Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-08-01

y
hours work, provided we get this ship
off within that time Is it a bargain?''
Put it in writing and have it wit
messed, cap'n," replied the cautious
Grit, ''and I'll sign the paper It only
holds for one hour, though. Then, if
you're not afoat, we'll make new
bargain, and if she's to be lightened
I'm to be wreckmaster and take charge,
cause mine is the first schooner here.
= Is that right?'
#Yes, that's right" smiled the cap
tain gri1nly. 81 reckon you've taken
part in wrecks before?''
"a few," laughed Grit.
By the time the paper was made out
and handed to Matey for safe keeping,
Grit was ready to perform his share of
the bargain. He dived from the bows OF
the schooner and was gone nearly a
minute. Then he came up for breath
and almost Immediately dived again. He
repeated this operation four times with
out telling what he had discovered.
Meanwhile the passengers and crew Oh
the steamship crowded the rail, and
leaning over watched his operations
with breathless interest.
Finally the young diver clambered
aboard and related to the captain that
his ship had struck, we'll forward, on a
narrow ledge with deep water on both
sides, and that she was afoat, with the
exception of space 10 feet long near
her bow.
''That is just about what I gathered
from soundings," replied the captain.
''Now, want you to go down again,
taking a lead line with you, and locate
some good sized hole or crevice as near
the bottom of the ledge as you can get.
Leave the lead behind to mark the spot
where you come up.
Grit wondered at this strange order,
but did as directed, and after several
descents into the clear water finally To-
Gated deep fssure nearly 20 feet be-
meath the surface
SIS the hole large enough to hold
this?" asked the captain when the young
wrecker again came on board the schoon-
er. AS he spoke the former held out a
square tin canister to which was at
tached a reel of slender copper WIRE
%, oil, 1Op1iOu ouO UOy. IL . UlS5
enough to hold me. I"
Every good. Now, if you will go
down once moge, taking this can with
you, and thrust it as far as possible into
the hole, I will not ask you to go into
the water again.
Grit cast curious glance at the cap
tain's face to see if he could detect any
indication of madness, but the only
signs he discovered were of perfect in
telligence and an indomitable will
Still, as the boy again stepped over the
side ready to descend into the crystal
depths and the canister was handed to
him, his suspicion of the captains san
ity was revived by the latter's parting
instructions.
''Talze care of this can as you would
of your own life," he said earnestly.
''Don't let it hit against anything, and
place it gently as far in the crevice as
you can reach. Tt holds your life and
fortune as well as mine"
These words were SO strange, and the
whole business was SO different from
the usual proceedings in connection
with wrecked ship, that even as Grit
worked at his novel task far beneath the
blue surface the one thought that filled
his mind was, ''He is as crazy as crazy
can be" However, he carried out his
instructions, and when he regained the
schooner's deck he found it occupied by
all the passengers of the stranded steam
ship.
"Take them off on five minutes
cruise" ordered the captain as with
his own hands he cast off the lines
holding the schooner. Then he swung
himself up the steamships side and dis
appeared in his own cabin
At the end of five minutes the Poly
anthus was nearly quarter Of mile
away, and her young skipper, who was
trying to answer hundred questions at
once from the bewildered passengers,
was also wondering what he should do
lext. All at once it was noticed that the
propeller of the great ship was working
furiously backward.
Then came the most surprising thing
that has ever happened in all the annals
of wrecking on the Florida reefs. There
was a heavy vibratory explosion, ac-
companied by mufded roar. To those
who happened to be looking toward the
ship at that moment she seemed to be
lifted bodily from the water. The next
instant she was enveloped and hidden
from view in vast, fountainlike col
umn Of foam. Directly afterward the
ship reappeared floating as steadily as
ever in her life on the great billows OF
the mysterious submarine disturbance
and running rapidly backward.
Late that afternoon the schooner
Polyanthus again picked up her moor
ings off the glistening coral beach, and
the young wreckers made their way to
the little house beneath the cocoanuts,
in which their stepmother, as yet un-
conscious Of their return, sat nearly dis
tracted by a sudden accumulation OF
troubles. She was wild with anxiety
over Grit and Matey. A man had come
from Key West to look at the Polyan
thus with view to purchasing her, but
finding her absent and being pressed for
time had gone away again. He had,
moreover, left behind him a letter from
the northern commission house to which
Mrs Albury had sent her tomatoes,
stating that the entire shipment had ar
rived spoiled and unstable, so that in
stead of being entitled to returns from
them she was indebted for freight
charges.
AS the poor woman sat quite over
whelmed by her misfortunes there came
an exulting shout outside, and the next
moment Grit and Matey rushed in,
alive, we'll and breathless with excite
ment.
''Hurrah, mother'' cried the former
as he wildly waved q slip of paper
above his head "We've got your fish
and only staid out little longer to give
the old Poly a chance to earn this $500,
just to show you what she was good
for''
eyes, we've been wreckingF chim>
ed in Matey, "and we've wrecked a big
steamship, Grit and and Poly have,
and got her off all right, and you won't
sell the dear old boat now, will you,
mother?''
''What on earth do you crazy chill.
dren mean?'' exclaimed Mrs. Albury
slowly as she took the New York draft