“Bravo, Captain!” exclaimed Cunningham, patting the skipper approvingly on the back. “A most wise and honourable decision to have arrived at, I call it; and, so far as I am concerned, I’ll do all I can to help you to carry it out. By the way, how do you propose to obtain the oysters when you arrive at the spot where, according to your friend Abe, they are to be found?”
“How do I intend to get ’em?” repeated the skipper. “Why, with a trawl, of course. I’ve got some specially strong trawlin’ gear aboard, made o’ purpose for the job.”
“I see,” commented Cunningham. “It did not occur to you to get any diving gear, I suppose?”
“Well—no, it didn’t, and that’s a fact,” answered the skipper. “But I guess we’ll find that the trawl’ll work all right,” he added cheerfully.
“Yes, no doubt,” agreed Cunningham. “But of course,” he added, “the diving system would have worked very much more rapidly, because, you see, if you had happened to possess a set of diving gear you could have anchored the schooner right over the bed, sent your diver down with two large sacks, or nets, and while he filled one you could have hauled up the other and emptied it into the bins or barrels ranged round the decks in readiness to be conveyed ashore and emptied after the day’s work on the bed was over. In that manner you could have secured several thousands of oysters daily.”
“Ay, I reckon we could. But I guess we’ll have to be content to work with the trawl, seein’ that we’ve neither divin’ gear nor diver aboard,” replied the skipper, rather regretfully.
“Well, I am not quite so sure about that,” observed Cunningham thoughtfully. “I have the germ of an idea in my head, and will see if I cannot develop it. Do you happen to have any rubber hose on board?”
“Sure!” replied the skipper. “Got a hundred feet of brand new hose for washin’ decks with. It’s a bit extravagant, I know, but I ’low it’ll pay in the long run.”
“It most certainly will, and very handsomely too, if I can put my idea into shape. Have you used the hose at all yet?” asked Cunningham.
“Used it every mornin’ since we left Baltimore,” replied the skipper.