What did it mean?
He tried to clear his befogged mind and think clearly on the subject, but the result was that he was always more perplexed.
He pounded on the hatch, and would have shouted to Barney and Clifford had he been sure that they would hear him.
If they were still outside, they certainly must be aware that the hatch was closed.
Why, then, did they not lift it? Why should they for so long allow it to remain closed?
Then a chilling thought came to Frank.
He gasped and sank down upon the cabin stairs.
36“My soul! Can it be possible?” he muttered. “Am I buried alive?”
He remembered the explosion or shock which had flung him upon his face!
What did it mean?
Had something happened above to seal the fate of his friends as well as his own? Yet he could not imagine what that happening could be.
“I will not believe it,” he muttered. “I will wait. They will yet come to my rescue.”
Time passed slowly enough.
Yet the rescue did not come.
However, Frank did not give up hope, and fresh interest was aroused in his mind in the galleon’s gold.
“Why waste my time,” he thought, “if anything has happened they will dig me out in good time. I am not afraid of that.”
With which consoling reflection he set out to find the galleon’s gold.
Once more he started across the cabin floor.
He gained a door on the opposite side and pushed against it. It opened and he walked in.
Again the hideous corpses attacked him. But he heeded them not.
Into a second cabin he passed.
One happy state of affairs he noticed. There were no dead bodies in the place.
It was evidently the captain’s cabin; everything was in a remarkable state of preservation.
He passed along to the captain’s table. The sextant, quadrant box, compass and globe were yet there; but the charts and maps and all papers had dissolved.
This was to be regretted, as the true history of the Donna Veneta might never be known.
But Frank was looking for the galleon’s gold.
He opened the doors of the desk; they were filled with miscellaneous articles. There were a few gold and silver coins and a number of jewels.
Frank passed on from the captain’s cabin into the forward cabin. This was also deserted. But everything in the place seemed in a perfect state of preservation.
The young inventor did not waste much time here.
He looked curiously at some articles of bric-a-brac which had withstood the rack of time. Some of them were of value, and he decided to have them removed to the Dolphin.
So interested did he become in his research that he became quite oblivious of the fact that he was imprisoned alive in a sunken ship.
Beyond this cabin there was the forecastle. This contained 37no material of value, but the seamen’s chests were in some cases open and the contents thrown carelessly about, just as their owners had left them.
Frank spent but little time in the forecastle.
Then he went below into the hold. Here were the stores which the Spaniards had placed aboard the Veneta for her long cruise.
There were casks of wine, rich old Madeira, of priceless value now, could it be brought to the light of day. Great barrels of pork and ship biscuits, and other matters too numerous for specific mention.
Through the hold Frank went to the magazine. Here was a goodly store of powder and ball. Next was the gun-room, with many stands of small arms of the ancient firelock pattern.
“Well,” muttered the young inventor, after all this, “where is the princely fortune of gold which is supposed to be contained in this vessel? Surely it must be hid away in some secret part of the ship, if it exists at all.”
And yet he saw no reasons for doubting its existence. He remembered that the treasure rooms aboard these old galleons were generally secret chambers.
In that case he must look for such; with which recollection he began examining the partitions and bulkheads.
It seemed more logical to him that the treasure chamber should be contiguous to the captain’s room.
So he went thither.
And examining the wainscoting thoroughly, he found that there existed quite a large space between that and the main cabin.
“I see,” he muttered; “this is where the treasure room is located. But now how can entrance to it be obtained?”
This was a question, but Frank fell to closely searching the surface of the wainscoting.
This had a speedy result.
He discovered a slender crack which he felt sure outlined a door. He followed it with his finger until he came to a tiny button set in the wood.
On this he pressed.
The result was quickly apparent.
A section of the wainscoting moved back. Time had not affected the locks and springs.
A square chamber was revealed beyond.
Frank flashed his electric light into it. Then he entered.
The treasure chamber was about eight by ten feet square, but it was half filled with metal chests piled one upon the other.
These were all locked, and resisted the strongest efforts of the young inventor.
38But they were extremely heavy, and he doubted not but that they contained gold or silver coin.
That this was the treasure chamber of the vessel he made sure by the discovery of a rude reckoning in Spanish scratched upon a brass tablet with a bodkin of steel.
Each chest had one of these plates affixed to it, and they announced the contents of each in pesos.
Frank counted the chests, and making an average, estimated the fortune at the enormous sum of two million dollars.
“What will Clifford and Hartley say?” he thought; “surely it will be a surprise to them.”
Then a chill struck him.
He remembered his position and the peculiar shock which he had experienced some while before.
“I wonder if they have got the hatch open yet?” he mused.
With which reflection he decided to go back and see. Accordingly he opened the door to the main cabin.
And as he did so he shivered at the ordeal before him.
There were the hideous array of corpses yet swinging round the circle. They grinned at him in a fiendish way, and then made a dash at him.
Frank, in spite of himself, gave a shriek and slammed the door after him. Then he hurled the frightful cadavers from him.
Many of them had melted away into ashes upon the cabin floor, but others seemed to hold their own.
“Ugh!” muttered the young inventor. “I can’t say that I like this.”
However, he made his way across the cabin to the stairway. Up this he clambered.
He put his hand up. The hatch was still down.
He tried to force it upward.
It would not yield.
For a moment a stunned feeling came over Frank. He sank down upon the stairs and an awful reflection came over him.
“They have deserted me!” he muttered. “My God, they have left me to die!”
Imprisoned forever in that sunken vessel with the corpses of two hundred years ago for companions!
Truly it was an awful situation. What could he do?
Frank Reade, Jr., was a brave young man. But in spite of this he was almost unnerved by the reflection.
The temptation was strong upon him to end the affair then and there. Why make the end a lingering one?
All sorts of tragic fancies forced themselves upon him.
39Dead to the world, buried alive, destined never to see God’s sunlight and beautiful day again.
What a horrible thought.
In his very agony of spirit he wailed:
“God help me! Is there no chance for my life? Can I not find my way out of here in some way?”
Then he became calmer. Never were his inventive faculties keener. A sort of desperation was upon him.
“I will find a way out!” he muttered resolutely.
He drew his ax from his belt and began work upon the hatch. But it was of toughest oak and seemed to yield but a little to the keen blade.