Dutch felt a pang at his heart as he raised and carried the fainting
woman below--Bessy Studwick joining him as he laid her on the little
couch in the cabin; and he was about to leave her in the latter's care,
when she began to revive, and called him by name.
For a moment he was about to run to her, but the old and bitter
suspicions hardened his heart, and he turned away.
"Oh," exclaimed Bessy Studwick, bitterly, "if he had been my husband,
and behaved to me like that!"
"Pray, hush!" said Hester, feebly.
"I can't," exclaimed Bessy, clasping the weeping woman in her arms. "I
know you must have felt horribly jealous of me once, dear, and I really
did of you; but as for Dutch Pugh now, I absolutely hate him, and I'm
sure you must ever so much more."
"I never loved him so dearly as I do now," sighed Hester. "Some day he
will believe in me again."
She covered her face with her hands, and thought of her little adventure
upon the deck, one which puzzled as well as alarmed her; and once or
twice she was on the point of confiding in Bessy, but the thoughts of
her husband's peril drove others away, and, making an effort, she rose
to go on deck again.
"I'm sure you are not fit to go on deck," exclaimed Bessy, trying to
restrain her.
"Yes," she said, gently. "I am better now, and I could not bear to stay
here if he is in danger."
Feeling that it would only cause an extra strain on nerves already
weakened, Bessy made no further opposition, but accompanied Hester on
deck, where a bustle of preparation was going on, the captain and doctor
both working in subordination to Dutch and Mr Parkley. The air-pump
was being fixed in a convenient spot, diving suits were in readiness for
use, and tubes coiled in great snake-like rings. With an oily rag in
his hand, and his cheeks blown out with importance, Rasp was fussing
about and giving a touch here and a touch there; while no less
important, and evidently feeling as if his task were done, Oakum sat on
a coil of rope, chewing his tobacco, and looking on.
But to Hester's great relief the diving apparatus was not yet going to
be put in use. For Dutch, Mr Parkley, and the doctor were busy at work
with sundry jars, wires, and plates. In fact, they were placing a
galvanic battery ready for action, and making some mysterious
preparations that the sailors did not understand.
There was a small white canister, too, over which the doctor kept guard,
ordering back any of the sailors that approached.
At last, when the battery was ready, and emitting a low, hissing noise
from the zinc and platina plates immersed in a solution, a long coil of
thin wire was unwound and attached to the little white canister.
"For heaven's sake be careful, Dutch!" said Mr Parkley, who had
performed the latter operation. "Don't connect the wire till I give the
word."
"Don't be alarmed," said Dutch, quietly, as he held the other end in his
hand. "I shall be careful."
"But I am alarmed," said Mr Parkley to himself. "He thinks life of no
more value than the snuff of a candle, and I want to live as long as I
can."
"Now, are you nearly ready?" said the captain, who came up, followed by
'Pollo grinning, and having on a tin three great pieces of beef.
"Yes, quite ready," said Dutch.
"Bring the meat here," exclaimed Mr Parkley; and, choosing the largest
piece, he half cut it in two, placed the white canister in the opening,
and bound the meat round it firmly with a fresh piece of wire.
"Am dat mustard, sah?" said 'Pollo, with his eyes wide open.
"No, 'Pollo, it's pepper--pepper for the sharks," said Mr Parkley,
smiling.
"Ho!" said 'Pollo thoughtfully. "I no see de good to gib de shark
pepper, sah."
"Wait a minute and you will, 'Pollo," said the captain, smiling.
"All ready now," said Mr Parkley. "Every one stand back."
The crew shrank away, some of the men, though, climbing the rigging to
get a good view of the proceedings, and John Studwick being helped into
a sure position in the main chains. Then one of the pieces of coarse
beef was taken and jerked out half-a-dozen yards from the ship.
As it struck the water and began to sink there was a rush and commotion
as dark-grey forms and white streaks seemed to rise from below. The
water bubbled and foamed, and the lump of beef was seized, torn asunder,
and two huge sharks gorged the pieces, and then could be seen swimming
backwards and forwards, and round and round, in company with others.
"Cut the next up into small bits, 'Pollo," said the captain, who was
standing on the bulwarks, holding on by the main shrouds.
"Yes, sah, I cut um small and easy for mass' shark 'gestion," said
'Pollo grinning; and he cut the beef into pieces of the size of his fist
with the large cook's knife he wore in a sheath at his belt.
As he passed them up the captain threw them to the hungry sharks, each
piece being snapped up by one or the other, as the monsters, not
disdaining such morsels, turned half over and gorged each fragment as it
fell.
No less than seven could now be counted, all evidently made more savage
and eager by the taste of meat, and ready to leap out of the water as
they glided one over the other in a space not many yards square, where
the water was still impregnated with the odour and juices of the beef.
"That will do for them now," cried Mr Parkley, mounting beside the
captain with the lump of beef bound round the can in his lingers,
holding it in one hand, whilst with the other he took a good grip of one
of the rattlins.
"Are you ready, Pugh?"
