| Show THE diven S I 1 was wa s a diver as a young man I 1 may say I 1 was born a diver for my father was one cne before me you may have heard of him bill hurst was his name lie he was wa pretty well known in his time and ancl almost the first that ever went down in the dress without a bell even when I 1 started at it there were not many in tile the business father begin beg ti to train traia me for it early and consequently from habit and experience I 1 got to be c considered 0 n a fin nin first strate rate hand and got m my y share of employment when quite young I 1 was in injured lin ared at my work and atter alter my leg began bega to get better a fever set in and I 1 was taken to a farmers house tile the farmers daughter polly was my nurse by and by I 1 gov got a bit better and was able to creep about thelio thealo uso with a stick or sit outside in the sun gun the farmer was mostly out looking after his crops and his cattle except at meal times so polly and I 1 sawn u good deal of one another anoche j and very naturally fell in love one afternoon atter noon the farmer came home unexpectedly polly and 1 I never dreaming of such a chance were on the settle by the tile fire I 1 with byarm round her waist and anti she with her head on my shoulder it was a very pretty picture pr perhaps haps but I 1 can tell you it suit his taste anyhow Well there was a pretty row I 1 can assure you the old man would have struck me but for polly he ordered me out of the house at once as an ungrateful rogue and vagabond then polly tried her powers of persuasion for he listen to a word hom me at first hn lla give much heed to her but by degrees she got him to 0 o sit down and hear what I 1 had to say it very much beyond that I 1 loved polly I 1 could only say I 1 hoped I 1 I 1 should get work and save money and that sort of thing he laughed at the idea what could we live on if we married polly jumped up and said she could and would work at needlework needle work or she d go into service anything and then she burst bunat out crying and went into hysterics that touched the old man a bit and somehow or other after a long time he consented to give me a twelvemonths twelve months grace if I 1 could come back at the end of it with a prospect of earning a fair living I 1 might have polly but she ahe declared that I 1 be fit to work for some months yet and that the twelve month should begin from when I 1 was well and strong so bo her father said its ith its ita autumn now ill lii give him a twelvemonth from Chri christmas unias anlas in the spring I 1 shipped on board a trader bound for wales for fon copper ore we had one passenger on board a friend of the captains they were shareholders in several mines and had done business together for years the passenger his name was turton lurton was ver very y rich but very speculative tile the captain used often to rate him for such gain bling rashness as its he called it sink bink all your money some of these days as deep as the doubloons doub loons in the ships over there said lie to turton one day as we were sailing alon aion along the cornish coast what ships where said the other do you see those breakers bre akeis yonder said the captain about half a mile to the tile windward of the southern kou tou thern point of that low rocky little island called galleon reef and it Is ia said that a fleeton fleet of spanish treasure ships were sunk there to prevent their falling into the hands of our men dfwar that were after them has any of the money ever been found asked turton 64 yes a few pieces now and then there was a company started once onee by some such speculative as you but somehow or another it all came to nothing egad I 1 dont bee see why it be done nowadays with all our modern diving inventions youre for diving said the captain heres your man I 1 and he turned to me I 1 had come aft to relieve the man at the wheel I 1 was a bit of a favorite with the captain for steadiness and sobriety and he had asked me questions and I 1 told him who and what 1 was ai are you a diver my man said turton to n 1 I believe you jolin John hurst is one of th the e best and most skillful divers divens we have said the captain who then called for another hand to take the wheel in i in my place lace men uen when the voyage was ended end edat at the request of mr nir turton I 1 sent in what I 1 estimated as for the attempt of securing the treasure I 1 proposed to lo begin in as aa economical a manner as possible and with a small sta stamm staff fr A couple of livers divers would be sufficient to examine the he reef and see what truth there was in the report and if it proved true to calculate what amount of money could be got out of the vessels it would then be easy to send as many additional dit ional hands as necessary I 1 only discovered one drawback in tile the affair it turned out that my partner was a diver of the name of bleggi a quarrelsome ill lii conditioned condition ed fellow lellow with not the best of characters I 1 felt it my duty to tell mr nin turton thus much but he said it be helped for bleggi patron was one or of the largest and most must influential shareholders share holders and that he wanted bleggi appointed to the post I 1 had and bleggi would have had it but for mr nir turtons Tur tons tous tact and energy and the