Mr. Damon, "because it might leak out. He'll disclose it to us as
soon as we are out of sight of land in the submarine."

"I'm willing to agree to that proposition," Tom said. "But I
want to be sure she really did sink."

This was proved to him by official records. There was no
question but that the Pandora had gone down in a big storm. And
Mr. Hardley was on board. He proved that, too, a not very
difficult task, since the official passenger list was open to
inspection.

Mr. Hardley repeated his story about having overheard the exact
location of the ship a few minutes before she sank, and he also
told of the captain and several members of the ship's company
having been drowned. This, too, was confirmed.

"Then," went on Mr. Hardley, "all that remains for me to do is
to deposit at some bank my half of the expenses and await your
word to go aboard the submarine."

"I believe that is all," returned Tom. "But, on my part, it
will take some little time to fit the submarine out as I want to
have her. There are some special appliances I want to take along
which will aid us in the search for the gold, if we find the
place where the Pandora is sunk."

"Oh, we'll find that all right," declared Mr. Hardley, "if you
will only follow my directions."