"Yes," was the reply.
"Is the wire all clear for a run?"
"Yes, perfectly. Stand back, man," cried Dutch, as the mulatto stood
eagerly watching what was done.
"Then I shall throw it into the midst of them, and when I cry _now_,
make the connection--not before."
"I understand," said Dutch.
"One moment," said the captain; "will it endanger the ship?"
"No," said Mr Parkley, "because it will be too far away, and too deep.
It will rock her, of course."
"All right," said Captain Studwick, nodding his head; and, giving the
beef a swing to and fro, Mr Parkley launched it through the air, so
that it fell with a heavy splash some fifty feet from the schooner, and
began to sink rapidly.
There was a tremendous swirl in the clear water directly, as the sharks
dashed at it, going over one another like dogs in their eagerness to be
first, for this was a piece of fourteen or fifteen pounds weight.
The next moment they were tearing at it, but baffled somewhat by the
strong wire binding, while it sank rapidly, and the thin copper wire,
that had fallen on the smooth surface like a line of light, ran rapidly
over the side.
"_Now_," cried Mr Parkley loudly.
As the word left his lips, Dutch applied the other end of the wire to
the galvanic battery, an invisible spark darted along the thin copper to
the case of dynamite; there was a dull rumble; the ship shivered as if
struck by some heavy blow; a column of water rose in the air and sank
back; and the schooner rolled from side to side as a large wave lifted
her, let her down, and then rushed onward over the rocks to the shore,
running up the sands in a line of foam, and laving the trunks of the
palms beyond the narrow strip.
The men clung to the bulwarks, looking startled, but seeing that the
danger was over, they uttered a loud cheer, for as the water subsided
the clear limpidity was gone--sand, blood, fragments of weed and flesh,
all combined to make it murky; and, what set the men off cheering again,
there were the bodies of the seven sharks, four of them in scraps, the
other three apparently uninjured, but floating back downwards quite
dead, and with the foul pieces gliding slowly off with the hardly
perceptible current.
"Well, I confess, Dutch, I should never have thought of that," exclaimed
Mr Parkley. "It was a good idea."
"So the men seem to think," said the captain, as a couple slipped down
into the jolly-boat, and, sculling it about, secured about a couple of
dozen large fish that had also been killed by the dynamite. "But that
was too near the schooner for safety: a shock or two like that would
shake the masts out of her hull."
"It was more powerful than I expected," said Dutch. "We will fire the
next from the boat with a good length of wire, and the schooner must be
fifty or a hundred yards away."
"But you will not fire another unless you are troubled with sharks?"
queried the captain.
"I intend to fire a canister exactly beneath where we stand," said
Dutch, "so as to sweep away the growth and sand and shingle that have
been accumulating for the last two hundred years. One of those charges
will do more in an instant than the men could do under water in a week."
He raised his eyes as he spoke, and found that the mulatto was listening
intently to every word, but with his eyes half-closed and a bitter look
upon his face.
By this time the water was fast growing clear, and the change beneath
the schooner was remarkable. The canister of dynamite must have sunk
nearly to the bottom before it was exploded, and so great was the
lateral sweep of the concussion that the seaweed seemed to have been
levelled down in one direction, like a plantation after the passage of a
hurricane; and grim and stark stood up now a series of dark stumps, the
relics of the timbers of the ill-fated Spanish galleon, if such it
really proved to be. Some of these were black and nearly level with the
sand; some were worn to a point by the attrition of the current; but
there, plainly enough now, could be traced out in timbers the shape of
the vessel; but not for long, since the weed began once more to float
into its normal position; but enough was known now, and Oakum took a
fresh plug of tobacco as he said to Rasp--
"There, old 'un, your work's cut out for some time to come."
No time was lost. A couple of dynamite canisters were lowered down in
the most suitable spots where the sand and weed seemed to be thickest,
and Mr Parkley held one thin coil of wire, and Dutch and another, at
opposite sides of the schooner, the kedge hawsers were buoyed and
slipped; and, as the vessel slowly went with the current, the wire was
payed out till the schooner had swung right round, and was riding by the
anchor from her bows, and eighty or ninety yards away from the sunken
wreck. The wire was sufficiently long to render the use of the boat
unnecessary, and all being ready the battery was once more brought into
use, the wires being connected, and this time the water surged up as
from some volcanic eruption, a great wave ran towards the schooner,
which rode over it easily, and it passed on towards the shore, washing
right up again amongst the trees.
The men went to work with a will, getting ropes to the buoys, hauling
upon them, and gradually working the schooner back, and mooring her in
her old position; but it was a good hour later before the water was once
more clear, and they gazed down upon quite a different scene from that
of the morning.
So effective had been the force of the explosion that sand, weeds, small
rocks and shingles, had been completely swept away, and lay at a
distance, while the interior of the old wreck seemed to have been
scooped right out.
The most careful search with the eye, though, failed to show any traces
of that which they sought, and as evening was now fast drawing on, any
further investigations were left till the following day.