The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-09

| steamers winch chain. A lot of dhoWS
We're showing hereand there amongst
J the reefs, obviously watching them, and
TaZzuchi was beginning to get ner-
yous.
Were in for trouble, I'm afraid" he
said to Kettle That rock on which
she's settled astern has made hole in
her you could drive a cart through
''Well?"
Didn't you hear the report they've
| just sung off from the boats? o, for
got, you don't understand Italian. Well,
the news is that the rocks split a hole
III the bottom of the strong room, and
those gold boxes have toppled through"
And buried themselves in the
slime?"
That's it. And Lord knows how
many feet they We sunk. It's dreadful
stuff to dig amongst; slides in on you as
soon as you start to dig and levels up.
They'll have to brattice as they work.
Itll be a big job"
All that day Kettle watched the sea
with an anxious eye. From below the
mud came up in white pillows. And out
beyond in and amongst the reefs, and
along the distant shore, swung and
shimmered in the heat haze, hungry
dhows, proving like carlion birds tenn
porarily driven away from a prey.
Tazzuchi and the chief engineer
busted themselves in binding together
fragments of firebars with iron wire.
The Italian shipmaster had a great no
ton of the damage his signal guns
could do against d dhow if they were
provided with. orthodox solid shot. AS
soon as the second night came down
and the darkness became fairly fixed in
hue, there began to crackle out of the
distance desultory rifle fire from every
quarter of the compass. 1t was not
very heavy-at the outside there were
not score of weapons firing, but it
was annoying for all that, and as the
marksmen and their vessels were COM
pletely swallowed up by the blaclzness
of the night it was impossible to repay
their compliments in kind.
Morning showed the damage of one
port window smashed, two panes gone
from the engine room skylight and the
air pump in one of the boats alongside
with a Dlunger neatly cut in two
pieces. But there was a spare air pump
in store. and after dawn came work
went on as usual. The dhows came no
nearer, neither did they go much fur
Their away. Tazzuchi, full of enthusiasm
for his artillery, tried a carefully aimed
shot at one of the largest. But the eX-
plosion was quite outdone in noise by
the cackle of laughter which followed
ii. So slow was the flight of the mis-
sile that the air could trace it. So short
was it's journey and so curved it's ira
1ectory that it came very near to hit
ting one of the boats of the divers.
Well thought Kettle, these are
pretty cool hands for dagos, anyway.
m going to have q fine tough time of
it when my part of the scufIle comes"
That night he had still further taste
of their quality. So soon as darkness
fell the dhows closed in again and re-
commenced their sniping. They kept
under weigh, and so it did little enough
good to aim back at the flashes. But
Tazzuchi. with halfsa dozen keen sDir-
its, got down into one of the boats with
their rifles and knives and a drum OF
parrafin. and pulled away silently into
the blackness.
There was silence for quite half an
hour, and the suspense on the anchored
steamer was vivid enough to have
shaken trained men. Yet these italian
artificers and merchant seanen seemed
to take it as coolly as though such sor-
ties were an every day occurrence. But
at the end of that time there was a
splutter Of shots. y few faint squeals,
and then bonfire lighted up away in
the darkness. The blaze grew rapidly,
and Showedin it's heart the outline of a
dhow with human figures on it. With
promptness every man on the steamer
em2tied his rifle at the mark and con-
tinued the fusilade till the dhow was
deserted.
Tazzuchi and his friends returned in
the boat safe and jubilant, and for the
rest Of that night the little salvage
steamer was left in quietude. With the
next daybreak the divers and their at
PENDANTS once more piled themselves to
labor Kettle, as he watched, was
amazed TO see the energy they put into
it. Certainly they seemed keen enough
TO get the. specie weighed and on board.
Whatever piratical plans they had got