The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-10-17

pretty scheme which came near 10 cost
ing him his life.
We had knocked Off for luncheon,
and Immediately after that meal he led
Cospctto away under the vine-clad
pergola for 4 smoke, talking earnestly.
| could see Cospetto shaking his head,
holding ont his hands in the expressive
Italian fashion Of dissent aud volubly
obiccting. But gradually his voice grew
ouici, and then there was silence.
What happened next took my breath
away. Round the corner of fhe villa
camc two figures, one clad in diving
dress. from wbich protruded the head
of Barton Cort ice, ihe other was Coz
pctto in muftl
''What on carth," T calculated.
81 m going down myself, said Bar
ton quietly, 81 must sec what 1t looks
like below there
Look here. my dear fellow" be.
can. ''this is simply fooihardy What
good can you do2
"Oh, its all right he answered.
''Ccspetto has coached me, and in
general way | know the ropes. Re
sides, he's going 10 truss me up with
additional life lines so that if anything
goes wrong all hands can pull me up
Well, supposed Cospetto knew what
he was about, but ] learned aftcrward
that Barton had bribed him with
trl..e of 500 Ira 30 let him make tho
attempt And 20 down he did; after
| few final cautions. and the helmet had
| been screwed on, the alr-bose and Ire
| lines adjusted and n sort Of bride with
an additional stont rope attached had
| been fastened round his body, the fool
| hardy fellow went over the side and
sank out of sight, Cospetto himself
| tending the r-hose and the Lifeline
and watching the track OF 'oaoolcs
most closely Mario and myself Just
stood around, both horribly nervous, for
knew enough about diving to realize
| that for n tyro TO go down into sixty
feet of water was no joke: the pressure
even at that depth is quite severe. and
the slightest mishap might preclpltate
catastrophe.
But nothing untoward occurred for
perhaps n quarter of an hour; the arr"
pumps droned regularly, and by the
( movement of the life lines we could
see that the man Al the other end was
slowly covering the bottom Of the lake.
Then of sudden something hap,
pened. The life lines were twltched
| and ierked violently and nearly
vanked out of Cospefto's hands--not
bv the prearrangcd three pulls which
divers used when they want to be
hauled TO the surface, but n wildly ir-
regular motion,
Cospetto sprang from his kneeling
posture 10 his feet and began TO haul
III on the hrldlc- SnOuIlnR 10 us ~ Etui
a hand and TO his helpers TO keep the
pumps going steadily, Evidently he
knew what had mischanced TO Cor.
tice below, for between tugs he gasped
out:
"The signor doubtless stumbled and
fell on his back and found himself
helpless -
And SO it proved, for when we final
lv got the amateur diver to the sur
face he came up feet first. When we
had hauled him to the staging and
unscrcwed the helmet it was very
red and disgusted, yet hnlf-laughlng
visage than confronted us.
~ tripped over those confounded
beams" he explained, "and conldn {
get up asain,--fell on my back"
Cosperto and his mates were shak-
ing with laughter now that the danger
was over, for once n diver lands on his
back he is practically helpless.
But ! tell you, count Barton went
on, lyon III regret it if you don t rave
the place thoroughly dredged. There g
mint of stuff down there. Look
what / found
And he held out 10 view An eXquis-
itely formed golden arm bangle such as
the Roman mobiles used to wear.
"That s my share Of the spoils,' he
announced, government or no gov
ernment!
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