Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1901-07-10
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! DAGO DIVERS
BY
CUTCLIFFE HYNE.
Copyright, 1901, by cutclife Hyne. s,
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z Copyright, 1901, by cutclife Hyne., a
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"And buried themselves in the slime?"
"That's it. And Lord knows how
many feet they've sunk. It's dreadful
stuff to dig among; slides in on you rs
They'll have to brattice as they work.
It'll be 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 among the reefs and
along the distant shore, swung and
shimmered in the heat haze hungry
dhows prowling like carbon birds tenn
porarily driven away from prey.
Tazzuchi and the chief engineer bus
led themselves In binding together
fragments of fire bars with iron wire.
The Italian shipmaster had great no.
ton of the damage his signal guns
could do against n dhow IL they were
provided with orthodox solid shot. AS
SOOh tiC oSCOho CAN'T dOWh
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 a score Of weapons firing, but
it was annoying for all that, and as
the marksmen and their vessels were
completely swallowed up by the black
ness of the night 1t 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 plunger neatly cut into two
pieces, but there was spare air pump
in store, and after dawn came work
went on as usual. The dhows came no
nearer; neither did they go much far
Their away. Tazzuchi, full of enthusi-
assn 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 1t. So slow was the flight of
the missile that the eye could trace 1t.
So short was Its journey and so curved
its trajectory that it came very near to
hitting one of the boats of the divers.
"Well," thought Kettle, "these are
pretty cool hands for dagos anyway.
I'm going to have fine tough time.of
it when my part of the scufiie comes"
That night he had a still further taste
of their quality. So soon as darkness
fell the dhows closed in again and re-
commenced their sniping. They kept
under way, and so it did little enough
| good to aim back at the flashes. But
Tazzuchi and half dozen keen spir-
| its got down into one of the boats with
their rifles and knives and drum of
parafiin 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
artiflcers and merchant seamen seemed
10 take it as coolly as though such sor-
ties were an everyday occurrence. But
at the end of that time there was q
splitter of shots, few faint squeals,
and then n bonfire lighted up away in
the darkness. The blaze grew rapidly
and showed in its 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 con.
tinued the fusillade 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 tic
labor. Kettle as he watched was amaz
ed to see the energy they put into it
Certainly they seemed keen enough tt
get the specie weighed and on board
Whatever the piratical plans they haG
got made up were evidently for after
ward.
But when day after day passed ant
none of the treasure was brought tt
the surface he began to modify thi!
original opinion. Tazzuchi, translatinf
] the divers reports, said that the cause
Of the delay was the softness of thu
sea floor. The heavy chests had SUM
deep into the ooZe, and directly spade
! full of the horrible slime was dug ava,
more slid in to fill the gap. OF cours,
this might be true but suspicion hat
got so deep a hold on Captain Kettle'I
mind he began to cudgel his brain fo
some new method by which the Ital
ians could serve his purpose. He pu
himself supposititiously in Tazzuchi'
place and made piratical theories b,
the score. Most of them he had to dis
miss after examination as impractica
BILE, but finally one stood out beyond nj
the rest.
For one thing, it did not want man,
participants, only the actual diver
and Tazzuchi himself. For another, j
would not brand the whole gang o
them as criminals and pirates, but
properly managed, would make then
rich without any advertised stigma O
stain. In simple words, the methot
was this: The gold boxes must be re
moved from their original site and hid
den elsewhere under the water close a
hand. The friendly slime would bur,
them snugly out Of sight The old re
|port Of "un-get-at-able" would be nd
hered to, and finally the steamer would
give up further salvage operations ii
hopeless and steam away to port
There Tazzuchi and his friends would
charter small vessel of their owl
and go back for the plumber.
Kettle felt all an unmaginativ,
mans complacency in ferreting GU
such dramatic scheme and began t,
think next upon the somewhat i'm
portant detail Of how to get proofs be
fore he commenced to Illustrate 1t
Chance seemed to make Tazzuchi pla.
into his hand. The air pump which
had been damaged by the rifle bulle
had been mended by the steamers en-
gineers, and as there were two OF
three spare diving dresses ON the shiI
. Captain Tazzuchl expressed his inten
ton of making descent in person K
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