STORY ONE, CHAPTER NINETEEN.
PEPPER FOR THE SHARKS.
Dutch felt a pang at his heart as he raised and carried the faintingwoman below--Bessy Studwick joining him as he laid her on the littlecouch 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 bittersuspicions 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. "Iknow you must have felt horribly jealous of me once, dear, and I reallydid of you; but as for Dutch Pugh now, I absolutely hate him, and I'msure you must ever so much more."
"I never loved him so dearly as I do now," sighed Hester. "Some day hewill believe in me again."
She covered her face with her hands, and thought of her little adventureupon the deck, one which puzzled as well as alarmed her; and once ortwice she was on the point of confiding in Bessy, but the thoughts ofher husband's peril drove others away, and, making an effort, she roseto go on deck again.
"I'm sure you are not fit to go on deck," exclaimed Bessy, trying torestrain her.
"Yes," she said, gently. "I am better now, and I could not bear to stayhere if he is in danger."
Feeling that it would only cause an extra strain on nerves alreadyweakened, Bessy made no further opposition, but accompanied Hester ondeck, where a bustle of preparation was going on, the captain and doctorboth working in subordination to Dutch and Mr Parkley. The air-pumpwas being fixed in a convenient spot, diving suits were in readiness foruse, and tubes coiled in great snake-like rings. With an oily rag inhis hand, and his cheeks blown out with importance, Rasp was fussingabout and giving a touch here and a touch there; while no lessimportant, and evidently feeling as if his task were done, Oakum sat ona coil of rope, chewing his tobacco, and looking on.
But to Hester's great relief the diving apparatus was not yet going tobe put in use. For Dutch, Mr Parkley, and the doctor were busy at workwith sundry jars, wires, and plates. In fact, they were placing agalvanic battery ready for action, and making some mysteriouspreparations 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 noisefrom the zinc and platina plates immersed in a solution, a long coil ofthin wire was unwound and attached to the little white canister.
"For heaven's sake be careful, Dutch!" said Mr Parkley, who hadperformed the latter operation. "Don't connect the wire till I give theword."
"Don't be alarmed," said Dutch, quietly, as he held the other end in hishand. "I shall be careful."
"But I am alarmed," said Mr Parkley to himself. "He thinks life of nomore value than the snuff of a candle, and I want to live as long as Ican."
"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 largestpiece, 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 sharkpepper, 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 toget a good view of the proceedings, and John Studwick being helped intoa sure position in the main chains. Then one of the pieces of coarsebeef 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 commotionas dark-grey forms and white streaks seemed to rise from below. Thewater bubbled and foamed, and the lump of beef was seized, torn asunder,and two huge sharks gorged the pieces, and then could be seen swimmingbackwards and forwards, and round and round, in company with others.
"Cut the next up into small bits, 'Pollo," said the captain, who wasstanding 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 fistwith 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, eachpiece being snapped up by one or the other, as the monsters, notdisdaining such morsels, turned half over and gorged each fragment as itfell.
No less than seven could now be counted, all evidently made more savageand eager by the taste of meat, and ready to leap out of the water asthey glided one over the other in a space not many yards square, wherethe water was still impregnated with the odour and juices of the beef.
"That will do for them now," cried Mr Parkley, mounting beside thecaptain 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 oneof 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 stoodeagerly 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 thebeef a swing to and fro, Mr Parkley launched it through the air, sothat it fell with a heavy splash some fifty feet from the schooner, andbegan to sink rapidly.
There was a tremendous swirl in the clear water directly, as the sharksdashed at it, going over one another like dogs in their eagerness to befirst, for this was a piece of fourteen or fifteen pounds weight.
The next moment they were tearing at it, but baffled somewhat by thestrong wire binding, while it sank rapidly, and the thin copper wire,that had fallen on the smooth surface like a line of light, ran rapidlyover the side.
"_Now_," cried Mr Parkley loudly.
As the word left his lips, Dutch applied the other end of the wire tothe galvanic battery, an invisible spark darted along the thin copper tothe case of dynamite; there was a dull rumble; the ship shivered as ifstruck by some heavy blow; a column of water rose in the air and sankback; and the schooner rolled from side to side as a large wave liftedher, 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 thepalms beyond the narrow strip.
The men clung to the bulwarks, looking startled, but seeing that thedanger was over, they uttered a loud cheer, for as the water subsidedthe 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, theother three apparently uninjured, but floating back downwards quitedead, and with the foul pieces gliding slowly off with the hardlyperceptible current.
"Well, I confess, Dutch, I should never have thought of that," exclaimedMr Parkley. "It was a good idea."
"So the men seem to think," said the captain, as a couple slipped downinto the jolly-boat, and, sculling it about, secured about a couple ofdozen large fish that had also been killed by the dynamite. "But thatwas too near the schooner for safety: a shock or two like that wouldshake the masts out of her hull."
"It was more powerful than I expected," said Dutch. "We will fire thenext from the boat with a good length of wire, and the schooner must befifty 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," saidDutch, "so as to sweep away the growth and sand and shingle that havebeen accumulating for the last two hundred years. One of those chargeswill 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 listeningintently to every word, but with his eyes half-closed and a bitter lookupon his face.
By this time the water was fast growing clear, and the change beneaththe schooner was remarkable. The canister of dynamite must have sunknearly to the bottom before it was exploded, and so great was thelateral sweep of the concussion that the seaweed seemed to have beenlevelled down in one direction, like a plantation after the passage of ahurricane; and grim and stark stood up now a series of dark stumps, therelics of the timbers of the ill-fated Spanish galleon, if such itreally proved to be. Some of these were black and nearly level with thesand; some were worn to a point by the attrition of the current; butthere, plainly enough now, could be traced out in timbers the shape ofthe vessel; but not for long, since the weed began once more to floatinto its normal position; but enough was known now, and Oakum took afresh 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 inthe 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, atopposite sides of the schooner, the kedge hawsers were buoyed andslipped; and, as the vessel slowly went with the current, the wire waspayed out till the schooner had swung right round, and was riding by theanchor from her bows, and eighty or ninety yards away from the sunkenwreck. The wire was sufficiently long to render the use of the boatunnecessary, and all being ready the battery was once more brought intouse, the wires being connected, and this time the water surged up asfrom some volcanic eruption, a great wave ran towards the schooner,which rode over it easily, and it passed on towards the shore, washingright up again amongst the trees.
The men went to work with a will, getting ropes to the buoys, haulingupon them, and gradually working the schooner back, and mooring her inher old position; but it was a good hour later before the water was oncemore clear, and they gazed down upon quite a different scene from thatof the morning.
So effective had been the force of the explosion that sand, weeds, smallrocks and shingles, had been completely swept away, and lay at adistance, while the interior of the old wreck seemed to have beenscooped right out.
The most careful search with the eye, though, failed to show any tracesof that which they sought, and as evening was now fast drawing on, anyfurther investigations were left till the following day.
Dutch the Diver; Or, A Man's Mistake Page 19