The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1875-08-13

"i'nih icW uuys VI CollpletlOn, 2nu lie
would give no orders, pay no money, think
OF nothing but his loss, perfectly indiffer-
ent to all else. waited on him day after
day till was weary of my life; for de-
pended on the money should get ON the
completion of this work to pay for share
which BeyiDgton had offered me, since I'd
been out there, in Il capital engineers bus
mess; and / also wanted to get home for
another reason. which you may guess; two
years and a-half is IL long time, you know,
to wait. Well, as | said l didn't know
what to do; couldn't stay unless lie al.
tered his ways.
zone day during this time, Scipio there
came to me to talk over what was to be
DONE
"What'll massa give me if get dat ring
back again?"
Give" said 1, "I'd give anything"
Give promise of Englishman to take me
home 2" said Scipio. ..,
Yes, willingly"
"Then massa, you take me to old gentle
man, and if he promise to let me have the
girl dat makes him coffee, I'll get the darn
old ting" ...
Get it; how ?"
"l'll dive under the water for it."
by Jove and so you shall. Scipio."
Oats dis child" broke in Scipio.
81 took him up to the house, and told
the old man our plan, and he began to
hope, made promise Of half he possessed.
And the gal dat makes him Coffee"
said Scipio.
Amy number of girls, all if he liked.
So we agreed, and getting few camels,
prepared for the expedition, the old man
insisting on going too.
I'VE reached the place where we land
ed, as nearly as we could tell, and then
commenced our labors, at least Scipio COM
menced his"
Eyes he did" was chanted from the cor
ner "Scipio did dat same"
"The plan was to get boat and row
over the course till we came to the spot
where we were upset. and there Scipio took
q couple of stones in his hands and dived
down; the water was about eighteen feet
deep, should think, and you could see
almost to the bottom. Well, we kept mov-
ing the boat about, and Scipio kept div
ing till it began to get dark-he must have
gone down some twenty times l should
think"
"Dat is so, massa 3; twenty-five times
dat blessed day dis child made hole in de
water"
"Of course after dark it was useless to
continue; so we made ourselves comforta-
BILE for the night, and went at it again in
the morning; and now, Scipio you can
tell the rest.
"Well massa," said Scipio, drawing his
chair nearer to mine at every word or two,
81 went down again next day, and second
time l see something glittering like, but l
was too spent to see what it was, so |
dropped the stones and came up, and, says
l, 'Massa see something; you keep the
boat jist where she is, and go down again
presently. So dis time find two great
stones to take me down quick, and give me
some time to look about. Well, massa, dis
time dive right onto, jist close by black
rock. was jist agoing to catch him with
my big toe, when the black rock changed
into dc debil, and opened his eyes-dere
no mistake-I drop dem stones and up I
come like skyrocket, and tumble into de
boat. By golly, massa, thought l see
de dcbil, and he not nice to see down in
eighteen feet of water, and he lashing at
you wild his tail, and he hit me, toe, and
bring de blood"
HE came into the boat, said my friend,
docking as pale as his color would let
him, and with the blood streaming from
sort of cut in his thigh, crying, 'Massa,
massa, see dc debil no go down any
more. Don't wonder the old gentleman
wants his ring when de debil wants it too
l got him at last to describe what he had
seen, and evidently beside the chain lie
had seen something, what could not tell.
Epntp 10 Il rt,Nf, A., -
was something black on top, white under
meath, and had long lash with sting at
the end of it. asked him how big. AS
big as the boat, and as wide, and the tail
as long as twice the oars.
81 tried to think what monster of the
deep this might be; that it was rather
dangerous monster, the blood flowing from
his thigh showed clearly. At last, re
membered having read that LIE Valiant,
French traveller, had seen in his second
voyage to Africa, a fish that was thirty feet
wide and twenty-five feet along. Now was
it possible that this might be some de-
scendant of this king of flat fish 2 de-
termined to have look, and undressed for
this purpose"
"You did, massa think | never sec
more bully man than massa dat time" /
said, "Ah, massa, don't go; let the darn
ed old ring and chain go; don't go to dc
debil for such trumpery tings as dat"
However, went, and after the first
smart of opening my eyes under the water
was over, could clearly see the chain, and,
close to it, one of the ugliest specimens of
the fish tribe had ever seen. 1t didn't
SEQ me for about Il second, and then dashed
out at me with its long whip-like tail. 1
saw the motion commence at the root just
in time, and, dropping the stones, came up
at the double double, if there is such q
pace. got into the boat, and, dressing
myselfproceeded to consider the best thing
to he done. There was the chain on which
hung all my hopes but guarded by worse
dragon than ever was found prowling
round the apples of the Hcsperides. fl.
nally resolved that the dragon should be
killed, and arranged accordingly. load
cd all the firearms we had with the heav-
est charges they would bear--that
Is, two large bore rifles used for rhinocc-
ros shooting, with double charge of pow
der and two iron bolts each, and four horse
pistols, almost to the muzzle; and then,
taking one rife myself and giving one to
Scipio, armed two men with pair of
pistols each !; the other made lift a large
stone, about two hundred weight, on to the
stern of the boat and to keep her balanced.
We all, except the rowers, went to the head.
"When all was prepared, pointed the
muzzles perpendicularly to the water at
about nine inches from the surface, and
gave the word "Ready fire |" Down went
the stone, down went the bullets, and then
we waited for the smoke to clear away,
and watched the water intently. Present
ly red blot rose to the surface and slowly
diffused itselfthrough the water. We had
| hit him, IL was certain. Another charge,