respect the other adventurers felt for him bleggi knew this for the first time we met he sald said something about my luck in having friends at court to gat me above the heads of better nien men well weli lie he continued gruffly ils it its 8 no odds we shall see soon who does best fur the company skipper or man 1 in due timo time tho the island was reached and our work began we ep explored lored the ocean bed carefully I 1 meant to examine the hulk first but in a weak moment allowed myself to be dissuaded by breggs who urged that as what he wanted was to learn as quickly as possible if there was gold we had better examine the ships which the sea had broken up for us and so save ourselves the trouble of breaking up the hulk the work was exhausting and fatiguing 0 and I 1 found to my chagrin that bleggi surpassed me in strength and endurance my aly illness had shaken my constitution and I 1 suffered very severely from pain in the tile leg that had been fractured but I 1 made up my mind to persevere and do my best so far our search had been unsuccessful at last I 1 observed something that made me suspect that bleggi was play ing me tricks happening to make my descent after him somewhat more rapidly than usual I 1 found him emerging from the hulk he assured me at af ter wards that he had only gone there for mussels of which lie he wa was 3 very fond and which were very fine on the hulk A day or two afterward bleggi having baving meantime obtained leave leavi to go ashore as we called visiting the main laud 1 I observed t hat ilat a man was constantly hanging about the reef fishing in an open boat it was not a very good fishing ground and it was some distance from the shore for an open boat but I 1 noticed that this stranger always remained at his moorings till after dark he was not very communicative indeed he growled at our saying that we drove the nish niah away at the same time I 1 discovered he was not a native for he did not speak the local dialect but bus what for want of better definition I 1 may call london english my nily suspicions were aroused at att last when turning round suddenly 0 one ne day while preparing to descend eisaw I 1 saw yaw bleggi signaling to the solitary fisherman I 1 said nothing but determined to investigate without delay all that night I 1 lay awake thin ing ver this thia matter I 1 rose in the morning a matured plan when bleggi rind tind I 1 had finished our midday meal which was cooked upon the tile boat I 1 ordered him to take ott onn his diving dress dressy and go to the main land and get some paper under the pretense that I 1 bad none in store and must write my report to mr dir turton that night breggs did not seem to like the idea but lie was obliged to go I 1 sent one of the crew with him in one of our small punts and as soon as I 1 saw him digap disappear ear behind the island I 1 jumped overboard overt overboard oard to prosecute my search and I 1 made my way to the hulk huik and ente entered it avery A very short survey sufficed to show me that its hold had been visited and that its contents had bad been recently disturbed making my way down I 1 was speedily engaged 0 in clearing the sand and weed beneath which I 1 soon boon on came upon some large wooden cases so rotten and decayed that a very few blows of my ax shivered the lid of one and revealed the contents there lay masses of what in spite of being so oxidized and as it were fused together by the action of saltwater salt water I 1 I 1 cou con could id see were gold and silver coins the sight at first surprised me and then came a thought of rage at the treachery of bleggi who had bad it is clear concealed the treasure from me and was evidently helping himself to the contents of tile the chest somehow though how I 1 knew not I 1 began to search the hold hoid narrowly for some trace of the manner in which he removed the coin in a remote corner I 1 came on a bundle of raw hide and several coils of thin but strong line beside these lay a knife which I 1 identified as lils his and therefore took possession of as a bit of evidence him then I 1 ascended to the dec again and looked about me I 1 could see a place where the bulwarks bulwa had evidently been cut away qu te lately and beyond it in the sand which had drifted up almost level with the deck I 1 could see a trail as if heavy bodies had been dragged along I 1 followed it anti and was guided to a nook in the upright wall of a rock wherein I 1 found two large packages consisting of raw hide illde and evidently full of coins A line was attached to them I 1 followed it with my e e as it went up up toward th the surface of the water as far as I 1 could see I 1 was just about to pull it 11 in order to discover whether it was attached to some fishing buoy when I 1 male mate out through the green haze of heaving water waier a dark adark object which I 1 immediately guessed was the he boat of the uncommunicative nica tive fisherman well might that morose personage persona ce cast line af after arter line into these thebe the sea bea alf als if this was the sort of catching lie he made I 1 I 1 saw at once why lie he staid out until after dark it was to haul in his prize unobserved I 1 det determined he should have his labor for nothing Y this once at any rate I 1 would tie his lines to a mass of rocks