The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-18

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mad been fishing was dark with hoa+s
: creeping and dragging, and trying in sew
eral other fashions to fish up the ring One
Iashlon was this: a man towed a smau
rake with fine teeth; another chan worked
away with Jumps of soft pitchy and tarrv
SUM hoping the ring would stick and
come up-he brought up nothing but sand
and single and pieces of crab,
Il didn't think it worth while to trv nv
naHu' l. looked upon the job as homeless
30 dld the rest of them after a few dave
NOW and again, perhaps, you would see
man scull out in a forlorn sort of wav.
ana SIT a-oobbing over the spot with some
cohtrlVance Tor the fishing up of rings.
manufactured out of his nut. The gen
tleman,w hose name Wan Maltbv retlIrn-
ed to London. He was in despair. The
loss mad made him i'll. carried his nort-
manteau to the train for him, and whir-t
we waited he asked me if / thought there
found. ms '0''is
i answered, to cheer him, We'll. sir. it's
| true enough that it's nearly always tha
unexpected That you've got to look for at
sea: There's perhaps one chance in a
hllllon that the ring might be fshed up
by some means it's not likely anV man q
gong 10 toresee. Any way that one chance
exists and it's a good chance so far as il
goes and though I shouldn't place much
IalIh IN 1t myself, says |. with look at
eie sleamlhg ocean through the open
doors of the railway station, 'stm I'd trv
TO md heart in it, just enough as if were
TO help TO tide me over the trouble with
But this was comfort he didn't wanr
lie gave me five shillings, and l put his
portmanteau into carriage.
10 you see that steamer" continued
FoA' pointing to a clumsy barrel of
poat rolling under the pier wall of the
aarpor' albeit a soup plate would have
noatea there so calm it was. She's
vessel called the Narcissa. and belongs
70 the trinity House, and has charge of
the surveying for some leagues along
! shore. One of the crew of that vessel
married a relation of mine His names
George Chubb. The steamer left the
harbor one morning in order to sight the
bearings OF the buoys in the neighbour
! mood of the port. / happened to have
turned out early, meaning to go afish-
| ing, but there was no wind didn't like
! the look of the weather, either. so
! thought I'd wait spell.
watched the old funneed ark roll
out betwiXt the two piers into the shin
ing sea that was painting, filled with beau
uIul morning colors like the sides of a
! dying mackerel. I little guessed whilst
watching her what was going to happen.
may as well say here the ring had been
| Iost three weeks that day, and for at
least a week past no one had given him
sell any trouble to search for it. In fact
the posters offering a reward were be-
ginning to be pasted over by other pla-
cards; the matter was no longer talked
Of and the town was fast losing sight
of it altogether.
"The Narcissa steamed SLOWLY out with
the commander on the bridge holding his
seXtant. She had a couple of huge buoys
dashed on either hand of her and they
Kept her wallowing like an empty bottle
amongst ripples. You may suppose that
heard the yarn afterwards, and so 1
can tell 1t you here as if had been aboard
and an eyewitness.
They wanted on this occasion, for some
| particular reason, to get a fresh idea of
| the character of the bottom of the water.
and with that intention slung men over
the side with armed leads. A lead. first
of all, means a metal cone to take sound
ings with; it has a hollow into which you
! stick grease, or fat, or soap, and the like.
and that they call the arrning. The soil
below sticks to the stuff, and by examina-
ton of it you can tell what it's like
1 burst into a laugh. Fox screwed his
eyes up at my face, and proceeded
1T CHANGED that my relation, George
Chubb, was hanging in the bite of the
belt, over the port side of the vessel
swinging the lead as she scarcely fioated
over the water, at the moment when she
was much about the place where the gem
tleman had lost his ring. George sent the
lead flying. 1t cut the water touched
bottom, he sung out the fathoms, and leis-
urely drew up the lead to look at the arm
ing.
when he got the cone of metal in his
hand, the first thing he saw sticking
amongst the bits of shell and sand was a
ring He could scarcely credit his eyes.
80 fGOn1 tbnndarr tboOoh4 he TO inns oil
his hands trembling with excitement this
must be the identical ring they're offering
fyty guineas' reward fore He cautiously
took it off the grease and looked al it.
Yes. it was the ring, described and
none the worse seemingly for having been
overheard three weeks-bright gold with
a red-crested seal in the shape Of a little
box, under which George supposed was
the picture and the hair.
ION a sudden the commander of the
vessel leans over the edge of the bridge
and yells to George to know why he didn't
report the nature of the stuff the lead
brought up. This fiurried the idiot He
was always a nervous man; stammers
and winks one eye without meaning it.
The ring was greasy. George started
on hearing his name called, and in that
start, sir, am burned if he didn't let
drop the ring, which sank sweetly to the
bottom again.
III not presume TO take IL upon my
self to say that my relation cursed and
swore. 1 think, seeing he's a sailor, it's
very likely that he did. You see, sir,
in one minute, within the hollow of his
hand, lay fifty golden guineas; the next
all was sunk to the bottom George was
a poor man. with a wife and four chill
dren. He told the captain what was on
the arming, but said nothing about the
ring. Why should he? He felt such a
fool over the silly job that he could
have chucked himself after the bloom
ing bauble.
when the vessel returned to harbor
that evening, after the work of the ship
was ended, and the men had come ashore,
George Chubb steps round to my little
shanty. He found me smoking a pipe af-
ter a bit of supper.
What a blessed fool you must have
beenr said 1, tripped out Of my good be-
havior by my establishment and annoy
ance, TO let the burned thing slip after
you had once got hold of It. Why didn't
you put it into your pocket soon as ever
you had it in your hand, knowing the
value OF it.?
1T felt like drop Of grease he groan-
ed 'Smite me If even knew IT was gone
till looked for it. But what i've come
4. Al 80