CHAPTER VII
A HAZARDOUS VENTURE
"And now," said Benton, after the excitement had somewhat subsided,glancing at his watch, "I've kept you fellows up till the wee sma'hours, and I guess we've had enough for one night. We'll sleep over itand get together to-morrow and see how things look in the cold grey dawnof the morning after.
"Mind," he continued, as he gathered up his papers and made ready todepart, "I don't want to sweep you fellows off your feet. There are awhole lot of things to be considered, and while I'm tickled to death bythe way you feel about it, I don't hold you to the decision that you'vemade tonight. I take that just as the statement of your personalattitude toward the matter. If on thinking it over more carefully youshould change your minds, I'd be horribly disappointed, but I wouldn'tfeel a bit sore. In other words, I want the decision to be not a matterof momentary enthusiasm but of cool judgment, after you've consideredall the pros and cons."
"It's bully of you to feel that way about it," responded Phil warmly,"but we've got used to making rather quick decisions, and so far we'vewon out. Besides our decision wasn't made at the minute you asked forit. It had been forming in our minds all the time we were going throughthose papers. Of course we'll have to talk with our folks about it, butwe've persuaded them before to let us have our way in these matters, andI guess we can again. At any rate if we don't, it won't be for lack oftrying."
"One other thing," broke in Dick. "There's a pal of ours named SteveElwood. Just at present he's in New York. He's no end of a good fellow,and I'm sure he'd like to go along with us. Would you have anyobjection?"
"Not if he's like the rest of you and you will vouch for him," repliedBenton with a smile. "We're rather shorthanded as it is, and five won'tbe too many."
"We'll vouch for him, all right," said Phil, and the others seconded himenthusiastically. "He was with us in Florida and Mexico, and he justeats up danger."
"That's the kind we want," replied Benton. "Go to it then and get intouch with him as soon as you can. So long, fellows. See you tomorrow,and we'll get busy on the question of ways and means."
There was very little sleep for any of the Radio Boys that night. Theyhad been too stirred up by the vista opened up by their interview withBenton. And when toward morning they dropped off into a troubledslumber, their dreams were a jumble of pirate ships and lonely islandsand tumbling waters and coins that gleamed and shimmered in tropicalsunlight.
But the morning saw no slackening in their resolution of the nightbefore. A strong appeal had been made to their imagination and theirlove of adventure, and that appeal persisted.
Naturally, the appeal was much less strong to the members of theirfamilies, when with considerable mental misgivings the boys opened upthe subject to them, after having enjoined them to strict secrecy as faras outsiders were concerned.
There was a chorus of expostulations and objections, to all of which theboys made answer as best they could. But the strongest arguments lay inthe way they had come through the perilous adventures they hadpreviously undergone. Their folks had to admit that in these they hadshown qualities of coolness and good judgment, in addition to courage,that had extricated them from all their difficulties. Why was it notreasonable to believe that the same qualities would stand them in goodstead in their present venture?
In the end, Phil and Dick prevailed, as they had felt sure that theywould, although the consent was a grudging one. Tom had a harder task,as his father was in Chicago, and their talk had to be over the radio,concerning which the elder Hadley was as ardent a "fan" as the sonhimself. They had a code of their own, but naturally even with that thetalk had to be a guarded one, and dealt with the matter in a much moregeneral way than would have been the case in a personal talk, where Tomcould have brought his big guns to bear. The result was that Tom got aqualified consent, which was not to be regarded as final however, untilthe elder Hadley had received full details in a letter which Tom was towrite to him at once.
"So far, so good," remarked Tom, at the end of the struggle, as he wipedthe perspiration from his brow. "Now I'll have to give my naturaleloquence a chance and spread it all over my letter. Just wait till yousee that letter. It's going to be a cuckoo. But I haven't any doubt asto how it will turn out. Dad's a good sport, and he's taken chanceshimself all his life. I'll bet he'd like to be in on this himself."
Phil in the meantime had been writing to Steve, laying the matter beforehim, and enjoining him by all that was good to let him have an answer intwenty-four hours.
"Humph!" sniffed Dick, as he glanced over Phil's shoulder. "Twenty-fourhours! He'll telegraph an answer in five minutes after he reads theletter. I know Steve."
"I guess you're about right," smiled Phil. "You've got the old boypretty well sized up."
There was so much to do that day that the time passed as though onwings, and in the evening, in accordance with arrangements made over thetelephone, Benton came up again to get their final word on the matter.
"No need to ask though," he remarked, when the first greetings wereover. "I can see that there are no cold feet in this crowd."
"Warm as toast," laughed Phil. "There was considerable chilliness aboutthe pedal extremities of our folks though. We had to talk until we werehoarse. We carried our point though, and as far as Dick and I areconcerned the matter's a go. Tom's been talking over the radio and thething's still in the air, but Tom considers it as good as settled. I'vewritten to Steve too, and we expect to get an answer tomorrow bytelegraph."
"Some speed boys," smiled Benton, "but that's the way to go at it.Either it's worth nothing at all, or it's worth every ounce of speed andenergy we can put in it. What were some of the objections that yourfolks put up."
"Well, there were a good many of them," replied Phil. "First of coursewas the danger. They conjured up all sorts of horrible things, suddentropical storms, drowning, sharks and things like that. Then too, theythought that it was in the nature of a wild goose chase. If the ship hadbeen sunken recently, they'd have thought we had more of a chance. Buttwo centuries ago seems a long while. They thought the ship might havebroken up, sunk in the sand, wholly disappeared."
"There's something of course in that," Benton admitted. "And yettreasure has been brought up from the ships of the Spanish Armada thatsank over three hundred years ago. What has happened once may happenagain. As for the danger, of course there is some. But nothing venturenothing have, and if we are successful the rewards will be great enoughto compensate for the risk."
"Just what we argued," replied Phil. "And then who can tell where dangerlies? A man may sail the seas for forty years without a scratch, andthen come home to be drowned in a cistern. After all, life itself isjust taking a chance."
"Right you are," put in Dick. "If this venture goes through, we'll havepulled off a big thing. But even suppose it doesn't go through. We'llhave seen a new part of the world, will have had lots of fun andadventure and the game will have been worth the candle."
"And just think what it means if we put it over," added Tom. "Just thinkof pulling up those ducats and doubloons and louis d'or and all the restof them from the bottom of the sea. It seems a shame to have all thatmoney doing no one any good, when it might be put into circulation."
"Old ocean sure is greedy," replied Benton. "Think of the hundreds ofmillions, probably billions, that have been engulfed at some time orother. Probably ten millions went down on the _Lusitania_, the _Titanic_and the _Arabic_. Then there's the _Laurentic_ that went down in 1917with from ten to fifteen millions on board. They've already brought upabout three millions of that though. Then there was the fleet of Spanishships that sank in the harbor of Vigo, Spain, in 1702 carrying down$37,000,000. There's the _San Pedro de Alcantara_ that sank in MargaritaChannel near Caracas in 1812 with $32,000,000 in gold doubloons onboard. You've read perhaps of the American ship _Phantom_ that waswrecked in 1862 with $10,000,000 in California gold. The _George Sand_sank in the China Sea in 1863
carrying down $13,000,000 in bullion. Andthose are only a few of the hundreds of ships that have carried downhundreds of thousands or millions. There's probably enough gold underthe waves to make a solid golden pathway a good many feet wide over thewhole of the ocean bed."
"Well, here's hoping that there'll be less of it under water when we getthrough," laughed Tom.
"Let's hope so," smiled Benton, "but now let's shift for a little whileto another metal and get right down to brass tacks."