Evening star., 1897-03-06

FfLE " I'm AMI L SLASnED Al
THE SHOVEL.
among the sea shrubs like thin white eel,
and followed that easily enough.
1t led me to the Corinth, where she lay
with her decks straight up and down, and
l saw 1t passing away through the wateIy
blackness down her companion hatch.
There seemed something wrong here. Where
were all the great moving banks of slime
the divers had told us about? Where was
the filthy ooze which slid back against the
steamer as fast as they dug 1t away? Slime
there was In plenty; l sank in 1t kneedeep
In spite Of the buoyancy of the suit: but 1t
was quite manageable, and the Corinths
companion lay far above its mark. A rope
lay against the upright deck beside the
white air tube. 1 thought a minute, and
then laid hold and swarmed up. Inside all
vas dark. but l switched on light III the
electric lamp l had with me and the glow
lit the place like a foggy street.
The first step landed me on something
that crunched. l looked down and saw 1t
was suit of bones, SKINNED clean by the
fishes Some poor wretch had been drown
ed here when the steamer foundered. Well,
of course, had seen skeleton before, but
somehow or other those bones didn't seem
to cheer me. There was something wrong:
the yarn the divers had brought up and the
real thing as it lay were two entirely diff
ferent matters. 1t occurred to me that l
had stumbled (by the accident of Storey's
paralysis) upon something intended to be
hiu, diiu was Qulte man enough 10 KNOW
that trouble might very possibly follow.
l stopped where 1 was, and thought I'd.
| 9 big mind to go back then and report what
l had seen. I felt should be earning my
liked Cameron; he was fellow country
man. and more besides, and l didn't want
to report him as acting off the square: So I
stoutened my heart and went on down be-
low.
The white trail of the air tube led me
down the stair to the lowest berth deck
then along the alleyway right aft, and then
into cabin, with a hatch in the floor
Sitting on the lid of the hatch was Cam
| eIon, who turned around when my light
fell upon him. He beckoned me with an
impatient gesture, and slipped down into
the blackness below. 1t was clear he did
not recognize me; he took it for granted
| that / was Storey delayed by some acci-
| dent. For moment l stayed outside ir-
| resolute. and a shoal of small fish, attract
| ed by the light brushed past my legs I
| remembered that they had been browsing
! on corpses. and were prospecting me- as
| food. and the idea made a shudder inside
my rubber clothes. Then thought good to
see exactly what was going to happen and
| slipped through the hatch after Cameron.
We were In Corinth's strong room. The
| gold was beneath and around u.s. in iron
bound boxes. built together like the bricks
| OF wall. Cameron lifted an end Of one of
the boxes, and NODDED his helmeted head to-
ward me impatiently. l took hold, and to-
gether We swung 1t up through the water
anu ohl tiiIOuSI tne ndtcneS. linen he
| scrambled up himself, and | followed Again
| we ntted the box, treading with care along
| the Shiny alley ways as not to foul our
air pipes l could feel the bones of the
| dead shift beneath my feet, and my chest
| was tight with labor. In spite of the
broyancy Of the water. the box of gold
was as much as the pair of us could strug-
| gle along with
| AT last. with infinite trouble we came
out through the companion match, and
! lowered the box with rope down to the
| bed of slime below. We followed it, lifting
| II between US again, and wallowed on with
| 1t through the morass of slime The herb
age of the sea brushed our shoulders as we
| struggled on; the skeletons of the dead
stood sentinel along our path and the gold
en- silence OF the water crushed into nv
spirit. We held our way right around the
steamers bows, and there against her keel
we came upon a pit. 1t had been dug
through the slime with infinite labor and
shored up with planking With a rope we
lowered the gold chest down into the pit.
and Cameron followed. l switched on my
lamp, and saw him heaving and thrusting
II down gallery which led far benea tn the
iron sheathing Of the wreck shovel lay
against sea shrub at the lip of the pi:
took 1t in my hand. l was away from
the world of air In this lonely world of
water. Cameron and 1 were the only hu-
man occupants with none to overlook US:
and l felt that l ought to be on my guard
against him. From his point of view it was
clear l knew too much.
| Presently he returned from out of the nit
ana was about to go back again round the
pows or the steamer, but / touched him
with my shovel and he turned. Then
pointed to the front glass of my helmet
ana he came up close and peered at my
race, and as quickly recoiled. Then again
ne came toward me, this time with clenched
| hsts, but l menaced him with the uplifte,]
shovel. and he kept his distance How
longed for speech then to say to him what
1 wished!
For full minute we stared at cne an.
! VI q d1n,
picked fragment of stone from the ground
and wrote message on the rusted plat
| ing of the wreck.
Hold your tongue. Mac" I read. "and
you shall share
II wrote a laborious reply with the peak
of the shovel: Cannot deal with YOU An
bound to employers
He scribbled 'f25OOO and watched IN,
face.
/ shook my head inside the helmet
He wrote 10000 and looked at mt
again.
l wrote: Not for f270, ,OOO." 1 saw he wa.
ready to spring upon me, and held tn,
shovel edge above my shoulder handy t.
| cut him down.
He considered for a minute and ther
| wrote: III you blow me you will xii
| her. She knows. She never liked the fdes
| but persuaded her into it. We wanted I,
| marry; we wanted to be rich: there was n,
other way. She Is half dead with anxiety
| You must have seen that"
l nodded. He wrote on:
Then consider her, Mac, and make you
3 own fortune at the same time"
l could not stand any more Of this
! have been poor enough all my life and
God knows. L ken the value of siller. II i
| had not been that Capt BOYD treated M
/ in the way he did. and looked in NV ev v
3 | when he gave me the job. I'll not say wha
] might have happened. 1t takes q stron