As Rick steered the _Water Witch_ to its anchorage above the reef, he told Scotty about the theory he had developed thatout to take a look where ere diving is another piece of evidence Unless they were afraid that we ht be interested in their stuff--whatever and wherever it is--ould they be so concerned about e're doing?”