“It’s no use spoiling the ship for a penn’orth of tar,” he said lugubriously. “Now that we are here, we might as well finish the search; but it’s pretty clear that this isn’t where we get rich quick, eh, Dave?” Though their hopes had now dwindled down to zero, they worked hard throughout that day and the following one without the slightest encouragement. With an immense amount of labor they dug into a cavity which appeared to have been the captain’s cabin, and cleared it of tons of sand. They came across sundry half-decayed articles, and tore away the covers of one or two lockers, the contents of which had all nearly rotted. By the end of the second day it was obvious that there remained no reasonable prospect of recovering the lost platinum from the wreck. “It’s no good,” said Tempest, taking a seat on one of the ship’s old ribs and lighting his pipe. “We’ve had a run for our money, and that’s about all we can say. I’ve no regrets, and I hope you haven’t either, Dave. It was a sporting chance, and a good one at that, so far as we could judge. You don’t get a good sporting chance every day of your life. Poor old Jim, here, gets the thin end of it, because we can’t pay him any wages at all. I’m sorry for that, because he has been a brick.” Jim shrugged his shoulders. He did not seem to feel that the others were under any obligation to him. “Well, we’d better make a move for Washington Island, I suppose,” Dave observed lugubriously. “We can’t spend the rest of our lives here.” Jim was scanning the sky and the horizon carefully. “Better stop here to-night,” he said. “Pretty rough bimeby. Big wind coming.” “Bother you, Jim! No, I won’t say that. You’re a great weather-prophet, though how in thunder you know there’s going to be a storm without looking at a barometer is more than I can tell. I guess you feel it in your bones. The sky certainly did look a bit angry as the sun went down, but nothing very special. Let’s get back to the _Nautilus_. Good-by, _Hatteras_! Sorry there’s nothing doing, but you certainly have provided us with an interesting trip, if not a particularly profitable one.” Dave looked back regretfully at the old wreck as he left her for the last time. He was disappointed, not so much on his own account as on that of his father, whom he had so much hoped to cheer with visions of wealth. With Tempest, the matter seemed to have been already forgotten. He was laughing as gaily as though such a thing as a treasure-hunt had never been suggested to him. Before it was time to turn in for the night the storm that Jim had prophesied began to put in an appearance. Dark clouds raced across the sky, and sudden gusts of wind screamed through the rigging of the _Nautilus_. “No need to keep a lookout for Flagg to-night,” Dave commented, with mingled emotions. “He could come and camp here as long as he liked now, so far as we are concerned. If he hasn’t got back to Washington Island yet, he will be having a rough night.”