Part 17

Journegan remembered Smart very well indeed. He looked at him a moment askance, for he had set out to do up the captain that night in Key West, and would have succeeded but for the interference of the giant mate. He, however, saw the point at once and never alluded to the past, but grasped Smart's hand with vigour and assured him that of all people in the world he was most glad to see the captain doing so well. Smart eyed him coldly, but waited for events to shape themselves, knowing full well that the Conch was not there for idle pastime, but had some ultimate purpose in view which was probably of importance.

Journegan was not long in getting down to business. He had plenty of time, but the anxiety of his accomplice caused him to hurry matters and settle the affair at once.

"I want to get a good diver, Bill," said he, finally. "I want a man who will work for twenty dollars an hour in shallow water. Yes, I want a man who can work at a little depth of six or seven feet and do what he's told without asking questions--do you know of any one?"

"Yep, there's Sam--he kin work at that depth, an' I reckon he'll do it for twenty an hour, an' not squeal," said the mate of the _Sea-Horse_, his ugly face wrinkling into a strange smile and his rheumy eyes turning slowly upon Journegan, fixing him with a curious squinting look which seemed to go clear through him.

"Don't you think you could do the trick for me?" asked Journegan pointedly.

"Nix, not fo' dat little money. Why, man, we're just waitin' fo' a few thousand dollars on some ammunition we salved from the wreck ob de _Bulldog_, brig--out on de Bank two weeks ago. No, if yo' kin pay a man's wages I might get toe work fo' yo', but don't come around heah, Mr. Journegan, with them clothes on an' ask me, me, Bahama Bill, toe work fo' nothin'--Nix, I say nix--don't keep up de conversation--I don't want toe hear no mo'."

The mate of the _Sea-Horse_ had received a lesson in regard to pay only a short time before from Smart when they had been chartered by a stranger. He was not slow to learn, and he knew that if Journegan would pay twenty dollars an hour he would pay a hundred--if he had it. There must be some necessity for urgent work--some work perhaps upon the gold plant down the bay which needed repair at once, or there might be a corresponding loss of metal. He had heard of the outfit, and had laughed when he found out it was Stormalong Journegan who was mixed up in it. The name of the chemist was unknown to him, but he thought it might well be that the Northerner had really found something worth working.

"I'll make it fifty an hour--only working one hour a night--how's that?" asked Journegan. "Work one hour and do as you're told and you get fifty--get the money in advance--what?"

"Yo' make me tired, Stormy. I knows yo' fo' a good business man, I seen dat at de Cayo Huesso, but don't come abo'd heah an' begin fool talk. Cap'n Smart heah is my partner, jest now,--he wouldn't let me work fo' dat price." And the big mate rose as though to go below.

Smart looked at Journegan with a cold eye. He knew the fellow, but he knew also that they were both dead broke, that their money from the salved cargo was no nearer than it had been the day they arrived in port. It might be a month or two before they received anything on their diving. The ammunition had to be tested and there was no use hurrying matters. That it would be good, there was not the least doubt, but it had been in the hold of the brig completely submerged for some time, so long in fact that it had been abandoned by the first wrecking crew, composed of the _Sea-Horse_ men and the steam tug from Key West. Yes, fifty dollars an hour might get something to eat while they waited the leisure of the agents of the ammunition house buying the stuff. Fifty dollars was good pay, and he knew he could not afford to let the mate pass it for any personal matter that might exist between himself and Journegan. He watched the pair steadily and when Bahama Bill showed signs of giving it up he spoke out.

"Better take it on, Bill," he said, as the giant stretched himself at the companionway. "I know you're worth more'n that to Mr. Journegan, but I think you might take it on for a few days."

"De hell yo' do," quoth the mate, glaring at him.

"I'll make it seventy-five," said Journegan, "that's as high as I'll go."

"Well, so long as Cap'n Smart say do it, I'll jest take it on dat figure," said the mate. "What's de lay?"

