“It cannot be so very old,” replied Jack.  “If she were, the moss and slime on that stump of a mast would be thicker, and there would not be so much of the stump.  Probably she is filled with water in any event.”

“There was none in the part we saw.”

“No, as that was above water, but the lower part undoubtedly is.  I do not believe we could go all the way through as Dick suggests.”

They went back to the place where they had left the boat, made their way down and rowed back to the yacht, where they went on board, and saw some of the boys, telling them of visiting the reefs, but saying nothing of the strange discovery of the vessel among the rocks.

There was a very high tide that night, but Captain Storms decided that it would be very unwise to try to pass beyond the reefs, none of the openings being wide enough and the surf very heavy.

“There is no use, young gentlemen,” he said to Jack and Dick and a few others.  “We will have to stay here for a time until I can get in connection with the outside world.  Then, perhaps, some one may know about this place, and a way out of it.  One vessel has gone down here, and I don’t care to be the next, and leave my mainmast sticking up out of the water to show folks the way to destruction.”

“We saw that stump ourselves,” said Jack.  “Was that wreck long ago, do you think?”

“Not so many years, twenty, perhaps, or maybe less.  The rocks would hold her tight, but I don’t believe there’s much left of her.  Nothing worth taking away, I guess.”

Jack gave Dick a peculiar look, and neither of the boys told what they had seen.

The boys had lessons and a lecture that afternoon, and again the next morning and in the afternoon were free to go about as they pleased, explore the island or go out on the water with some of the sailors.

“I want to take another look at that old vessel,” said Percival to Jack after dinner.  “I have borrowed a stout rope and an axe, and I have my pocket light with me.  Will you go along, Jack?  I suppose we should take J.W. with us, but he is a little fellow, and there might be danger.”

“If we find anything whatever we can take him another time,” said Jack.  “I don’t want anything to happen to the young fellow.  Some of the boys may be saying that I took him to a dangerous place just to have the name of rescuing him again.”

“You don’t mind what such fellows as Herring and some of the rest say, I hope?” sputtered Percival.

“Not altogether, but it is annoying all the same.”

“What those fellows need is a good thrashing.”

“Well, I don’t like this constant wrangling, and I keep away from them as much as possible and don’t give any cause for talk.”

“Which is the cheapest kind of goods dealt in.  Never mind them, but come along and make another investigation of the wreck.  I believe we may find something in it.”