Biff nodded his head. Jack Hudson also worked for Explorations Unlimited. It had been Jack who had flown into China and rescued Biff and his uncle when Biff had taken part in the _Mystery of the Chinese Ring_.
“So Jack cabled me,” Uncle Charlie went on. “An inquiry had come from a friend of Derek’s father, Brom Zook. Brom wanted someone to work for and with him. I got the job. I’d picked up a seaplane with my earnings in China and had been kicking around the Caribbean, charter flights and so on.”
“What did he want you to do?” Biff asked.
“Pilot him back and forth from here to Martinique. Run a speedboat he has in Martinique.”
“I know from what Dietz told me that Derek’s father is looking for something on the bottom of the ocean? What is it? Sunken treasure?” Biff asked.
“In a way, yes. And he’s found it, too. It’s a pearl fishery—”
“Pearl fishery!” Biff’s voice showed his excitement.
“Yes. A fabulous one. If the samples Brom has found so far are an indication, there are millions of dollars of pearls waiting to be taken, from a spot of ocean floor just off the coast of Martinique.”
Biff was sitting up now, leaning forward. This was fascinating to him. Pearls, taken from the bottom of the ocean!
“It was the very end of November, I guess, when I last saw Brom,” Charles Keene said. “I’d taken some new skin-diving equipment over to him. He indicated to me then that he thought he was nearing his goal. He said I’d hear from him within a week. I was to come back to Curaçao and await word.”
“Why Curaçao, Uncle Charlie, when he was working in a French possession?”
“Because he’s a Dutch citizen. Everything he does over there has to clear through the Dutch authorities and the French consulate here.”
“Well, nearly two weeks went by. I was worried. I flew back to Martinique. I couldn’t locate Brom. He had gone to sea in his speedboat, loaded with supplies. I hung around La Trinité—that’s the town we headquartered in—for a couple of days, then came back here. Nothing else for me to do.”
Uncle Charlie got out of his chair and walked over to the balcony.
“Then I got a letter and a package from Brom,” Uncle Charlie continued. “And that’s the last I’ve heard from him. Oh, I’ve been back to Martinique several times, but he’s vanished.”