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Sahly unlikely Especially as the Allied ca or search and seizure of whatever craft they used The Allies had created a tough enough barrier that the Japanese couldn’t even supply their troops I can’t see anyone risking high stakes on the open seas”

“Then what?”

“Well, let’s think this through Iine what it must have been like You have the treasure, but you’re starving, and the ene any vessels fro you The shoreline is littered with sunken Japanese and Allied boats, but the Allies have control over the sea during the daylight hours What would you do?”

Reht for a moment “Submarine!”

“That’s one possibility, but a sub would still run considerable risk of being discovered if anything rong or took longer than planned Also, it’s harder than it sounds to get one close to shore, presu a sitting duck”

“Then I’d hide the treasure until I could get it off the island safely”

“Okay, fine But get it off how? It’s increasingly obvious that the Allies aren’t going to give up And no matter how patriotic you are, how devoted you are to your cause, it’s a virtual certainty that Japan isn’t going to be able to hold the island forever”

“I’dI’d probably wait until a big push, when I had the best chance ofit off the island with it”

“Like y of the occupation, there’s only one point where it seeet off the island alive”

Remi eyed him “Which was?”

“The final evacuation For whatever reason, the Allies didn’t prevent the Japanese evacuation of the troops And you would have known it looked like a sure thing, if you had communications capability, because the initial run in February went uncontested, as did the next run on February fourth The final run was on the night of February seventh and it was also unchallenged”

“Did the Allies not want to co a retreat?”

“Best I can tell, they thought the shipattack, so the naval forces fell back to the Coral Sea That left the Japanese with an opening to e of it”

“I still like my sub theory”

“I can see that But in addition to the risk of running aground, the Japanese didn’t have that many subs around the Solomons, at least that we know of” Sam ran his hand over the stubble on his jaw and shook his head “Besides, the Japanese subs didn’t have n, other than dropping off a limited numbers of reinforcements, they didn’t play much of a role”