Evening star., 1899-04-08
DEMONSTRATIONS"

cially for 1t over the shaft tunnel If we
can grab that it will pay our expenses and
lay, and Birds will be out of the wood"
Yes" thought Kettle. you want those
gold boxes in your hands, your blessed
Dago. and then you'll begin to play your
monkey tricks. l wonder If you think
you're going to jam a knife into me by way
OF making things snug and safe?"
But aloud he expressed agreement to
Capt. Tazzuchfs plan. He felt that this
was diplomacy, and though the diplomatic
art was new and strange to him, he told
himself that it was the correct weapon to
use under the circumstances. He had risen
out of his old grade of hole-and-corner ship
master. He was a captain in regular line
now, and wild fights and scrmmages were
beneath the dignity of his position.
Accordingly, as soon as dawn gave a
waking light the boats put out again, and
the divers were given orders to put all
their efforts into getting the specie boxes
on to the end of the salvage steamers
winch chain. A lot of dhows were showing
here and there amognst the reefs, obvious
ly watching them, and Tazzuchi was begin
ming to get nervous.
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 cart through
"Weu?"
Didn't you hear the report they've just
sung off from the boats? Oh, forgot, you
don't understand Italian. Well, the news is
that the rocks split a hole in ths bottom of
the strong room. and those gold boxes have
toppled through"
"And buried themselves in the slime@'
That's 1t. And Lord knows how many
feet they've 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
job" e
All that day Kettle watched the sea with
an anxious eye. From below the mud came
up in white billows. And out beyond in
ha md 1orarr al
tant shore, swung and shimmered In the
heat haze hungry dhows prowling like car
rion birds temporarily driven away from a
prey.
Tazzuchi and the chief engineer busted
themselves in binding together fragments
of f1rebars with iron wira. The Italian
shlpmaster had a great notion of the dam
age his signal guns could do against
dhoW If they were provided with orthodox
solid shot. AS soon the second night
came down and the darkness became fairly
nxed In hue, there began to crackle out of
the distance desultory rife fire from every
quarter OF the compass. 1t was not yery
heaVy-at the outside there Wers not a
score of weapons firing, but it was annoy
ing for all that, and as the marksmen and
their vessels were completely swallowed un
by the blackness of the night, it was i'm
possible 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 plunger
neatly cut into 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
| further away. Tazzuchi, full Of enthu-
siasm for his artillery. tried a carefully
| aimed shot at one of the largest But the
explosion was quite outdone in noise by the
cackle OF laughter which followed it. So
SLOW was the flight of the missile that the
| eye could trace it. So short was its Jour-
! ney and so curved its trajectory that it
came very near to hitting one Of the boats
of the divers.
Well thought Kettle these are prettv
COOL hands for Dagos anyway. I'm going
to have fire. tough time of 1t when NV
| part of the scuffie comes
Inat night he had a still further taste of
| their quality. So soon as darkness fell the
| dhows closed in again and recommended
| their sniping. They kept under weigh and
| 80 1t did little enough good to aim
| back at the flashes But Tazzuchi and half a
| dozen keen spirits got down into one of the
| boats with their rifles and knives and a
| drum of paraffin and pulled away silently
| into the blackness
| There was silence for quite half an hour.
| ana the suspense on the anchored steamer
was vivid enough to have shaken trained
| men. Yet these Italian artificers and mer-
! chant seamen seemed to take 1t as coolly
| as though such sorties were an EVERYDAY
| occurrence. But at the end of that time
I there was Splutter of shots, a few faint
| squeals and then bonfire lighted up away
| in the darkness. The blaze grew rapidIv
| and showed in it's heart the outline of a
dhow with human figures on it. With
promptness every man on the steamer
| emptied his rifle at the mark and continued
| the fustllade 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
| thA diyera aud their atteudanta once move