be not a very good judge of such matters, and was too modest
to suggest anything to competent submarine engineers. He could not,
however, help casting the thing about in his mind for some time. At
last, one evening while reading a newspaper that had been got from a
passing boat, he observed the return of the ship in which his young
friend Edgar Berrington had gone to India. At once he wrote the
following letter:--

"My dear Mister Edgar,--I'm in a fix here. It's my opinion there's a
chance of savin' a wreck if only good brains was set to work to do it.
It would pay if we was to succeed. If you happen to be on the loose
just now, as is likely, run over an' see what you think of it.--Yours
to command,

"J.B."

Our hero received the letter, at once acted on it, and in a few days was
on the spot.

"What a change there is in you, my dear sir!" said Joe, looking with
admiration at the browned, stalwart youth before him; "why, you've grown
moustaches!"

"I couldn't help it, Joe," replied Edgar; "they _would_ come, and I had
no time to shave on board.--But now, tell me about this wreck."

When Edgar heard that the vessel belonged to Mr Hazlit his first
impulse was to have nothing to do with it. He felt that any
interference in regard to it would seem like a desire to thrust himself
before the merchant's notice--and that, too, in a needy manner, as if he
sought employment at his hands; but on consideration he came to the
conclusion that he might act as a wire-puller, give Baldwin the benefit
of his knowledge, and allow him to reap the credit and the emoluments.
But for a long time the honest diver would not listen to such a
suggestion, and was only constrained to give in at last when Edgar
threatened to leave him altogether.

"By the way, have you seen Miss Aileen since you came home?" asked
Baldwin, while the two friends were seated in the cabin of the diver's
vessel poring, pencil in hand, over several sheets of paper on which
were sundry mysterious designs.

"No; I was on the point of paying a visit to my good aunt Miss Pritty,
with ulterior ends in view, when your letter reached me and brought me
here. To say truth, your note arrived very opportunely, for I was
engaged at the time in rather a hard struggle between inclination and
duty--not feeling quite sure whether it was right or wise to throw
myself in her way just now, for, as you may easily believe, I have not,
during my comparatively shor