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

into the ooze, and directly a Spadeful oil
the horrible slime was dug away more
| slid in to fill the gap. OF course this
might be true, but suspicion had got Sc
deep a hold on Captain Kettles MIND
| he began TO cudgel his brain for some
new method by which the Italians coule
serve their purpose He put himself
made Diratical theories by the score
Most of them he had to dismiss after
examination as impracticable. bu
finally one stood out beyond all tht
rest. For one thing, it did not wan
many participants: only the actua
divers and Tazzuchi himself. For an
other, it would not brand the whole
gang of them as criminals and pirates
but (properly managed) would make
them rich without any advertised
stigma or stain. In simple words, the
method was this, the gold boxes mus
| be removed from their original site
and hidden elsewhere under the water
close at hand. The friendly slime
would bury them snugly out of sight
The old report of ''un- get-at- able
would be adhered to, and finally the
steamer would give up further salvage
operations as hopeless and steam away
to port. There Tazzuchi and his
friends would charter small vessel
of their own and go back for the
plumber.
Kettle felt all an unimaginative
mans complacency in ferreting out
such a dramatic scheme, and began to
think next upon the somewhat import
ant detail Of how to get proofs before
he commenced to Illustrate it. Chance
seemed to make TaZzuchi play into his
hand. The air pump, which had been
damaged by the rife bullet, had been
mended by the steamers engineers,
and as there were two or three spare
diving dresses on the ship, Captain
Tazzuchi expressed his intention of
making a descent in person to inspect
the progress.
4 didn't do it before, because
didn't want to make the men break
time. Will you come off in the boat
with me, captain, and hand my life
line?"
TN borrow one of those spare
dresses and share the pump with you, >"
said Kettle.
Tazzuchi was visibly startled. What
do you mean?"
1.-THE pump will give air for two, and
I'm coming down with you"
But you know nothing about diving,
and you might have an accident"
80, I'll risk that You must nursery
maid me bit"
Tazzuchi lowered his voice. 'To tell
the truth I'm going to pay a surprise
visit. l want to make sure those
chaps below are doing the square thing.
If they aren't therell be a row, and
they'll use their knives.
Him." said Kettle. I've got no use
for your local weapon as a general
thing. But at pinch like this, I'll
borrow a knife of you, sand if it comes
to any one cutting my air tube, you'll
find can use it pretty mischievouslK.
Il wish you wouldn't insist on this"
said Tazzuchi, persuasively.
I'm going to, anyway"
I'm going down merely because it's
my duty"
That's the very same reason that's
taking me, captain. L must ask you
not to make any more objections. I'm
a man that never changes his mind,
once it's made up"
Whereupon Tazzuchi shrugged his
shoulders and gave way.
Now" thought Kettle to himself,
that mans made up his mind to kill
me if he gets a glimmer of a chance,
and as I'm not going to get wiped out
this journey, he'll do with a lot of
watching"
Captain owen Kettles nerve and in
domitable courage were never more
descent in the diving dress. The world
beneath the waters was strange and
dangerous to him; his companion was
a man against whom he held the black
est suspicion; the men at the pump
(whose language he did not under
StanO might at any moment cut off
his air supply and leave him to drown
like a puppy under a bucket. They
hung the weights over his chest and
back, and Tazzuchi signed to him 20
descend. Kettle hitched round the
sheath knife to the front of his belt
and signed with politeness. After
YOU
Tazzuchi did not argue the matter
He got on the ladder and climbed down
out of sight, Kettle followed. The chill
of the water crept UP and closed over
his head. He reached the end of the
ladder, slid down a rope, and when he
reached the bottom he sank up to his
knees in inpalpable mud. He could
fQggily see Tazzucm a few PAGES
away waiting for him, and he went up
to him at once. If the men in the boat,
acting ON orders, cut his air tube, he
wanted to be in a position to cut Cap
tain TaZZuchi'S also with promptness.
However, everything went peacefully
just then. The Italian set off down a
track in the slime, and Kettle waded
after him. 1t was terrible
work making a passage through that
white, glutinous ooze, but they came to
the wreck directly, and, working round
her rusted flank, stood beside a great
shallow pit, where two weird looking,
gray sea monsters showed in dim out
line through the dense fog of the water.
The two newcomers stood for long
enough before the two workers OBJ
served them. But one CHANGED to look
up and see them watching, and logged
the Other. with his spade. and then both
beckoned the visitors to
come down into the pit. Tazzuchi led,
and Kettle followed, wallowing down
the slopes of slime, and there, at the
bottom, in the dim, milky light one of
the professional divers slipped a Shovel
into his hand and thrust it downward
till it Jared against something solid
under foot
1t was clear they had come upon the
gold boxes, and they wished to impress
upon the visitors, in underwater dumb
show of triumph, that the find had only
been made that very minute. Ponder
Ously booted feet did dance of ecstacy
in three feet of gluey mud. And mean
while Kettle, with a hand ON the haft
Of his KNIT. edged away from this I'M
3anny demonstration, lest some one
should slit his air tube before he could
prevent il.
He had seen what he wanted; he had
no reason to wait longer. The gold
boxes were there, and if they We're not
brought to the surface and carried hon.
sstly to SueZ, the matter would have to
De fought out above in Gods open air,
and not in that horrible choking quag-
nire of slime and water. And so, still
guarding himself cannily, he got back
a Crli m fn hl, md a1r1 h cd il,
1im to shake hands with the men who
eased him of that intolerable helmet.
Now. far be in from me to raise even
4 suspicion that Captain Owen Kettle
'esented the fact that he had been
'obbed of a scuffle when the little sal
wage steamer actually did bring up in
Suez with the specie honestly locked