Instinctively they dug their fingers and toes into the yielding sand, waiting for the outward rush of the water to pull them with it out into the turbulent sea.
It came, in tugging sucking volume, striving to break their hold--a smothering whirl of water. With all their might they fought to retain their hold upon the shifting sand--and won. Retiring with a defeated roar the great wave swung outward.
Gasping the boys rose to their feet and made for the higher ground while a second wave, lesser than the first tagged at their heels.
"Safe, Marse Phil," chattered the voice of Bimbo in his ear. "The wave done took 'em an' half buried 'em in de sand. Reckon we'll have to tug to get 'em out, yessir."
Phil followed the shaking black finger and there, sure enough, fifty feet away were the boat and the raft, half buried in wet sand. Miraculous as it seemed, the craft had been so deeply buried they had even resisted the tremendous tug of the outrushing waters.
"That's a stroke of luck," muttered Phil thankfully, then looked for his companions.
They were there, looking kind of white and shaken and staring as though fascinated out to sea. One wave had followed another, each smaller than the last, finally settling into a froth of white capped combers, a seething whirlpool of writhing waters.
"Say," remarked Steve with a shadow of his famous grin, "if you ask this old boy I'll say we sure stirred things up some. Who'd have guessed that that much dynamite would have made all that fuss?"
"It was a mighty pretty sight," said Tom, waxing enthusiastic now that the danger was passed. "A magnificent sight."
"And we ought to thank our stars we lived to see it," said Dick dryly. "Say boys, what's become of the boats?"
Phil pointed them out and they went over to examine their contents and see how much loss there was--if any. They found that a couple of batteries had been swept overboard, but as they had more safe in the cave, this was not an important loss.
The diver's suit which Phil had removed before setting off the charge, had been thrown clear off the raft but it was so heavy that it had dug a hole for itself and lay there, distorted and grotesque like some monster thrown up from the sea.
"Lucky for us we didn't lose that," said Phil softly. "We'd have had a pretty time trying to get hold of the treasure without."