Year: 1871

the lifelike motion those who stood or
knelt appeared to have The ship, as
! have said, had settled on her keel ;
and the sand on which it rested being
pretty compact, the reaction of the
tide above gave the hull an osciliatory
movement that impaired sort of
life-in-death appearance to the inani-
mate forms that were thickly strewn
around me.


"You, perhaps, have faint idea of
the sickening sensation with which
attempted my explorations in behalf of
the underwriters of this vast ocean cof-
fin filled with the dead that, at times,
as | have Just said, looked animate in
the involuntary movements of the
swaying to and fro of the vessel impart-
ed to them.


81 fastened to complete the task
had been authorized to undertake,
namely, to get at the safe in the main
cabin and. if l could not open it with
key or crowbar, to attach ropes to it,
and cause it to be raised to the wreck
ers' boat that lay Immediately over me,
in the sunlight.


I" In my desire to get away from this
tomb of the sea-bured, | did not act
with that caution which | usually OBJ
serve when in the water.


"While descending the companion
stairs, the air tube became entangled,
and, to add to my terror, the signal man
misinterpreting a message | had dis
patched to cease pumping air to me-
you see was afraid those at the pump
might, by unusual expansion, burst the
| ho1
up. This entangled the tube so that,
it knotted around the knob of
the cabin-door. | was for a few mo-
ments entirely cut off from my vital
supply.
life and death. Dashing toward the
door Just as those overhead were swing
ing me from my feet, [ succeeded in
seizing the handle, and, with all the
force which desperation gives to a man
who knows how very near he is to
death, [ succeeded in wrenching the
handle, and then [ felt witt current
of air sweep over my face. | believe |
lost consciousness as the blessed element
poured into my lungs; at all events,
breathed my second breath on the deck
of the boat which foated on the calm
sea, and glistened in the blessed light of
the sun like a vast mirror of molten sill
yer or gold"


"Why do you follow a profession
that has so much danger in it ?" [
asked.


The diver looked me in the face, and
with a soft smile on his own, said:


why does the drunkard, knowing
the misery that follows, steep his soul in
liquor? Why does the gambler, with
the certainty of poverty .and disgrace
before him, spend his days and nights at
the gaming table, wasting his fortune?
Why does the soldier delight in scenes
seaman, wrecked a hundred times, still
follow the sea? There is one word that
will answer all these questions. That
word ASSASSINATION. | am fascinated.
know how very dangerous is my call
ing, and yet cannot forego it. Strange,
is it not ?-tbis fascination and yet |
never put on this helmet without
shudder-without a faintness, so to
speak, at my heart. In half an hour
hence-as soon, that is, as the tide
serves-I shall be hundred feet be-
meath you, and alone with dead men
and sea monsters; but when [ again
stand by your side, | will experience an
ecstasy that has never been yours. You
cannot feel the rapture that will then
be mine, drinking in the light as drink
in the air-looking around me on the
soft, still water, and the verdant earth
so widely-ay, humanity, different from
| the world that stretches out almost to
| illimitability beneath the ocean. This
is nv fascination. | dread and yet |
love my profession.


"Of that lifeless woman and her ba-
bies ?'' again asked. "You said it was
horrible-a fearful sight. What of them?
Tell me-"


~ should have said rather. sad,
dreary sight," said the driver, as, with
half-closed eyes, he looked out over the
sea that, in long, unbroken waves,
rolled toward the shore. "No; shall
never forget that woman, and the ba
bies that even in death clung to her
body. And yet I know not why I
should remember this woman and her
offspring more than other dead women
and dead children have met with III
the waters, fathoms deep.


" 1t was this, perhaps, that impressed
the scene more particularly on my
mind: In the winter of 1857, we had
terrible storm off the coast, and while
the waves were raging in the fury of the
driving, shrieking winds. the schooner
Night and Day, from St. Thomas-with
a cargo of oranges and lemons, and with
a woman and her twin babes as passen-
gers, together with two of the crew
was lost off the coast, just outside of the
Hook.


besides the cargo, the passengers
and the crew, there were many thou
sand dollars in treasure on board, and
it became an object of some moment
with the underwriters to save the spe
Gle. | was directed to explore the
schooner. | found her lying partially
on her side in twelve fathoms the hull
entirely sound and, on returning, SO re-
ported


"While awaiting the decision of the
board as to the propriety of raising the
vessel to the surface and pumping her
out, strange gentleman-eviiently a
foreigner-wearing sad but sweet ex-
preston on his dark face, came ID me
and INQUIRED if | had seen the bodies of
those who had gone down with the
schooner?


Il answered that had not-that I
had been on the deck for only few min
utes, near the waist, my attention being
principally directed to the outside of the
hull, to ascertain if she could be raised
from her bed.


The stranger hung his head for a
few minutes, as if he were pondering
some subject of moment, and then
said +: