He strolled on deck, and saw that there was a sentry by the broken skylight and another by the cabin hatch, and this was always the case, for the Cuban kept up the strictest discipline, one so perfect that if anything like it had been the rule under Captain Studwick the vessel could not have been taken. Sam watched his opportunity, too, when the prisoners came on deck, but he soon found that any attempt to obtain a word with either, even if they had not avoided his glance, would have been fatal to the enterprise which he had in hand. "I shall have to take to the bird," he said at last, and at daybreak the next morning he opened its cage door, and the little thing flitted out upon deck, and seemed thoroughly to enjoy its liberty, flying into the rigging, chirping, and ending by descending the cabin hatch, attracted thereto by a peculiar whistle, but after a time it came up again, suffered itself to be caught and replaced in its cage. "That'll do," said Sam to himself, and he went about his work, while that morning the whole of the diving apparatus was rigged up, and Rasp carefully inspected the ground. "It's all right," he said to the Cuban. "Now, then, have 'em up. Here, let's send old Parkley down." Mr Parkley was summoned on deck, and his first idea was to refuse to descend. "You'd better go down," said Rasp grinning. "If you don't go with the soot on it's my belief that you'll have to go down without." There was no help for it, and he put on the diving-dress and went down, Dutch being summoned on deck directly after, to find Laure and his men all armed; and he felt that resistance was vain, and he, too, went down, and then with Mr Parkley worked to clear away the sand and weeds that had collected in the hold of the vessel. A few ingots were found and sent up directly, but it was evident to both, as they compared notes, that the work of many days must follow before they could get at the bulk of the treasure that lay below. And so another day passed, Dutch still finding, to his delight, as he went below, that the desire for the treasure was still the prominent feeling in Laure's mind. The next morning, at daybreak, Mr Wilson was first astir, and Dutch had just joined him to sit by the cabin window and enjoy the fresh morning breeze, which was deliciously cool, when a bright, sharp chirp was heard, and the canary flew down through the broken skylight and alighted on the table. "Dick, Dick!" cried Mr Wilson, with the tears of joy in his eyes, "pretty Dick;" and the little thing flew on to his finger, turning its head first on one side and then on the other, as it looked up in his face with its bright beady eye. "What's that under its wing?" said Dutch, sharply. "Paper," was the reply; and, sure enough, tightly tied beneath the little pinion was a tiny piece of doubled-up paper, which, on being opened out, bore these words in pencil: "Keep a steady hand at the wheel, and wait. Friends on board. Work and wait."