Bold Venture - Sunken Treasure at Twenty Fathoms

A Diver named Joe Cowan has come to Shannon's Place to offer Slate and Saylor a proposition concerning sunken treasure. Joe says "I know where the Bark Hesperides is. It is an old slaving ship returning from the Carolinas with gold. It sank, and I know where it is". Saylor asks "Where?" Joe says "I've listened a lot and I've got me a lot of old charts. I can draw an "X" on a map of the Caribbean and that's where the Hesperides is. Slate says "The lady asked you where". Joe pulls out an old chart and says "Look, off here, the smallest island on Portuguese Key. We can use this reef as a mooring. We back off three hundred feet and drop a stern anchor and we're secure. Then, just climb into a suit and jump down. Twenty fathoms down, that's where the ship and the gold is located. Now, what about it?" Slate says "Well, I don't know. I admit it appeals to me but diving for sunken treasure isn't exactly the way I want to make my way in life". Saylor says "Well, he's not asking you to dive for anything, Slate. He just wants to use your boat, isn't that right?" Joe says "Sure, I'll do the diving. We'll use your boat and your equipment. We'll split whatever we find down the middle". Slate says "Equipment? I haven't had a diving suit since I lived in Hawaii". Eventually, Slate agrees to the arrangement, and obtains the necessary equipment, the compressor, the lines, and the diving suit. When the appointed day arrives, Slate and Saylor are waiting, but Joe Cowan has not appeared. Slate says "How long does one wait for a tardy deep sea diver?" Saylor says "How should I know? I've never been stood up by a man who wears a bubble on his head". Slate says "Now you have, how does it feel? Saylor says "I feel like a girl with an empty deep sea diving suit, and nobody to shove into it, that's all". Slate says "You and me, we're wall flowers, Saylor. We've been invited to a dance and nobody wants to waltz with us". Saylor says "Let's go home, Slate. I'm tired, the Bold Venture's tired, it's all tired, all of it". Slate says "Maybe something happened to Joe. Maybe somebody got to him".