Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-07-02

get nervous.
"We're 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"
"WellY
"Didn't you hear the report they've
Just sung off from the boats? oh, I
forgot; you don't understand Italian.
Well, the news Is that the rocks split
a hole in the bottom Of the strong room,
and those gold boxes have t0ppled
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 among; slides in on you as
soon as you start to dig and levels up.
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 bifiows, and out
beyond, in and among the reefs and
along the distant shore, swung and
shlmmered in the heat haze hungry
dhows prowling like carrion birds tenn
porarily driven away from a 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 a dhow II 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
completely swallowed up by the black
ness 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 plunger neatly cut into two
pieces, but there was q 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
ther away. Tazzuchi, full of enthusi-
asm for his artillery, tried q carefully
aimed shot at one of the largest, but
the explosion was quite 0utdone In
noise by the cackle Of laughter which
followed It. 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 1t 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 a fine tough time of
II when my part of the scutfie 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 way, and SO 1t did little enough
good to aim back at the flashes. But
Tazzuchi and half a dozen keen spir-
It's 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, and the suspense on the anchored
steamer was vivid enough to have
shaken trained men. Yet THESE Italian
artificers and merchant seamen seemed
to take 1t as coolly as though such sor-
ties were an everyday occurrence. But
at the end of that time there was a
splutter Of shots, few faint squeals,
and then bonfire lighted up away IN
the darkness. The blaze grew rapidly
and showed in Its heart the outline OF
dhow with human figures on 1t. 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
tendants once more piled themselves to
labor. Kettle as he watched was amaz-
ed to see the energy they put into It.
Certainly they seemed keen enough to
get the specie weighed and on board.
Whatever the piratical plans they had
got made up were evidently for after
| ward.
But when day after day passed and
none of the treasure was brought to
the surface he began to modify this
original opinion. Tazzuchi, translating
the divers reports, said that the cause
Of the delay was the softness Of the
sea floor. The heavy chests had sunk
deep into the ooze, and directly spade
full of the horrible slime was dug away
more slid in to fill the gap. OF course
this might be true, but suspicion had
got SO deep a hold on Captain Kettles
mind he began to cudgel his brain for
some new method by which the ltal-
ians could serve his purpose. He put
himself supposititiously in Tazzuchrs
place and made piratical theories by
the score. Most Of them he had to dis
miss after examination as impractical
BILE, but finally one stood out beyond all
the rest
For one thing, it did not want many
participants, only the actual divers
and Tazzuchi himself. For another, 1t
would not brand the whole gang OF
them MS 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 must be re-
moved from their original site and hid
den elsewhere under the water close at
hand. The friendly slime would bury
them snugly out of sight. The old re-
port of "un-get-at.able" would be ad-
hered to, and finally the steamer would
Eive up further salvage operations as
hopeless and steam away to port.
There Tazzuchi and his friends would
charter a small vessel Of their own
and 20 back for the plunder.
Kettle felt all an unimaginative
mans complacency in ferreting out
uch dramatic scheme and began to
- yhnf N.