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“Are you ready for your dive tour of our cavern Bob?” Jake asked
“Good morning Jake, sure but I didn’t bring any swim trunks with me on this trip.” Bob confessed.
“No problem, I can borrow you a pair of shorts to wear. I have the diving equipment over where we had the cook out last night. Get changed and I’ll meet you over there when you’re ready.”
Soon the two were strapping on their tanks for the shallow dive to the cavern entrance. “We’ll be less than twenty feet under water. We’ll come to the cavern entrance and then it’s a hundred feet down the tunnel to the cavern itself. We had to use a shape charge to open up the entrance once we found it. If you look closely when we go in you can tell an explosive was used,” Jake explained.
“I’ve been looking forward to this dive ever since you told me you’d show me the cavern last night, let’s do it,” Bob said enthusiastically.
The two friends waded out into the surf until the water was deep enough to dive under. They cleared their masks and plunged down beneath the waves. Jake led Bob straight to the mouth of the cavern and pointed out where the charge had been set before leading the way into the tunnel. The height and width of the tunnel was roomy enough to make the divers comfortable. Soon they were surfacing in the moon pool. Wading ashore they took off their masks and tanks.
“Phew, what is that awful stench, my eyes are starting to water Jake,” Bob said covering his mouth and nose.
“I guess it take pirates longer to rot away in undersea caverns. That’s dead pirates you smell.”
Jake pointed off to the right. “That one over there Chris killed with a bang stick just in time to save Danny’s life. That rotting corpse over there,” Jake said pointing, “Patch did away with a knife. The third one was Captain Jack. LT killed him with his bare hands.”
“LT doesn’t look strong enough to kill anyone with his bare hands,” Bob said looking down at the pirate’s corpse.
“There is more than one way to kill someone bare handed. LT is a sixth degree black belt. He’s lightning fast and deadly. I don’t know of anyone in the world I’d rather not face bare handed than him. Patch is the deadliest man I’ve ever seen with a knife but I think it would be a dead heat between Patch with a knife and LT and his martial arts.”
“So you’re saying the pirates didn’t have much of a chance once they decided to follow your team into the cavern?” Bob asked.
“They didn’t have a prayer in the world. If they would have brought guns along I’d have given them an even chance. Patch and LT both had knives and knew how to throw them.”
“This cavern is bigger than I thought it would be after reading about it in the newspaper. The sunlight shining thru the water really gives the cavern an eerie blue glow.”
“Yeah, you have enough light so you don’t need flashlights. Over here is where we found the first pirate skeleton. It must have been down here for over three hundred years.”
“Where did you finally locate the treasure?”
“Over here behind these rocks,” Jake said leading the way over the rock pile. “You can still see the depressions in the sand where they sat all those years.”
“This is just incredible Jake. There will probably never be another discovery like yours ever. There is only so much sunken treasure and pirate’s gold out there to find.”
“Who knows? Maybe one day they’ll finally find a way of recovering the treasure on Oak Island,” Jake said.
Oak Island is an island in Canada that has what is called the money pit. This pit is devilishly booby trapped. Many men have already died trying to recover the pirate treasure many believe to be hidden there.
“LT may have to do something with these bodies,” Jake remarked. “He told Captain Jack that this would be the resting place of his corpse but he may have to rethink that. If we want to use this cavern for storage anytime soon something is going to have to be done.”
“You could probably charge admission and make some serious money giving tours of the cavern,” Bob mentioned.
“We need to be stand offish with the general public. With the kind of operation that we’ll be running here we don’t want to encourage visitors to drop in anytime they feel like it. We’ve already chased off dozens of boats that came to the island out of curiosity just to see where the treasure was. Slowly we’re getting a reputation as a place where visitors aren’t welcome.”
“With the smell of the rotting pirates down here I don’t know if anyone would make it past the moon pool anyway,” Bob said. “I think I’m starting to get used to it though.”
“Bob, I’ll make you a little bet. LT is a man of his word. I’ll bet you instead of removing the bodies he makes someone bury them right there in the cavern where they lay to keep his word to the pirate captain.”
“I don’t know the man well enough to bet so I’ll take your word on it. But after knowing him only a day I got to say I like what I’ve seen so far.”
“It’s like I told you when I talked you into coming down. He is the best officer I’ve ever served with. He will always put his men first.”
“That was the impression I got from him. He offered me a job this morning designing and running your missile defense system.”
“Did you take the offer?” Chief Morrison asked, eyeing his friend.
Bob nodded his head. “You’ll be seeing a lot more of me from now on. I’m the newest member of the Sea Demons.”
“Welcome aboard Bob!” Chief Morrison said grinning, slapping Bob’s bare back.
“When we go out for a beer just remember that I’m also the only poor member of the team,” Bob said with a half grin on his face.
“I can tell you one thing Bob. After sitting for two years after the court martial with nothing to do, money isn’t everything. The things that matter most are your friends, your family and having a purpose in life, something to do. Just being back together with my comrades is worth more than any amount of money we could have found.”
“I agree, I’ve been retired for six months now and I’m bored stiff. But that little speech of yours doesn’t get you out of buying the first round,” Bob said with a twinkle in his eye.
Jake laughed at his friend. “I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Jake said looking around dramatically pretending to make sure they were alone, “The beer on Dead Men’s Isle is free.”
“Hell, I love my new job! This is better than happy hour at the NCO Club,” Chief York said with a laugh.
Jake laughed, “That’s the whole tour. I feel like I need a shower after being around these stinking bodies. Let’s get out of here and get a shower. I’ll give you a tour of the Sea Eagle before lunch.”