thought it likely they would start a fire somewhere, but no starlike
point of light twinkled from beneath the palm-trees, and he was left
to conjecture where they were and what they were doing.

"They will probably wait till they think I am asleep," was his
thought, "and then they will swim quietly out and try to board."

He believed it would be either that way or they would construct a raft
and paddle themselves out to the schooner. Knowing the captain was on
the Coral, and knowing how important it was that he should not be
allowed to run away and leave them there, they would neglect no
precaution to prevent his going off. They, too, would understand what
it was he was waiting for, and they were seamen enough to know the
hour when he would be able to sail, and, consequently, what they were
to do to prevent it.

"They have no way of closing the channel, or they would do so, and it
remains----Hello!"

He was standing at the prow, looking carefully about him, and with all
his senses alert, and he stood thus fully twenty minutes, expecting
something whose precise nature he had already conjectured.

"That splash meant something, and I think----"

Just then he heard a commotion in the water directly under the prow,
and, looking over, he saw a strange-looking object, like one of the
uncouth monsters of the deep, come to the surface and begin climbing
up by aid of the fore-chains.

"I say, cap'n, can't you give a fellow a lift?"

It was the mate, Abe Storms, who asked the question, and, as the
captain extended his hand, he said, in a low, fervent voice:

"Thank heaven! I was about giving you up for lost!"

CHAPTER XVII

ON THE CORAL

Captain Bergen and Abe Storms, as may be supposed, greeted each other
ardently when the latter stepped upon the deck of the schooner, clad
in his diving-suit.

"I was growing very anxious about you," said the captain, "for I could
not understand what kept you away so long."

The eccentric New Englander, removing his headgear, but leaving the
rest of his armor on, laughed and asked:

"Tell me what took place after I went down."

The captain hurriedly related his experience, which has been already
told the reader.

"We took a good deal of risk, as you know," said the mate, "and when I
went down in the water, I was a great deal more uneasy than I seemed
to be. I was expecting a signal from you, and when it did not come I
started for the surface. The shore is rough and cr