time
trying to talk the captain into selling his brig and putting the money
into Pacific Lard--or it might have been Mexican Balloon stock, as well
as I remember. This man was tingling all over with anxiety to find out
what we had stuck on; but as he could not stick his nose into the water
and find out, and as there was nobody to tell him, he had to keep on
tingling.

"I was just as wild to know what it was the brig was resting on as the
stock-broker was; but I had the advantage of him, for I believed that I
could find out, and, at any rate, I determined to try. Did you ever hear
of a water-glass, miss?"

"No, I never did," said the Daughter of the House, who was listening
with great interest.

"Well, I will try to describe one to you," said John Gayther. "You make
a light box about twenty inches high and a foot square, and with both
ends open. Then you get a pane of glass and fasten it securely in one
end of this box. Then you've got your water-glass--a tall box with a
glass bottom.

"The way that you use it is this: You get in a boat, and put the box in
the water, glass bottom down. Then you lean over and put your head into
the open end, and if you will lay something over the back of your head
as a man does when he is taking photographs, so as to keep out the light
from above, it will be all the better. Then, miss, you'd be perfectly
amazed at what you could see through that glass at the bottom of the
box! Even in northern regions, where the water is heavy and murky, you
can see a good way down; but all about the tropics, where the water is
often so thin and clear that you can see the bottom in some places with
nothing but your naked eyes, it is perfectly amazing what you can see
with a water-glass! It doesn't seem a bit as if you were looking down
into the sea; it is just like gazing about in the upper air. If it isn't
too deep, things on the bottom--fishes swimming about, everything--is
just as plain and distinct as if there wasn't any water under you and
you were just looking down from the top of a house.

"Well, I made up my mind that the only way for me to find out what it
was that was under the brig was to make a water-glass and look down into
the sea; and so I made one, taking care not to let the stock-broker know
anything about it, for I didn't want any of his meddling in my business.
I had to tell the captain, but he said he would keep his mouth shut, for
he didn't like the stock-broker any more than I