would be
in no danger from a momentary cessation of pumping, just as he would be
in no danger were his air hose to break, as the helmet valve would in
that case close automatically and Jerry would have enough air left in
his dress to last him for some minutes.

"Up with 'em, you pirate!" cried Mart, shifting his big gun a trifle so
that Birch's glittering black eye looked full in the muzzle.

"Don't shoot, ye fool!" gasped Birch, flinging up his arms, and Mart
knew he had won.

The men stood looking up, evil-eyed, panting with their exertions at the
pumps, while Bob swiftly emptied their revolver-belts of weapons and
knives and was up the ladder to the deck again, flinging down his load.

"You ain't a-goin' to murder poor old Jerry!" cried Dailey sharply. Mart
winced.

"Bob," he returned, "you'll have to go down and keep those pumps going.
Hurry up, now!"

His chum, rather pale-faced and flurried, hastened down again and began
turning the double handle of the pumps, while the four men crowded
beyond the ladder.

"Drop those lines, Borden," ordered Mart sternly, and the old seaman
obeyed without demur. "Now unfasten that boat and get into her! Pile in,
the whole crowd of you! Do it lively now! That's right. Get busy with
those oars and row over to that island. When you get there, shove out
that boat and let her float off, or I'll pepper you with a load o'
buckshot."

"You ain't goin' for to maroon us there?"

"You're pirates and mutineers and I'm an officer o' this ship," replied
Mart fiercely. "You step lively there or I'll send you where Jerry is,
without any diving suit but with some buckshot in your back. Jump, now!"

Plainly, the men did not doubt either his intentions or his ability to
fulfill his ferocious threat. While Bob continued his mechanical
pumping, the four tumbled into the boat and pulled away without another
word. Mart knew that once they were on the island, with the boat floated
away, they were practically in prison. None of them would ever attempt
swimming away to the mainland while the Pirate Shark was in the lagoon.

Mart stood at the gangway and kept the boat covered with his empty
elephant gun, though now that the tension was relaxed and the victory
his, everything blurred before his eyes and he felt weak with the
reaction. The island was only a few hundred feet away, and the men
pulled to the sandy beach without hesitation, tumbled out, and shoved
the boat out again. Then they fled