“Diving will be the only way to go down there again,” Elliott remarked.
“Yes,” said Henninger. “No use looking at it from here. Let’s get the dhow up alongside.”
They regained the dhow as the sun rose, and the reis got the Omeyyah under sail. There was just wind enough to move her, and the boat led the way and conned her in, through the gap in the reef and across the lagoon till alongside the rusty bones of the wreck. Here the anchor dropped with a short cable to keep her from drifting, and as a further precaution the boat carried a second cable with a kedge anchor, and fixed it among the rocks of the reef.
“Now,” said Henninger, when they had returned aboard, “where’s the diving-suit? I’m going down.”
“I thought you said you had an Arab expert for the diving,” said Elliott, in surprise.
“So we have, but I’m afraid to send him down till I’ve had a look first. The gold cases may have burst, and you don’t know what sights he’d see. I don’t trust this crew, so I’m going below myself this time.”
“By thunder, I wouldn’t crawl into that wreck in a rubber jacket, not for a ship-load of gold,” said Bennett, earnestly. “We don’t know whether the diving-machine works right. Better try it on the dog.”
Henninger appeared struck by this consideration, but after a little hesitation he persisted in his purpose. Hawke brought the suit on deck, the rubber and canvas jacket, the weighted shoes and the copper helmet, and Henninger accoutred himself under the directions of the Berber expert. Before the helmet was screwed on, the air-pumps were tested again, and appeared to be efficient. A couple of Arabs were stationed in the waist to turn the big wheels that drove the pumps, and Henninger’s head disappeared inside the helmet with its great goggle eyes.
He puffed out remarkably as the air was pumped into the suit, and Elliott and Hawke assisted him to stagger along the deck, and over the dhow’s rail. Thence he stepped down upon the uncovered part of the steamer, and slid down the sloping deck till he was entirely submerged. A string of bubbles began to arise.
Every one on board, except the men at the pumps, lined the rail and watched him eagerly. He checked himself at the hatch, looked up and waved his hand. Then he attacked the hatch with a small axe, and after a few minutes’ chopping and levering it gave way, and he wrenched the cover off. It sunk slowly, being water-logged. There was a square, black hole, and after peering into it for a few seconds Henninger slipped inside and vanished.