Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 3, 2025
Out into the river they sailed, Eva at the wheel, while Locke busied himself over the sputtering engine. Soon they arrived at a spot which was suitable for the test of the suit. Locke had brought along the full equipment, and, while Eva took charge of the air-pump, Locke donned the diving-suit. Soon all was ready and Locke descended over the side, after carefully instructing Eva in each detail.
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.
By means of a trap door in the diving compartment through the bottom of the boat a man fitted with a diving-suit could go out and explore a wreck or examine the bottom almost as easily as a man goes out of his front door to call for an "extra." It will be thought at once, "But the water will rush in when the trap door is opened."
At such a juncture, a man in a dripping diving-suit entered and pulled off his helmet, after what had evidently been a hasty trip from the land through the entrance and up again into the harbor. As he approached, Del Mar saw that the man's hand was bound up. "What's the matter?" demanded Del Mar. "How did you get that?"
It was reserved for Phips himself to make the grand discovery. He donned a diving-suit and went below to the sunken galleon. Silver and gold had been found, but he was sure there were other treasures. After much searching he found, in a secret place of the captain's cabin, a chest which, on being raised and broken open, was found stocked with pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones.
Strange to say, it had been the self-liberating diving-suit and the rival company was the Under Seas Company. All this took place some time after the disappearance of the Automaton and his precious crew. Some hours later that evening a telephone message came for Locke from the boatman that the diving-suit had been recovered and was being held by him.
The tide was setting in strongly and at times it was with difficulty that he kept his feet. He had become satisfied that this particular suit filled all the requirements of a first-class diving-suit, and he was about to try its special, self-liberating feature, when his attention was arrested by a vague mass which seemingly moved against the current.
Murmurs of anger and anxiety rose from the men as Del Mar related briefly between orders what had just happened. Immediately there was a general scramble to make ready for the escape. In the corner of the office, Elaine, again in her skirt and shirtwaist which the diving-suit had protected, sat open-eyed watching the preparations of the men for the hasty departure.
And the last thing I heard as I went under the water was the stock-broker howling and yelling and rampaging around the deck. "As I told you before, miss, I had never been down in a diving-suit; but I paid the greatest attention to everything I knew, and I got down to the bottom all right, having a hard time to keep from being scratched to pieces by the barnacles on the sterns of the big ships.
He was slightly surprised at not finding the boatman there, but as that was no part of the agreement it engaged his attention for only a moment. He started to withdraw the money from his pocket, groping at the same time to see if the diving-suit was actually in the case.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking