"Looks pretty good sized to me," returned Captain Hollinger, as he swept
the harbor with his glasses. Although the river was still two miles
away, they could see that it was large and apparently of good depth.
"Had we better send out a boat to make soundings first, do you think?"

"No, sir--it ain't that. It's the natives, sir. They'll be off in boats
as soon as they see us slip our anchor over into the mud, and I'll talk
to 'em. They'll remember me, 'cause why I've been in here before,
trading."

"Very well, then. You'd better go to the wheel."

Jerry shuffled to the wheel house and took the steam steering-gear in
hand, his blue eyes sweeping over their course. The shores ahead and on
either hand were low and thickly overgrown, but rose into hill-slopes
behind. All was a tangle of dark green jungle, and as the brown river
opened out before them, the boys saw that it was very sluggish and
appeared to merge its waters with those of the lagoon.

The lagoon proved to be curious in this respect, for to the northeast of
the river mouth, on the starboard side of the yacht, it ran far up
inside the island, and its waters were here distinctly sea-green, owing
to the channels beyond the island. Where the yacht was, however, and to
the south, the water was of a muddy brown color, proving that the
river-current tended to empty toward the southward instead of diverging
generally into the entire lagoon.

Captain Hollinger had barely pointed out this fact when Jerry ordered
their speed slowed down, and turned their course to the northeast. The
_Seamew_ slowly ran into the lagoon, turned inside the island, where the
green water narrowed into a half-mile stretch, and there the engines
were stopped. The anchor plunged over and the cable roared out, then a
leadsman forward gave their soundings.

"Six fathom, sir!"

Captain Hollinger, who had the deck, went to the chart house for his
sextant. It was just noon, and he wished to log their exact position.
Mart gave Bob a meaning glance and the two boys went to the wheel house,
where old Jerry was leaning on the idle wheel and gazing at the shore.

"Well, Jerry," said Bob, "where's the wreck of that old galleon, eh? The
one where the Pirate Shark hangs out, I mean."

Jerry chuckled, and pointed with his pipe to the northern end of the
lagoon.

"Up there, lads, up there inside the channel beyond the end o' the
island. Eight fathom down, she is--down there among the rocks, and us