The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-04-07
SELECTED STORY.
A Divers Romance.
BY CUTLIFFE HYNE, IN NEW
YORK SUN.
CONTINUED FROM LAST wERKJ

| got into the suit as the boat roweC
me out to the buoy, and when W,
picked up the mooring the men screwed
on the helmet for me and started tn,
air pump. 1t wasn't new experienc,
to me; I'd been diving before in the
Clyde to bore holes into sunken piel
with rachel drill.
went over the side, took the rope
and lowered myself hand over fist
through the gray water, till the leader
soles on my feet touched ground. The
corky feeling was bit new again al
first, but / soon got over that, and then
as my air valves were working all right
and l could breathe quite easily, SET
about looking for Cameron. He was
somewhere out of sight, but his air
tube was lying in the mud amongst 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 saw it passing away through
the watery blackness down her COM
panion hatch. There seemed some
thing wrong here. Where were all the
great moving banks of slime the divers
had told us about2 Where was the filthy
ooze which slid back against the steam
er as fast as they dug it away? Slime
there was in plenty; l sank in it knee
deep, in spite of the buoyancy of the
suit; but it was quite manageable, and
the Corinth's companion lay far above
its mark. A rope lay against the up
right deck beside the white air tube.
l thought minute, and then laid hold
and swarmed up. Inside all was dark,
but L switched on light in the electric
lamp had with me, and the glow lit
the place like foggy street.
The first step landed me on some
thing that crunched. l looked down
and saw it was suit Of bones, skinned
clean by the fishes. Some poor wretch
had been drowned here when the
steamer foundered. Well, of course, 1
had seen skeleton before, but some
how 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 different matters. 1t occurred
to me that had stumbled (by the acct
dent of Storey's paralysis) upon some
thing intended to be hid, and l was
quite man enough to know that trouble
might very possibly follow.
l stopped where l was, and thought.
I'd big mind to go back then and re-
port what l had seen. felt l should
be earning my pay by doing that. But
at the same time liked Cameron; he
was fellow countryman, and more be-
sides, and didn't want to report him
as acting off the square; so | stoutened
~ do ko1
The white trail of the air tube led me
down the stair to the lowest berth deck,
then along thd alleyway right aft, and
then into cabin, with hatch in the
floor. Sitting on the lid of the hatch
was Cameron, who turned around when
my light fell upon him. He beckoned
ne with an impatient gesture, and |
slipped down into the blackness below.
It was clear he did not recognize me;
re took it for granted that was Storey
delayed by some accident. For mo-
nent stayed outside irresolute, and a
'hoal of small fish, attracted by the |
light, brushed past my legs. remem-
oered that they had been browsing on
,orpses, and were prospecting me as
God, and the idea made me shudder
inside my rubber clothes. Then l
bought good TO see exactly what was
;oin1g to happen, and slipped through
he hatch after Cameron.
We were in the Corinth's strong
DOM. The gold was beneath us and
!round us, in iron-bound boxes, built
ogether like the bricks of wall. Cam
ron lifted an end of one of the boxes,
nd nodded his helmeted head toward
ne impatiently. l took hold, and to-
ether we swung it up through the
Vater and out through the matches.
Then he scrambled up himself, and
ollowed. Again we lifted the box,
reading with care along the Shiny al
eyways 30 as not to foul our air pipes.
could feel the bones of the dead shift
eneath my feet, and my chest was
ight with labor. In spite of the buoy
ncy OF the water, the box of gold was
s much as the pair of us could strug-
lie along with.
AT last with infinite trouble we came
ut through the companion hatch and
owered the box with a rope down to
be bed of slime below. We followed
t, lifting it between US again, and wal
owed on with it through the morass of
lime. The heritage of the sea brushed
ur shoulders as we struggled on; the
keleton of the dead stood sentinel
long our path, and the golden silence
# the water crushed into my spirit.
Ne held our way right round the
teamer's bows, and there against her
.eel we came upon pit. 1t had been
lug through the slime with infinite la
,or and shored up with planking.
With rope we lowered the gold chest
Town into the pit, and Cameron fol-
owed. / switched on my lamp and
Jaw him heaving and thrusting it down
! gallery which led far beneath the
ron sheathing of the wreck. A shovel
ay against sea shrub at the lip of the