Meanwhile, they literally sifted the bed of the sea for traces of the elusive treasure. Every ton of sand sucked up by the pumps was poured through a gigantic sieve erected over the side of the salvage steamer. The sieve was like a giant birdcage, with a small mesh, and the men who watched the sand pouring through were more than once gladdened by the sight of a coin from the _Lutine_. [Illustration: SEEKING THE TREASURE OF THE LUTINE. ONE OF THE HUGE PUMPS SUCKING UP THE SEABED AT A PRODIGIOUS RATE AND POURING IT INTO THE GIANT CAGES WHICH SIFTED IT FOR TRACES OF THE LONG-LOST TREASURE] They were weeks battling with the tides before the sand was cleared from inside the vessel and around the hull, but the day came at last when the divers went down to investigate the interior for the long-lost treasure. Every one aboard was keyed up to concert pitch. It seemed certain that the _Lutine’s_ treasure was to be lifted at last. But the divers found the place in a sorry state. Much of the wooden hull had, of course, been preserved by the sand, but the magazine, in which the treasure lay, had collapsed, and there was practically a solid mass of iron five or six feet deep lying on top of the bars of gold and silver. When the magazine collapsed, hundreds of cannon balls had poured all over the place and these had been rusted together by the action of the water, locking up the treasure as securely as though it had been in a steel safe. The only hope of the salvors lay in blasting this mass of rusted cannon balls to pieces and removing them bit by bit. In no other manner could the treasure be reached. Accordingly they set about their task, and little by little blew away the first layer. It was slow, tedious work, and all the time the salvors were harassed by the thought that the autumn gales might spring up and put an end to their operations, undoing in a single night work which had taken them months to accomplish. Day by day they continued steadily with the blasting, and they had just succeeded in blowing away the second layer of rusted cannon balls when the dreaded gales came on. Further work was impossible, and sorrowfully the salvors left that exposed spot and went to Amsterdam to lay up for the winter. A little more time, and they might have succeeded in their quest. There is evidence that they were somewhere near the gold, for one of the pieces of rust brought up bore the impression of a gold ingot, and when this rust was treated with acid it yielded five grains of the precious metal to prove that the gold was quite close. Ten divers and a powerful plant had been seeking the _Lutine’s_ treasure for nine months. A small fortune had been spent on the operations. The workers removed a veritable mountain from the seabed, and they were rewarded with five grains of gold. They had shifted a million tons of sand to find five grains of gold! In this way does Fate taunt the deep-sea treasure-hunter.