et awhile. With the
specie that would make the temptation still snugly stored on the
sea-floor, the dirty, untidy Italians were still all affability. Indeed,
as soon as he appeared, Tazzuchi himself stepped down off the upper
bridge to give him the news.

"How do you think those crafty imps have managed it?" he cried, with a
gesture. "Why they dived down and cut off her masts below water level.
The funnel was out of sight already. They just thought they were going
to have the skimming of that wreck themselves. No wonder we couldn't
pick her up."

"Cute beggars," said Kettle.

"I've bagged a pilot. If he takes us there straight, he gets backsheesh.
If he doesn't, he eats more stick. I think," said Captain Tazzuchi, with
a wide smile, "that he'll take us there the quickest road."

"Shouldn't wonder," said Kettle. "But don't be surprised if his friends
come round and make things ugly. When those Red Sea niggers get their
fingers in a wreck, they think's it's their wreck."

"Let them come. We were ready for this sort of entertainment when we
sailed, and there are plenty of rifles and cartridges in the cabin. If
there is any trouble, we shall shoot; and if we begin that game, we
shall just imagine they are Abyssinians, and shoot to kill. The Italians
have a big bill to pay with those jokers, anyway." He tapped Kettle on
the shoulder. "And look at those two brass signal guns, Captain. If we
break up some firebars for shot, they'll smash the side of any dhow in
the Red Sea."

Under the black captive's guidance, the salvage steamer soon put a term
to her search. For two more hours she threaded her way among surf which
broke over unseen reefs, and swung round the capes of a rocky
archipelago, and then the pilot gave his word and the engines were
stopped and a rusty cable roared out till an anchor got its hold of the
ground. A boat was lowered with air-pump already stepped amidships, and
the boat's crew with eager hands assisted the diver to make his toilet.

"You chaps seem keen enough," said Kettle, as he watched the trail of
air bubbles which showed the man's progress on the sea floor below.

"They have each got a stake in the venture."

"I bet they have," was Kettle's grim comment to himself.

The kidnapped skipper of the dhow, it seemed, had done his pilotage with
a fine accuracy. The salvage steamer had been anchored in a good
position, and between them two divers in two boats found the _Grecian's_
wreck in half