Captain Oran Corning was a heavy-set man with a round and exceedingly pleasant face. He had a hearty voice, and the boys had listened to him less than ten minutes when all felt that he was very sincere and all liked him exceedingly.
“Yes, I heard about that hold-up in Wall Street,” said the captain in reply to a question from Sam Rover. “I can’t understand why the police can’t get after those fellows and round them up. Why, those bandits are worse than the old-time pirates used to be!”
“Of course you understand, Captain, that this affair has upset us very much,” went on Fred’s father. “And it has completely changed many of my plans.”
“Well, I thought that might be so. But then I got to thinking that maybe you’d be more eager to go on the hunt for the Margarita than ever. Since I was talking to you I’ve got some additional facts concerning that wreck and the value of the things on board of her, and I believe it would be a better speculation for you to help me find the wreck than some of these speculations you fellows go into in Wall Street.”
“We’re not speculators, Captain,” put in Dick Rover. “That is, we do not take anything more than regular business risks, the same risks that all business men have to take. We do not deal in any securities of the wildcat order.”
“Oh, yes, yes, I understand that! And you’ll excuse me, Mr. Rover, if I was a little too blunt. But what I meant is that I’m pretty sure that we can locate that wreck, and, if we can, everybody who puts up his money in this expedition will get his share.”
“How much do you think was on board the Margarita when she went down?” asked Fred.
“Well, of course, the exact amount is more or less problematic. I have found out that when Miguel Torra made his escape he had not less than fifty thousand dollars in gold with him and he had with him gold and silverware and jewelry and precious stones amounting to at least one hundred and fifty thousand dollars more.”
“Gracious! Two hundred thousand dollars!” exclaimed Randy. “If we got hold of any such sum as that it would help out The Rover Company a whole lot!”
“Go slow, son! Go slow!” admonished Tom Rover. “Don’t count your chickens before you’ve even got the eggs.”
“Yes, but, Dad! if there is even a fair chance of locating this lost steam yacht, don’t you think we ought to take it?” pleaded the youth.
“Certainly! But I would want to know a little more about what I was trying to do.”
“I won’t promise to go into this affair, Captain Corning. Not that I don’t trust you, but because this affair in Wall Street needs my attention,” remarked Sam Rover. “However, I’d like very much to hear what you have to say. And let me add that my son here and my three nephews are also greatly interested. These boys were once shipwrecked in the West Indies and fell in with an old sailor, and between them they managed to locate a pirates’ treasure which, while it was not tremendously large, still gave each of them a snug little sum of money.”
“Well, lads, if that’s the case, you ought to be just the young fellows to help look for the Margarita,” and Captain Corning smiled broadly.
“I wouldn’t like any better fun,” answered Andy promptly. “An ocean trip always did suit me right down to the ground.”
There followed a conversation lasting over an hour, during which time Captain Corning unfolded his plans while the boys listened eagerly and even the men were interested, though they could not get their minds altogether off of their financial troubles.
According to what the captain had to tell, Miguel Torra had set sail from a small port near Vera Cruz in Mexico at a time when a revolution was just coming to an end and he was very much in disfavor with those in authority. There had been a fight and it was not definitely known how many on shore and on the steam yacht had been killed or wounded. Then the yacht had sailed eastward with the evident intention of landing somewhere in the West Indies or on the upper coast of South America. But there had been mutiny and a great storm, and from what the captain had been able to learn from an old sailor who had since died in a seamen’s home down East, the Margarita had been driven on either a sandbar or the rocks off the coast of Yucatan.
“As near as the old sailor could figure it, the spot was directly north of a place called Vera Sura.”
“But isn’t it very deep in the Gulf of Mexico?” questioned Jack. “When we studied geography I remember there was one place there where the water was terribly deep.”
“That’s true, lad. But along the coast of Yucatan it’s quite shallow and there are numerous sandbars and submerged rocks. So I have come to the conclusion that if the Margarita is really there, she may be in water from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet deep.”
“How did this old sailor, Henry Swall, come to tell you all this?” asked Sam Rover.
“I helped the old fellow financially. I rather liked him, and I got him into the seamen’s home. And not only that, I also helped his old mother who was blind. That made Swall very grateful and that is why he gave me all these particulars. He had hoped to go on a search for the Margarita himself. Before he died he signed a paper in which he left everything he had to me.”
