The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-29


my light fell ON him. He 7beckoned me
with an Impatient GESTURE and slipped
down into the badness below. 1t was
clear he did not. recognize, me; he took
1t for gra nteds that | was Storey de-
layed by someaaccident. For moment
l stayed outside irresolute, and shoal
of small fish attracted by the light
brushed past my Clegs. l remembered
that they had been browsing on corpses
and were prospecting me as food, and
the idea made me Shudder inside my
rubber clotheS.IThen l thought good to
see exactly what was going to happen
and slipped through the hatch after
Cameron.
We were in the Corinth's strongroon.
Tbs gold was beneath and around US,
in ironbound boxes, built together like
the bricks Of avail. Cameron lifted an
end of one of9the boxes, and nodded
his helmeted head toward me inpatient
ly. l took hold, and together we
swung it up through the water and
out through the matches. Then he
scrambled up himself, and 1 followed.
Again we lifted the box, treading with
care along the Shiny alleyways so 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 Ia
Dor. In spite Of the buoyancy of the
water the box of gold was as much as
the pair of us could struggle along
with.
AT last with infinite trouble we came
cut through the companion hatch and
lowered the box with a rope down to
the bed of slime below. We followed it,
lifting it between us again, and wal
lowed on with it through the morass
of slime. The heritage Of the sea
brushed our shoulders as we struggled
on; the skeleton of the dead stood
sentinel along our path, and the golden
silence of the water crushed into my
spirit We held our way right round
the steamers bows, and there against
our keel we came upon a>pit, and Cam
eron followed. / switched on my lamp
and saw him heaving and thrustng 1t
down a gallery which led far beneath
the iron sheathing of the wreck n
shovel lay against a sea shrub at the
lip Of the pit. took it in my hand.
was away from the world of air in this
lonely world of water. Cameron and L
were the only human occupants, with
none to overlook US, and l felt that
ought to be on my guard against MINI
From his point of view it was clear
knew too much.
Presently he returned from out of the
pit and was about to go back again
round the bows of the steamer, but l
touched him with my shovel and he
glass of my helmet, and he came up
close and peered at my face and az
quickly recoiled. Then again he came
toward me, this time with clenched
fists, but l menaced him with the up
lifted shovel and he kept his distance.
How l longed for speech then to say to
him what I wished!
For a full minute we stared at one
another and then with sudden ges-
ture he picked a fragment of stone
from the ground and wrote a message
on the rusted plating of the wreck.
Hold your tongue, Mae l read,
land you will share
| wrote a laboriOus reply with the
peak of the shovel: Cannot deal with
you. Am bound to employers
He scrubbed ''f25,000" and watched
my face.
| shock my head inside the helmet.
He wrote "f30, 600" and looked at me
again.
| wrote Not for f27O OOO." 1 saw he
was ready to spring upon me and held
the shovel edge above my shoulder
handy to cut him down.
He considered for a moment and
then wrote: IF you blow on me you
will kill her. She knows. She never
liked the idea, but l persuaded her In
to it. We wanted to marry; We wanted
to be rich. There was no other way.
She is half dead with anxiety. You
must have seen that" ..- ---
l nodded He Wfotehon:,or
Then consider her, Mae, and make
your own fortune at the same time"
I could not stand any more of this.
/ have been poor enough. all my life,
and God knows I ken the value of sill
Ter. If it had not been that Capt. Boyd
treated me in the way he did and
looked in my eyes when he gave me
the job I'll not say what might have
happened. 1t takes a strong man to
resist the bigger temptations, and-I'm
no over lusty. / beckoned to the water
surface above with my shovel and took
a step forward. With his arm he i'm
plored me to pause.
Are you going to report what you
have SEEM" he wrote.
l shrugged my shoulders.
Through the glass of his helmet 1 saw
his face harden.
II give you fair warning" he wrote
on the rusted iron, that If you do 1
will kill you first and then myself. So
you will not find it cheap to ruin me-"
nodded my head to show that I
understood, and beckoned him to go
on He lifted his hands, thought he
was going to grapple with me, and I
slashed at him with the shovel He
drew back, and, once on the move, 1
drove him before me furiOusly. He
might be desperate, but l was savage
enough myself. The thought of all
that wealth lying within touch made
me grit my teeth in cruel rage. If
only the skipper had not said what
he did!
We plowed our way across the Shiny
sea floor to where the boats lay at
mornings, and first Cameron went up.
and then l followed. On the row back
to the Cleaner we said nothing, either
of us; and for long enough we did
not find opportunity of being alone
But that night, when most of the hands
were turned iii, he and / sat out to-
gether on the bridge deck, and he talked
while I looked out at the stars where
they hung above the black ridges Of
the island.
He told me the whole tale of what
he and Storey intended to do. They
could not go far from the wreck, as
the air bubbles, rising to the surface,
would advise their movements; so they
had to set to work and make hid
ing place for their plumber close at
hand. They decided to dig out a cham
Der beneath the steamer, and infinite
labor it cost them. Meanwhile, to mask
what they were doing, they gave out
the tale of the ooze covering the treas
ure out of reach. Their efforts were
nearly ended when Storey got his
stroke; the pit was made, part OF the
gold was already transported, and
when the rest was hid, then they in
tended to cover the mouth of the pit
so that it never could be found by
chance explorers. Then they were 60
ing to tell Capt. Boyd that the job
beat them, and get his permission to
blow into the Corinth's strong room
with dynamite from the outside. The
explosion would be so cOntriVed that
the steamer would be in pieces and