She was ready to die to save Dutch from peril, but she was so circumstanced that her warning would compass his destruction, and she sank back feeling at last that she could not betray what she knew. For the moment she was reassured by hearing Dutch's voice, and directly after Bessy came to fetch her into the cabin to breakfast, where all save she were in high spirits, no one having a suspicion of the danger that threatened them. The talk was all of the treasure, and the specimen ingots that Laure had shown them were mentioned, while to Hester's horror she found that the Cuban was apparently forgotten. It soon became evident to her that all the preparations had been made, and she followed the actors in the busy scene to be enacted on deck as soon as the hurried meal was at an end. Dutch had glanced at her once, and her heart throbbed with pleasure as she read his look as one more of sorrow than anger, and this last determined her to speak to him at all hazards. The air-pump was ready, with Rasp dictating and ordering the men about; and had Hester felt any hesitation before, the sight of Dutch drawing on the heavy india-rubber suit determined her to act. "I don't think their teeth would go through this," he said coolly to Mr Parkley, "if they come; but we'll do what we said, and that will keep them off." He went on with his preparations, and twice over, as she saw him nearing readiness, Hester approached, but, each time on glancing round, she saw that the Cuban had his eyes fixed upon her, and she shrank away. At last, however, Dutch was ready, all but having the great copper diving-helmet screwed on. A stout leather belt was round his waist, heavy leaden-soled boots upon his feet; square weights of lead hung from the copper gorget round his neck and breast and back; the long tube was attached to helmet and air-pump, and a keen handy axe and a long sharp double-edged knife lay ready for placing in his belt, side by side with a heavy iron bar. A stout wooden ladder, in joints, had been fitted together and secured to the gangway, its foot being within a few inches of the sand that lay in the midst of the sunken wreck, which, seen through the clear water, seemed, although five fathoms down, but a very little distance from the keel of the schooner. There too was the signalling rope ready for placing round the diver; and to make the preparations more complete, the galvanic battery was charged, and half-a-dozen little dynamite cartridges, attached to as many thin wires, lay ready for hurling in the direction of any approaching shark and exploding in the water. This, it was considered, might kill it, but would certainly scare it away, while the size was not large enough to injure the diver, protected by his helmet. A careful investigation had resulted in not one of the monsters being seen, and all hoped that the explosions of the previous day had killed and scared all that they need fear for the present.