loeks and let him pull that up I 1 should want some cord for this purpose seand and remembering the coil in the hold of the vessel I 1 went back to seek it while I 1 was groping my way in the hold I 1 felt a sudden jerk at my moy signal line which as you are aware is attached round a divers livers waist I 1 supposed it must have caught on oa some projection on the wreck the next minute I 1 found it must have broken for it hung loose As I 1 put my iny hand behind me to the t not ot of the signal line to make sure that this was the case I 1 experienced a violent push from behind which flung me down on my face before I 1 could recover myself or even wonder what was amiss amiss I 1 felt my hands caught in a slip noose drawn forcibly together behind and bound fast by the wrists by this time I 1 had guessed who was my assailant bleggi had bad managed somehow to return very much sooner than he be should have done and had come down and surprised me As soon as he had finished tying g my hands he turned me over oil on my back and putting his foot on my chet cheat stood looking at me for a minute or two eken even at that moment it struck me how strange we must look one man looking at the other with triumph and hatred the other gazing at him with alarm and and anxiety but the countenance of each hidden from the other by the strange expressionless diving helmets he raised me to my teet feet when a violent struggle 11 ensued but he was my master I 1 was powerless with my hands bands so he lie forced me back against au an upright au support port poro and lashed me to it 1 felt feit a sense bense of relief for I 1 knew that although lie he had cut my single rope my staying down long atter after lie he ascended would alarm the men in our boat and some means would have been taken to free me there were one or two men weli among the crew who could dive a little and there were two spare dresses on the island in case ease of accidents but I 1 had miscalculated my malice you may have observed in a divers helmet two little brass brans disks perforated like a nohe of a watering water ing lug pot one of thee these is constantly in use a allowing I 1 low the superfluous or vitiated air to escape the second is in use in case the other be clogged or damaged both are arranged so that on being turned half round they are closed and shut in the air whereupon the diver becomes so buoyant that he rises rises risen at once to the surface bleggi came up to me made a mocking bow bov as if to tae take farewell and then closed both the escape valves of my helmet all the horror of my situation nna fla flashed blied on me he intended to murder me with every stroke of the air pump p u tp would come a great pressure of air air which by its increasing weight would kill hill no me atter atten the most awful tortures before I 1 had recovered from the shock bleggi had disappeared and already the strokes of the air pumps seemed to beat on my brain like sledge hammers I 1 writhed aud and twisted and tore at my fastenings with the strength of a desperate and the fury of a mad man the agony became intense all ofa sudden I 1 felt I 1 held some hard substance in irl my haud hand it was the knife I 1 had picked up I 1 had instinctively gripped it hard even in my struggle with bleggi 0 but it was closed still the pressure pres preb sure increased I 1 felt as if my hand would burdt burnt my eyeballs seemed filled with fire my breath was choked my brain began to swim now or never thought L I 1 after some vain struggling I 1 managed to hold the knife against tile tiie timba timber with the back of one hand and with the other open its blade directly it was open and thrust into my diving dress which with the pressure of the air was distended like a balloon with the le bubbling sound that denoted the escape or of the air through the hole thus mado made e ame came an immediate sense of relief the hope of escape from such imminent peril gave me new courage and fresh strength and I 1 speedily released myself from my kond yond bonds and was saved the hole I 1 made was in the leg of my trousers trow sers I 1 took some of the cord that had bound me and after tying it as tight as I 1 could round my heg feg le above the hole was able to turn on my regular escape valve and breathe with comparative freedom in a few moments I 1 had gained the deck and closing the valve was rapidly borne borno 0 to the tile surface I 1 came up just under the quart erand as I 1 laid my hand band on the rope ladder to climb up the sidel gidej heard bleggi voice olce 1 l governors a long time down something queer there let me stay down signaled me to go up at once found the swag Sr araps reaps aps and wants it for hi himself insela wonder when he be means coming up 1 I now I 1 said 1 I climbing up and showing myself over the bulwarks bulwa bleggi fell back as if he had been bt been en shot seize him and bind him hand band and foothill foot said I 1 to the men who obeyed me with some wonder and very readily luckily he was too surprised to resist when I 1 told the story of his the crew were for throwing him overboard then and the rebut this I 1 positively forbade at this moment looking in the direction of our fisher friend I 1 saw him preparing to slip his cable and make for shore I 1 immediately ordered three of the crew into the |
