THE SINKING OF THE WITCH.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9739, 29 May 1897, Page 8

THE SINKING OF THE WITCH.

JR. if. Young in Tit Bits.

" The real extraordinary part about it was, if you like, that I should have vvalked into lacy Truman's office, in Hobart Town, as the clock struck eleven that morning. For I'd been hanging about the dock, hungry and savage, for weeks ; and I'd left Jess— my young wife—with the words that, come no luck, I was simply going to steal the money to take us back to England by the next week's steamer. And I meant that.

"They were ship-brokers. Lacy Tniman and his brother. I walked into their outer office without being invited, up to the boss clerk, and told him in so many words I'd come to the end of my tether in that country. ' The old tale ! What are you ? Anything, eh? Sit down there,' he says. I went to <lo it, *wl_e*r_ the „oor -lies open, _*_—<_ the senior -p_-_*_r___-- _C Icnefwr *fc___-r__ both Ft wi^p-jflp l^m irtWi a face UXf> ~ like death itself. fie stood there, and rattled out: ' "Will, quick ! She's gone down— down, within a mile of dock !'

** "17—a.fc —-a.s it- Using goes —te inner* door, —nd the otlier steps out, white

!_!& til ill 1 til. .WML th Witctrt ? * lie sh-vs, .almost lower t_i__n a. wkisper. 'I'll never believe it. Sighted at seven tins morning, and foundered—Lacy, ■you're foolinE*- I'" We've covered her for £0900,'

" Gone down !" repeats his brother, as if he wanted to catch somebody's throat. ' I met Coombe's clerk, coming up here ; raced back, and saw the owners and the captain himself. There's no log saved—nothing at all. They simply say that water was pouring in at the fore-hold all day yesterday, no one knows hoW, and they just had time to put off in the before she lurched and ssttled down, at ten o'clock. That's four since March ! We're absolutely ruined !'

" The clerks sat there like bits of stone ; the two partners stared at each other ; you could have heard a feather drop. They were rich, as things go, I'd heard—but four since March !

" ' Never believe it!' says Will Truman, again, waking up. ' There's something wrong; old she was, but good for years yet, I'll swear. My hat! Within a mile ? Lacy, surely we can get some of the cargo up'before——' " ' Yes, to light fires with ? The salt will spoil those silk bales in less than three days, man.' He was a sight, I tell you. •To go down like that, in smooth water ! I told Coombes plainly : I don't pay out a farthing until an investigation has been made ; and if I suspected anything I'd take action at once.'

*• * You were a fool to hint at anything of the sort !.'■..

"'Aye, perhaps I was. We ought to have sent a man down straightaway, to look at her. Who is there ? Here, Johnson, run to .Saunders, the diver, in Market Street. Tell him to come here this minute. I'll know the truth of this.'

•' They went into.the inner office together. I sat there, hanging on to the buzz of their talk, and fairly itching to do or say something. Then, in'fifteen minutes, back tears their clerk with the word that Saunders was very sorry, but the owners had that very minute engaged him to make an investigation next morning, and he didn't think there was another diver worth a cent in the piece just then—he'd find out. *

"The two partners spun round andlooked at each other, and it didn't need words to show what they were thinking. That was my chauee, if ever; and before I knew it, I'd spoken. " * Yes, there is ! Mr Truman, I'll go down, and welcome. If you think there's anything under-handed leave it to me.'

" ' You !' They'd never notice mc. ' Who are you, then ?' asked the senior, dully: * What might you know about it ?' •"A good deal, sir. That's to say, I haven't done any deep-sea work to speak of, but I was five years over in Sunderland, going down and stopping leaks and strains, before they had the dry dock built. That's something," sir. I was here to ask for work, and there it is. If the silk can be saved— or those £3000—I'm your man. Try me.' " ' Well, if this isn't a coincidence,' says he, incredulous like. • Will, what do you think?:. There's no time to lose, that's certain* we must arrange tajiave our man down with theirs; you;-now. ... Come, .I'll take yon at your word, Mr—er—WHaer- .-. I. wantt^r that*' jf— i__pec«ed;' you i-Me&tsfid. After: the cargo. Got an outfit? Then we'll see tp that. Come in here, will you ? I hardly know what Tin about !' •

"It - seemed past believing, one way and another. I left that office,, mates, with ny full instructions and a couple of shiners as well, and just sailed home on air. And, would anyone believe it,, when Fd'blurted out the morning's; tale to Jess, she hangs round my neck—didn't want mc to do it J There's a woman all over for you! lean see her poor, pinched face, white and gloonierous ns anything—just as If it was against my shoulder this very minute. But, there, I mustn't talk—l came nigh never Keein£» it a-gain in'this woi*l_. • ' " T>ead to the minute I was down at th© docks next morning, ready iov aliytKlng, I—cv Truman—he'd been on his feet all night, I could tell—had made all the arrangements, and he meant business. So did the other party, it -was plain. Saunders and I, it was agreed, were to go down together and report afterwards. They'd hired a small cutter between them,, and appeared to be friendly enough on the outside; but there was something iv the air right enough. Ob, aye ! " Well, the moment the tide had turned, off we started, with the salvage-boat and a dozen others after us, to see what there might be to see. I knew-Mr Lacy had an idea that the other >party meant to hamper us if possible, but it didn't appear so; in less than an hour they'd made the spot. Saunders and some of the Witch's crew were straining their eyes over the side.

1 "'There she lies, mate, hi ten fathoms, or I'm a Dulc'inian,' he says, quietly, to mc. •Can ye go the depth? Right; nothing like pluck, eh ?. We'll soon know all about her cargo now, Get your things - n -" " Down below I goes, and was ready as soon as he. Course, being what he was, he had tbe sneer of mc the minute he knew I was no expert; b«t-he seemed affable enough, and even a little friendly. Just "before we Stuck our headgear on, and Mr Truman was seeing my tube extra fast to the pumper, he pulls out a brandy bottle and offers mc a i mouthful off-hand. _ I had it my lips somehow I caught his eyes, aad that manwell, he flinched. ■*■•'-, •«'Have soma yourself,' says I, handing it back. «*«I always do—well, no,. I won't jnst yet,' he says, with a iaugh, and tosses tho j bottle overboard. | "I couldn't q v ite. get the grip of that, and perhaps it was this action that gave* mc a nasty, sinking sensation" when I stood ! ready,iwith the helmet on and thirty pounds of solid lead on my boots, watching him go down the ladder, and eooly slide into that freen ton fathoms. It was a lot oVer my old ock depths, and I felt a bit dreamy, so to speak, when I heard the engine Start pumping away from mc. But there it waa—l had no notion of backing out then. Down I stepped, let myself go, and knew not a thing more till I found myself standing still oa the bottom, dizzy with the depth, tuck after the suspense, and with a noise in my head as if a hundred throats had started screeching. That lasted about half a. minute; then I pulled myself together, took another kink of the life-line, and knew I was all right for I—cy Truman's job. '"" Where Was Saunders V " I looked round. It wasn't like harbour, water—you could see as well as looking at daylight through thick glasses; and there was he, standing & few yards off, flashing his diving-lamp ahead. We'd tumbled on a bed of sand white as snow. I could make out mighty worms and shellfish crawling over it—everything looks twice its size at that depth—and great castles of rock here and there, with sea-creepers swaying about something lovely, and shoals of sin— I fish Kig-zagging in and out- like sirrer *~P***arpoints ; but ne'er a sign of our ship. Then presently I saw Saunders shaking his light and pointing. He'd located it straight away, wit— his experience. " After him I goes, for about, I should reckon, fifty or sixty yards, over slimy hillocks and down bits of vaUey-—-nd there was the Witch, lying three -parts over on a bit of rising ground, her mainmast pointing down at our heads-—a sad enoog_ sight. , Saunders, he was up to her deck-rail in a : jiffy, got his grapj-ing-hook over it, and had climbed over before I could take it' in. I When I followed I stopped half-way, ! because I felt the timbers shaking, audi could almost swear there was the dull **_*—4 i «| on axe haokiag away YOu fury. I just i

waited, and presently he comes clambering hack, to put his helmet against mine; and there was a splinter of wood sticking to his axe ; and he was panting.

«* ' Rotten, mate 1 A three-foot leak, in the outer hold/ was what he shouted. ' Hatches blocked, I'm afraid. We'll have to come down again and blow a hole in her aide to get at the silk. Got your line ? Say when 1'

" «Half a minute !' I shouted back. Perhaps he thought I'd had enough of it, and reckoned I should be glad to take his word for everything. At it was, being afraid to go too near the rigging, I walked round by the forepeak as smart as I could, swung myself up to the keel-lward, and crawled along there, feeling and looking both sides for the hole he had made it his business to hack.

