Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!
Then my head breaks the surface and hands are put on me, and a part of my reeling mind notices that I have been pulled onto the deck of my dear little ship—Hello, Nancy!—and I see Jaimy, and I stagger toward him. I pull at my swimming suit, trying to get the coin out of it to show them but I can't. So I try to pull my top off, and I think I succeed, 'cause I hear the coin hit the deck—giggle!—I think, but I don't know. All I know is that I say to Jaimy, Come Jaimy, let us go to bed, down below, on the sea-bed! Get it? On the seaBED! Ha-ha. Let's do it! Jaimy holds me, and I nuzzle my giggling face into his shirtfront. You smell so good, Jaimy ... I hear a tumble of voices, but they don't mean anythin' to me, nothin' at all.
What's the matter with her?
Get that goddamn bell back up here and put her in it! Quickly! There's another side to this!
To what?
It's the Rapture of the Deep, you fool! Nitrogen narcosis! Why didn't you warn her about it, Tilden?
I did, but she just wouldn't listen! She came up outside the bell!
Rapture? What Rapture? I'm beginning to calm down a bit ... and then I feel it—first in my elbows, then my knees. A little shot of pain ... and then, in my knees ... then a lot of pain, shooting like needles into every one of my joints. I let loose of Jaimy and fall to the deck, twisting and screaming.
We've got to get her back down to equalize the pressure. She's got the bends! It could kill her! Here it is! Put her on the bench! Tie her down!
No time! I'll ... I'll ... hold her on. Look out.
In my agony, I feel myself lifted up and taken into the bell.
Down!
"It is awful brave of you to come down in the bell, Jaimy. I know you didn't want to..."
He sits rigid, ashen faced.
We have come to the bottom of our journey down and the pain had gradually lessened the farther down we got.
"...but you'll see, it's not so bad, is it? Look out the window there, Jaimy. See, there's the Santa Magdalena. Isn't she beautiful? And look at the pretty little fishes, too. Oh, and there's a ray flying by. Isn't it magical, Jaimy?"
I reverse myself on the bench such that I can wrap my arms about him and bury my face in his shirtfront. I discovered early in our descent that I had, indeed, been successful in taking off my top on the deck of the Nancy B. Oh, well, what's the harm. I squeeze him tighter and feel him relax.
"You can kiss me, Jaimy. Please?"
And before we are brought to the surface, we use up all the air in the bell.
Oh, yes, we do.
Chapter 35
We start bringing up the gold in earnest now. I go down, fill up the swag bag, give three tugs on the line, and the bag whips up out of sight. I go back to the bell, and in a few minutes, the hungry bag comes down again.
Yesterday, when the bell containing me and Jaimy was brought back up and we were deposited onto the deck, we couldn't help but hear the hot words being exchanged twixt Dr. Sebastian and Professor Tilden.
"I simply cannot understand why you didn't inform her of the effects of coming up on her own, without the diving bell. Didn't you warn her about the danger of nitrogen bubbling through her system if she were to come to the surface without proper decompression?"
"But she is just a girl! I felt she would not understand the science..."
As Jaimy and I tumbled from the bell, Higgins was waiting with a towel and immediately wrapped me in it and was leading me off to my cabin, when we were stopped by Dr. Sebastian, who took me by the shoulder and pointed his finger at my temple. Me, I'm still dizzy from the Rapture, the bends, and my time with Jaimy in the bell.
"You see this, Professor?" he hissed. "Behind that girl's skull is a brain, and one that is just as good as mine and most certainly as good as yours! Do not forget that!"
Poor red-faced Tilly puffed up like a toad.
"You didn't explain because you thought she was just a stupid girl! I assure you she is not stupid, and if she had been told of the dangers, she would not have done what she did!" snaps Dr. Sebastian, in a fine froth. He turned to us. "No more diving today! Get her into bed! She will need rest!"
Higgins hustled me below, and I heard no more of the ... discussion.
In my cabin, a nice hot bath was arranged, and I and my still-sore joints sank gratefully into it.
Thank you, Higgins, you are just the best. Ahhhh...
But that was yesterday, and this is today. Back to work. Pick up the gold and stick it in the basket, pick up the gold and stick it in the basket, a tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket...
Hey, keep your mind on the job, girl.
I pick up a golden goblet encrusted with jewels and am about to shove it into the plunder bag when I hear her voice.
Jacky...
I c*ck my head to listen. Is this more of that Rapture of the Deep stuff? No, somehow I don't think so.
Jacky. It's me. Little Mary Faber from the Rooster Charlie Gang. Do you 'member me?
Of course, I remember you, Mary. You're never far from me, you know that. I pick up an ingot and thrust it into the bag with the rest. That's enough for this load, I'm thinking, so I give the line three sharp tugs. The net bag and its contents whisk up out of sight. I know it will return shortly, empty and waiting.
There's a lot of gold down 'ere, Jacky. Look at it all. Just lyin' there.
I know, Mary.
We should 'ave some of it, too. For ourselves, like. You know we should.
