for the cover of the trees and bushes
and were gone.

"By juniper!" breathed Bob from the landing below, as Mart flung the gun
to the deck and leaned on the bulwark. "You look like a ghost, Mart!
Trot down here and give me a hand at this job."

"Well, we licked 'em!" exclaimed Mart, a surge of exultation rising
within him as he slowly descended the ladder. "We licked 'em with an
empty gun, old scout! Say, can you beat it? Think of us standin' off a
gang o' pirates with your dad's old elephant gun! Did you see how white
Yorke was?"

As he spoke, he relieved Bob at the pump wheel, and the latter leaned
back and mopped his dripping brow.

"Well, I'd hate to have you come after me in earnest!" declared Bob with
a laugh. "Say, you can sure talk like a bad man, Mart! You had me dead
sure you'd land those pirates with a bullet!"

"I was scared!" admitted Mart with a grin. "I was so blamed scared,
Holly, that I had to make 'em think I meant it. Here, get to work and
quit talking."

"No sign o' Jerry, eh?"

Bob fell to work at the opposite handle, but mindful of the old
quartermaster's lessons, they kept up a steady pumping, not too fast,
but enough to maintain a good air pressure below.

Watching the lines as they worked, there appeared to be little motion;
the two diving suits were not equipped with telephones or speaking
tubes, but the boys knew the signals.

"Watch out!" cried Bob suddenly, as he caught at the lines that were
slipping off at a jerk from below. "Keep turnin'--I'll 'tend to the
ropes!"

He barely caught the lines and coils of air hose in time to save them,
and Mart, watching as he pumped, saw four distinct jerks--the signal to
pull up. In reply, Bob jerked the lifelines once, meaning "Are you all
right?"

One pull came back, assenting to the query, and without more delay Bob
began to pull up Jerry. Mart cautioned him as to speed, and Bob nodded.
Jerry had not gone down by the usual "shot-rope," often used by divers,
because the gangway landing was nearly exactly over the wreck.

It was no task to pull up the quartermaster until the heavy copper
helmet rose to the landing. Then Mart came and lent his assistance, and
between them they got Jerry up and over the side. He did not have the
kris with him, and he lay stretched out, unable to rise because of his
heavy clothes and weights.

This bothered the boys not at all. Mart sent Bob to get all the rifles
safely locked up in the cabins, while he s