Some one must have called his attention to the M.N.1, for he hurried to the rail of the craft which he had evidently chartered to seek the Pandora, and he exclaimed:
"What are you doing here, Swift?"
"The same thing you are, I believe," coolly answered Tom."Cleaning up the treasure ship.You might as well save your money though, for we have all the gold there is!""Impossible!" cried the now irate man."You cannot have found the Pandora!""That's just what we did, though," answered Tom."And, for your information, I'll say that we took all the gold we found, though it was considerably less than you stated.""How dare you?" stormed the adventurer."I'll have the law on you for this!""I guess you forget," replied Tom, "that we parted company at your request and that I told you I was on my own.Finding is keeping.I didn't find what I expected to, and, on the other hand, I got something I didn't look for.""What do you mean
"The Pandora was rightly named," went on Tom."If you recall the old story, Pandora had a box of treasures.They all flew out except Hope, which remained in the bottom.Well, most of the gold seems to have flown away, but we found a box on the Pandora.What's in it I don't know yet, as I haven't opened it.Still, if it doesn't contain more than Hope I shall be disappointed."The face of Hardley showed the rage felt.
"Give me that box! Give me that box!" he cried, shaking his fist at Tom.
"Not today," was the cool answer of the young inventor."I may let youknow what I find in it if you leave your address.Goodbye!"Tom waved his hand, gave orders to close the hatches and submerge the M.N.1, and a few moments later the sea closed over her, leaving the other vessel to grapple uselessly for the treasure-ship.
"What are you going to do, Tom?" asked Ned of his chum, as they were all gathered in the main cabin half an hour later.
"Head for home as soon as we can.I've had enough of this, and I want to get at something else I have in mind.But first I'm going to see what's in this box."It required the strength of Koku to open the small steel box, but when it was torn apart, for the combination was impossible to guess at, all that was seen were bundles of papers.The case having been hermetically closed, no water had penetrated it, though it had been submerged a long time.
"What are they?" asked Ned of his chum.
Tom did not answer for a moment.Then having quickly examined the papers, he cried:
"We've struck it!"
"What?" they all wanted to know.
"The very thing Hardley was after.These are the missing papers in the oil-well deal--the papers that prove Barton Keith has a half share in property worth many millions of dollars.It was these papers that Hardley was after.He may have thought he could get the gold, too, but he wanted most these oil shares.Boys, we've found the fortune anyhow, in spite of the fellows who looted the gold boxes!"There was no doubt about it.There were all the papers--the certificates of shares, the partnership agreement and other documents--to show that Mary's uncle was a rich man.The wreck of the Pandora held a fortune after all.
