a quarter apiece. A very pretty and
interestin' souvenir of your trip to the island. Now, look down, for
we're right over, the gardens."

"It's funny," remarked Hill, "that I'm such a good swimmer when this
seasickness takes holt o' me so, hard and quick. Maybe if I'd swim the
ocean the water wouldn't bother my stummick at all. I---"

The words died on Hill's lips. He suddenly found himself gazing from one
world into another of weird beauty and wondrous enchantment.

Beneath his eyes and Clancy's there unfolded a landscape of rainbow
tints flecking a forest of softly waving trees. Some of the trees bore
fruit, and in and out among their branches swam fishes of silver and
gold. It was like fairyland, that landscape on the bed of the sea.

"Beats anything I ever seen!" whispered the entranced Hiram. "If a
mermaid was to float up to the glass bottom of this here boat and shake
a finger at me, I'd go right over the side and join her in them pretty
gardens."

"Wonderful!" exclaimed Clancy. "Look at the rocks and shells! You can,
see them as clearly as though they were out of the water and on the
land."

"Them forests," explained Ike, "are made of kelp. From kelp is where we
get our iodine of commerce. It takes four hundred pounds of kelp to make
one pound of iodine."

"And a million pounds of the iodine o' commerce," snorted Hiram, "ain't
worth one pound o' kelp, down below and growin' same as we see. What do
they, want to root it up for? Why don't they leave it where it is, to
please the eye that looks down through these glass-bottom boats?"

"I pass," answered Ike wearily. "I ain't no philosopher, that-a-way.
Kelp's no good and iodine's useful--that's all I know. Diver's goin'
over and comin' this way," he added, with sudden animation. "Watch
close, now, and maybe you'll see him pick up an abalone shell, and look
up and make faces. It's right remarkable how long some o' them divers
can stay under the water. Look sharp!"

Clancy and Hill looked sharp, but they couldn't see anything of the
diver.

"Shucks!" grunted Ike. "He come up for another boat afore he got here.
But he'll be along after a spell."

Ike rested from his rowing a bit, and filled and, lighted his pipe.

"Up there," said he, waving his hand aloft, "is the towerin' summits o'
Black Jack and Orizaba, If you're goin' to be on the island overnight
you don't want to miss the coach trip to the top o' the uplifts. It's
ten miles up and two miles back