f them. The professor now again faced round
inquiringly, and Lethbridge signalled--

"That is the spot."

Von Schalckenberg threw up his arms to indicate that he understood; and
then Lethbridge saw the three men stand and confer together for a
moment. Then, drawing their daggers and switching on their lights, they
all three plunged into the cave and vanished, leaving the solitary
watcher in the pilot-house in a state of painful suspense that endured
for fully ten minutes. At length, however, the professor and one of the
others reappeared, each of them dragging at a long, limp tentacle; and
in another moment the huge body of the octopus came into view with the
remaining two men pushing it vigorously from behind. As it reached the
edge of the ledge the professor and his companion stepped round to
assist the other two, and presently the great unwieldy body went rolling
limply and lifelessly down the face of the reef until it lay motionless
upon the sand. Then the four men made their way carefully down after
it, when, having reached the sand, they turned and bent their footsteps
in the direction of the _Flying Fish_.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE PIRATE CRUISER.

When, having reached the dining-room of the _Flying Fish_, Mildmay
changed out of his diving-suit into his ordinary clothes, it was found
that he was so severely bruised and strained that the professor, in his
capacity of emergency medical adviser to the party, insisted upon his
immediate retirement to his cabin and his bed. There the worthy man
subjected him to so vigorous a massage, and so generous an anointing
with a certain embrocation of his own concocting, that two days later
the genial sailor was again able to be up and about. And, meanwhile,
Sir Reginald and Colonel Sziszkinski continued the examination of the
wreck, but unfortunately without any satisfactory result; for although
they succeeded in finding the captain's cabin, and bringing therefrom,
and from some of the other cabins, a considerable number of documents,
it was found that, owing to their long submersion, they had become so
completely sodden that any attempt to handle them, while still wet,
reduced them to pulp; and when the alternative of carefully drying them
was tried, they became so exceedingly brittle that they simply crumbled
to pieces, while, even on the fragments that they contrived to preserve,
the writing was so nearly obliterated as to be quite undecipherable.
Neverthel