“We may find ourselves in the water before we know it,” murmured Jack.  “No, I think we would better stay where we are.  It is the safest plan by long odds.  It looks like taking too many chances to go into a place like that.  Better wait till another time.”

“Give me a match or two, Jack,” said Percival.  “I’ll promise not to take too great a risk.”

Jack handed him the matches, and he struck them, and advanced a step or two into the opening.

“It is plenty wide enough,” Percival said.  “Yes, these are ship’s timbers, all right.  She must have struck hard to make such a gash.  We are on a level with the lower deck.  I can’t see much cargo around, but there is a way aft.  This must be a sort of steerage, and the lower hold where the cargo is stored is below us.  I believe we could walk right ahead to the after bulkhead, and if there happens to be a door in it, as is often the case, straight into the after cabin.”

“If there were anything to make a torch of, Dick, I’d go with you,” said Jack, “for I am as much interested as you are in this strange find, but we don’t know what we might stumble against or into what hole we might fall.  Wait, Dick.  We shall not probably leave the island for some time, and there will be opportunities to find out more about it.”

“Yes, I suppose so, but I would like to find them out now.  However, you have the right of it, and it is just as well to be cautious.”

“Besides, I have only a few more matches left, and we must get back to where we started.  If you and I were alone——­”

“Yes, quite right,” and Dick came out, as his matches were extinguished, and they started back.

A match or two gave them all the light they wanted till they began to ascend, the way up being more difficult than coming down, and both older boys being obliged to assist the younger one.

However, they reached the top at last, the light seeming to be almost dazzling after they had been used to the darkness for even the short time they were down in the strange place.

“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!”