ng his cutthroat crew with iron fists.

The others were not visible through the door. The boys moved silently to
the side of the house and drew back so they could look through the
living-room window. The second man was visible now. He was young,
perhaps in his twenties, and he had an unruly shock of blond hair. Once
he might have been good-looking, but a scar crossed a nose that had been
badly broken.

The third man sat with his back to them. Rick touched Scotty's sleeve
and they went around the house via the back. The view was blocked by an
open door.

Scotty put his lips close to Rick's ear. "The front."

Rick led the way, moving carefully because light spilled out of the
front windows and the open front door. They reached a vantage point and
looked in. The third man was clearly visible. The boys reached for each
other at the same moment.

The third man was Steve's shadow!

* * * * *

Morning found the _Water Witch_ anchored on the reef close to the place
where the boys had found the bar shot. There was no sign of activity at
the fancy frogmen's house, and the boat was tied up as it had been the
previous evening. Apparently they were late sleepers.

The Spindrifters tossed coins to see who would make the first dive, and
the lot fell to Rick and Tony. They donned their equipment, then Rick
picked up a spear gun while Tony selected a wrecking bar from his
equipment.

It took ten minutes of their precious fifteen to find the wreck again.
This time, Rick took the precaution of tying a float to a projection and
unwinding line while the float rose to the surface.

Tony started at one end of the mass of marine growth and inserted his
wrecking bar. Rick joined him in heaving, and a cloud of dust and fish
eggs rose to envelop them. It took a moment or two for the water to
clear enough so they could see, then Tony hooted his triumph. The pull
had exposed rotted timbers. This had to be a ship! But was it the
_Maiden Hand_?

Rick wondered if they would ever be sure. Yet, he felt that it was, even
though he realized that the feeling grew as much out of optimism and
hope as anything else. Still, it was unlikely that another ship would be
wrecked at this same depth.

Tony wrote on his slate, "Mor undr sand thn can see, likely."

Rick nodded. The shifting sands had undoubtedly covered, exposed, and
recovered the wreck dozens of times in the years it had lain here. He
looked at his watch