For a second the old man stood in silence, then with a rush, he stumbled down the hatchway, and in another moment Dave heard him tinkering away at his engines.

Before Dave wrapped the dead stranger in his burial blanket, he searched the pockets of his clothing.  There was no mistaking the garments; they were oriental in make.  And had there remained any doubt, it would have been dispelled by two packets of papers taken from an inside pocket.  These bore the official stamp of that oriental government which had been named by Jarvis.

“I must tell Jarvis,” said the boy to himself.  “It will please him to know that he was right.”

And that night, while they glided silently back toward the native village they had left not many hours before, leaving the treasure city a mystery unexplained, he did tell Jarvis.  As he finished, the old man’s face lighted.

“The thing that’s troublin’ me just now,” he said slowly, “is the question of th’ two bloomin’ ’eathen that faded from h’our h’eyes.  H’I ‘ates to think they live, an’ h’I ’ates to trust my ’opes they’re done for.  If they’re h’alive, they may get the treasure yet, an’ h’I ‘ates t’ be beat by a bloody, bloomin’ ’eathen.”

“They’re a long way from home base,” said Dave with a grin.  “They may find the treasure, but getting it home’s another thing.”

“I want you to know,” he went on, huskily, “that I appreciate your standing by me, and if we get out of this alive, you and I, with our discharge papers, I promise I’ll be your partner in this new enterprise—­the quest for treasure; that is, if you’ll take me on.”

“Will h’I?” Jarvis sprang to his feet, a new glad light in his eye.  “Will h’I?  ’Ere, give us a ‘and on that.  H’and we’ll win, lad; we’ll win!  An’ that in spite of th’ bloomin’ ’eathen!”

It was early the next morning that the Doctor, who was enjoying, with the gobs, the native festival of rejoicing over the killing of the great, and to them unknown, beast which had attacked their reindeer herds, he noticed a young native come running from the direction of the sea.  He paused now and again to shout: 

“Tomai!  Tomai!” which was the native call for the arrival of a boat.

Instantly the crowd was thrown into commotion.  Natives rushed hither and thither.  But the white men realized at once that this could mean nothing less than the return of the submarine, and, while they did not at all understand it, they whooped their joy and rushed toward the shore to see a dark body rounding the point.

“The sub!  The sub!  Hurray!  Hurray!” they shouted, tossing their caps high in air.  And the submarine indeed it was.  Dave and Jarvis were overjoyed to rejoin their companions.

The stories of adventure were soon told and then everyone was set to hustling the last bit of equipment on board.  There would be neither meals nor sleep until everything was in readiness and they were away.