PROFITLESS LABOR. 675 



officers was very anxious to obtain his trunk, which was in a 

 remote state-room, and offered fifty dollars reward for it. 

 The diver who undertook the task has described the difficul- 

 ties he encountered in its execution. To find the state-room 

 required that he should descend below the familiar turret- 

 chamber, through the inextricable confusion of the tangled 

 machinery in the engine room, groping among floating and 

 sunken objects. By touch alone he was to find a chest, to handle 

 it in that thickening gloom, to carry it, push it, move it through 

 that labyrinth, to a point where it could be raised, and through 

 all this he had to carry his life-line and his air-hose. Three 

 times the line became entangled in the machinery, and three 

 times he had patiently to follow it up, find the place, and 

 release it. Then the door of the state-room shut when he was 

 in it, and round and round that little chamber he groped, in 

 the dark, before he could find it again. All parts of the cham- 

 ber seemed the same, a smooth slimy wall, glutinous with 

 the jelly-like deposit of the sea- water. The line, entangled, 

 became, instead of a guide, a further source of error, and the 

 time was passing away, and life was dependent upon the con- 

 tinuity of the tube. There was no chance to hasten ; with 

 tedious and patient care he must follow the life-line, find its 

 entanglements and slowly loosen them, then carefully taking 

 up the slack follow the straightened line to the door. Nor 

 must he forget the chest, slowly he heaves and pushes, now 

 at the box, now at the line, which catches on every project- 

 ing knob, handle, peg or point of the machinery. Finally, 

 however, his cool-headed patience is rewarded with success. 

 He gets the chest to the open air and restores it to its owner ; 

 but m so doing he has made the worst mistake of all ; he has 

 mistaken the character of the man ; he never paid, or offered 

 to pay, the fifty dollars. 



Another instance of cool determination in the unforseec 

 dangers of submarine diving occurred to a diver who was 



