Jack found a place where it would be quite possible for Jesse W. to get down, but not for himself or Percival, and, of course, out of the question for the captain, who was nearly as big as both of the latter combined, and he said: 

“Here is a place, J.W., which, I think, will fit.  It does seem too bad that you should not see the place, having been with us on our first trip, and we will give you a chance.”

“I can bring away a bagful of the gold, anyhow, Jack, and perhaps go for another one after that.  I should like to see the place, anyhow.”

“All right, you shall do so, old man, but don’t load yourself down with gold.  That has drowned many a man before now.  Get the rope, Dick.  We will lower him into the place.  Take a light, Jesse W., for you will need it.  You know just how to find everything?”

“Yes, I go into the hole in the bow of the vessel which we saw, follow along till I come to a door, and then go along a passage till I come to another door and there I am, right in the cabin with a light overhead, shining through the water.”

“That’s it.  Don’t stay too long, and don’t load yourself down with bags of gold.  I’d rather not have it than have you take any risks.”

“But you don’t think there is any danger, Jack?” asked the younger boy, as they prepared to lower him.

“No, if I did I would not let you go.”

The boy got down safely enough, and called to Jack and Dick when he had reached the bottom that he was all right, and then threw off the rope, which had been put around him under his arms.

He called to them from time to time, his voice growing fainter every time he called, and at last they could not hear him at all.

“I hope it is all right,” murmured Jack when the boy had been gone a few minutes.  “I thought it would be when I let him go, but now——­”

“It is all right,” said the captain.  “He is a plucky little fellow, and there isn’t anything that can happen to him.  The rocks hold the vessel as tight as a vise and there is no chance of her slipping back into the water or anything of that sort.”

“Well, I hope so, but somehow I begin to feel nervous, and wish that I had not let him go down.”

“Young Smith is all right, Jack,” said Percival reassuringly.  “He is not afraid of anything, and really I don’t believe there is anything to be afraid of.  There was not when we went down.”

“No, but we are a couple of big boys, and he is only a midget.  If anything happened to him I should never forgive—­listen, and see if you can hear him coming.”

“No, I cannot, but he has had hardly time to get there yet.  Give him a chance.  He will want to see all there is, boy-like.  Let him have a good long look at the wonders of the place.  He has never seen anything like it before, and never will again.”

Jack was very anxious in spite of Dick’s cheering words, and the minutes seemed like hours till at last, holding the rope in his hand he felt a tug at, and then heard: