"Wait a minute and you will, 'Pollo," said the captain, smiling.

"All ready now," said Mr Parkley. "Every one stand back."

The crew shrank away, some of the men, though, climbing the rigging to get a good view of the proceedings, and John Studwick being helped into a sure position in the main chains. Then one of the pieces of coa.r.s.e beef was taken and jerked out half-a-dozen yards from the ship.

As it struck the water and began to sink there was a rush and commotion as dark-grey forms and white streaks seemed to rise from below. The water bubbled and foamed, and the lump of beef was seized, torn asunder, and two huge sharks gorged the pieces, and then could be seen swimming backwards and forwards, and round and round, in company with others.

"Cut the next up into small bits, 'Pollo," said the captain, who was standing on the bulwarks, holding on by the main shrouds.

"Yes, sah, I cut um small and easy for ma.s.s' shark 'gestion," said 'Pollo grinning; and he cut the beef into pieces of the size of his fist with the large cook's knife he wore in a sheath at his belt.

As he pa.s.sed them up the captain threw them to the hungry sharks, each piece being snapped up by one or the other, as the monsters, not disdaining such morsels, turned half over and gorged each fragment as it fell.

No less than seven could now be counted, all evidently made more savage and eager by the taste of meat, and ready to leap out of the water as they glided one over the other in a s.p.a.ce not many yards square, where the water was still impregnated with the odour and juices of the beef.

"That will do for them now," cried Mr Parkley, mounting beside the captain with the lump of beef bound round the can in his lingers, holding it in one hand, whilst with the other he took a good grip of one of the rattlins.

"Are you ready, Pugh?"

"Yes," was the reply.

"Is the wire all clear for a run?"

"Yes, perfectly. Stand back, man," cried Dutch, as the mulatto stood eagerly watching what was done.

"Then I shall throw it into the midst of them, and when I cry _now_, make the connection--not before."

"I understand," said Dutch.

"One moment," said the captain; "will it endanger the ship?"

"No," said Mr Parkley, "because it will be too far away, and too deep.

It will rock her, of course."

"All right," said Captain Studwick, nodding his head; and, giving the beef a swing to and fro, Mr Parkley launched it through the air, so that it fell with a heavy splash some fifty feet from the schooner, and began to sink rapidly.

There was a tremendous swirl in the clear water directly, as the sharks dashed at it, going over one another like dogs in their eagerness to be first, for this was a piece of fourteen or fifteen pounds weight.

The next moment they were tearing at it, but baffled somewhat by the strong wire binding, while it sank rapidly, and the thin copper wire, that had fallen on the smooth surface like a line of light, ran rapidly over the side.

"_Now_," cried Mr Parkley loudly.

As the word left his lips, Dutch applied the other end of the wire to the galvanic battery, an invisible spark darted along the thin copper to the case of dynamite; there was a dull rumble; the ship shivered as if struck by some heavy blow; a column of water rose in the air and sank back; and the schooner rolled from side to side as a large wave lifted her, let her down, and then rushed onward over the rocks to the sh.o.r.e, running up the sands in a line of foam, and laving the trunks of the palms beyond the narrow strip.

The men clung to the bulwarks, looking startled, but seeing that the danger was over, they uttered a loud cheer, for as the water subsided the clear limpidity was gone--sand, blood, fragments of weed and flesh, all combined to make it murky; and, what set the men off cheering again, there were the bodies of the seven sharks, four of them in sc.r.a.ps, the other three apparently uninjured, but floating back downwards quite dead, and with the foul pieces gliding slowly off with the hardly perceptible current.

"Well, I confess, Dutch, I should never have thought of that," exclaimed Mr Parkley. "It was a good idea."

"So the men seem to think," said the captain, as a couple slipped down into the jolly-boat, and, sculling it about, secured about a couple of dozen large fish that had also been killed by the dynamite. "But that was too near the schooner for safety: a shock or two like that would shake the masts out of her hull."

"It was more powerful than I expected," said Dutch. "We will fire the next from the boat with a good length of wire, and the schooner must be fifty or a hundred yards away."

