"But don't you suppose," said Phaeton, "that as soon as it was dark, some fellow went out quietly in a little skiff, and dove for the rings? Some of those Italians are wonderful divers."
"I think not," said Holman; "for the ring would be of no use to a Venetian; he wouldn't dare offer it for sale."
"How do you propose to get them?"
"My plan is, first, to invent some kind of diving apparatus that is small, and can be packed in a valise; then, for us to save up all the money we can get, till we have enough to pay the travelling expenses of two of us from here to Venice. We could go cheap in a sailing-vessel. Suppose you and I went, Fay; we'd ask the Venetians about the fishing, and buy or hire some tackle, and put a lunch in our valise, with the diving apparatus, and get a skiff and start off. I've planned the very course. When you leave the city you steer a little east of north-east; row about four miles, and there you are."
"That's easy enough," said I,—"only a little over half the distance from here to Charlotte, which we've all rowed scores of times."
"When we get there," Holman continued, "we'll fish a while to lull suspicion, and then I'll quietly get into the diving apparatus and drop into the water, with the valise in my hand. It wouldn't take me long to scoop up those rings, once I got amongst them; then, of course, Fay would haul me up, and we'd hurry home and divide. We could easily turn the rings into money."
"I should think we might get more for them as curiosities than as old gold," said I.
"That's a good idea," said Holman.
"But we mustn't be in a hurry to sell them all," said Jimmy the Rhymer. "When a fellow grows up and gets engaged, one of those would be an awful romantic thing to give to the lady."
"I know a better way than that to get them, though," said Ned.