"The process of extracting gold from sea-water is a secret one, my dear Bill," said Mr. Journegan. "I really don't quite know the manner of doing it myself. You will come up to the hotel in about an hour and a half, or before sundown, and Mr. Smithe, the chemist, the brains of the plant, will give you your instructions. You had better come alone, and before you make the deal I want you, of course, to promise that you will not tell of anything--not a thing you see in the plant--understand. The process is patented, but if every one knew it there would be no reason in the world why anybody couldn't get money the same way."

"Dat seems fair enough," assented Bill. "Ob co'se I kin see somethings dere, but I promise not toe tell de neighbours--yep, it goes at dat--I'll be up toe de swell shack befo' dark--so-long."

Mr. Journegan stepped into the small boat and a moment later was walking leisurely up the road to his rooms at the hotel. He could count on the success of Mr. Smithe's scheme to a certainty and the knowledge gave him much pleasure. It had been quite easy, only that shark of the reef, Bahama Bill, had robbed him. He cursed the avaricious mate, cursed him freely and fluently for his greed, but in the end he laughed, for was not the gold plant to be a great success. Bah, a few hundred dollars one way or the other was not to be considered. He and his partner had enough for a few days yet, and by then they would be rich men. He made his way to the rooms of Mr. Smithe, knocked at the door and was confronted with a six-shooter held in that brainy gentleman's hand.

"Aw, gwan--put it up," said Journegan.

Mr. Smithe quickly did so. The knock had aroused him from pleasant reveries to an acute appreciation of the present. He saw the form of the marshal at his door and with trembling fingers he seized his gun for a last stand. It had been something of a relief to find his accomplice standing there with a complacent smile upon his face, his long six feet three of skin and bone fairly shaking with laughter.

Journegan entered unbidden and quickly closed the door.

"It's all right, Bo, the deed is done. I have the means at hand. They will be here shortly. Let's have a drink?" he said.

Mr. Smithe acquiesced, and over the liquor the plan was gone over to the mutual satisfaction of both.

"Gad, but you're not so bad, Mr. Journegan," said the brainy Smithe. "You have executive ability to a marked degree. You have imagination, a thoughtful mind--oh, if it had only been trained in its youth--"

"Skin it, Bo," said Journegan, "don't make me feel badly. I have seen things in my day, things just as instructive as anything you get out of text-books, even chemistry. Have another drink. My man will be here very soon. Don't go around packing that light artillery. It won't do if we're caught up suddenly. What would the Muldoons think if they found us going around this peaceful hostelry armed with Gatlings of forty-five calibre. No, put on your best duds and come away. We've won--mark what I say--we've won. I have the best diver on the Great Bahama Bank to do the trick, the best and biggest man on the reef--see. It's all right. Now, then, I hear his gentle footsteps on the veranda and I think we had better get him in here without delay--what?"

Half an hour later the mate of the _Sea-Horse_ emerged from the room with a faint smile upon his ugly face. He strode forth quickly and made his way to the water-front, getting into a small boat waiting for him and starting down the bay in the direction of the gold plant.

It was about eight in the evening, after supper at the hotel, that the party set out in a gasoline launch for the dock where the gold plant was located. The evening was fine and the western sky still showed the last faint tints of the setting sun. Darkness came apace and the cool sea-breeze made the ride very pleasant, the boat rushing through the water leaving a long, bright wake, flaring here and there with phosphorescence where the screw turned the water and sent it whirling astern. By the time they reached the dock it was quite dark, so dark in fact that the shadow of the wharf loomed dimly above the tide. The launch was made fast at the steps and the party climbed up into the enclosure.

"It is an ideal evening for our work," said Mr. Smithe to Mr. Jackson. "The tide is right and there seems to be no sea, no extraordinary commotion which might interfere with the chemical result. It is generally best to work on calm nights, but the process will obtain under each and every condition the weather permits. Allow me to light up." So saying he switched on the electric lights and the enclosure lit up dimly.