"But you will not fire another unless you are troubled with sharks?"

queried the captain.

"I intend to fire a canister exactly beneath where we stand," said Dutch, "so as to sweep away the growth and sand and shingle that have been acc.u.mulating for the last two hundred years. One of those charges will do more in an instant than the men could do under water in a week."

He raised his eyes as he spoke, and found that the mulatto was listening intently to every word, but with his eyes half-closed and a bitter look upon his face.

By this time the water was fast growing clear, and the change beneath the schooner was remarkable. The canister of dynamite must have sunk nearly to the bottom before it was exploded, and so great was the lateral sweep of the concussion that the seaweed seemed to have been levelled down in one direction, like a plantation after the pa.s.sage of a hurricane; and grim and stark stood up now a series of dark stumps, the relics of the timbers of the ill-fated Spanish galleon, if such it really proved to be. Some of these were black and nearly level with the sand; some were worn to a point by the attrition of the current; but there, plainly enough now, could be traced out in timbers the shape of the vessel; but not for long, since the weed began once more to float into its normal position; but enough was known now, and Oak.u.m took a fresh plug of tobacco as he said to Rasp--

"There, old 'un, your work's cut out for some time to come."

No time was lost. A couple of dynamite canisters were lowered down in the most suitable spots where the sand and weed seemed to be thickest, and Mr Parkley held one thin coil of wire, and Dutch and another, at opposite sides of the schooner, the kedge hawsers were buoyed and slipped; and, as the vessel slowly went with the current, the wire was payed out till the schooner had swung right round, and was riding by the anchor from her bows, and eighty or ninety yards away from the sunken wreck. The wire was sufficiently long to render the use of the boat unnecessary, and all being ready the battery was once more brought into use, the wires being connected, and this time the water surged up as from some volcanic eruption, a great wave ran towards the schooner, which rode over it easily, and it pa.s.sed on towards the sh.o.r.e, washing right up again amongst the trees.

The men went to work with a will, getting ropes to the buoys, hauling upon them, and gradually working the schooner back, and mooring her in her old position; but it was a good hour later before the water was once more clear, and they gazed down upon quite a different scene from that of the morning.

So effective had been the force of the explosion that sand, weeds, small rocks and shingles, had been completely swept away, and lay at a distance, while the interior of the old wreck seemed to have been scooped right out.

The most careful search with the eye, though, failed to show any traces of that which they sought, and as evening was now fast drawing on, any further investigations were left till the following day.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY.

A DISCOVERY.

So far as they had been able to make out, there was no trace of inhabitants near the place where the schooner was moored; but the adventure was of so important a nature that Captain Studwick felt it his duty to keep the most careful watch; and he was not sorry that afternoon to yield to the pressing request of Mr Wilson and the doctor to go on sh.o.r.e with their guns for a couple of hours' shooting.

"I consent," he said, "on condition that you are back here by nightfall, and that you take a couple of the men well-armed with you."

This was agreed to, and the party of four was rowed ash.o.r.e, Dutch and Mr Parkley both declining to accompany them, on the score of fatigue; while, though John Studwick longed to be of the party, he felt that he was too weak, and watched them from the side, as the boat rowed through the sparkling water, landing the party on the golden sands.

As the boat was returning to the side, the longing to go on sh.o.r.e proved too strong for John Studwick, and he beckoned his sister to his side.

"Bessy," he said, "I must go and have an hour's walk under those shady trees, where the sand seems to be so smooth and soft."

Bessy started, partly at his saddened way of speaking, and partly that he, who seemed to hate the very idea of her being anywhere near Mr Meldon, should propose to go ash.o.r.e after him.

"You mean alone?" she said, quickly.

"Alone? No," he cried, petulantly. "I mean with you. Mrs Pugh would like to go too, perhaps."

"I will speak to father," she said, eager to please him in every way; and she went forward to where Captain Studwick was chatting with Mr Parkley and Dutch about the morrow's arrangements.

"John wishes to go ash.o.r.e, father," she said, "to sit under the trees."

The captain stood thinking for a moment or two, and then, after a little hesitation--