“Congratulations, Miss Laurie,” said Henninger, as he climbed over the rail. “You’ll be an heiress to-morrow.”
“Was it there?” faltered Margaret; and Henninger handed her the golden brick, after a cautious glance around the deck. She came near dropping it when she took it in her hands.
“How heavy it is!” she exclaimed. “How much is it worth?”
“Two or three thousand dollars,” replied Henninger.
Margaret gave a little gasp. “Here, take it.” She thrust it back to Henninger. “I’m almost afraid of it. I never had so much money in my life at once. I can’t imagine that it’s really true. I hoped, but—please don’t look. I believe I’m going to cry!”
She turned aside and did cry quietly for a couple of minutes, with her head on the rail, while the men preserved an embarrassed silence.
“I’m better now,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I’m ashamed to be so silly, but it was the excitement, and the waiting, and the success, and—everything. What are we going to do now?”
“We can’t do anything more to-night,” returned Henninger. “We must have light to locate the rest of the stuff, for it’s mostly in the lagoon, you know. At least, we suppose so, for we only found two cases on the wreck. Bennett says he counted twenty-three cases in the forehold, and that will all have to be got by diving. We might get out our diving apparatus to-night and rig the derrick.”
There was not much sleep on the Omeyyah that night. The diving armour was brought up from the hold, cleaned and oiled, and the air-tubes tested. They mounted the air-pump between decks with its big driving-wheels, adjusted the manometer, coiled the life-line, and made everything ready for the descent. The impromptu derrick was also set up, consisting of a strong spar forty feet long hinged in an iron socket at the foot of the mizzen-mast, with a block and tackle at the extremity and a geared crank at the base. As it was not likely that the cases of hay and gold would weigh over two or three hundred pounds, this rude apparatus would be sufficient to hoist them aboard. Henninger meanwhile cleared out the room that had been prepared below for the reception of the treasure. This was a corner of the after-cabin, partitioned off by three-inch planks, totally dark, and entered only by a low and narrow door fastened with four heavy iron bars, each locked into its socket with a Yale lock. The after part of the dhow had been bulkheaded off from the forward portion with heavy planks, so that no man could gain access to the cabin except by the cabin ladder on the quarter-deck.
These preparations were finished by two o’clock in the morning, however, and there was nothing then to do but wait for daylight. A cool air breathed on the sea, though scarce a breeze stirred; the stars were white fire in the velvet sky, with the hill on the island rising dark against them. The adventurers lounged about the deck, talking in low tones, with their eyes ever fixed upon the indistinct shape of the wreck that lay amid the wash on the surf. But weariness brought sleep after all, and silence gradually fell upon the deck.