oys stood watching, a dozen feet from Yorke, who leaned
carelessly on his rifle. Jerry struggled into the dress by slow degrees,
for the sun was burning hot, then got the cuffs clipped tightly about
his wrists while Dailey and Birch fastened on the heavy corselet. The
sixteen-pound boots came next, and very comical indeed the old
quartermaster looked, with his white hair blowing in the wind and his
blue eyes as eager and lively as those of Bob himself.

Then Borden helped him into the huge copper helmet and screwed it on
fast, while Dailey and Birch went to the pumps and began to turn the two
handles. Jerry had not yet closed the front window of the helmet, and
now his voice came for the last time.

"Well, good-bye, mates and lads! Here's for the treasure o' the Pirate
Shark!"

With that he closed his helmet and seized the kris, waved a hand at the
pumping men, and calmly stepped off the landing while Borden paid out
the air hose and lifelines. For an instant the two boys stared down at
the flashing shape in the water, then Bob felt a tug at his arm and met
the excited eyes of his chum.

"Go get that old elephant gun," ordered Mart in a whisper. "Quick! Step
soft!"

CHAPTER XIII

RECAPTURE

Bob departed without protest, after one wondering look, and Mart set
himself to wait as patiently as might be. His own nerves, as well as
those of the men, were on edge; they were all under a tremendous strain,
for none of them expected ever to see Jerry alive again, so deeply was
the fear of the Pirate Shark ingrained in them all by the happening of
the morning.

Borden went on paying out the lines, and gradually the flicker of the
copper helmet died away and merged with the green of the water. Even
Yorke had forgotten to keep an eye out for the shark, and stood craned
over the bulwarks, gazing down awesomely into the green depths below.

To Mart it seemed that an age passed. He knew that down beneath the
water old Jerry could hear the strokes of the air-pump, and he wondered
if the shark were anywhere around the wreck. Both boys had been given a
very thorough knowledge of diving by the old quartermaster, from a
theoretical standpoint, and had it not been for the Pirate Shark, Mart
would have liked nothing better than a descent.

But just at present he had something else in mind. Down below on the
gangway landing were Borden, Birch and Dailey, unarmed except for
revolvers, and lined to the landing was one of the