the wiser!"

"Excellent!" exclaimed Milsom enthusiastically. "We will have the
lighters alongside to coal us to-morrow; and before they come along we
will hang tarpaulins all round the ship to keep the paint clean. Then,
while everybody is busy coaling, you and Macintyre can watch your
opportunity and slip over the side through the ash port. Gad! won't
those fellows be wrathy when their propeller parts company! They will
no doubt suspect us, but they cannot possibly prove anything."

On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, Milsom went
ashore and made arrangements for the immediate coaling of the yacht; and
while he was absent, Jack and Macintyre, the chief engineer, got out the
diving dresses and thoroughly overhauled them, charged the air cylinders
with densely-compressed air, and collected such tools as they expected
to require for their job. By the time that this had been done, Milsom
was back aboard the yacht, having made all his arrangements, including
one which was of considerable assistance to Jack and Macintyre. This
consisted of an arrangement to take the yacht directly alongside the
coal hulk, instead of coaling from lighters, and the advantage to the
conspirators arose from the fact that the particular hulk from which the
_Thetis_ was to coal lay within a short hundred yards of the spot where
the Spanish torpedo boat rode at anchor. Then a number of tarpaulins
were got up on deck and hung over the ship's sides, fore and aft,
covering the hull from the bulwark rail right down to the surface of the
water, to protect the white paint from defilement by flying coal dust;
and, this having been done, the yacht was taken alongside the coal hulk,
and the process of coaling the vessel at once began under the joint
supervision of Milsom and the second engineer, the skipper being
especially particular in the arranging of the fenders between the hulls
of the two craft. So fastidiously careful was he, indeed, in this
matter, that he finally caused two booms to be rigged out, one forward
and one aft, to bear the yacht off from the side of the hulk, with the
result that there was a clear space of fully two feet between the sides
of the two craft. And, to facilitate as much as possible the process of
coaling, Milsom caused a broad gangway, nearly six feet wide, to be
rigged between the two vessels, so that the porters might pass to and
fro freely without obstructing each other. And, singularly enough