At this the rival diver fell back, knowing full well that Amos Fearless was not a person with whom to trifle. Slowly and cautiously Dave entered the cabin of the _Happy Hour_. His father followed, and at a respectable distance came Cal Vixen and the two Hankers. The cabin was badly wrecked, and in it nothing of value remained. "I wonder if we can get down into the hold," thought Dave, and motioned to his father. "We will try," came back from the old diver. "But be careful, or you won't get out alive." The pair advanced with great caution, going down through the forward hatch. In the meantime the rival party entered the hold by the rear hatch. It was very dark, and the electric light shone but dimly here, for the water was so foul it contaminated the air they carried. To the intense surprise of all, the hold of the _Happy Hour_ was absolutely bare! Dave could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses. The great treasure was gone! Their trip to the middle of the Pacific and to the bottom of that mighty ocean had availed them nothing. Father and son stared helplessly at each other and then at the rival party. All were equally dumfounded. The rage of the Hankers knew no bounds. Lemuel Hankers would not believe the truth, and had Cal Vixen go with him and Bart on a thorough search throughout the wreck, and all around it. It was useless; the _Happy Hour_ and the vicinity were absolutely bare of the first trace of gold, or, in fact, of anything of value. With heavy hearts the Hankers party returned to their diving bell. "The jig is up!" cried Bart, as soon as he was inside and could speak. "Oh, what a sell!" "I was mad to believe in it!" came from Lemuel Hankers. "And to think that I have spent thousands of dollars on a fool's errand!" And tears of miserly rage flowed down his cheeks. "I reckon we might as well go up," put in Cal Vixen. He, too, was disgusted. They gave the signal, and gradually their diving bell began to leave the valley at the ocean's bottom. But less than quarter of a mile of the distance to the surface was covered when there came a shock on top of the diving bell which sent all inside sprawling headlong. Then came another shock and the water began to pour into the bell. Some great monster of the deep had hit the bell and cracked some of the upper joints. The collision showed those above that something was wrong, and they began to haul in faster than ever. But great damage had been done also to the monster, which was somewhat similar to a deep-sea whale. He became entangled in the guide line of the diving bell and was hauled up to the surface in spite of himself. "Hullo, what's this?" cried Captain Nesik, when the monster came into view. Then ensued a battle royal for fully five minutes. At last the monster was cut loose and disappeared, with a loud splash, into the ocean. Then the diving bell was hoisted aboard and opened.