Three eager youths pleaded. The older man, counseled and reassured by Clarence Neale, finally agreed.

“Hooray!” Nicky exulted. “Treasure bent in the _Treasure Belle_! Nothing can stop us!”

Tom, a little silent, hoped that nothing could!

CHAPTER VI ON THE WAY TO THE KEYS

The _Treasure Belle_, when they inspected her with Sam and Mr. Neale, disappointed the chums. She lay, careening to one side, in a place on the shore of a small ship basin. Her hull, originally painted white, was a mixture of grays and browns, streaked and dirty. Her cabin, when they crawled into it, was musty and cramped, up in the bow, with no head room and with its bunks both narrow and uninviting.

“Quite a difference between her name and her looks,” smiled Clarence Neale. Nicky nodded and Cliff, standing on deck, pointed toward a cluster of boats moored in deeper water.

“Why can’t we charter a boat like that one?” said Cliff, indicating a fairly trim looking cruising launch, about thirty feet long, with a raised cabin whose windows had neat little drapings at each side, whose paint showed little wear. Where the _Treasure Belle_ had no bright work, her hardware being discolored and rusting, the other craft showed signs of constant attention.

“That’s a private boat, and not for hire, sar,” explained Sam. “She belong to a white man. He use her for run to Cuba. I hear it told he is a politician of Cuba, and he stay here because he is not so well liked in his island. But they say he run there by night for some reason and keep that boat only for that.”

“Maybe he would charter her to us if he didn’t need her,” urged Nicky. “She’d be a lot nicer.”

Sam, at Mr. Neale’s suggestion, took them to the office of the ship basin owners but they got no encouragement. The _El Libertad_ was not for hire or charter. He gave the party the address of her owner readily enough but without enthusiasm.

When Mr. Neale returned from an interview with Senor Ortiga, he shook his head.

“_El Libertad_ is not to be ours,” he said. “Senor Ortiga told me that he is having the engine overhauled and is waiting for parts—even if he would let us have her, which he did not seem inclined to do, it would be a month before she would be ready, he said.”

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