Under the Waves: Diving in Deep Waters Part 7

"You are a diver, you say?"

"I am, sur."

"And Mr Baldwin's partner--if I understand you correctly?"

"Well, we work together--whin we're not workin' apart--pritty regular.

He took in hand to train me some months gone by, an' as our two missusses has took a fancy to aich other, we're likely to hold on for some time--barrin' accidents, av coorse."

"Well, then," said Mr Hazlit, "I came to see Mr Baldwin about a vessel of mine, which was wrecked a few days ago on the coast of Wales--"

"Och! The _Seagull_ it is," exclaimed Rooney.

"The same; and as it is a matter of importance that I should have the wreck visited without delay, I shall be obliged by your sending your partner to my house this evening."

Rooney promised to send Baldwin up, and took his wife Molly to witness, with much solemnity, that he would not lose a single minute. Thereafter the conversation became general, and at last the merchant left the place much shaken in his previous opinion of Irish character, and deeply impressed with the sagacity of Rooney Machowl.

The result of this visit was that Baldwin was engaged to dive for the cargo of the _Seagull_, and found himself, a few days later, busy at work on the Welsh coast with a staff of men under him, among whom were our friends Rooney Machowl and surly David Maxwell. The latter had at first declined to have anything to do with the job, but, on consideration of the wages, he changed his mind.

CHAPTER FIVE.

TREATS OF PLOTS AND PLANS, ENGINEERING AND OTHERWISE.

The spot where the wreck of the _Seagull_ lay was a peaceful sequestered cove or bay on the coast of Anglesea. The general aspect of the neighbouring land was bleak. There were no trees, and few bushes.

Indeed, the spire of a solitary little church on an adjoining hill was the most prominent object in the scene. The parsonage belonging to it was concealed by a rise in the ground, and the very small hamlet connected with it was hid like a rabbit in the clefts of some rugged cliffs. The little church was one of those temples which are meant to meet the wants of a rural district, and which cause a feeling of surprise in the minds of town visitors as to where the congregation can come from that fills them.

But, bleak though the country was, the immediate sh.o.r.e was interesting and romantic in its form. In one place perpendicular cliffs, cut up by ragged gorges, descended sheer down into deep water, and meeting the constant roll of the Irish Channel, even in calm weather, fringed themselves with lace-work of foam, as if in cool defiance of the ocean.

In another place a ma.s.s of boulders and shattered rocks stretched out into the sea as if still resistant though for the time subdued.

Elsewhere a half-moon of yellow sand received the ripples with a kiss, suggestive of utter conquest and the end of strife.

As we have said, the spot was peaceful, for, at the time to which we refer, ocean and air were still, but ah! Those who have not dwelt near the great deep and beheld its fury when roused can form but a faint conception of the scene that occurred there on the night in which the _Seagull_ went down!

Mr Hazlit thought of the place as something like the region of a "bad debt,"--where a portion of his wealth had been wrecked. Some knew it as the hated spot where they had suffered the loss of all their fortune; but others there were, who, untouched by the thought of material gain or loss, knew it as the scene of the wreck of all their earthly hopes--for the _Seagull_ had been a pa.s.senger-s.h.i.+p, and in that quiet bay G.o.d in His providence had dealt some of the most awful blows that human beings are capable of bearing.

Close to a bald cliff on the northern sh.o.r.e the foretopmast of the wreck rose a few feet above the calm water. In a cove of the cliff the remains of a mast or yard lay parallel with a deep and thick ma.s.s of wreckage, which had surged out and into that cove on the fatal night with such violence that it now lay in small pieces, like giant matchwood. On a patch of gravel not far from that cliff a husband and father had wandered for many days, after being saved--he knew not how-- gazing wistfully, hopelessly at the sea which had swallowed up wife and children and fortune. He had been a "successful" gold-digger! On that patch of gravel scenes of terrible suspense had been enacted. Expectant ones had come to inquire whether those whom they sought had _really_ embarked in that vessel, while grave and sympathetic but worn-out or weary men of the Coast-guard, stood ready to give information or to defend the wreck.

In the church on the hill there were dreadful marks on the floor, where the recovered bodies had lain for a time, while frantic relations came and went day by day to search for and claim their dead. Ah, reader, we are not mocking you with fiction. What we refer to is fact. We saw it with our eyes. Peaceful though that spot looked--and often looks--it was once the scene of the wildest of storms, the most terrible of mercantile disasters, and the deepest of human woe.

But we are mingling thoughts with memories. The wreck which has crept into our mind is that of the _Royal Charter_. The _Seagull_, although a pa.s.senger-s.h.i.+p, and wrecked near the same region, does not resemble _that_!

At the time of which we write, Joe Baldwin and his men had already saved a considerable portion of the cargo, but during his submarine explorations and meditations Joe had conceived the idea that there was some possibility of saving the vessel itself, for, having recoiled from its first shock and sunk in deep water, the hull was comparatively uninjured.

