Dutch the Diver; Or, A Man's MistakeFenn, George Manville
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Dutch the Diver; Or, A Man's Mistake
Fenn, George Manville
Adventure stories; Deep diving -- Fiction; Treasure troves -- Fiction
"Well?" whispered Oakum, "what's their bearings?"
'Pollo, for answer, crawled away into the darkness, and returned at the
end of a couple of minutes to announce that they were all gone.
"Look here, Master 'Pollo," growled Oakum in a whisper; "if you've woke
me out of a fine sleep to humbug me, you and I will have a row."
"I quite suah, sah, dat free sailor fellow set under de bulwark, sah,
hatch mutiny."
"Come and have a look round," said the old fellow, and together they
went softly to the man who had the watch forward, to find that he had
heard nothing, though a sharper investigator than Oakum would have come
to the conclusion that the fellow had been fast asleep.
A similar result followed the journey aft, when with a growl Oakum
walked straight back to the hatchway, where he turned round.
"Lookye here, 'Pollo, old man, you get to your hammock and have a good
night's rest, or you'll be rolling into the fire fast asleep to-morrow,
and burning those beautiful curls of yourn. And lookye here, too, my
lad, you leave that there silver rubbish alone, and trust to what the
skippers and the govnors give you for reward. Good-night."
"Dah!" cried 'Pollo, sulkily, "I don't care who come and take de ship
now. I no say word about more. Only get laugh at;" and muttering
volubly to himself, he crept back to his hammock, and the next minute he
was lying fast asleep with his mouth open.
The morning broke bright and beautiful, with the golden sunshine
glinting through the tall columns of the palm-trees ashore, and lighting
up the dark vistas of the jungle in the most wonderful manner; but the
thoughts of all on board were directed not to the golden sunshine, save
that it was available for the manner in which it lit up the depths of
the clear sea; and all that day in steady turns Dutch, Mr Parkley, and
Rasp went down, working away clearing out the sand, and sending up the
iron buckets laden with silver.
Careful probing with the iron rod had shown them that the space in which
the treasure lay was not great, only spread over a portion of the lower
part of the old galleon of about twelve feet by sixteen; everywhere else
the rod would penetrate to any depth, save where it came in contact with
the old hardened ribs of the ship, or portions of its keel, and they
gave forth to the touch such unmistakable signs of what the opposing
material was that the adventurers were quite content.
A receptacle had been prepared for the treasure in the hold, and the way
to this was down the cabin stairs, strong bulkheads cutting this off
from the other portions of the vessel; and down here continuously, after
the shelly concretions, where they existed, had been knocked off, was
carried bucket after bucket of ingots, which Mr Jones and Oakum stacked
as regularly as they would lie, while the captain superintended and kept
watch on deck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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