Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-03-23
THE DIVERS STORY.

ANNOP I'll Co' OSAO Z hhOW
better, because I've tried it. The one
[ had was only little one, but it
mighty nigh did me up. And the
chap that got it from newell, it fin
1shed him in great shape. [ guess I
know all about opals.
eyes, I've no objection to telling
you. was, when young man, a
diver, and considered good one too.
A company that had got concession
from the Venezuelan government to
recover the treasure Of the Spanish
line Of battle ship San Pedro Alcanta :
ra engaged seven other divers besides
myself to do the work. That COM
pany was formed in Baltimore, but
five of the eight Of us were hired in
New York, myself and my chum, Alec
Paterson, among them.
''The ship was burned, and her re-
mains sunk in Margarity bay in 1915,
during the war between Spain and her
South American colonies. Seven hun
dred men out of the 1000 she had
aboard, persisted in the flames and
the waves, and it was believed that a
couple of millions in gold, a million in
silver, the rich plumber of several
Venezuelan towns and the wealth of
some cathedrals-put aboard for safe
ty-all went down to the bottom with
her That was the stuff we were af-
ter, and thoughts of it set us all pref
ty near wild.
'sWe worked with diving bell, two
men going down at time and hav-
ing a very smooth JOB. The water
was only so feet deep, the bottom a
sandy floor, and cleaning up was easy.
That we recovered some of the lost
treasure is sufficiently evidenced by
the fact that after giving up the Ven
ezuelan governments share the eX-
petition took back 100000 to Balti-
more. And we were supposed to be
getting it all up, just for days wages.
So we would-if we'd been chumps. 1t
was observable that none of the jewels
known to have been lost were found.
They seemed to have melted away
so far as the company's superinten-
dent and the Venezuelan ''fiscal"
knew, anyhow. Many months after
ward, when we had all got back,
somehow, one Of the boys sold in New
York for $4,000 diamond crop that
he said he had found, but he didn't
tell where.
zone day Alec and I were down in
the bell together when we both saw
at the same instant, in the shallow
water covering the sand at our feet,
something that seemed to blaze with
flames of all imaginable colors and to-
gether we jumped for it. It clutched
the thing, and we had solid fight for
it, The moment it was in my hand, |
felt myself impelled to kill Alec, but
luckily [ didn't. Got the best of him
without that, for was the stronger.
But it was a fool thing for me to do,
he being a revengeful sort Of a devil,
as [ we'll knew, and me engaged to his
sister Jenny, who was dearer to me
than life. He gave up, but said, 'I'n
get good and even with you Ben
Trumbull''- he did.
"When I came to look at my prize,
I found it was an opal, Of about the
bigness of a thumb nail, quite thick
and the most brilliant in it's play of
colors that I ever saw. Fine as it
was [ didn't happen to think of re-
porting it to the superintendent, but
we gave him about a peek of black
silver dollars we had raked up, and he
seemed pleased. OF course Alec did
not say anything to him about it. for
he himself had some unconsidered
trifles slowed away in his dunnage
and did not care to have suspicious
awakened. The other boys would
have dubbed his head off if he had.
''About a fortnight after that every
diver with the expedition disappear
ed one night. Some of them could
not endure the thought Of possessing
so much wealth as they had in their
clothes without going on spree, and
the steadlesG Of US, who would have
been glad to stay az long as possible
and get all he could, had to give in
and go with them, for fear of suspi-
cion and search when they were gone
We took the lOngboat. The superin
tendent said we stole it, but we didn't
we just took it. He was welcome to
his old longboat any time after it car
ried US to La Guayra.
GAS soon as we were missed he di-
vined the whole thing at once, and
cracking on all sail, with the help of {
favorite wind, got down to La Quay
IA soon enough to have US all arrested
just in the opening up of our spree
Luckily we mad taken the precautio1
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