"Seems like you might have had a few more lamps," said Mr. Jones a little testily. "It'll be hard to see anything with just two sixteen-candle bulbs."

"I shall have that attended to at once," said Mr. Journegan. "You see we have been so busy with the results that we seldom miss the lights to any extent. The same current that lights up the place is used for forming the precipitate upon the wire--the gold precipitate, you understand."

"Well, let her commence," said Mr. Jackson, a little unfavourably impressed at the stillness and peculiar surroundings of the outfit. "I'll sit here on this box and wait--I hope it won't be long, but I must say that if you men can do this thing, you certainly can do something no one else has ever attempted in history--mind you, I don't say you won't do it, but I say commence, I want to see with my own eyes."

Mr. Smithe, with great deliberation and some complex manoeuvring, took up a wire and wrapped it in a cloth. He then fastened it with a small piece of copper wire and dipped the whole into a strong solution of something that had a most offensive odour.

"You see, gentlemen," said he, "the contents of this basin,"--here he pointed to the mixture which had such a terrific odour. "This is the secret part of the whole process, it produces the electrolysis which causes the gold to form upon the positive pole of the current. I shall now toss it overboard and we will await results."

He threw the wire over the edge of the enclosure and it disappeared at once in the black depths below. The white cloth tied to the end still showed faintly at a depth of six feet below the surface.

"I now shall start the current," he said, and taking up a hammer he struck savagely upon the flooring of the dock several time. There was a faint sound from shoreward, the sound of a gentle splashing, but this soon subsided. Suddenly a commotion in the water below attracted the attention of Mr. Jones. A large fish appeared to break water at the entrance of the enclosure. Then it disappeared, and Mr. Journegan remarked that the small sharks of the reef were most numerous at this season.

Mr. Smithe watched the surface of the water carefully. A huge dark shadow glided beneath him towards the end of the wire which held the white cloth.

"I must have more current," he called petulantly to Mr. Journegan, "give me more current for a few minutes, this wire is cold."

For answer Journegan switched off the lights for few seconds. Mr. Jones and Mr. Jackson watched the water steadily, but nothing broke its now black surface.

"It's getting warm now," called Mr. Smithe, and on the instant Journegan switched on the lights again. They all sat there for some minutes awaiting the result but the water gave no token save that now the cloth had disappeared from the end of the wire and as the minutes dragged by Mr. Smithe called attention to this fact.

"You see, it has begun to work," he called, pointing below at the invisible wire. "In a moment I shall pull it up--a few dollars worth of metal is all we need wait for to-night. I have an engagement at the Casino at ten."

Suddenly he pulled up the wire. Upon its end, fixed fast and apparently imbedded, was a small mass of a peculiar metal, bright, shiny and unmistakably gold. Yes, he had done it. He had made the sea give up its own. There it was, gold, pure gold in an ingot Worth about forty dollars. The astounded Mr. Jones gazed in wonder. The skeptical Mr. Jackson let his eyes open wide. It was certainly the wonder of the era. It was tremendous.

"You can take this specimen and have it assayed," said Mr. Smithe, handing the nugget to Mr. Jackson; "you can return it at your convenience."

When Mr. Smithe struck the blows with the hammer, thereby causing the current to flow, it roused Bahama Bill from his drowsing in the bottom of a small boat close to the shore. He grinned and arose. He had been told just what to do and paid heavily for keeping his mouth shut about doing it. It was none of his business why they did these things, it was his business to dive for money, no matter what the affair. He was well paid and he saw no reason why he should not take the money. A man of more refined mind would have possibly refused the work, but Bahama Bill was brought up in the school where it was necessary to live, necessary to have the means to live without going too far outside the rules of the game. It was Journegan's business to make gold out of sea-water. It was his to do a bit of diving for him and perform certain feats which might or might not affect the pockets of the gentlemen now waiting to see the result. There were so many questionable ways of separating folks from their coin that he was amused at the graft of these two. At the gambling house kept by the pious and strict manager of the hotel, there were many ways of separating folks from their cash. It had the sanction of the "Boss"--that was the only difference he could see in the matter. He was a plain wrecker, a man who made his living from the misfortunes of others. Yet it was a legitimate business, and he generally played fair. He was simply a big, powerful man, a giant diver of the Bank. He dropped his trousers and stood forth naked in the darkness as the last banging of the hammer died away. It was the signal agreed upon and without a moment's hesitation he made a long clean dive into the dark water. Coming to the surface he swam quickly and noiselessly toward the end of the dock where the gate, or opening in the piling, would allow him to get within the enclosure. He was a little doubtful of finding the end of the wire, as he had been instructed to, but he thought the white cloth might make it visible, for the water was very clear.

