At last he came up out of the water, swam to the standing ladder, and holding on, called: "Well, there is something there!" "Good! Good!" cried the Chinaman, greatly excited. "Is it a tin case?" "I think so. It's metal of some kind." "Why didn't you bring it up?" "I couldn't unhitch the stone. It is tied fast to a rope." "You don't say! Eddie, we are going to get it all right." "It looks so. I'll try it again in a minute. This time I guess I shall be able to unhitch the stone all right." "Better take down a knife and cut the rope." "I will if I have to, but it will hamper me. I'd sooner try it the other way first." Now Ed was not giving out the facts of his discovery straight. He had not only found one tin case down there, but two. They were exactly alike, and both had a rope attached to a small ring, the other end being fastened around a stone. One of these stones the boy had already unhitched. He knew that he could not successfully handle both cases, although they were by no means bulky. He did not bring the one he had detached up, because he wanted time to think. There seemed but one way out of it. He must abandon his clothes if he wanted to escape from Pow Chow with the money. Disagreeable as this prospect seemed, Ed determined to risk it and to swim off as soon as he came to the surface. But a few minutes' reflection changed that. "I'll come up under the pier and lie low," he said to himself. "He'll think I'm drowned. Mebbe he'll leave my clothes there and I can get them later. If I swim off he'll carry them away sure." This seemed better than the first plan. Ed climbed upon the pier for another dive. Pow Chow questioned him closely. "We are going to get it, Eddie!" he exclaimed. "We are going to get it, surest thing. If the money is there all right we will all take the first train for San Francisco. Cut out Albany. Your father is half dead, and you don't care for your mother anyway. Come along with us and I'll make a man of you. What do you say?" "Well, mebbe I will," replied Ed, willing to fool the fellow now that he felt he had got the game in his own hands. Again he dove. Descending to the base of the pile, he made his capture. "Had the money been divided into two parcels?" he asked himself. He could account for the presence of the two cases in no other way, and yet according to Pow Chow the paper mentioned only one. Clutching his prize, Ed swam in and rose to the surface under the pier as he had expected. He looked around for something to hold on to, but it was too dark to see much. Swimming forward among the piles a few feet, he was suddenly startled by seeing a large boat right ahead of him. At first he thought he could see a man pull down out of sight into the bottom of the boat. Treading water and looking again, he could see nobody. Doubtful what to do, Ed called in a low voice: "Hello, there! Hello, the boat!" There was no answer. No one raised up in the boat.