I give a kick and pop back under the bell for a breath. As I gulp it and several others, I'm thinking, No, it's not the Rapture, girl. It's my own greed talking to me, and she is very persuasive.
I duck back out to resume the work, but I find my inner imp out there is still waiting for me.
They took our ship, Jacky. They took the Nancy B. They took our little schooner that we named after our mother. They think they own us, but they don't. They do owe us, Jacky, they do.
I know, Mary, I know, but how—
See that bunch of fan coral there? Behind it is a little cave in the rocks. You spotted it before; you can't deny it. It'd be ever so easy to put some there. Just a bit. No one would ever know. But you would know, wouldn't you? And so would I, and we could find our way back sometime later.
But—
But, nothin'. This is the biggest stand of coral down here. It stands out like a sore thumb—how could you miss it? And up top you took the compass bearings from the land points, so you know where we are. You could get back here, you know you could.
I don't say anythin' to that. I just float there ... thinking.
Jacky, entices the little temptress, remember the Emerald, our fine, fine brigantine bark and how much you loved her? Ah, Jacky, you could have another just like her, you could. You could ... You could gather the lads again—Liam, Padraic, Arthur McBride, John Reilly, and all the rest and sail off again to far ports of call to see all the wonders of this world, you could ... You could ... You could...
That cuts it.
I take my spear stick, swim over behind the fans, and poke it around in the shallow cave to roust out any creatures that might be dwelling within. Several things skitter out, but nothing large nor poisonous enough to do me damage, so I head back and look down at the pile of gold that glows beneath me. I pick up an ingot and carry it to the undersea safe hold of Faber Shipping Worldwide, and I put it in.
Good girl, Jacky. Good girl.
I don't know just how good I'm being, but they did sink my Emerald, they did.
After all, this gold doesn't belong to King Georgie. It belongs to the Spanish, so the King is stealing, too, Jacky. That's the way I sees it.
All right, Mary, now get lost and let me get this done.
Goodbye, Jacky...
Back for a breath, and then I get on with it. No rest for the weary...
...nor for the wicked.
Chapter 36
Little Mary had a good idea, but I've got a lot better one.
We completed that day's morning dives and had lunch on the mess deck, and when we were finished, I arose from the table and asked Tink and Davy to go with me down into the bilges, while preparations for the afternoon dives were being made. I said that I thought I had noticed a seam opening up next to the Nancy's keel on my last dive, though I had noticed no such thing, of course. I just needed to get the lads down somewhere private so we could talk. The fewer people who know about this the better—as Ben Franklin once said, "Three men can keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
I got a lantern and led the way down into the bowels of my little schooner. When we got down to the absolute bottom, where the heavy lead ingots of our lead ballast lay, I stopped and put the lantern down.
"I don't see no leak," says Davy, casting his eyes about in the gloom. "Looks tight as a drum t'me."
"Davy. Tink. Put your fists on your tattoos. I did not bring you down here to talk of leaks. Swear you will say nothing of this."
"So sworn," says Tink, putting his hand on his hip. "What are you up to, Jacky?"
I lean into the glow of the lantern. "What do you think I'm up to, mates? Gold, that's what. We have been bringin' up a lot of it, and there's lots more down there, ready to be grabbed."
"So?" asks Davy. "What are we poor seamen to think of that?"
"You should think that maybe it shouldn't all go to good King George. It's Spanish gold. It ain't his. Right? A good part should go to him, for Merrie Olde England and all that, but some should come to us, too!"
"To us?" asks Davy.
"Right. To Faber Shipping and—"
"How sick I am of hearing that name pronounced."
"...and you'll all get your proper share," I say, getting steamed. "Have I not been generous in all of my dealings with you?"
I know Tink agrees, having been down and out very recently, but Davy, as always, is a lot more stubborn. I press on.
"Wouldn't you and Annie like to buy a nice little cottage to raise your children in? Wouldn't you?" I say. "And Tink, what do you want out of this world? A life at sea? The respect of your comrades? A tidy wife, maybe?"
"All right, Jacky-O," says Davy, hunkering down.
"What's the scam, then?"
"This is it," I say, hunkering down myself. "Tink, inside the bell is a heavy wood bench, as you know since you have both sat upon it. It is a single plank, going from one side to the other. About two inches thick. I want you to put in another thick board below it—to make it look like it was put there to lend strength to the top plank. Add stain and varnish so no one will notice the change. Nobody but me goes in there, anyway, so who's gonna notice?"
"That's easy enough," says Tink. "But what good—"
"I'll tell you what good. Around the back of that seemingly innocent board, you're going to hollow out a slot that you will make with your chisels and gouges. And then I'm going to slide in ingots of gold—cobs, they are called—each one ten pounds of pure gold and each one enough to keep you in fish, chips, and ale for a hundred years."
There are two sharp intakes of breath.
"Make it so that I will be able to fit in ten cobs a day. Davy, you and Tink will be able to retrieve them in the dark of night, when the bell is stowed down in the fore hatch. King George will be getting five to any one of ours, but so it goes. There's a lot down there. I'll put most of the flashier stuff, like the crosses and the goblets, into the King's stash, but a good number of the ingots will come to us."