ace.

"I never knew the sun to be so bright," said Jesse W. "It's like what men
say coming up out of a deep well is."

"We'll go there again," said Percival. "I want to know more about the
place. Better not say anything to the other fellows. We'll have them
swarming over the place if we do, and then there is more or less danger in
going down there."

"I believe you want to keep the discovery all to yourself in case we did
find treasure there," said Jack. "Probably there is nothing more than a
lot of spoiled beef and some old clothes."

"Oh, after we have seen all there is to be seen I don't care, but I do
want to have it to ourselves until we have had a chance to see all there
is to be seen. Think of going into a vessel through a hole in the side.
Very few people can say they have done that."

"There'll be no getting the vessel out of that now," said young Smith. "I
wonder how old it is!"

"It cannot be so very old," replied Jack. "If she were, the moss and slime
on that stump of a mast would be thicker, and there would not be so much
of the stump. Probably she is filled with water in any event."

"There was none in the part we saw."

"No, as that was above water, but the lower part undoubtedly is. I do not
believe we could go all the way through as Dick suggests."

They went back to the place where they had left the boat, made their way
down and rowed back to the yacht, where they went on board, and saw some
of the boys, telling them of visiting the reefs, but saying nothing of the
strange discovery of the vessel among the rocks.

There was a very high tide that night, but Captain Storms decided that it
would be very unwise to try to pass beyond the reefs, none of the openings
being wide enough and the surf very heavy.

"There is no use, young gentlemen," he said to Jack and Dick and a few
others. "We will have to stay here for a time until I can get in
connection with the outside world. Then, perhaps, some one may know about
this place, and a way out of it. One vessel has gone down here, and I
don't care to be the next, and leave my mainmast sticking up out of the
water to show folks the way to destruction."

"We saw that stump ourselves," said Jack. "Was that wreck long ago, do you
think?"

"Not so many years, twenty, perhaps, or maybe less. The rocks would hold
her tight, but I don't believe there's much left of her. Nothing worth
taking away, I guess."

Jack gave Dick a peculiar look, and neither o