Short stories; United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
Day after day went by, and the seventh and last day specified in the
agreement arrived. Two of the divers had broken down under the strain,
and now when the final trial was to be made the Captain called for two
men to go in their stead, but no one responded. He then appealed to
their manhood, asked them if he had not shared all their labors, and
asked them to give him but one day more. The dispirited sailors made no
response to the appeal, but the cook volunteered to go if some one would
take his place in the galley. This man was a negro about thirty years of
age, and had been shipped in England to act as a cabin servant on the
_Algier Rose_, but the ship’s cook having died on the passage out, he
had been sent into the caboose to take the former’s place. Possessing a
powerful physique and being an excellent swimmer, he stood by his
Captain that day, the sole remaining hope, and seemed tireless in his
efforts to find for the disheartened commander some evidence of the
treasure, which the seamen swore existed only in the capsized brain of
the man whom they could see out yonder under the broiling sun guiding
the boat in and out of the channels, while the laughing, leaping waters
tinkled against the bows and ran in gurgling, mocking glee along the
side. The negro would dive into the sea, and a few moments later
reappear; then, as he swam towards the boat, he would shake his head in
answer to the anxious, questioning look in the Captain’s eyes. The boat
would move on again a short distance, and while the rowers held it
stationary a dark form would part the water and sink down and down among
the startled fishes, that flashed away in affright from the strange
creature whose darting arms seemed to grasp at them as they shot for
safety among the branches of coral underbush.
The morning has passed gloomily away, and the negro plunges over the
side for the last time before the men row back to the ship for dinner.
Suddenly a black face in which is set two wildly rolling eyes bobs up
alongside the boat, and a voice choking for breath and broken with
excitement manages to gasp, “Him down thar, Massa Cap’n; him down thar!”
The great treasure is discovered!
No more despondency now. No more aching limbs. Splash, splash, splash!
The rowers have torn off their scanty clothing, and jumped over the
side to prove with their own eyes the story brought up to them from the
bottom of the sea. One by one men reappear, and their recovered breath
is used to send such a glad shout across the reefs that their shipmates
hear it over a mile away, tumble into the boats alongside, and pull
madly out to them; then learning the joyful news, they break into
cheers, kick off their garments, and overboard they also go to see the
ingots of silver scattered over the white sand amid the torn and broken
remnants of the wreck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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