Deep down Jay resented this big diver's bold audacity and cunning.
Never had he seen anything so brazen as the way Weddigen had smoothed
over the matter of the diamonds that he had carried in his diving
trousers' pocket. Nervily he had sought out Captain Austin and
explained the whole thing several times over. The captain had seemingly
been pretty well convinced that Weddigen was on the square in the
matter, and this had only strengthened Jay's determination to keep
silence.
"But I'll get him in the long run, for he's a crook of the deepest dye
and murder is sure to out," he had told himself.
For some days the two Brighton lads and their friend Larry Seymour
remained inactive about the big shipyard at Bridgeford awaiting the
call to further service. Captain Austin had told them to take things
easy. Superintendent Brown and the higher officials of the company
were elated at the success of the _Nemo's_ crew in bringing up some of
the treasure of the _Dominion_ and had decreed that as part of their
reward they were to loaf a while. Eventually, each lad knew, he would
come in for a slice of the huge "divvy" that was sure to be tendered
the company for salvaging the lost diamonds. The Brighton boys were
delighted with the prospect, for it meant the money would go a long
ways toward payment of their tuition for the new school year. They had
expected to be assigned to the job of bringing up the gold bullion from
the _Dominion_, but more urgent work awaited them.
Great secrecy was attendant upon the fitting out of a special ship in
the yard that the boys had heard was to be used in salvage work later
in the summer. With it the Bridgeford officials contemplated using some
of their new apparatus and employing some of their lately developed
processes for deep-sea salvage.
The ship, which they had heard referred to as the _Jules Verne_, was
denied to everybody except the chosen men employed in putting the
finishing touches on her. She was roped off in a portion of the big wet
basin all to herself and armed guards kept prying eyes at a distance.
"We're apt to know sooner or later," Dick remarked as they discussed
the new venture one afternoon.
"And as for me, I'm getting tired of laying around this way," said
Dick. For two years they had had so much to do while serving in the
Navy that inaction now palled upon them.
They had not long to wait, for one morning, a few days later, just
after they had checked in the shipyard, there came a summons to them
to appear in the office of Superintendent Brown. They hurried over at
once, finding that official awaiting them with Captain Austin.
"Morning, boys," called out the superintendent cheerily. "I hope
you are feeling in good shape again after your tussle with the old
_Dominion_."
To which they answered they preferred getting down again into the
danger zone rather than to sit around cooling their heels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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