“Got any money for licker?” demanded Dan.  “I can git some an’ bring it back.”

“Go through the boys’ pockets.  Ye ought to find some cash there,” hinted Owen.

Dan looted a few dollars from the pockets of each captive.  Jack and Hal, however, were satisfied that their captors knew nothing of the great sum of money they had collected.

“And, while I think of it, Dan,” continued Owen, “ye know where to leave them boys’ shoes.  Ye know who they’ll fit.”

Josh Owens started by unlacing Jack’s shoes roughly and hauling them off.  As he did so, oven in the darkness, he saw something fall the ground.

“Money!” gasped Josh Owen, in evil delight.  “Look at the piles of it!  Hurry with your younker, Dan.  Maybe ye’ll have the same luck.”

Almost in a twinkling, it seemed to the groaning captives, the rascally pair had the whole sum of eight hundred dollars in their greedy hands.

Now, what would going back to Dunhaven be like for these two hapless submarine boys?

Even though they returned, manfully, at the first chance, how would their story of having been robbed sound?  What a thin, hollow mockery it would seem, backed only by their own word!

To the two chums it almost seemed as though death would be sweeter!

CHAPTER VII

WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT

“By the great sledge-hammer!  Here’s a whole bale of money!” gasped Dan Jaggers, after having emptied Hal’s shoes.

Wholly unmindful of the one he had just robbed, Jaggers sat down on the ground, passing the banknotes between his fingers.

“I found a small hay-mow of money where I looked, too,” observed Josh Owen, with intense satisfaction, though his manner was calmer.

“How much did you get?” demanded Dan, instantly prepared to be suspicious that his rascally uncle had happened upon the lion’s share.

Josh Owen thrust his findings deep down in a trousers pocket before he replied: 

“No one will see our light ’way in here.  Wait till I light the dark lantern.  Then we can count up.  But—­don’t you try to hide any on me, Dan!”

So keenly did the older man watch the younger one that the former burned his fingers twice in attempting to light the lantern.  Yet at last the lantern was lighted, the wick turned up not too high, and then the older man invited: 

“Sit down in front of me, Dan, sociable like, so I can keep track of yer hands.”

“D’ye think I’m the only one’ll bear watching?” demanded Jaggers, hoarsely.  “I ain’t taken my eyes off that pocket o’ your ’n.  Now, pull out that money, an’ be sure ye git it all out.  Turn the pocket inside out.  That’s right.  Now, you count your money, an’ I’ll watch.  Then I’ll count mine, an’ you can watch, if ye wanter.”

Mutual confidence being thus established between the rogues, the counting proceeded.  Josh found that he had just four hundred dollars in his “findings.”  Dan Jaggers’s count proved that that young bully possessed an exactly equal sum.