Chapter 4.2

   Heather, too, had difficulty in hiding her disappointment when they told her, as they all eat lunch in the resort dining-room, that once again they had come up with nothing from the sea-bed and Selena guessed the woman was worried about the cost of the venture. The longer the dive-ship was there, the more she would have to pay out to John Claes's salvaging company.

   "What are you going to do? Heather asked, sinking down into a spare chair at the table, her grey eyes gazing at Ben.

   "Immediately, I'm going to make sure I haven't missed anything. And then I'm going to go through the copies I made of the account of the seizing and scuttling of the Santiago that was made by one of the crew of the galleon when he managed to get back to Spain. I found it in the archives of Spanish maritime history in Madrid. The account is clear and concise and it was in it that I found reference to Daniel Walker being the pirate. With the account, there was a list of the passengers, the cargo she was carrying, her port of embarkation and her destination. She left Cadiz in July 1703 bound for Havana."

   "Does the account say she was seized near Sanada?" asked Keith. Usually at any conference they had about the expedition, he maintained an attitude of indifference, as if he wasn't interested or as if he didn't want to get involved in an argument with Ben."

   "The Island isn't named. Probably, it didn't have a name then," said Ben. "But the description given fits it. Low-lying, made of coral, surrounded by dangerous shallows and reefs and set miles apart from the other islands in the chain, as if it didn't belong to them. And you have to agree, Sanada is different from the other islands in the area. It's the only one in this part of the Caribbean that isn't volcanic. Sometimes, I like to fancy it's a Bahamian Island that has dragged its anchor and drifted this way."

   "Did Louis Langdon ever test that area with a magnetometer?" asked Keith.

   "What is that?" put in Heather quickly.

   "It's an electrical device. You explore the surface of the water with it and it picks up messages from any unusual mass of iron on the bottom. There would be iron fastening on the galleon and also the cannon would have been forged from iron. I assume the information you have about the ship includes the number of cannon she was armed with?" said Keith turning to Ben again.

   "Yes, it does. I don't remember the exact number, offhand, but she had cannon. The answer to your question is no. Louis didn't use a magnetometer. He was convinced, you see, that the wreck lay under the wreck of the freighter so using the magnetometer on the surface would only have picked up the iron from which that was built," said Ben. He sighed. "Well, I think I'll go to my room and read those accounts again," he added, rising to his feet. "And we'll try again tomorrow morning." He glanced at Keith who had sat back in his chair, the expression of bland indifference on his face again. "If," Ben went on rather diffidently, "if you have any suggestions about where we should explore, I'd like to hear them, Walker."

   "I'll let you know if I think of anything," drawled Keith.

   "Perhaps we should use the airlift," said Selena. "Suck out some of the sand and debris that is in the gully. It might reveal something."

   "Good idea," said Ben, patting her shoulder. "We'll try that tomorrow morning. All right with you, Walker?"

   "Sure," said Keith laconically, getting up. Gary and Max has already left the table and were paying darts in the bar. He turned away and strolled over to them.