“Well, all this certainly sounds very interesting,” mused Sam Rover. He turned to the boys. “It’s just the kind of a hunt you’d like to go on, isn’t it?” he added, with a little smile.
“You bet it is, Uncle Sam!” cried Andy.
“And just think of how much good that money would do us if we could get hold of it!” added his twin.
“Well, Dad, if you thought it was a good thing to go into, why don’t you let us fellows go into it on our own account?” questioned Fred. “That is, unless you think we ought to stay here and put in our time trying to solve this hold-up mystery.”
So far Jack had not spoken and now his three cousins looked at him inquiringly.
“I hardly know what to say,” said the oldest of the boys. “Of course, if we can be of any assistance around here we ought to stay. On the other hand, if there’s a real chance of winning out in this hunt for the lost steam yacht, I’m in favor of going on the hunt.”
“Would you be willing to put your own money in it, Jack?” questioned Fred. “I’ll put up every cent I’ve got.”
“So will I!” came from the twins.
“Of course I’ll put up my money! We certainly wouldn’t expect our folks to do it. In fact, haven’t we already offered our money to them?”
“Are you sure there is no one else who could claim a right in this Margarita if she was found?” questioned Dick Rover.
“There isn’t a soul who could make a claim so far as I’ve been able to learn,” answered Captain Corning. “This affair, you must remember, happened a good many years ago, when Henry Swall was only a young man. He was over seventy-five when he died last year. So it isn’t likely that anybody would come forward and make a claim. You must remember too that the vessel was abandoned at sea, and that would make her the property of whoever found her.”
“I believe you said you were willing to put up some money in this affair yourself,” said Fred’s father.
“I’m willing to put up every cent I can rake and scrape together,” answered the captain quickly. “That amounts to seven thousand dollars.”
“How much money do you think you ought to have to see it through successfully?”
“Well, we’ve got to charter a vessel and take along a professional diver or two and perhaps take along a diving bell, too. We may have to do a lot of exploring before we hit the right spot and we may have to use dragnets and things like that. Also we’ll have to have a competent crew and proper provisions, and all those things nowadays cost real money. I have figured out that we ought to have a backing of at least twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“That means that you want eighteen thousand dollars in addition to what you can raise yourself?” questioned Jack.
“Yes.”
“Eighteen thousand dollars divided between the four of us fellows would be four thousand five hundred dollars apiece!” cried Randy. “I’d be willing to put up that much right now!”
“Ditto here!” said his brother.
“So would I be willing to put it up!” cried Fred. “But I’d want to go on the hunt too.”
“Oh, of course, we’d want to go along!” came simultaneously from the twins.
“If you fellows put up your money, I’d do the same,” said Jack. “But as things are now, I really think we ought to hold off for a few days before we decide on this.” He turned to his father. “Don’t you think so?”
“Perhaps it might be as well, Jack. You boys may be able to be of assistance here, although I can’t just now see in what way you can help us. The police are doing everything they can and we now have three private detectives on the case. The detectives have a better chance of doing something than any of us have, if the criminals are our old enemies, for all our enemies know us and of course would get out of sight and become suspicious as soon as they saw us.”
“And if the bandits were all outsiders, as they may be, then we wouldn’t have much of a chance of tracing them,” added Randy.
“But about our money?” went on Fred. “Are you quite sure, Dad, that you don’t want it in your business?”
“Eighteen thousand dollars wouldn’t help us very much, Fred,” was Sam Rover’s reply. “And if you boys really want to go on this hunt for the Margarita, as far as I’m concerned I’ll say do it and use the money for that purpose.” As he spoke he looked at his two brothers and Dick and Tom nodded in approval.
After this Captain Corning went into more particulars of what was in his mind to do, mentioning a vessel he could charter for the purpose, and telling of the professional diver and others he might engage for the trip.
“Gee, we ought to have old Ira Small along!” cried Andy.
“I don’t think he’ll go,” answered Fred. “I thought of him before. But he’s now in an old sailor’s home and not feeling extra well; so I think you’ll have to count him out.”
“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” said Jack finally, after talking the matter over with his father. “We’ll leave this whole matter rest for two or three days and then give Captain Corning a definite answer;” and so it was decided.