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After they put on their dive gear, Dirk checked the anchor to be sure it was snug on the bottom and wouldn't break loose and allow the boat to drift away Not that it would go far in the harbor Without the need for wet suits to protect their bodies from cold water temperatures or sharp coral, they went over the side in ten feet of water in only their bathing suits The water was allass Visibility was nearly two hundred feet, the te conditions

Fortyladder to the deck and reht belt He had run afor a harder clay layer beneath but found fifteen feet of soft sand before striking bedrock He sat there for a fewSummer's air bubbles travel around the boat Soon, she was cli ladder to carefully set a coral-encrusted object on the deck Then she stood ater trickling down her body onto the teak deck as she slipped out of her dive gear

"What have you got?" asked Dirk

"I don't know, but it feels too heavy for a rock I found it a hundred yards offshore, protruding out of the sand"

Dirk scanned the shoreline, still see in the pit of his sto watched

He picked up the

object and gently chipped away the encrustation with his dive knife Soon the object took on the look of a bird with outstretched wings

"Looks like an eagle or swan," he said Then the tip of his knife cut a small scratch that showed silver "The reason it's heavy is because it's cast out of lead"

Sus and the beaked head that was turned to the right "Could it be ancient Celt?"

"The fact that it's sculpted out of lead is a good sign Dr Chisholm told me that, besides tin, one of the main attractions of Cornas its lead mines Did you mark the site where you found it?"

She nodded "I lefton it"

"How far out?"

"About fifty feet in that direction," she said, pointing

"Okay, before we dredge or probe with the water jet, we'll run over your site with the metal detector The side-scan sonar won't be of e is buried"

"Maybe we should have had Rudi send a netometer"