Всего за 5.99 руб. Купить полную версию
There was very little sleep for any of the Radio Boys that night. They had been too stirred up by the vista opened up by their interview with Benton. And when toward morning they dropped off into a troubled slumber, their dreams were a jumble of pirate ships and lonely islands and tumbling waters and coins that gleamed and shimmered in tropical sunlight.
But the morning saw no slackening in their resolution of the night before. A strong appeal had been made to their imagination and their love of adventure, and that appeal persisted.
Naturally, the appeal was much less strong to the members of their families, when with considerable mental misgivings the boys opened up the subject to them, after having enjoined them to strict secrecy as far as outsiders were concerned.
There was a chorus of expostulations and objections, to all of which the boys made answer as best they could. But the strongest arguments lay in the way they had come through the perilous adventures they had previously undergone. Their folks had to admit that in these they had shown qualities of coolness and good judgment, in addition to courage, that had extricated them from all their difficulties. Why was it not reasonable to believe that the same qualities would stand them in good stead in their present venture?
In the end, Phil and Dick prevailed, as they had felt sure that they would, although the consent was a grudging one. Tom had a harder task, as his father was in Chicago, and their talk had to be over the radio, concerning which the elder Hadley was as ardent a fan as the son himself. They had a code of their own, but naturally even with that the talk had to be a guarded one, and dealt with the matter in a much more general way than would have been the case in a personal talk, where Tom could have brought his big guns to bear. The result was that Tom got a qualified consent, which was not to be regarded as final however, until the elder Hadley had received full details in a letter which Tom was to write to him at once.
So far, so good, remarked Tom, at the end of the struggle, as he wiped the perspiration from his brow. Now Ill have to give my natural eloquence a chance and spread it all over my letter. Just wait till you see that letter. Its going to be a cuckoo. But I havent any doubt as to how it will turn out. Dads a good sport, and hes taken chances himself all his life. Ill bet hed like to be in on this himself.
Phil in the meantime had been writing to Steve, laying the matter before him, and enjoining him by all that was good to let him have an answer in twenty-four hours.
Humph! sniffed Dick, as he glanced over Phils shoulder. Twenty-four hours! Hell telegraph an answer in five minutes after he reads the letter. I know Steve.
I guess youre about right, smiled Phil. Youve got the old boy pretty well sized up.
There was so much to do that day that the time passed as though on wings, and in the evening, in accordance with arrangements made over the telephone, Benton came up again to get their final word on the matter.
No need to ask though, he remarked, when the first greetings were over. I can see that there are no cold feet in this crowd.
Warm as toast, laughed Phil. There was considerable chilliness about the pedal extremities of our folks though. We had to talk until we were hoarse. We carried our point though, and as far as Dick and I are concerned the matters a go. Toms been talking over the radio and the things still in the air, but Tom considers it as good as settled. Ive written to Steve too, and we expect to get an answer tomorrow by telegraph.
Some speed boys, smiled Benton, but thats the way to go at it. Either its worth nothing at all, or its worth every ounce of speed and energy we can put in it. What were some of the objections that your folks put up.
Well, there were a good many of them, replied Phil. First of course was the danger. They conjured up all sorts of horrible things, sudden tropical storms, drowning, sharks and things like that. Then too, they thought that it was in the nature of a wild goose chase. If the ship had been sunken recently, theyd have thought we had more of a chance. But two centuries ago seems a long while. They thought the ship might have broken up, sunk in the sand, wholly disappeared.
Theres something of course in that, Benton admitted. And yet treasure has been brought up from the ships of the Spanish Armada that sank over three hundred years ago. What has happened once may happen again. As for the danger, of course there is some. But nothing venture nothing have, and if we are successful the rewards will be great enough to compensate for the risk.
Just what we argued, replied Phil. And then who can tell where danger lies? A man may sail the seas for forty years without a scratch, and then come home to be drowned in a cistern. After all, life itself is just taking a chance.
Right you are, put in Dick. If this venture goes through, well have pulled off a big thing. But even suppose it doesnt go through. Well have seen a new part of the world, will have had lots of fun and adventure and the game will have been worth the candle.
And just think what it means if we put it over, added Tom. Just think of pulling up those ducats and doubloons and louis dor and all the rest of them from the bottom of the sea. It seems a shame to have all that money doing no one any good, when it might be put into circulation.
Old ocean sure is greedy, replied Benton. Think of the hundreds of millions, probably billions, that have been engulfed at some time or other. Probably ten millions went down on the Lusitania, the Titanic and the Arabic. Then theres the Laurentic that went down in 1917 with from ten to fifteen millions on board. Theyve already brought up about three millions of that though. Then there was the fleet of Spanish ships that sank in the harbor of Vigo, Spain, in 1702 carrying down $37,000,000. Theres the San Pedro de Alcantara that sank in Margarita Channel near Caracas in 1812 with $32,000,000 in gold doubloons on board. Youve read perhaps of the American ship Phantom that was wrecked in 1862 with $10,000,000 in California gold. The George Sand sank in the China Sea in 1863 carrying down $13,000,000 in bullion. And those are only a few of the hundreds of ships that have carried down hundreds of thousands or millions. Theres probably enough gold under the waves to make a solid golden pathway a good many feet wide over the whole of the ocean bed.
Well, heres hoping that therell be less of it under water when we get through, laughed Tom.
Lets hope so, smiled Benton, but now lets shift for a little while to another metal and get right down to brass tacks.
CHAPTER VIII
COUNTING THE COST
The first thing to be done, continued Benton, as they all gathered about the table, is to figure on the cost of the expedition. In this, as in everything else, we need the sinews of war. Weve got to lay in supplies, purchase a diving suit, charter a sailing vessel after we reach San Domingo and lots of other things. It cant be done under five thousand dollars and wed better figure on ten. How about it?
Thats all right, answered Phil promptly. Weve talked it over among ourselves and estimated that it would be somewhere between those two amounts. A year ago it might have stumped us a bit, but the reward we got from the bank for the capture of Muggs Murray and the generous way in which Uncle Sam treated us after we had helped to run down the counterfeiters has put us on Easy Street.