He never fancied swimming at night over the coral banks, for there were always many denizens of the ocean that came in and either rested or fed during the hours of darkness. Many a big shark lay log-wise in the waters of the reef during the night, waiting for a rush upon the feeding mullet or other small fry. He had found sharks always dangerous at this season of the year, and he was now without even a knife. However, he managed to reach opposite the opening without mishap. Then he floated silently and took a few deep breaths for the work in hand.

He could hear the voices of the men within the enclosure and he heard Mr. Smithe announce that the wire was ready. He was just about to dive when a disturbance in the sea close to him made him hesitate and turn. A triangular fin cut the surface not two fathoms distant. It was that of a gigantic shark. Instantly the diver went under and strove with mighty strokes to gain the opening in the piling. He felt instinctively that the monster would follow him, but it was the nearest place of refuge. Guided solely by memory of direction, he fairly tore through the water, struck the opening with his hand and with a mighty effort swung himself within, remaining under and shooting ahead with the momentum of his flight. A commotion, a sweep of a strong current at the gate told of a passing heavy body, but nothing touched him. He could not hold his breath much longer on account of the sudden effort, and he was sworn not to come to the surface within the piles. It was at this moment that Mr. Smithe, seeing something of what had occurred by the shadows beneath the surface, called for more electricity, and Journegan with his rare presence of mind switched off the lights. Bahama Bill came to the surface gently, and had it not been for the noisy conversation of Smithe, his deep breathing would surely have made his presence known to all. As it was he lay upon his back, close within the shadow of the piling and just let his nose come into the air. In a few moments he had regained his wind and sank downward to the end of the wire. Then Mr. Smithe switched on the light and announced that the wire was warm. It was a close call, close in more ways than one, but the mate had made good, he had done his part. He saw the white cloth without difficulty and attached the piece of gold. Then he fled for the open with a courage which might have called forth the admiration of the watchers had they known his danger.

Once clear, he swam silently and with all his strength for the small boat. The feeling that something was pursuing him kept him nerved to the utmost. He fairly tore through the sea, but only raised his head every twenty to thirty feet to breathe. He swam almost all the way under water. This he knew was the safest, for the predatory denizens of the coral banks depend as much on hearing, or a sense akin to it, as on sight. The feeling that something still followed drove him along at his top speed, but he could see nothing, know nothing of its shape or form. It was just the instinctive fear, or nerve straining one feels in the dark where danger lurks. He gained the small boat quickly and at that instant a great shadow swept past leaving a trail of phosphorescent fire in its wake.

"If you gentlemen are satisfied, we will now go back to the hotel," said Mr. Smithe with his most urbane manner. "If at any other time you would like a renewal of the test, we shall be only too glad to give it, provided of course, neither you nor your guests talk of the process and thus set curious people at work to find out our secret."

Amid murmurs of approval and congratulations, the party broke up and started back in the launch, Mr. Journegan especially active in getting away from the dock and explaining vehemently the reason that the extraction had not been made before was that it took a man with brains and one with executive ability to work a thing like that together, to a successful conclusion.

Before twenty-four hours had elapsed there had been a company formed with Mr. Smithe at its head, and there had been twenty-five thousand dollars in ready cash put at its disposal in the town bank for the purpose of carrying on the experiments and continuing the production of gold from the waters of the Bay of Biscayne.

