John Gaythers Garden and the Stories Told Therein | Page 8

waiting to hear what I had to tell. They had stopped work for
dinner, and that is the reason I had been signalled.
"But I didn't say anything to anybody. As soon as my helmet was
unscrewed and I was out of my diving-suit I went below with the
captain; and although the stock-broker followed us close and nearly
pushed himself into the cabin, we shut the door on him and kept him
out. Then I told the captain everything, and I showed him the three gold
coins, which I had kept all the time tightly clinched in my right hand. I
can tell you the eyes of both of us were wide open when we looked at
those coins. Two of them were dated sixteen hundred and something,
and one of them fifteen hundred. They were big fellows, worth about
ten dollars apiece. The captain took them and locked them up.
"'Now,' said he, 'do you think you will be able to go down again to-day?
If you want to see what's in the other ship you've got to be lively about
it, for I think we can get the brig pumped out in twenty-four hours; and
if a stiff breeze should spring up to-morrow afternoon--and I am
inclined to think it will--we don't want to be caught here. If the other
ship's a treasure-ship,' he went on to say, 'you know it would be a good
deal better for our company; and so it might be well to find out.'
"I didn't need any spurring to make me go down again, for I was all on
fire to know what was on board the other ship, which I was sure was
English, having had a good opportunity of looking at it while I was
down there.

"So as soon as I had taken a rest and had had my dinner, I went on deck
to get ready for another diving expedition. There was the stock-broker,
watching me like a snake watching a bird. He didn't stamp around and
ask any more questions: he just kept his venomous eye on me as if he
would like to kill me because I knew more than he did. But I didn't
concern myself about him, and down I went, and this time I got myself
aboard the English vessel just as soon as I could.
"It wasn't as interesting as the old Spanish vessel, but still I saw enough
to fill up a book if I had time to tell it. There were more signs of
fighting than there had been on the other ship. Muskets and swords
were scattered about everywhere, and, although she was plainly a
merchant-vessel, she had a lot of the small cannon used in those days.
"I looked about a great deal, and it struck me that she had been a
merchantman trading with the West Indies, but glad enough to fight a
Spanish treasure-ship if she happened to come across one. It was more
than likely that her crew had been a regular set of half-buccaneers,
willing to trade if there was trade, and fight if there was any fighting on
hand. Anyway, the two vessels had had a tough time of it, and each of
them had met her match. I could see the grappling-irons which had
fastened them together. They had blown so many holes in each other's
sides that they had gone to the bottom as peaceably as a pair of twins
holding each other by the hands.
"I worked hard on that English ship, and I went everywhere where I
dared to go, but I couldn't find any signs that she had carried treasure. I
hadn't the least doubt that she was on an outward voyage, and that the
Spaniard was homeward bound.
"At last I got down into the hold, and there I found a great number of
big hogsheads, that were packed in so well under the deck that they had
never moved in all these years. Of course I wanted to know what was in
them, for, although it would not be gold or silver, it might be something
almost as precious if it happened to be spirits of the olden time.
"After banging and working for some time I got out the bung of one of
these hogsheads, and immediately air began to bubble up, and I could

hear the water running in. It was plain the hogshead was empty, and I
clapped the bung in again as quick as I could. I wasn't accustomed to
sounding barrels or hogsheads under water, but as I knew this was an
empty one I sounded it with my hatchet; and then I went around and
got the same kind of a sound from each of the others that I hammered
on.