of the missile that the eye could trace it. So short was
its journey, and so curved its trajectory, that it came very near to
hitting one of the boats of the divers, and the men working there cried
out in derision that they would catch cold by being wetted by the spray.

"Well," thought Kettle, "these are pretty cool hands for Dagos, anyway.
I'm going to have a fine tough time of it when my part of the
scuffle comes."

That night he had a still further taste of their quality. So soon as
darkness fell, the dhows closed in again and recommenced their sniping.
They kept under weigh, and so it did little enough good to aim back at
the flashes. But Tazzuchi, with half a dozen keen spirits, got down into
one of the boats with their rifles and knives, and a drum of paraffin,
and pulled away silently into the blackness.

There was silence for quite half an hour, and the suspense on the
anchored steamer was vivid enough to have shaken trained men. Yet these
Italian artificers and merchant seamen seemed to take it as coolly as
though such sorties were an everyday occurrence. But at the end of that
time there was a splutter of shots, a few faint squeals, and then a
bonfire lighted up away in the darkness.

The blaze grew rapidly, and showed in its heart the outline of a dhow
with human figures on it. With promptness every man on the steamer
emptied his rifle at the mark, and continued the fusillade till the dhow
was deserted. They had all done their spell of military service, and
they chose to decide that these snipers were Abyssinians, and did their
best toward squaring the national accounts.

Tazzuchi and his friends returned in the boat, safe and jubilant, and
for the rest of that night the little salvage steamer was left in
quietude. With the next daybreak the divers and their attendants once
more applied themselves to labor. Kettle, as he watched, was amazed to
see the energy they put into it. Certainly they seemed keen enough to
get the specie weighed, and on board. Whatever piratical plans they had
got made up were evidently for afterward.

But when day after day passed, and still none of the treasure was
brought to the surface, he began to modify this original opinion.
Tazzuchi--translating the divers' reports--said that the cause of the
delay was the softness of the sea-floor. The heavy chests had sunk deep
into the ooze, and directly a spadeful of the horrible slime was dug
away, more slid in to fill the gap. Of co