the many boxes set in tiers in the safe,
but it was beyond his strength.

"Me do!" murmured Koku.

It was easy for the giant to pry out one of the boxes with his iron
bar, and with another blow from his bar he opened the cover.

"Gold!" cried Ned, as he saw a gleam of yellow showing in the glow from
his torch. "There's the gold!"

There was a table in the purser's cabin, made fast to the floor so it
had not floated away. At a sign from Tom, the giant turned the box
bottom side up on this table.

And then a murmur of wonder came from all who saw the result. For
aside from the top layer of gold pieces, the box was filled with iron
disks cut to the size of twenty-dollar gold pieces. In an instant it
was borne to all what this meant.

"A fake!" exclaimed Tom Swift. "If all the boxes are like this there
isn't enough gold on the treasure ship to pay the expenses of this
trip! Somebody has been fooled! Open another box, Koku!"

CHAPTER XXV

THE STEEL BOX

Perhaps the least of all affected by what had taken place was the
giant. Gold meant nothing to him. To serve Tom Swift was his whole aim
in life. Born in a savage country, he had not acquired an overwhelming
desire for wealth.

Consequently he was cool enough as he tore another box from the many
that were fitted into the safe. The water had swelled the wood, and it
was not easy to get them out.

A pressure of the giant's iron bar broke the sealed lid. On top was the
same layer of gold pieces, but when the box was emptied the same trick
was discovered. Iron disks made up the remainder of the contents.

"Bilked! That's what I call it! Regularly bilked!" exclaimed one of the
divers, an Englishman who had been in Tom's service several years.
"Somebody's got the cream of this pudding before we did!"

"I'm inclined to agree with you," said Tom. "Unless it transpires that
not all the boxes have been thus camouflaged. We must take time to
examine."

Then began a period of hard work. Laboring in relays of divers, every
box that had been locked in the purser's safe was brought out on the
submerged cabin table, broken open, and the contents examined. The hoax
was even worse than indicated at first. For after the front section of
boxes had been taken out none of the others remaining contained any
gold at all. There were only iron disks.

"Well, Tom, what do you think of it?" asked Ned of his chum, when they
had returned to the cabin of the submarine, leaving