But Joe, although a good diver, was not a practical engineer. He knew himself to be not a very good judge of such matters, and was too modest to suggest anything to competent submarine engineers. He could not, however, help casting the thing about in his mind for some time. At last, one evening while reading a newspaper that had been got from a pa.s.sing boat, he observed the return of the s.h.i.+p in which his young friend Edgar Berrington had gone to India. At once he wrote the following letter:--

"My dear Mister Edgar,--I'm in a fix here. It's my opinion there's a chance of savin' a wreck if only good brains was set to work to do it.

It would pay if we was to succeed. If you happen to be on the loose just now, as is likely, run over an' see what you think of it.--Yours to command,

"J.B."

Our hero received the letter, at once acted on it, and in a few days was on the spot.

"What a change there is in you, my dear sir!" said Joe, looking with admiration at the browned, stalwart youth before him; "why, you've grown moustaches!"

"I couldn't help it, Joe," replied Edgar; "they _would_ come, and I had no time to shave on board.--But now, tell me about this wreck."

When Edgar heard that the vessel belonged to Mr Hazlit his first impulse was to have nothing to do with it. He felt that any interference in regard to it would seem like a desire to thrust himself before the merchant's notice--and that, too, in a needy manner, as if he sought employment at his hands; but on consideration he came to the conclusion that he might act as a wire-puller, give Baldwin the benefit of his knowledge, and allow him to reap the credit and the emoluments.

But for a long time the honest diver would not listen to such a suggestion, and was only constrained to give in at last when Edgar threatened to leave him altogether.

"By the way, have you seen Miss Aileen since you came home?" asked Baldwin, while the two friends were seated in the cabin of the diver's vessel poring, pencil in hand, over several sheets of paper on which were sundry mysterious designs.

"No; I was on the point of paying a visit to my good aunt Miss Pritty, with ulterior ends in view, when your letter reached me and brought me here. To say truth, your note arrived very opportunely, for I was engaged at the time in rather a hard struggle between inclination and duty--not feeling quite sure whether it was right or wise to throw myself in her way just now, for, as you may easily believe, I have not, during my comparatively short absence, made a fortune that is at all likely to satisfy the requirements of her father."

"I suppose not," returned the diver. "No doubt, at gold-diggin's an'

diamond-fields an' such-like one does hear of a man makin' a find that enables him to set up his carriage an' four, and ride, mayhap at a tremendous pace, straight on to ruin by means of it, but as a rule people don't pick up sovereigns like stones either at home or abroad.

It's the experience of most men, that steady perseverance leads by the shortest road to competence, if not to wealth.--But that's beside the question. I think you did right, Mister Eddy--excuse an old servant, sir, if it's taking too much liberty to use the old familiar name,--you did right in coming here instead of going there."

"So thought I, Baldy--you see that I too can take liberties,--else I should not have come. Your letter solved the difficulty, for, when I was at the very height of the struggle before mentioned--at equipoise so to speak,--and knew not whether to go to the right or to the left, _that_ decided me. I regarded it as a leading of Providence."

Baldwin turned a rather sudden look of surprise on his young companion.

"A leading of Providence, Mr Eddy! I never heard you use such an expression before."

"True, but I have learned to use it since I went to sea," replied our hero quietly.

"That's strange," rejoined the diver in a low voice, as if he feared to scare the young man from a subject that was very near his own heart, "very strange, for goin' to sea has not often the effect of makin'

careless young fellows serious--though it sometimes has, no doubt. How was it, if I--"

"Yes, Baldy," interrupted Edgar, with a pleasant smile, laying his hand on the diver's huge shoulder, "I don't mind making a confidant of you in this as in other matters. I'll tell you,--the story is short enough.

When I parted from Aileen, she made me a present of a New Testament from a pile that she happened to have by her to give to the poor people. To be more particular, I asked for one, and she consented to let me have it. You see I wanted a keepsake! Well, when at sea, I read the Testament regularly, night and morning, for Aileen's sake, but G.o.d in His great love led me at last to read it for the sake of Him whose blessed life and death it records."

"Then you've fairly hauled down the enemy's colours and hoisted those of the Lord?" asked Baldwin.

"I have been led to do so," replied the youth modestly but firmly.

"Bless the Lord!" said the diver in a low tone as he grasped Edgar's hand, while he bowed his head for a moment.

Presently he looked up, and seemed about to resume the subject of conversation when Edgar interrupted him--

"Have you seen or heard anything of Aileen since I left?"

"Nothing, except that she's been somewhat out of sorts, and her father has sent her up to London for a change."

"Has he gone to London with her?"

"No, I believe not; he's taken up a good deal wi' the cargo o' this s.h.i.+p, and comes down to see us now and then, but for the most part he remains at home attendin' to business."

"Have you spoken to him about raising the hull of the s.h.i.+p?"