Twice during the week following the experiment was repeated with equal success. The cloth disappeared from the wire and the gold was found upon the pole. It was astounding, but there was no way of contradicting the evidence of the senses. There was the gold. That was enough for many--gold, gold, gold. The thing took like wild-fire. The news was spread broadcast, and Bahama Bill sat in the mornings reading the papers with a grin of derision upon his big ugly face.

"Of course, it's none of my business," said Smart, "but if you're wise you'll not go into any crooked game. It's all well enough to repair their outfit, but if you're in anything crooked, you're not playing fair with me."

"Yo' wanted me toe go into it," growled the mate.

"I dun promised not to gib way nuthin'--fo' a big stake. Yous livin' high on fresh beef and good whack, Sam and Heldron is paid off and everythin' seems all right 'Tain't none of mah business what those fellows do--I'm jest doin' what I agreed to--jest divin'--divin'--see."

"Better quit it when you've got enough to lay by with until we make our deal," said Smart. "Of course you can't tell me what you do, what your lay is down at the plant?"

"I dun passed mah word," said Bahama Bill gravely. "I ain't playin' straight, but I dun passed mah word--"

"Could you give an exhibition of the part you play?" asked the sailor.

The big mate thought a moment. He did not seem to like the idea, it was not fair according to his standpoint of honour. He had his limitations, but he generally did what he said he would. At the same time he knew he was getting into a game which would cause him trouble in the end if he did not get out quickly. The thing was too good to last.

"Yep,--I--might," he finally said, grinning.

"I'll get some of the gentlemen down to the plant in the small boat and let them see, for I for one don't take much stock in that fellow who tried to skin me in his barroom to the southward," said Smart.

"Git 'em any time yo' see fit--I'll do the part I generally does," said the mate.

Smart dressed and went to the hotel. It was afternoon and the two partners in the gold plant were at the tables playing heavily. They were somewhat at ease as to their finances, for the thing was a veritable gold mine in fact. They knew nothing of the departure of Mr. Jones and Mr. Jackson in company with Smart and Bahama Bill, rowing down the shore in the small boat of the _Sea-Horse_. Reaching the dock, Smart had little difficulty in effecting a landing at the enclosure and of making an entrance. There was no lock upon the door, for there was nothing to secure, and the four men were soon within the sacred precincts of the gold plant.

"Which is the wire?" asked Smart of Mr. Jones. The gentleman explained.

"Was there anything on it?" he asked.

Mr. Jones said there was something like a bit of cloth. Smart tied a piece to it.

"Now, Bill, do what you generally do," said the captain.

The big mate grinned. He was undecided as to whether he was acting fairly with those who had employed him. Then he sprang into the small boat and rowed away a short distance. The three within the place waited.

Suddenly Smart called attention to a shadow approaching under the surface of the water. It came quickly within the gate of the pound, and although it was deep below the surface all had no difficulty in recognizing the giant form of Bahama Bill. The great black diver swam quickly to the end of the wire, pulled off the cloth and attached something in its place, going away instantly with powerful strokes. He was within the enclosure but a minute altogether and as he went rapidly through the water-gate into the open bay, he broke the surface just a little with one huge ham-like foot.

"As a swimming feat, that was the best exhibition I ever saw," said Jones to his friend. "In the night time it was wonderful. That white cloth was there for an excellent purpose, but even in that clear water it must have been hard to have picked it up to a certainty in the dark. I suppose the sooner we get the news to the marshal the better it will be for all hands. I for one am not very much ashamed of myself."

"Nor I," said Mr. Jackson.

"You will understand," said Smart, "that neither my mate nor myself had anything to do with the game further than to obey orders and accept pay for diving."

"You will neither be mentioned nor asked to appear--no matter what happens," assured Mr. Jones. "We will make this discovery ourselves. It is due us as intelligent men--eh?" he added to Mr. Jackson. That gentleman agreed with vigour.