The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1901-07-18

the missile that the eye could trace It.
So short W;.s its journey and so curved
Its traj ectory 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 a fine tough time Of
It when my part of the scuffle comes.''
Ihat 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 it did little enough
good to aim back at the flashes. But
Tazzuchi and half a dozen keen spir-
its got down into one of the boats with
their rifles and knives and a drum of
paraftin and pulled away silently into
the blackness.
Ihere 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
artlhcers and merchant seamen seemed
to take it as coolly as though such sor-
ties were an everyday occurrence. But
at the end of that time there was 2
splitter of shots, a few faint squeals.
and then a bonfire lighted up away in
the darkness. The blaze grew rapidly
and showed in it's heart the outline Of
dhow with human figures on it, With
promptness every man on the steamer
enptied 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 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 a 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 hold on Captain Kettles
mind he began to cudgel his brain for
some new method by which the Ital-
lans could serve his purpose. He put
himself supposititiously in Tazzuchi's
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, 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 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 adj
hered 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 a small vessel of their own
and go back for the plumber.
Kettle felt all an administrative
mans complacency in ferreting out
such dramatic scheme and began to
think next upon the somewhat i'm
portant detail of how to get proofs be-
fore he commenced to Illustrate it.
Chance seemed to make Tazzuchi play
into his hand. The air pump which
had been damaged by the rifle bullet
had been mended by the steamers en-
gineers, and as there We're two or
three spare diving dresses on the ship
Captain Tazzuchi expressed his inten-
ton of making a descent in person to
inspect the progress.
Il didn't do it before because l
didn't want to make the men break
time. Will you come off in the boat
with me, captain, and hand my life
linew
"Ill borrow one of those spare
dresses and share the pump with you,"
said Kettle.
-Tazzuchi was visibly startled. "What
do you mean?'
'The pump will give air for two, and
I'm coming down with you"
'But you know nothing about div
ing, and you may have an accident"
"Oh, I'll risk that You must nurs-
cry maid me a bit''
>Tazzuchi lowered his voice. '"ro tell
the truth, I'm going to pay surprise
visit. I want to make sure those chaps
below are doing the square thing. If
they aren't, there'll be row, and
they'll use their knives.''
"H'm!' said Kettle. give got no use
for your local weapon as a general
thing, but at pinch like this I'll bor-