The old sheik inquired of what the cargo consisted; but could obtain no satisfactory answer. Here was a mystery. Seventeen men had been ten days unloading the hulk of a wrecked ship, and yet no articles of merchandise were to be seen near the spot. A few casks, some pieces of old sail, with a number of cooking utensils that had belonged to a ship's galley, lay upon the beach; but these could not be regarded as forming any portion of the cargo of a ship. The old sheik and his followers were in a quandary. They had often heard of boxes full of money having been obtained from wrecked ships. Sailors cast away upon their coast had been known to bury such commodities; and afterwards, under torture, to reveal the spot where the interment had been made. Had this vessel, on which the wreckers were engaged, been freighted with money, and had the boxes been buried as soon as brought ashore? It was possible, thought the new comers. They must wait and learn; and if there was any means by which they could claim a share in the good fortune of those who had first discovered the wreck, those means must be adopted. The original discoverers were too impatient to stay proceedings till their departure; and feeling secure in the superiority of numbers, they recommenced their task of discharging the submerged hulk. They advanced to the water's edge, taking along with them a long rope that had been found attached to the spars. At one end of this rope they had made a running noose, which was made fast to a man, who swam out with it to the distance of about a hundred yards. The swimmer then dived out of sight. He had gone below to visit the wreck, and attached the rope to a portion of the cargo. A minute after his head was seen above the surface, and a shout was sent forth. Some of his companions on the beach now commenced hauling in the rope, the other end of which had been left in their hands. When the noose was pulled ashore, it was found to embrace a large block of sandstone weighing about twenty-five or thirty pounds! The Krooman had already informed Harry Blount and his companions of something he had learned from the conversation of the wreckers; and the three mids had been watching with considerable interest the movements of the diver and his assistants. When the block of sandstone was dragged up on the beach they stared at each other with expressions of profound astonishment. No wonder: the wreckers were employed in clearing the ballast out of a sunken ship! What could be their object? Our adventurers could not guess. Nor, indeed, could the wreckers themselves have given a good reason for undergoing such an amount of ludicrous labour. Why they had not told the old sheik what sort of cargo they were saving from the wreck, was because they had no certain knowledge of its value, or what in reality it was they were taking so much time and trouble to get safely ashore.