"I couldn't find it, but I found something else that made the blood tingle in mc very queerly. I hadn't really expected it, and only the sUeoreat bit of luck; could have put. "**"• i"""» xxxy -«i—sty -*_** _._____■ light ; _>t_ti _.__«__■_.. _, S?m/lfffJlltlS!iptli?f!!]fifffll?flfrFlli| were three big splintered lioles, that nothing but an auger had worked through. I made quite sure of that, got my nerves set, and GurQcd to cr__wl l>-fvol_ ; antl __te_*_ *•—*__s Sat-rioters sto owing*: heliinc- mc. __.-a.cl I was 1.1 ■~..,! J.uf. |~|,l ,|],-* jj. ..,„] fool enough to take bold ot his angers and plug them in the holes, to make him feel the inside smoothness.

" Ho seemed startled himself, and didn't say a. word till we had clai—bered down to the sand again, Then, as I went to tug my line, feeling a bit nervous, he catches iriy arm, and put his glass against mine. " 'Scuttled,' he said.

'* * Aye, scuttled !' I yelled back ; and the next thing I knew was that I lay on my back, empty-handed". He had tripped mc, and jerked away the life-line. .... Well, all the blood rushed to my head— that's about all I know. I lay there, stunned most by the thought that such villainy could find a place in any man's mind. But he was not quite quick enough : as went to step back, 1 caught him behind the knees with one hand, and down he came. Then ctinie the struggle for life and death, and it doesn't bear describing. I had tumbled to the whole thing in a flash : he had been offered a price not to let mc go up if by chance I found out anything black, and it had been big enough to make a rogue of him. That Was it; and let any man here imaginei-.a deadlier position, if he can. " I held on to him for a minute or so like advice, but I was undermost, the weight of him on my chest, and the notion of what he intended doing, suffocating mc almost. Clouds of the white sand went whirling up about us, and the red mist in. my.eyes made them seem real blood-colour, I recollect.Aye, he meant it that day ; he knew he'd gone too far to draw back—the mad fool! Through the glass I made out his axe going up, a3 if he could see no way for it but to smash in my helmet and leave the water to do the rest. I just had strength enough to give one mighty screech—then I was done: closed my eyes and waited for. the thud.

"It never came, mates; but if it wasn't touch-and-go with death, what was it ? That he was going to do the thing I've never had a doubt ; bub all of & sudden there was a jerk of his line—up he went, and I, hanging on to his ankles, had sufficient sense hot to let go. Up, vp —very slowly, for the line had a double weight that they didn't know of above, Up,up !• -and in my dreams since I've often felt the kicks he gave to get free of mc. But Heaven wouldn't allow it. I've no recollection of reaching the blessed surface and being hauled aboard ; but it goes without saying, or I wouldn't be telling;' the tale now.

"Mr Lacy told mc" afterwards thaty when they unstrapped my things, I was black in the : f_<*e and dead to the world. They thought I was going, put back to shore at once - but, however; r once in my bed at home, Tgofr back enough sense to gasp out something that sent him off to the jjolice hot-foot. The next thing I knew was that I'd been ill for a week, and that they were waiting for mc to give evidence at the trial—Truman Brothers v. the Owners and Captain of the Witch.

"It lasted days and days, and at first seemed as if it was going against us. .An expert diver had gone down and made his report; but the owners calmly swore that the auger-holes were a revelation to them, and the crew did theTs-vme. Only one thing did it-r-their captain to? be found br heard of y and in fhey got. off:with ;_ie Suspicion the loss of the and'coats, Of Course, it was morally clear as daylight; they'd over-insured the cargo,' and arranged with the Captain to souttle the old vessel at a certain pointi and it hadn't turned out quite as they meant; but all that had to be proved, and it wasn't properly done to the Court's satisfaction.

" Saimders ? Well, there ,* my blood boils now at thought of it—he got off scot-free, and, for all I know, walks Hobart Town to this day as an honest man. I see him now, standing up there in the dock, and persisting that I'd dreamed it all—that I'd gone insensible, and really owned my life to him. Never mind j it's haunted his sleep once or twice since, I will lay. You'll hardly believe that I stuok to the work after that, but I did. And what's more, mates, I've got the best part of the three hundred ftonnds that Lacy Truman banked for me—• ust put by for the day when I have to give up business as a deep-sea diver."