sibility of their being able to keep anything they should
bring up became obvious. They were forced, therefore, to give up the
idea of making further attempts.

"It's too bad," growled Maxwell one morning at breakfast, "that all our
trouble and expense should end in nothin'--or next to nothin'."

"Come, Maxwell," said Edgar, "don't say `nothing.' It is true we lost
our first great find that luckless night when we left it with Wilson,
but our second haul is safe, and though it amounts only to eight
thousand pounds sterling, that after all is not to be sneezed at by men
in our circumstances."

"Make not haste to be rich," muttered Joe Baldwin in an undertone.

"_Did_ we make haste to be rich?" asked Edgar, smiling. "It seems to me
that we set about it in a cool, quiet, business-like way."

"Humph, that's true, but we got uncommon keen over it--somethin' like
what gamblers do."

"Our over-keenness," returned Edgar, "was not right, perhaps, but our
course of action was quite legitimate--for it is a good turn done not
only to ourselves but to the world when we save property; and the salvor
of property--who necessarily risks so much--is surely worthy of a good
reward in kind."

"Troth, an' that's true," said Rooney, with a wry grin, "I had quite
made up me mind to a carridge and four with Molly astore sittin' in
silks an' satins inside."

"Molly would much rather sit in cotton," said the lady referred to, as
she presided at the breakfast-table; "have another cup, Rooney, an'
don't be talking nonsense."

"But it does seem hard," continued Maxwell in his growling voice, "after
all our trouble in thin venture, to be obliged to take to divin' at mere
harbour-works in Eastern waters, just to keep body and soul together."

"Never mind, boy," exclaimed Rooney with a successful effort at
heartiness, "it won't last long--it's only till we get a suitable chance
of a ship to take us an' our small fortins back to ould Ireland--or
England, if ye prefer it--though it's my own opinion that England is
only an Irish colony. Never say die. Sure we've seen a dale of life,
too, in them parts. Come, I'll give ye a sintiment, an' we'll drink it
in tay--"

Before the hopeful Irishman could give the sentiment, he was interrupted
by the sudden opening of the door and the abrupt entrance of a Chinaman,
who looked at the breakfast party with keen interest and some anxiety.

"If it's your grandmother you're lookin' for," said Rooney,